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At Sword's Point, Part 1: A Documentary History Of The Utah War To 1858; Part 2: A Documentary History Of The Utah War, 1858-1859; Vols. 10 And 11 Of Kingdom In The West: The Mormons And The American Frontier, Devan Jensen

BYU Studies

William P. MacKinnon, ed., At Sword’s Point, Part 1: A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858, and Part 2: A Documentary History of the Utah War, 1858– 1859, vols. 10 and 11 of Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier, ed. Will Bagley and David L. Bigler (Norman, Okla.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2008, 2016)

An Introduction To The Book Of Abraham, Adam Oliver Stokes

BYU Studies

John Gee. An Introduction to the Book of Abraham.

Salt Lake City: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2017.

Understanding The Abrahamic Covenant Through The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

BYU Studies

Latter-day Saint discourse concerning Abraham and the blessings and covenants given to him by the Lord is distinguished by its reliance on the restoration of ancient scriptures and other revelations given to Joseph Smith. The revival of scholarly interest in Abraham in recent decades provides a timely opportunity to explore the contemporary findings of biblical scholars from a Latter-day Saint perspective—which, in turn, invites an in-depth exploration of how the Lord’s covenants with Abraham were understood by the Nephite prophets in the Book of Mormon, how their perspectives compare with contemporary biblical scholarship, and how the Nephite perspective may modify …

The Worldwide Church: Mormonism As A Global Religion, Emily Cook

BYU Studies

The Worldwide Church: Mormonism as a Global Religion, edited by Michael A. Goodman and Mauro Properzi (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016)

Textual Studies Of The Doctrine And Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation, Brian C. Hales

BYU Studies

Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation By William Victor Smith

Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2018.

Abinadi's Legacy: Tracing His Influence Through The Book Of Mormon, John L. Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

Eminent author Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote." Identifying these instances of textual weavings is one aspect of a literary field known as intertextuality, an area that holds great promos for Book of Mormon research. Grant Hardy has suggested that it would be fruitful for our understanding of the Book of Mormon "to track various phrases throughout the Book of Mormon to determine which Nephite …

To Be Learned Is Good: Essays On Faith And Scholarship In Honor Of Richard Lyman Bushman, Spencer Fluhman, Kathleen Flake, Jed Woodworth

Maxwell Institute Publications

What does the future hold for Mormonism in the academy? How does personal faith impact one’s scholarship? How might scholarly women and men speak of faith in secular places and times? This volume contains vibrant exchanges on these and other questions from the memorable scholars’ colloquium held in honor of historian and Latter-day Saint Richard Lyman Bushman.

“I think we all feel some tension between our religious convictions and the secular times in which we live. In one way or another, modernism invades and unsettles our thinking, perhaps our thinking about our fields, perhaps our personal beliefs. What I …

St. Norbert: The Man, The Movement, The Mooc, St. Norbert College

St. Norbert - The Man, The Movement, The MOOC

No abstract provided.

Envisioning Brigham Young University: Foreword To John S. Tanner's Learning In The Light, Bruce C. Hafen

BYU Studies

Editor’s note: Bruce C. Hafen, an emeritus General Authority and former president of Ricks College, wrote this foreword to Learning in the Light: Selected Talks at BYU by John S. Tanner, who is the current president of BYU–Hawaii. This book, a new title offered by BYU Studies, gives insight into John Tanner the person and into his views on the Latter-day Saint endeavor to advance in light and knowledge “by study and also by faith.” The following encapsulates well the issues that have long concerned both educators and students of the Mormon community.

The Latter-Day Saint Reimagining Of "The Breath Of Life" (Genesis 2:7), Dana M. Pike

BYU Studies

The creation and flood accounts in Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) contain variations on a phrase commonly translated “the breath of life.” This phrase additionally occurs in some uniquely Latter-day Saint materials relating to creation. After overviewing and analyzing this phrase and its meaning in the Bible, this paper then examines the occurrences of the phrase “the breath of life” in important early Latter-day Saint texts. The purpose of this study is to illustrate and explain how and why many Latter-day Saints have come to often employ the phrase “the breath of life,” transforming its traditional …

Just South Of Zion: The Mormons In Mexico And Its Borderlands, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

