Religious Education Commons^™

The Book Of Mormon Made Harder, James E. Faulconer

Maxwell Institute Publications

Latter-day Saint philosopher James E. Faulconer’s Made Harder series raises many more questions than it answers. And that is precisely the point. Faulconer wrote The Book of Mormon Made Harder on the premise that our scripture study is only as good as the questions we bring to the endeavor. While many books about the Book of Mormon provide useful shortcuts, chapter synopses, timelines, and memorizable bullet-points, this book consists almost entirely of challenging questions (with occasional commentary for clarity’s sake) because, in Faulconer’s experience, questions themselves are the key to reflective and deep scripture study. This book is intended to …

Revelation, Reason, And Faith: Essays In Honor Of Truman G. Madsen, Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, Stephen D. Ricks

Maxwell Institute Publications

The distinguished career of Truman G. Madsen has earned him wide respect in and outside of LDS circles as an outstanding teacher, scholar, researcher, speaker, university administrator, church leader, and religious ambassador. With the publication of Revelation, Reason, and Faith: Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen, the Institute pays tribute to this remarkable man whose many accomplishments include helping to advance Book of Mormon scholarship and related interests of the Institute.

Edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and Stephen D. Ricks (each of whom also author a chapter), the 800-plus-page volume contains contributions by 31 scholars, …

“And It Came To Pass . . .”: The Sociopolitical Events In The Book Of Mormon Leading To The Eighteenth Year Of The Reign Of The Judges, Dan Belnap, Daniel L. Belnap, Daniel Belnap, Dan Belnap

Faculty Publications

The period from the end of the seventeenth year of the reign of the judges to the beginning of the nineteenth year was a particularly unstable time in the history of the Nephite people. The amount of text Mormon devotes to it reveals the importance of this time period in their history. The crises that emerged during this time affected every Nephite, but they did not arise out of a vacuum. Instead, a number of prior social forces were at work and created an environment from which the tensions could find full form. This paper focuses on three primary forces: …

Religiously Affiliated Law Schools Database, American Bar Foundation

Law School and Faculty Information

The information for this database was collected in the spring of 2014. Variables include:

• School Location
• Public/Private
• Mentions Religion in Mission Statement
• Religiously Affiliated Based on Baylor's Association of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools
• Religiously Affiliated Based on Other Information
• Religious Affiliation

Loyal Opposition: Ernest L. Wilkinson's Role In Founding The Byu Law School, Galen L. Fletcher

BYU Studies

Ernest L. Wilkinson is best known for being the president of Brigham Young University for twenty years (1951–1971). He should also be remembered for his role as catalyst for the existence of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU. Wilkinson's diaries and personal papers tell the story of the J. Reuben Clark Law School founding prior to its March 9, 1971, public announcement. This article discusses the first mention in Wilkinson's papers of a law school at BYU, Wilkinson's work behind the scenes for a year to start it, and his important contributions to the law school's early foundation. …

Suffrage By Jenifer Nii, Directed By Cheryl Ann Cluff, Melissa L. Larson, Cheryl Ann Cluff, Jenifer Nii

BYU Studies

Jenifer Nii's new and original play Suffrage, set in 1880s territorial Utah, is the story of Frances (played by April Fossen) and Ruth (played by Sarah Young), two plural wives in a household under siege by the federal government. Their husband, Benjamin, is in prison awaiting trial, and his five wives and numerous children must find ways to make ends meet. Frances is stalwart and traditional, loving her sister wives' children as she does her own and thinking constantly of her dear husband and his welfare. Considerably younger, Ruth is a firecracker of high ideals and modern thought, getting deeply …

Revisiting The Seven Lineages Of The Book Of Mormon And The Seven Tribes Of Mesoamerica, Diane E. Wirth

