Digital Commons Network^™

"A Plea For The Horse": George Q. Cannon's Concern For Animal Welfare In Nineteenth-Century America, Aaron R. Kelson

BYU Studies

Taking a position somewhat unusual for his time, President George Q. Cannon actively taught respect for animals as a matter of religious principle.

Letters Of A Missionary Apostle To His Wife: Brigham Young To Mary Ann Angell Young, 1839-1841, Ronald O. Barney

BYU Studies

The Quorum of the Twelve's mission to the British Isles impacted not only the Church, but also the personal lives of the missionaries. Brigham Young creates a tender personal portrait in nine never-before-published letters to his wife.

Joseph Young's Affidavit Of The Massacre At Haun's Mill, Alexander L. Baugh

BYU Studies

Joseph Young, an eyewitness to the 1838 attack on Haun's Mill, gave his testimony of that event as a sworn affidavit on June 4, 1839. The original manuscript of that affidavit is presented here in unedited, annotated form.

The Meaning Of Religious Belief, Practice, And Community For Latter-Day Saint Fathers Of Children With Special Needs, Loren Dean Marks

Theses and Dissertations

While the tragedy of American fatherlessness has evoked a growing body of research, religious beliefs, practices, and communities have not been a significant part of the scholarly discussion. This article discusses possible reasons for this and reviews the religion and family literature with a focus on fathers. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 19 Latter-day Saint (LDS) fathers of children with special needs and analyzed to examine the meaning of religious experience for these fathers and their families. Analysis indicated three dimensions of religious experience: spiritual belief, religious practice, and faith community. The spiritual belief in an eternal perspective, including the …

Toward The Folkloristic Study Of Latter-Day Saint Conversion Narratives, Eric A. Eliason

BYU Studies

Frequently told among Latter-day Saints, conversion stories—both one's own or those of one's ancestors—constitute an important and overlooked genre at the core of Mormon narrative folklore.

The Impact Of Religiosity On Coping Among Lds Adolescents, Matthew P. Roper

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the impact of religiosity on coping in a group of Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) youth. Longitudinal data were gathered from detailed questionnaires administered to 2852 male and female adolescents in 1990 and 1993. Coping was conceptualized as four general dimensions (self-concept, public activities and service, deviance and future plans). Religiosity was also conceptualized multi-dimensionally (religious belief, public religiosity, private religious behavior, and religious experiences). Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the unique effects of each of the dimensions of religiosity on each dimension of coping. It was hypothesized that religiosity was positively …

More Precious Than Gold: The Journey To And Through Zion In 1849-50, Fred E. Woods

Faculty Publications

The California gold rush, the first international gold rush in history, turned the world upside down, reaching its zenith in the years 1849-50. As a result of the rush during these two climactic years, the population swelled our nation's Pacific coast, entitling California to receive statehood in the fall of 1850. During these catalytic years, Latter-day Saints were journeying to the American West for a different kind of treasure. They gathered from afar to their Mormon mecca nestled in the Salt Lake Valley to fulfill their dreams of establishing Zion. Yet the California gold rush had a significant impact on …

The Coming Forth Of The Book Of Mormon In The Twentieth Century, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

I hope this study, however preliminary it might appear, will provide a sound first step toward developing our self-understanding as Latter-day Saints of the history of Book of Mormon use in the twentieth century and the phenomenal increase in understanding, appreciation, and study that has taken place over the last three to four decades. This study may also offer one useful perspective for the gradually emerging history of cultural Mormonism and its antipathy to the Book of Mormon. This study is grounded in the analysis of a number of possible indicators of intensity of interest in the Book of Mormon …

Brief Notices, Jed L. Woodworth, Gary L. Hatch, Beth Hamilton, John W. Welch, Cynthia Doxey

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Captain Dan Jones And The Blind Man, Ronald D. Dennis

BYU Studies

The 1847 pamphlets, one a polemic by convert-turned-antagonist Daniel Jones and the other a rebuttal by Elder Dan Jones, give an interesting glimpse into an early LDS missionary work in Wales.

The Viper On The Hearth: Mormons, Myths And The Construction Of Heresy Terryl L. Givens, Grant Underwood

BYU Studies

Terryl L. Givens. The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. x; 205 pp. Index, notes. $35.00.

Nephite Kingship Reconsidered, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This paper extends and updates previous efforts to understand the political dynamic of the Book of Mormon by looking at four themes or issues that can be developed from the text itself. The first is an expansion of earlier treatments of the contradictory political ideologies of the Nephites and Lamanites, which informed relations between these two groups across their thousand-year history. The second is an exploration of the historical possibility that Nephi may never, in fact, have been anointed as king of the Nephite people, which raises in turn a possible need to reassess the character of Nephite kingship. The …

Book Of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence For Ancient Origins Noel B. Reynolds, Dow R. Wilson

BYU Studies

Noel B. Reynolds, ed. Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins. Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research ad Mormon studies, 1997. 574 pp. Index. $19.95.