BYU Studies

Just South of Zion: The Mormons in Mexico and Its Borderlands, ed. Jason H. Dormady and Jared M. Tamez (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015)

Joseph Smith Translating Genesis, Kent P. Jackson

BYU Studies

Joseph Smith’s revision of the Bible was one of his signature projects as founder and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (originally called the Church of Christ). He began it sometime in June 1830, just three months after the first copies of the Book of Mormon came out of the bindery of the Howard and Grandin Company in Palmyra, New York. The Bible project lasted three years, until July 1833, when he dictated the last pages and declared the work finished. The venture was formidable, eventually producing seven manuscripts totaling 446 pages. Two of those manuscripts …

"We Believe The Hand Of The Lord Is In It": Memories Of Divine Intervention In The Zion's Camp Expedition, Matthew C. Godfrey

BYU Studies

On February 23, 1834, Joseph Smith attended a high council meeting in Kirtland, Ohio, and heard Lyman Wight and Parley P. Pratt explain how over a thousand members of the Church of Christ—now The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—had been violently ejected from their homes in Jackson County, Missouri. The Saints had been forced to leave the county—which had been previously identified by revelation as Zion—by irate Missouri citizens who saw Church members and their beliefs as a political and ideological threat. Hearing this report, Smith arose from his seat and declared “that he was going to Zion …

Photographs Of The Fourteen Apostles Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, September And October 1898, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Ronald L. Fox

BYU Studies

Ninety-one-year-old Wilford Woodruff, fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died unexpectedly at 6:40 a.m. on Saturday morning, September 2, 1898, during a visit to San Francisco, California. Woodruff’s well-attended funeral was held six days later, at 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 8, 1898, at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sixty-six-year-old George Teasdale, one of the Church’s fourteen Apostles, reported, “Weather sunshine and fair Arose early and . . . went to Woodruff villa and saw the body of our beloved President laying in state. . . . saw the body borne into the …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Mormons In The Piazza: History Of The Latter-Day Saints In Italy, Mauro Properzi

BYU Studies

James A. Toronto, Eric R. Dursteler, and Michael W. Homer. Mormons in the Piazza: History of the Latter-day Saints in Italy.

Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017.

An Edward Martin Photograph Of The Construction Of The Great Tabernacle, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Ronald L. Fox

BYU Studies

October 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of the first general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle. On October 6, 1867, the first day of the conference, Brigham Young prayed,

O God our Heavenly Father, who dwells in the heavens, in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ we come before thee at this time to worship thee on this occasion. . . .

We pray thee in the name of Jesus to bless this congregation who have assembled within the walls of this house for the first time to …

"In The Land Of The Chaldeans": The Search For Abraham's Homeland Revisited, Stephen O. Smoot

BYU Studies

Readers of the Hebrew Bible first encounter Abram (later Abraham), the spiritual father of the three great monotheistic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—at the end of Genesis 11. There they discover he was the son of a certain Terah and claimed “Ur of the Chaldeans” as his home (Gen. 11:28). Being as central as Abraham is to the patriarchal narratives of Genesis and, subsequently, to the faith of scores of believers across the globe, both faithful and nonbelieving readers have turned a critical eye toward the passages where Abraham makes an appearance and have attempted to discern if any historicity lies …

The Political Climate Of Saxony During The Conversion Of Karl G. Maeser: With Special Reference To The Franklin D. Richards Letter To Brigham Young, November 1855, A. Legrand Richards

BYU Studies

In September 1855, Franklin D. Richards, who was serving as “President of the Church in Europe,” toured the Church membership on the Continent. In three weeks, he visited the members in France, Switzerland, and Italy, bearing testimony, strengthening the members, and hearing the stories of their struggles.