BYU Studies

The number seven was significant to the pre-Columbian communities of Mesoamerica, as it was in the Book of Mormon. A pan-Mesoamerica legend tells of a core people descended from seven tribes, which may coincide with the seven lineages mentioned three times in the Book of Mormon. While no verifiable evidence ties these two accounts together, a closer look at the Mesoamerican legend is warranted. This article examines numerous depictions of the seven tribes in Mesoamerican art contained in their lienzos (pieces of fabric with historical drawings or maps), illustrated books called codices, and post-Conquest documents that were shown to and …

"My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?": Psalm 22 And The Mission Of Christ, Shon D. Hopkin

BYU Studies

Perhaps no Old Testament texts have exerted more influence on the New Testament understanding of Christ's mission than Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. Among Latter-day Saints, however, Isaiah 53 has received much more attention than Psalm 22. This paper aims to illuminate the powerful, Christ-centered nature of Psalm 22. It first discusses Psalm 22 in detail, demonstrating its prophetic connections with Christ's ministry, including early Christian insights regarding the Psalm. It then discusses the importance of Christ's quotation from the cross of Psalm 22:1--"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"--and analyzes LDS statements regarding it.

What Happened To My Bell-Bottoms?: How Things That Were Never Going To Change Have Sometimes Changed Anyway, And How Studying History Can Help Us Make Sense Of It All, Craig Harline

BYU Studies

Craig Harline explains perhaps the most valuable and fundamental benefit of studying history is the insight it can offer into change, including change that people once thought would never occur. What can be learned from such changes by people of the present, as they argue about potential changes in their own world? Harline offers historical examples of change in Western Christianity regarding acceptable views of language, left-handedness, sacred music, slavery, interracial relations, and usury, and viewing them in the context of changes still being heavily or somewhat debated by Christians, such as women's role, evolution, and more. He shows that …

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Likening In The Book Of Mormon: A Look At Joseph M. Spencer's An Other Testament: On Typology, Alan Goff

BYU Studies

Doctrine and Covenants section 84 places Latter-day Saints under condemnation "until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon" (D&C 84:55-57). From the beginning of the Restoration, neglect of the Book of Mormon has been a hallmark of both those who accept and reject it. Before the 1980s, Latter-day Saint readings were often characterized by summary, with little or no exegetical analysis. Readings by Book of Mormon critics were similarly superficial, dismissing the book as not worthy of their attention. The value of capable and close readings of the scripture became more apparent with the work …

The Weir Family, 1820–1920: Expanding The Traditions Of American Art, Marian Wardle, Herman Du Toit

BYU Studies

Marian Wardle, curator of American art at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art and part-time faculty member at BYU in art history, has assembled a remarkable group of writers from across the country for an anthology that focuses on the lives and artistic production of three of America's most notable artists: Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889) and his sons John Ferguson Weir (1841-1926) and Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919). The BYU Museum of Art became the beneficiary of a collection of the Weirs' artworks when one of Julian Weir's daughters, Dorothy, passed away in 1947, leaving much of her family's extensive …

Benemérito De Las Américas: The Beginning Of A Unique Church School In Mexico, Barbara E. Morgan

BYU Studies

In 1957, President David O. McKay instructed Church leaders to investigate creating Church-sponsored schools in Mexico. The vision of Church leaders reached beyond educating the students and focused on training faithful Latter-day Saints that would teach and influence children and youth throughout Latin America. Marion Romney and others assessed the educational needs of Church members in Mexico; membership in the Church reached twenty-five thousand by 1961. They worked to find and purchase land, develop building plans, and select directors for these Church schools. They created a society that had the legal authority to purchase land and run schools in Mexico, …

Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays In Mormon Theology, Adam S. Miller, Thomas F. Rogers

BYU Studies

Philosopher Adam S. Miller, who teaches at Collin College in McKinney, Texas, and presently serves as director of the prestigious Mormon Theology Seminar, has written a small book that deserves big attention.

