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Tracing Ancient Threads In The Book Of Moses, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David Rolph Seely, John W. Welch, Scott A. Gordon Jan 2021

Tracing Ancient Threads In The Book Of Moses, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David Rolph Seely, John W. Welch, Scott A. Gordon

Interpreter Foundation Books

After nearly two years of research and preparation by the conference organizers, presenters, staff, and their supporting organizations, we are pleased to bring you the proceedings of the two “Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses” conferences, held on September 18–19, 2020 and April 23–24, 2021. The conferences were sponsored by the Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Religious Education, Book of Mormon Central, and FAIR. For more information on the conference, including links to videos of the presentations, see https://interpreterfoundation.org/ conferences/. There you will also find a bibliography of books and articles on the Book of Moses, as well …

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The Impact Of Religious Ritual Initiation On Males, David Mcmillan Jan 2021

The Impact Of Religious Ritual Initiation On Males, David Mcmillan

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The following paper is focused on revealing the influence that religious ritual initiations/rites of passages have on males from the religions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. In the first section of the paper, I explain why it is important that the influence that religious ritual initiations have on males be studied. The second section covers the literature that was used to obtain my research results. The third section explains how the methodologies of content analysis and semiotics were incorporated into my research. In the fourth section, I reveal that practices such as self-control and discipline are common traits in how …

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Full Issue Jan 2021

Full Issue

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

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Front Matter Jan 2021

Front Matter

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

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Provincializing Secularism: On Protohomonationalism And Its Counterpossibilities, Tisa Wenger Jan 2021

Provincializing Secularism: On Protohomonationalism And Its Counterpossibilities, Tisa Wenger

Mormon Studies Review

This is a book you will want to sit with, think with, mull over, and then read over again. It was not until my second reading that I saw the double entendre of the title—Make Yourselves Gods—and how well it captures the layers of Coviello’s analysis. The phrase is first of all a quote from Joseph Smith, and it signals the expansive ambitions for divinization that early Mormons embraced with a prophetic fervor that culminated in the practice of polygamy. Despite the patriarchal order that came to define polygamy, Coviello argues, early Mormon women too reached for the embodied ecstasies—prophecy, …

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Review: Kim Östman. Mormonit: Historia, Oppi Ja Elämä. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2019., Titus Hjelm Jan 2021

Review: Kim Östman. Mormonit: Historia, Oppi Ja Elämä. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2019., Titus Hjelm

Mormon Studies Review

Growing up in Finland in the 1980s, it was practically impossible to hear someone speak Finnish with an accent. In a time when immigrants were more or less nonexistent, it would have been difficult to imagine why anyone would bother learning the language spoken by five million people at the northern periphery of Europe. That is, apart from a handful of immaculately dressed and groomed American men. Although never as ubiquitous as Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on doors, the Mormon missionaries and their perfect, if accented, Finnish left a deep impression on one young person, who later became a sociologist of …

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Review: Elisha Mcintyre. Religious Humor In Evangelical Christian And Mormon Culture. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018., John-Charles Duffy Jan 2021

Review: Elisha Mcintyre. Religious Humor In Evangelical Christian And Mormon Culture. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018., John-Charles Duffy

Mormon Studies Review

In 2005 Sunstone magazine published an essay I had written, “The New Missionary Discussions and the Future of Correlation.” To make it look less boring on the page, Sunstone’s editorial staff decided to illustrate the essay with cartoons related to Latter-day Saint missionary work. I was invited to propose cartoon concepts, which would then be executed by Jeanette Atwood, a cartoonist Sunstone often employed. I sat down with my husband to brainstorm. In one of our cartoon concepts, which Sunstone accepted, two missionaries are teaching the plan of salvation with the aid of a flip chart. One missionary tells the …

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Review: Quincy D. Newell. Your Sister In The Gospel: The Life Of Jane Manning James, A Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019., Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh Jan 2021

Review: Quincy D. Newell. Your Sister In The Gospel: The Life Of Jane Manning James, A Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019., Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh

Mormon Studies Review

In Your Sister in the Gospel: The Life of Jane Manning James, A Nineteenth Century Black Mormon, Quincy D. Newell explores the earliest years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints through a biography of Jane James, an African American convert whose devotion to the church situated her amid some of its most pivotal moments. Beginning with Jane’s birth to free parents in Connecticut in the 1820s and ending with her death in Salt Lake City in 1908, Newell documents how race and gender shaped Jane’s experiences of Mormonism, as well as how Jane’s and other Black Mormons’ …

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Poesy And Prosody In The Book Of Mormon, Robert F. Smith Jan 2021

Poesy And Prosody In The Book Of Mormon, Robert F. Smith

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Robert Smith makes the case that “poetic art in the Book of Mormon is highly developed” — you just need to have the eye to recognize it. Though many readers are aware of the stunning examples of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, thanks to the pioneering work by John W. Welch, fewer are acquainted with the other important forms of parallelism that pervade the text, often placed strategically to highlight the importance of a particular passage. Smith also shows why apocalpytic texts, sometimes thought to originate at a later period, can be found, for example, in the first chapter …

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Honoring Hugh Nibley — Again, Louis Midgley Jan 2021

Honoring Hugh Nibley — Again, Louis Midgley

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Hugh Nibley Observed is the third assembly of essays honoring Nibley by his friends and admirers. It differs from the other two in many ways. It is packed with photographs, observations by his children about their father, and many other similar and related items that are often deeply personal reflections on Nibley as well as the influence he has had on Latter- day Saint intellectual life and also the faith of the Saints. Its contents are far more accessible than the strictly scholarly works written by the academic friends and colleagues of Nibley. There is some of that in this …

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Glad Tidings From Cumorah: Interpreting The Book Of Mormon Through The Eyes Of Someone In Hell, Steve Fotheringham Jan 2021

Glad Tidings From Cumorah: Interpreting The Book Of Mormon Through The Eyes Of Someone In Hell, Steve Fotheringham

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This article offers evidence that at least some Book of Mormon authors may have understood the potential for post-mortal preaching of the gospel. Indeed, they may have recognized that the future Book of Mormon would be a tool to spread the gospel not only among the living but also among those in the spirit world. Prophecies about the message of the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel being for all mankind may have broader scope than previously recognized, with application on both sides of the veil.

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The Origin And Purpose Of The Book Of Mormon Phrase “If Ye Keep My Commandments Ye Shall Prosper In The Land”, Taylor Halverson Jan 2021

The Origin And Purpose Of The Book Of Mormon Phrase “If Ye Keep My Commandments Ye Shall Prosper In The Land”, Taylor Halverson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

We are told in the Title Page of the Book of Mormon that the Book of Mormon was revealed in our day “to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever.” Hence, the covenantal context, structure, and logic of the Book of Mormon demand further consideration, exploration, and elucidation. A prosperous starting point is the phrase “If ye keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land.” This covenantal phrase is used …

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Book Of Abraham Polemics: Dan Vogel’S Broad Critique Of The Defense Of The Book Of Abraham, Jeff Lindsay Jan 2021

Book Of Abraham Polemics: Dan Vogel’S Broad Critique Of The Defense Of The Book Of Abraham, Jeff Lindsay

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Dan Vogel’s latest book claims to offer clear-cut evidence showing what, when, and how Joseph Smith fraudulently translated the Book of Abraham. While he claims to use an objective approach, he instead weaves a polemical agenda that ignores some of the most important scholarship in favor of the Book of Abraham. He ignores crucial evidence and relies on assumptions and hypotheses as if they were established facts. The arguments of apologists, which he claims to be reviewing and critiquing, are often overlooked or, when treated, attacked without letting readers know the substance of the apologetic argument. He neglects key arguments …

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Conceptualizing The Cult Classification: The Structural Impacts Of Mainstream Anti-Cult Ideology, Caitlyn Patel Jan 2021

Conceptualizing The Cult Classification: The Structural Impacts Of Mainstream Anti-Cult Ideology, Caitlyn Patel

Honors Program Theses

Over the past few decades, scholars have discarded the term of ‘cult’ when labeling alternative and emergent religious groups, due to the pejorative connotations associated with the term, instead opting for the classification of ‘New Religious Movement.’ Despite this shift in scholarly terminology, mainstream American society continues to identify unconventional religious groups as cults, evidencing the existence of mainstream anti-cult ideology, and brackets these groups away from the religious realm. This paper explores why this process of delineation occurs, how it affects the perception and portrayal of cults and cult-like groups, and the consequences of anti-cult ideology in the institutional …

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Prolegomena To A Study Of The Egyptian Alphabet Documents In The Joseph Smith Papers, John Gee Jan 2021

Prolegomena To A Study Of The Egyptian Alphabet Documents In The Joseph Smith Papers, John Gee

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

For many theories about the Book of Abraham, the Egyptian Alphabet documents are seen as the key to understanding the translation process. While the original publication of those documents allows many researchers access to the documents for the first time, careful attention to the Joseph Smith Papers as a whole and the practices of Joseph Smith’s scribes in particular allows for improvements in the date, labeling, and understanding of the historical context of the Egyptian Alphabet documents. This essay supports the understanding of these documents found in the other volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers that the Egyptian Alphabet documents …

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Record-Keeping Technology Among God’S People In Ancient And Modern Times, Richard E. Turley Jr., Stephen O. Smoot Jan 2021

Record-Keeping Technology Among God’S People In Ancient And Modern Times, Richard E. Turley Jr., Stephen O. Smoot

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In a fascinating survey of the efforts of ancient and modern Saints to honor the Lord’s commandment to keep reliable records of their doings, the authors take us on a colorful tour of the past, present, and future of technology for records preservation. These efforts are not only aweinspiring, but have had and will have important consequences for the faith and memory of the goodness of God and the fulfillment of His purposes in history.