Far Away In The West: Reflections On The Mormon Pioneer Trail, Veronica J. Anderson

BYU Studies

Far Away in the West: Reflections on the Mormon Pioneer Trail, edited by Scott C. Esplin, Richard E. Bennett, Susan Easton Black, and Craig K. Manscill (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2015)

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

"I Was Not Ready To Die Yet": William Stowell's Utah War Ordeal, R. Devan Jensen, Kenneth L. Alford

BYU Studies

In the fall of 1857, twenty-one-year-old Cynthia Jane Stowell bade farewell to her husband, William R. R. Stowell, a lieutenant in the Utah militia working to hinder the US Army from entering Utah Territory. Cynthia, who was pregnant, was tending nine children—six of whom were orphans she and William had adopted. Sophronia Stowell, a plural wife of William, also had children to tend. That winter they received news that William had been captured and was being held as a prisoner of war at Camp Scott, near Fort Bridger, in present-day Wyoming. The two women must have worried that they might …

The Church Library Coordinating Committee And The Correlation Of Meetinghouse Libraries, Cory Nimer

BYU Studies

Beginning in the late 1950s, many religious groups in the United States saw a growing interest in the development and improvement of libraries. Within some denominations, organizations were created to advocate library programs and promulgate standards and guidelines. This effort included the establishment of the Parish Library Section of the Catholic Library Association in 1957 and the formation of the Lutheran Church Library Association the following year. A drive toward greater cooperation and professionalization culminated in 1967 with the creation of the Church and Synagogue Library Association, a nonprofit, nondenominational organization that provided conferences and publications for training church librarians.

Samuel And His Nephite Sources, John Hilton Iii, Sunny Hendry Hafen, Jaron Hansen

BYU Studies

Samuel the Lamanite is a unique and powerful individual in the Book of Mormon. Dennis Largey described him as “one of the most colorful figures in the Book of Mormon,” stating that “few readers can forget the image of this fearless servant of God announcing the dramatic signs of Christ’s birth and death, crying repentance from the walls of Zarahemla."

Against The Wall: Johann Huber And The First Mormons In Austria, Melissa Howland

BYU Studies

Against the Wall: Johann Huber and the First Mormons in Austria, by Roger P. Minert (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2015)

"The Little Head Stones Became Monuments": Death In The Early Samoan Mission And The Creation Of The Fagali'i Cemetery, Reid L. Neilson, Scott D. Marianno

BYU Studies

When the call first went forth, Samoa was as far from people’s minds as the islands themselves are from the rest of the civilized world,” a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wrote from Apia in 1899. “Women were among the Gospel pioneers on these islands; what they endured, their trials and their hardships, even to parting with life itself, it is a story that today dims the eye with tears. Samoa has never been a happy home for our sisters.”

The Field Is White: Harvest In The Three Counties Of England, Ronald E. Bartholomew

BYU Studies

Carol Wilkinson and Cynthia Doxey Green. The Field Is White: Harvest in the Three Counties of England.

Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2017.

Reading Nephi Reading Isaiah: 2 Nephi 26-27, Joseph M. Spencer, Jenny Webb

Maxwell Institute Publications

Nephi’s adoration of the words of Isaiah has puzzled many readers of the Book of Mormon. What does Nephi’s reading and repurposing of the biblical prophet suggest about the nature of prophecy and scripture study? Six scholars of the Mormon Theology Seminar address these and other questions in Reading Nephi Reading Isaiah. By shedding new light on this particular scriptural text, these essays provide exemplary models for improved scripture study.

An Other Testament: On Typology, Joseph M. Spencer

Maxwell Institute Publications

How should we read the Book of Mormon? And does the Book of Mormon itself have anything to say about it? Joseph Spencer follows the lead of Nephite prophets who interpreted Isaiah and other prophets typologically—according to “types” and “shadows”—in order to preach salvation through Jesus Christ. By focusing on history, memory, time, repentance, and conversion, An Other Testament explores what it means to believe God provided the Book of Mormon to change a person like you and a world like ours.

The Israelite Roots Of Atonement Terminology, T. Benjamin Spackman

BYU Studies

When Latter-day Saints speak of atonement, they use vocabulary drawn from the scriptures, including common verbs like atone, save, and redeem, and the corresponding nouns atonement, savior, salvation, redeemer, and redemption. There are other, perhaps more vivid, words for salvific acts, such as the Book of Mormon references to being “snatched” (Mosiah 27:28–29; Alma 26:17).1 Such rare terms in scripture have not found place in LDS discourse, which tends to use the most common terms related to atonement interchangeably. While they are indeed at some level synonymous, their distinctive meanings gesture toward …