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Front Matter

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

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

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

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

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

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Heartland As Hinterland: The Mesoamerican Core And North American Periphery Of Book Of Mormon Geography, Mark Alan Wright

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

The best available evidence for the Book of Mormon continues to support a limited Mesoamerican model. However, Alma 63 indicates that there was a massive northward migration in the mid-first century bc. I argue that these north-bound immigrants spread out over the centuries and established settlements that were geographically distant from the core Nephite area, far beyond the scope of the text of the Book of Mormon. I introduce the Hinterland Hypothesis and argue that it can harmonize the Mesoamerican evidence for the Book of Mormon with Joseph Smith’s statements concerning Nephite and Lamanite material culture in North America. Archaeological …

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

John L. Sorenson’S Complete Legacy: Reviewing Mormon’S Codex, Brant A. Gardner, Mark Alan Wright

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

Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book is unquestionably a monument to an impressive career defending, defining, and explaining the Book of Mormon. John L. Sorenson has been for the New World setting of the Book of Mormon what Hugh Nibley was for the Old World setting. From his earliest 1952 publications using anthropology and geography to defend the Book of Mormon to the 2013 publication of Mormon’s Codex, Sorenson has been the dominant force in shaping scholarly discussions about the Book of Mormon in its New World setting.1 With an impressive 714 pages of text with footnotes, Mormon’s Codex is …

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

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

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

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

No abstract provided.

Sustaining The Brethren, Duane Boyce

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

Believing Latter-day Saints hold different views about what it means to sustain the presiding Brethren of the Church. In this article, I outline some considerations that might be kept in mind as members of the Church evaluate their views on this vital topic and the Lord’s admonition to sustain the Brethren by their faith, prayers, and actions.

Where In Cincinnati Was The Third Edition Of The Book Of Mormon Printed?, Chris Miasnik

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

The third edition of the Book of Mormon was stereotyped and printed in Cincinnati in 1840. The story of the Church’s printer, Ebenezer Robinson, accomplishing this mission has been available since 1883. What has remained a mystery is exactly where in Cincinnati this event took place; there is no plaque marking the spot, no walking tour pamphlet, no previous images, and its history contains conflicting documentation. This article will attempt to untangle the mystery by using old descriptions, maps of the area, and images. I also honor the printer, Edwin Shepard, whose metal and ink made this edition a reality.

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

“The Great And Terrible Judgments Of The Lord”: Destruction And Disaster In 3 Nephi And The Geology Of Mesoamerica, Neal Rappleye

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

Over recent decades, several Latter-day Saint scholars and scientists have offered analysis and comparison to geologic events and the destruction recorded in 3 Nephi 8-9. Jerry Grover makes an important contribution to this literature as he provides background on geologic processes and phenomena, details the geologic features of the Tehuantepec region (Mesoamerica), and applies this information to not only the description of 3 Nephi 8-9, but other incidents in the Book of Mormon likely connected to geologic events. In doing so, Grover yields new insights into the narratives he examines, and adds clarity to geographic details that have been subject …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Association Between Toxocariasis And Cognitive Function In Young To Middle-Aged Adults, Bruce L. Brown, Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Andrew Berrett, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

The ascarid nematodes Toxocara canis (Werner, 1782) and Toxocara cati (Schrank, 1788) may infect humans resulting in toxocariasis. A prior study associated species of Toxocara Stiles, 1905 with cognitive deficits in children. To determine if a similar association between toxocariasis and cognition exists in adults, we analysed a large dataset from the United States’ Center for Disease Control’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We used linear-regression and multivariate models to examine the association between toxocariasis as assessed by the presence of anti-Toxocara IgG antibodies and three measures of cognitive function – simple reaction time (SRT), symbol-digit substitution (SDS) and …

Celestial Visits In The Scriptures, And A Plausible Mesoamerican Tradition, Diane E. Wirth

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

Scriptural accounts of celestial beings visiting the earth are abundant in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Whether a descending deity or angelic beings from celestial realms, they were often accompanied by clouds. In this paper a short analysis of the various types of clouds, including imitation clouds (incense), will be discussed. The relation between the phenomenon of supernatural beings, sometimes in clouds, may have had a great influence on descendants of Book of Mormon cultures. For these people, stories that were told from one generation to the next would have been considered ancient mythological lore. It may …

Learning About Other Religions: False Obstacles And Rich Opprotunities, Mauro Properzi

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Reaching The Nations: International Church Growth Almanac, Eric Eliason

BYU Studies

Reaching the Nations: International Church Growth Almanac, 2014 Edition, Volume I: The Americas, Oceana, and Europe and Reaching the Nations: International Church Growth Almanac, 2014 Edition, Volume II: Asia and Africa, by David G. Stewart Jr. and Matthew Martinich (Henderson, Nev.: Cumorah Foundation, 2013).

Mormon Women In Memoir, Angela Hallstrom, Jacqueline S. Thursby, Rosalyn Collings Eves, Amy A. Easton-Flake, Amy Isaksen Cartwright

BYU Studies

Heaven Is Here: An Incredible Story of Hope, Triumph, and Everyday Joy, by Stephanie Nielson (New York: Hyperion, 2012)

My Story, by Elizabeth Smart with Christopher Stewart (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013)

Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor, by Jana Riess (Brewster, Mass: Paraclete Press, 2011)

The Place of Knowing: A Spiritual Autobiography, by Emma Lou Warner Thayne (Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, 2011)

The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith, by Joanna Brooks (New York: Free Press/Simon and Schuster, 2012)

Global Mom: Eight Countries, Sixteen Addresses, …

Place Of Crushing: The Literary Function Of Heshlon In Ether 13:25-31, Matthew L. Bowen, Pedro Olavarria

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

The name Heshlon, attested once (in Ether 13:28), as a toponym in the Book of Mormon most plausibly denotes “place of crushing.” The meaning of Heshlon thus becomes very significant in the context of Ether 13:25–31, which describes the crushing or enfeebling of Coriantumr’s armies and royal power. This meaning is also significant in the wider context of Moroni’s narrative of the Jaredites’ destruction. Fittingly, the name Heshlon itself serves as a literary turning point in a chiastic structure which describes the fateful reversal of Coriantumr’s individual fortunes and the worsening of the Jaredites’ collective fortunes. Perhaps Moroni, who witnessed …

Diary Of Two Mad Black Mormons: Finding The Lord's Lessons In Everyday Life, Sydney Hughes

BYU Studies

Diary of Two Mad Black Mormons: Finding the Lord’s Lessons in Everyday Life, by Zandra Vranes and Tamu Smith (Salt Lake City: Ensign Peak, 2014).

The Necessity Of Political Parties And The Importance Of Compromise, David B. Magleby

BYU Studies

BYU Studies has a long history of publishing the annual lecture given by the recipient of the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award, BYU’s highest faculty honor. It is with great pleasure that BYU Studies Quarterly publishes this year’s lecture by Dr. David B. Magleby, a professor of political science. His speech was delivered as a forum address on May 19, 2015, at Brigham Young University.

The Multidimensional Quality Metrics (Mqm) Framework: A New Framework For Translation Quality Assessment, Valerie Mariana, Troy L. