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Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Nauvoo Temple Bells, Shannon M. Tracy, Glen M. Leonard, Ronald G. Watt

BYU Studies

June 27, 2002. Nauvoo, Illinois. 6:00 p.m. Six long chimes ring from a bell located within the Nauvoo Temple tower to signal the first of many dedicatory services for the newly rebuilt Nauvoo Temple. The sound seems to announce a rebirth of dreams long wanting to be fulfilled. Now, for the first time in over a century and a half, a bell rings in the dedicated house of the Lord that sits atop the bluff overlooking the neatly planned streets of the lower city. As was its predecessor, this temple was built for the perfecting of the Saints in the …

Revelations And Translations, Volume 4: Book Of Abraham And Related Manuscripts, Thomas A. Wayment

BYU Studies

Volume four of the Revelations and Translations series presents for the first time a transcription and complete photographic reproduction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ holdings of all the manuscripts, grammars, lexical aids, and other resources that were produced in the process of creating the book of Abraham. The series has already published full editions of Joseph Smith’s earliest extant manuscript revelations, many of which form the basis of the Doctrine and Covenants (volume 1); the revelations that were published during Joseph Smith’s lifetime (volume 2); and the full printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon (volume …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Ethnic Migration And Cultural Maintenance In Eastern European Ethnic Enclaves In Nebraska: The Poles In Omaha, Germans From Russia In Lincoln, And Czechs In Wilber From 1860-1920, Paige Mccoy

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis examines whether three Eastern European ethnic enclaves within Nebraska assisted in cultural maintenance and stalled assimilation, looking specifically at enclaves of the Germans from Russia in Lincoln, the Poles in Omaha, and the Czechs in Wilber. These groups were selected due to differences in their location, with a larger city (Omaha), the capital city (Lincoln), and a small rural town (Wilber). In order to narrow down the time frame, this thesis focuses on the years from 1860-1920 in these enclaves. First, I determined that these clusters of immigrants were indeed ethnic enclaves, by using a primary source base …

Book Review: Time And Its Adversaries In The Seleucid Empire By Paul Kosmin, Joseph A. P. Wilson

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Book review by Joseph A. P. Wilson.

Kosmin, P. J. (2018). Time and Its adversaries in the Seleucid Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Fire And Skye: The Magic And Misadventure Of Filming Traditional Music Videos In Scotland, Katie Daniels

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As part of my study-abroad experience during the fall of 2018, I was awarded a Benjamin H. Gilman Scholarship. One of the components of this nationally competitive scholarship was to complete a follow-on service project to share my experiences abroad with a wider audience and give back to the community. My project was to bring my harp and a DSLR camera and film 4-5 music videos, contextualizing Scottish music in the Scottish landscape and capture, at least a little bit, a sense of what it was to be abroad. The final project consists of four videos, each one highlighting a …

To Obey, Or Not To Obey: That Is The Question An Exploration Into The Way Sr. Joan Chittister O.S.B. And Her Benedictine Community Critically Engage Teaching Of The Catholic Church Rather Than Blindly Obeying, Sean Cahill

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Spring 2019

Insights

From the Dean: Grounded in Mission; Meet the New Advisory Board Members; Connecting the Dots: LAS's New Urban Studies Cluster; Chicago Gun Violence Research Collaborative; Immigration and Migration; The Face of a Movement: 50th Anniversary of the Young Lords Civil Rights Group; In Brief: Outstanding GIS Students; Criminalizing Black Children; New Way to Discover 'The Urban'; Applied Diplomacy; Tibetan Monks of Drepung Gomang Monastery; Cover Art 1960s Ebony & Jet, Art Institute Night; Balance the Scales of Community Health to Repair Inequality; Faculty Publications & Exhibitions; LAS Pilots Project- and Community-Based Learning Internship Scholarships; Sustainable Urban Development Graduate Dana Yanocha; …

Confessing Characters: Coming To Faith In The Gospel Of John, Dominic Zappia

Dissertations (1934 -)

There are at least seventy-two characters in the Fourth Gospel. Given its statement of purpose in 20:30-31, which suggests that it is for the sake of narrating miracles to produce faith, this observation is of interest. According to traditional counting there are seven miracles in John. Nonetheless, much of the Gospel is the retelling not of miracles but of conversations and other encounters between Jesus and a wide variety of characters, many of whom are not directly tied to these miracles. Given the number and variety of characters in John, questions arise: What function do characters as characters serve in …

Infideles Et Philosophi: Assent, Untruth, And Natural Knowledge Of The Simple God, Jeffrey M. Walkey

Dissertations (1934 -)

Victor Preller’s “reformulation” of St. Thomas has impacted many contemporary theologians and philosophers, among them, George Lindbeck, Stanley Hauerwas, Bruce Marshall, D. Stephen Long, Fergus Kerr, to name only a few. According to Kerr, Preller is responsible for bringing to the fore St. Thomas’s denial that unbelievers can be truly said to believe “God exists.” In particular, Preller draws our attention to ST II-II, q. 2, a. 2, ad 3. Seemingly, in light of this passage, all non-believers have a defect in cognition with respect to the simple God. As such, they cannot be said to believe “God exists” at …

Country Versus City Tension: Historical And Socio-Religious Context Of The Development Of Adventist Understanding Of Urban Mission, Allan Novaes, Wendel Lima

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"The Adventist engagement in the evangelization of cities has been timid and, for many decades, even discouraged by an anti-urban attitude. This mentality of criticism and resistance to the cities was largely sustained through an incomplete and/or misreading of Ellen White’s writings (Jones 2013:716). This article seeks to describe Adventist rural/urban tension, the historical and social context of its origin, and how it has been softened by a contrasting broader view of Adventist urban mission."

A Commodified Faith: Theodor Adorno’S Culture Industry And Evangelical Catholicism, Francis Boccuzzi

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

"The Present Evil Age": The Origin And Persistence Of Evil In Galatians, Tyler Allen Stewart

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation investigates the origin and persistence of evil in Galatians within the context of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. The focus of investigation is narrative explanation(s) for evil. What story and/or stories were told to explain the original cause of evil and why it persists in the present? The study begins with a history of research that separates current scholarly accounts of Paul’s view of evil into two broad categories, Adamic template and Christological novum. According to the Adamic template, evil originates in Adam’s sin and persists in human rebellion in the likeness of the Protoplast. According to …

The New Day Of Atonement: A Matthean Typology, Hans Moscicke

Dissertations (1934 -)

Ancient Christians often interpreted the death of Jesus through the lens of Leviticus 16, conceiving Jesus as both the immolated “goat for Yahweh,” whose blood the high priest brought into the Holy of Holies once a year to purge Israel’s sins, and the “goat for Azazel,” which bore Israel’s iniquity into the wilderness far away from God’s presence. Such an understanding of Jesus’s death did not strike theologians such as the author of the Epistle of Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Origen, Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria, and the earliest Markan commentator as strange. What is strange is how seldom modern …

Pilgrimage To Palmyra, Reid L. Neilson, Carson V. Teuscher

BYU Studies

The arrival of autumn in 1923 brought more than a mature harvest to the quiet farming village of Palmyra, New York. On a late September weekend, a torrent of visitors flooded the township—a spectacle unlike anything the locals had ever seen. “Trudging along the roads leading into Palmyra today there came a small army of pilgrims,” the local Rochester Herald reported, “each with his pilgrim’s scrip and each wearing slung across his shoulders a banner with the cryptic word ‘Cumorah’ blazoned on it.” Befuddled residents witnessed the young male and female pilgrims arrive—two by two—until they eventually coalesced in large …

Conversions, Arrests, And Friendships: A Story Of Two Icelandic Police Officers, Fred E. Woods, Kari Bjarnason

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In 1881 in Reykjavík, Iceland, two Icelandic police officers, Þorsteinn (Thorsteinn) Jónsson and Jón Borgfirðingur, were sent to arrest Latter-day Saint missionaries. These missionaries had baptized the first three converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Reykjavík a year earlier, and one of those converts, Sigríður Jónsdóttir, happened to be the wife of one of the arresting officers. But a remarkable friendship, one that thrived irrespective of time, distance, and religious differences, developed due to the arrests and the events surrounding them. Although the story and historical context of the missionaries’ experience in Reykjavík have been …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

“Line Upon Line”: Joseph Smith’S Growing Understanding Of The Eternal Family, R. Devan Jensen, Micheal A. Goodman, Barbara Morgan Gardner

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” So begins L . P. Hartley’s novel The Go-Between. This statement reminds religious educators to study history as it unfolded and to avoid presentism, or “an attitude toward the past dominated by present-day attitudes and experiences.” Latter-day Saint doctrines did not spring up fully formed, as we have them today. The historical record shows that Joseph Smith did not begin with a full understanding of the doctrines of eternal families and sealing ordinances as we teach them today. In fact, the Prophet Joseph Smith dictated a revelation on …

The New Home-Centered, Church-Supported Curriculum, Tad R. Callister, Scott C. Esplin

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Esplin: Thank you, President Callister, for meeting with me and for helping our readers understand the role of the Church’s Sunday School General Presidency and, maybe most important, changes that have been announced regarding the curriculum and the organization of our classes. You have previously served as a General Authority and in the Presidency of the Seventy. What can you share about your calling and experience as the Church’s Sunday School General President? How has it shaped you as a teacher and as a learner?

Callister: As a teacher, it has helped me be more observant as I …

“You Had Better Let Mrs Young Have Any Thing She Wants”, Matthew C. Godfrey

BYU Studies

It was a cold, blustery day in Commerce, Illinois—a town pressed up against the Mississippi River—in November 1839. As the rain poured from the sky, a small skiff appeared on the river, approaching Commerce (later renamed Nauvoo) from Montrose, Iowa Territory. A woman huddled in the vessel, trying to protect a small bundle in her arms from the elements. The rain, coupled with the spray from the river, soaked both the woman and the bundle, which was a two-month-old baby. Despite the rawness of the day, the woman was determined to reach Commerce, hoping to visit the tithing office of …

Martyrs In Mexico: A Mormon Story Of Revolution And Redemption, Ignacio M. Garcia, Cindy Gonzalez

BYU Studies

While not described as such, Martyrs in Mexico is a continuation of the story that author F. LaMond Tullis gave us in Mormons in Mexico, a classic work, first published in 1987, detailing the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. Martyrs in Mexico, however, has a narrower scope, focusing on one community—San Marcos, Hidalgo—from which would come well-known individuals of the Church in Mexico. Why did Tullis choose San Marcos? The obvious answer is that this community holds an important place in Church lore. San Marcos was the place of one of …

Third World Studies Questions The Very Social Formations That Enable The Study Of Religion, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In Racial Formations in the United States, Michael Omi and Howard Winant have one of the best takes, I think, on why the interrogation of racial formations has been so central to American studies. Calling the Civil Rights Movement the beginning of ‘the great transformation,’ what Omi and Winant help us to see is that by calling attention to race, what began in the 1950s led to what they term the ‘politicization of the social,’ the revelation that there were multiple inequalities and oppressive structures – gender, sexuality, religion, age, ability – on which American society was founded and that …

Osvobození Jako Revoluční Praxe: Opĕtovné Promyšlení Buddhistického Materialism, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

In this article, first published in English in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics 20 (2013), pp. 461–99, James Mark Shields analyzes the possibilities and problems of a “Buddhist materialism” constructed along Marxian lines, by focusing in particular on Buddhist and Marxist conceptions of “liberation.” Although it is only in recent decades that scholars have begun to reconsider and problematize Buddhist conceptions of “free- dom” and “agency,” the thought traditions of Asian Buddhism have for many centuries struggled with questions related to the issue of “liberation”—along with its fundamental ontological, epistemological and ethical implications. With the development of Marxist thought in …

Creating The New Home- Centered Curriculum, Brian J. Hansbrow, Ted Barnes, Paul Murphy, Scott C. Esplin

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Esplin: Thank you for meeting with me to discuss your role in creating the new home-based, Church-supported curriculum. Please introduce yourselves, including how long you’ve been with the Sunday School curriculum or what your particular role is in the department.

Leadership Lessons From The Book Of Mormon: Nephi As A Case Study, Khumbulani D. Mdletshe

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Leaders and scholars in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have, at various times, attempted to identify what constitutes leadership traits. There are no universal leadership traits that predict a leader’s effectiveness in all situations. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, made the following comment: “While most of us can recognize good leadership when we experience or observe it, it is hard for us to isolate controlling traits in a clear-cut way.” Each situation requires specific traits relating to the task at hand. These traits will develop uniquely to individuals and …

“They Must Suffer Even As I”: Misconceptions Concerning Personal Payment For Sin, Christopher J. Porter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Soon after I was called to serve as the elders quorum president of a young single adult ward many years ago, the stake president gave me the difficult challenge to visit each quorum member individually during the upcoming school year. To this day, I remember one such visit to a young man I’ll call Robert. It was evident when I arrived that something was troubling him; his gaze alternated nervously between the floor and his visitor but gave preference to the floor. At the outset of our conversation, he was reticent and guarded, but at my prodding he began to …

Book Notice: The New Testament: A Translation For Latter-Day Saints, Jason R. Combs

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Thomas A. Wayment provides a new, accessible translation of the New Testament with notes that thoroughly integrate the New Testament with Restoration scripture. Why should religious educators use Wayment’s The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints? Before I summarize some of my favorite features, let me suggest just two possible answers to this question: (1) greater awareness of issues we might otherwise overlook, and (2) new avenues for personal study and research.

Session Iii English, Religious Studies & Marketing Presentation 2: Critical T.H.U.G.: An Examination Of Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give Using Critical Race Theory, Brandon J. Watkins

Life of the Scholar Multidisciplinary Conference

Examining Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give through the lens of racism is ordinary and allows us to raise questions about institutional and everyday racism in our communities and lives. We will also address the intersecting patterns of dominance across race, class, gender, and other markers of difference.