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The Inclusive, Anti-Discrimination Message Of The Book Of Mormon, David M. Belnap Jan 2021

The Inclusive, Anti-Discrimination Message Of The Book Of Mormon, David M. Belnap

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Attitudes of superiority lead to societal conflict. The racial interpretation of a few Book of Mormon verses has contributed to these attitudes and conflicts, yet hundreds of inclusive messages are found in more than half of the book’s verses. God’s message, love, mercy, and justice are for all people. Righteous people did not think themselves above others, nor did they persecute others or start wars. War is tragic and is caused by wickedness. Conspiracies are a great evil. Righteous people were kind in their attitudes and actions, regardless of others’ social status or ethnicity. Some Book of Mormon people even …

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Matthew Black And Mircea Eliade Meet Hugh Nibley, Gordon C. Thomasson Jan 2021

Matthew Black And Mircea Eliade Meet Hugh Nibley, Gordon C. Thomasson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

As a graduate student, Gordon Thomasson had the opportunity to introduce two internationally renowned scholars to the publications and scholarship of Hugh Nibley: Matthew Black, an eminent scholar of ancient Enoch writings; and Mircea Eliade, famed chair of the History of Religions program at the University of Chicago. Upon hearing of Nibley’s Enoch discoveries, Black made an immediate, impromptu visit to BYU to meet him. Upon reading one of Nibley’s studies, Eliade proposed hiring him on the spot, exclaiming, “He knows my field better than I do, and his translations are elegant!”

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The Brass Plates: Can Modern Scholarship Help Identify Their Contents?, A. Keith Thompson Jan 2021

The Brass Plates: Can Modern Scholarship Help Identify Their Contents?, A. Keith Thompson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon contains little information about what the Brass Plates contain. Nephi said it was a larger record than the Hebrew Bible brought to America by the Gentiles. But it could not have contained the records of Old Testament prophets who wrote after Lehi’s party left Jerusalem or the New Testament. We know it contained some writings from Zenos, Zenock, Neum, and Ezias, but what else could it have contained? Though the proposal from modern biblical source criticism that the Christian Bible is the product of redactors sometimes working with multiple sources is distasteful to many Christians, this …

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Seeking A Global Context For The First Vision, Brian C. Hales Jan 2021

Seeking A Global Context For The First Vision, Brian C. Hales

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Richard E. Bennett’s latest volume, 1820: Dawning of the Restoration, is not a book about the First Vision. Instead, it describes the world in 1820 through thirteen biographies that provide useful context to the seminal event. Included are Napoleon Bonaparte, Jean Francois Champollion, Alexander I, Ludwig van Beethoven, Theodore Gericault, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George IV/Queen Caroline, John Wesley/William Wilberforce/ Hannah More, Simon Bolivar, John Williams, Henry Clay, Alexander Von Humboldt, and Joseph Smith. Topics of military conquest, music, science, literature, art, linguistics, religion, politics, and the industrial revolution receive extensive coverage for 1820 and the surrounding decades. Even if readers …

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Understanding The Year 1820, Craig L. Foster Jan 2021

Understanding The Year 1820, Craig L. Foster

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Richard E. Bennett’s 1820: Dawning of the Restoration takes a look at this significant year in a global historical context. He has produced a fascinating book for both members of the Church and non-members

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From Dust To Exalted Crown: Royal And Temple Themes Common To The Psalms And The Dead Sea Scrolls, David J. Larsen Jan 2021

From Dust To Exalted Crown: Royal And Temple Themes Common To The Psalms And The Dead Sea Scrolls, David J. Larsen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

David J. Larsen, after showing how many of the Qumran texts rely on the “Royal Psalms” in the Bible—which have a vital connection to the temple drama—then goes on to exaltation in the views of the Qumran community. He indicates how Adam and Eve are archetypal for Israelite temple ritual, which makes humans kings and priests, bringing the participant into the presence of God by a journey accompanied with covenants, making him part of the Divine Council. Bestowed with knowledge of the divine mysteries, one then becomes a teacher helping others on the way through divine mysteries, who then, as …

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The Implications Of Some Standard Assumptions Of New Testament Scholars: Responding To A Modern Anti-Christ, John Gee Jan 2021

The Implications Of Some Standard Assumptions Of New Testament Scholars: Responding To A Modern Anti-Christ, John Gee

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In a recent book, Raphael Lataster correctly argues that the acceptance of the general premises of New Testament scholarship, exemplified in the writings of Bart Ehrman, brings into question whether Jesus ever existed. Latter-day Saints who are serious about their witness of Jesus Christ need to be aware that acceptance of these presuppositions undermines their witness of the reality of Jesus Christ and his atonement and makes their faith vain.

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The Goodness Of God And His Children As A Fundamental Theological Concept In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds Jan 2021

The Goodness Of God And His Children As A Fundamental Theological Concept In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The phrase goodness of God does occur occasionally in the Hebrew Bible but has not been considered by Old Testament scholars to be an independent principle in Israelite theology. Rather, it has been interpreted as just another way of talking about God’s acts of hesed, or loving kindness for his covenant people and is usually interpreted in the context of the covenants Israel received through Abraham and Moses. The Book of Mormon clearly echoes that Old Testament pattern but also presents two additional conceptual frameworks that are explained in terms of the goodness of God. It advances an explicit divine …

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Additional Janus Parallels In The Book Of Mormon, Paul Y. Hoskisson Jan 2021

Additional Janus Parallels In The Book Of Mormon, Paul Y. Hoskisson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

A little more than 40 years ago, Cyrus Gordon discovered and described for the first time an ancient literary technique which he had found in the Hebrew Bible, and he gave it a name — a Janus parallel. That is why no one, more than 40 years ago, could have faked a Hebrew Janus parallel in an English translation of an ancient document. But, as I reasoned, if Janus parallels were a Hebrew literary device at the time Lehi left Jerusalem (for an analog see chiasmus), then such parallels probably can be found in the Book of Mormon. In this …

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The People Of Canaan: A New Reading Of Moses 7, Adam Stokes Jan 2021

The People Of Canaan: A New Reading Of Moses 7, Adam Stokes

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Moses 7 is one of the most famous passages in all of Restoration scripture. It is also one of the most problematic in regard to its description of the people of Canaan as black (v. 8) and as a people who were not preached to by the patriarch Enoch (v. 12). Later there is also a mention of “the seed of Cain,” who also are said to be black (v. 22). This article examines the history of interpretation of Moses 7 and proposes an alternative understanding based on a close reading of the text. In contrast to traditional views, it …

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An Ishmael Buried Near Nahom, Neal Rappleye Jan 2021

An Ishmael Buried Near Nahom, Neal Rappleye

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Latter-day Saint scholars generally agree that “the place called… Nahom,” where Ishmael was buried (1 Nephi 16:34) is identified as the Nihm tribal region in Yemen. Significantly, a funerary stela with the name ys1mʿʾl — the South Arabian equivalent of Ishmael — was found near the Nihm region and dated to ca. 6th century bc. Although it cannot be determined with certainty that this is the Ishmael from the Book of Mormon, circumstantial evidence suggests that such is a possibility worth considering.

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The Reception Of Hagar In The Writings Of Origen, John Chrysostom, And Augustine, Mariah Case Jan 2021

The Reception Of Hagar In The Writings Of Origen, John Chrysostom, And Augustine, Mariah Case

MA in Religion Theses

The premise of this thesis is to explore the reception of the Hagar stories through three prominent early Christian thinkers -Origen, John Chrysostom, and Augustine of Hippo - in order to evaluate the theological significance she had for those particular contexts. Hagar functions predominately as a symbol in contexts where group identity, power, and ideology are contested. The hermeneutical and theological stances of the authors are examined to expose and mitigate the religious conflict occurring in their historical location. The resulting interpretations of Hagar and her story vary from Christianization of the character to outright scorn and rejection of the …

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Experiencing The Shock Of Mark 13, Jeremiah Jordan Hamby Jan 2021

Experiencing The Shock Of Mark 13, Jeremiah Jordan Hamby

MA in Religion Theses

The Gospel of Mark is a narrative text, a piece of literature, a story. In this narrative, the apocalyptic rule of God, Jesus, and other literary elements of the narrative then come together in a particular way within Mark 13 to shock the readers. Readers progress through the narrative and are shaped by various aspects of it along the way. The primary goal of this thesis is to look at Mark 13 and how narrative elements come together to evoke a particular experience in readers. Readers and stories meet at places where their horizons, their vantage points, converge. Narrative experiences …

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The Rod Of Moses, Medieval Judaism: Commentaries, Philosophy, Mysticism, Medieval Midrash, Rivka Ulmer Jan 2021

The Rod Of Moses, Medieval Judaism: Commentaries, Philosophy, Mysticism, Medieval Midrash, Rivka Ulmer

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

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