In his thoughtful preface, historian Richard L. Bushman asserts that "Adam Miller is the most original and provocative Latter-day Saint theologian practicing today" and that, like other philosophers and theologians, his writings reflect his possible doubt that his subject "can be reduced to a rational orderly system." But, for me, there is immense continuity to the book's fourteen essays, each of which interfaces with the restored gospel in …

Premarital Sex In America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, And Think About Marrying; Sex And The Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, And Religion On America's College Campuses, Mark Regnerus, Jeremy Uecker, Donna Freitas, Brian J. Willoughby

BYU Studies

MARK REGNERUS, JEREMY UECKER. Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying. New York City: Oxford University Press, 2011.

DONNA FREITAS. Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America's College Campuses. New York City: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Mark Regnerus (University of Texas) and Jeremy Uecker (Baylor University), both professors of sociology, have previously collaborated on a host of academic papers focused on the dating, marital, and sexual lives of young adults. Regnerus has previously published a book entitled Forbidden Fruit (Oxford University Press, 2007), which explores the sexual lives of …

Dark Mirrors: Azazel And Satanael In Early Jewish Demonology, Andrei A. Orlov, David J. Larsen

BYU Studies

Andrei A. Orlov, professor of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at Marquette University, is a highly prolific author and world-renowned scholar who specializes in Christian origins, Jewish apocalypticism and mysticism, and Old Testament pseudepigrapha, including texts such as 2 Enoch and the Apocalypse of Abraham. Among Orlov's many writings are the books The Enoch-Metatron Tradition (TSAJ, 107; Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism (SJSJ, 114; Leiden: Brill, 2007), Divine Manifestations in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha (OJC, 2; Piscataway: Gorgias, 2009), and Concealed Writings: Jewish Mysticism in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha (Flaviana; Moscow: Gesharim, 2011).

The present book under review, …

Matched; Crossed; Reached. The Matched Trilogy, William Morris, Ally Condie

BYU Studies

Ally Condie, a Latter-day Saint and graduate of Brigham Young University, is best known as the author of the Matched trilogy. These three books contain all the ingredients for a successful YA (young adult fiction) series: a plucky heroine, a love triangle, a dystopian setting. And a success it is: each volume has spent numerous weeks on various best-seller lists, Disney has optioned the film rights to the trilogy, and numerous fan sites and social media groups are active online. If it were just those ingredients alone, the trilogy would not be worth noting amid the outpouring of YA novels …

Banishing The Cross: The Emergence Of A Mormon Taboo, Michael G. Reed, Alonzo L. Gaskill

BYU Studies

This first book by Michael G. Reed is a revamp of his 2009 master's thesis, "The Development of the LDS Church's Attitude toward the Cross" (California State University, Sacramento). In this current work, Reed beefs up his text with some additional sources and graphics, and he adds a chapter on the cross as a symbol in the Strangite and Community of Christ (RLDS) traditions.

The book's aim is to delineate the place of the cross as a symbol in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in the two aforementioned Restoration churches, though the book largely focuses on …

The Viper On The Hearth, Updated Edition, Mickell J. Summerhays, Terryl L. Givens

BYU Studies

Terryl L. Givens, the well-known Mormon author, is a professor of literature and religion and is the James A. Bostwick Professor of English at the University of Richmond, Virginia. He has authored books such as By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion and The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life.

Many may be familiar with Givens's classic study on Mormon literature entitled The Viper on the Hearth. It is known as one of the most in-depth studies of anti-Mormon literary texts. Givens himself calls this a look at "the long …

Shifting Borders And A Tattered Passport: Intellectual Journeys Of A Mormon Academic, Roger Terry, Armand L. Mauss

BYU Studies

"When the intellectual history of late-twentieth-century Mormonism is written," begins Richard Bushman in the foreword to this memoir, "Armand Mauss will occupy a preeminent position." For this reason alone, Mauss's reminiscences should be of interest to any serious student of Mormonism.

Mauss takes his title from the following quote by Neal A. Maxwell: "The LDS scholar has his citizenship in the Kingdom, but carries his passport into the professional world--not the other way around." But Mauss's observation that the borders have shifted over time and his passport is tattered reminds us that travel between the Church and the world is …