Solomon Chamberlin's Missing Pamphlet: Dreams, Visions, And Angelic Ministrants, Larry C. Porter

BYU Studies

An 1829 pamphlet tells of the early experiences of a visionary man who was guided to Joseph Smith in Palmyra and who recognized the Restoration as the fulfillment of his spiritual quest.

Old Testament Bibliography By Author, David Rolph Seely

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Youth And Beauty: The Correspondence Of Hugh Nibley, Boyd Petersen

BYU Studies

Personal letters written by Hugh Nibley during his youth show the fundamental consistency of his personality, style, beliefs, concerns, and penetrating perceptions throughout his lifetime.

Worth Their Salt: Notable But Often Unnoted Women Of Utah Colleen Whitley, Cherry B. Silver

BYU Studies

Colleen Whitley, ed. Worth Their Salt: Notable but Often Unnoted Women of Utah. Logan: Utah State University, 1996. xi; 308 pp. Photographs, notes, bibliography. Paperback, $19.95.

The Mysteries Of Godliness: A History Of Mormon Temple Worship By David John Buerger, Danel W. Bachman, Kenneth W. Godfrey

BYU Studies

David John Buerger. The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship. San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1994. 234 pp. $24.95.

Feminism In The Light Of The Gospel Of Jesus Christ, Mary Stovall Richards, B. Kent Harrison

BYU Studies

In its most basic form, feminism echoes eternal truths of the gospel, which affirms the equal worth of all people, the equal right to and capacity for spirituality, and the evils of abuse.

Nature Among The Mormons: An Ecocritical Approach To Mormon Literature, Gail D. Ballard

Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly, environmentalists have focused on Judeo-Christian tradition as the cause of Western culture's ecological crisis. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the charges against Judeo-Christian tradition and to show how the revealed doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provide possible solutions to environmental challenges. The resulting Latter-day Saint environmental paradigm will be superimposed on selected Mormon literature to determine how effectively the doctrines taught by Church authorities filtered into popular Mormon culture.

Despite the inspired teachings of Latter-day Saint prophets, Mormons remain unimpressive in their environmental practices. My research will show that while …

Family Land And Records Center In Nauvoo, Susan Easton Black

BYU Studies

The Family Land and Records Center is a research center in Nauvoo with many documents available to assist those interested in family history. The records center has documents of residents of Nauvoo, Iowa, and Illinois, from 1839 to 1845. These records include burial records, industry records, temple ordinance records, property records, tax records, occupational records, court records, and more. As of 2013, the Land and Records Office can be found at http://www.historicnauvoo.net/2010/01/land-and-records-office/.

Susan Easton Black, "Family Land and Records Center in Nauvoo" BYU Studies 36, no. 1.

Church History In Black And White: George Edward Anderson's Photographic Mission To Latter-Day Saint Historical Sites: 1907 Diary, 1907-8 Photographs By Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, T. Jeffrey Cottle, And Ted D. Stoddard, Nelson B. Wadsworth

BYU Studies

Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, T. Jeffery Cottle, and Ted D. Stoddard, eds. Church History in Black and White: George Edward Anderson's Photographic Mission to Latter-day Saint Historical Sites: 1907 Diary, 1907-8 Photographs. Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1995. xxi; 241 pp. 153 photographs, maps, appendixes, bibliography, index. $29.95.

Conversation In Nauvoo About The Corporeality Of God, Jacob Neusner

BYU Studies

Religion scholar Jacob Neusner looks at the corporeal nature of God through the lens of Mormonism and Judaism. He addresses anthropomorphism and incarnation, and concludes that the way to know God is through “our relationship with him, not through our act of the incarnation of God in heart and mind and soul.” Neusner appreciates the powerful doctrine of God’s corporeality taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 1842 King Follett Sermon, which says that men may converse with God “as one man converses with another.” He says, “In the formative documents of the Torah in its oral version, that …

Part I: Restoration Of The Doctrine Of Divine Embodiment, David L. Paulsen

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Part Ii: Early Christian Belief In An Embodied God, David L. Paulsen

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Part Iii: Philosophical Arguments Regarding Divine Embodiment, David L. Paulsen

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Brief Notices, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Old Wine In New Bottles: The Story Behind Fundamentalist Anti-Mormonism, Massimo Introvigne

BYU Studies

Despite originating in sensational hoaxes, certain nineteenth-century French writings continue to fuel an extreme anti-Mormon rhetoric and world view.

David White Rogers Of New York, Naida R. Williamson

BYU Studies

Rogers overcame a mob and physical hardship to aid those whose paths he crossed, including Joseph Smith, Mary Fielding Smith, and the Parley P. Pratt family.

The Democratization Of American Christianity By Nathan O. Hatch; Culture Wars: The Struggle To Define America By James Davison Hunter, Ralph C. Hancock

BYU Studies

Nathan O. Hatch. The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989. xiv; 312 pp. Notes, index. $15.00.

James Davison Hunter. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. New York: Basic Books, 1991. xiii; 416 pp. Appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $15.00.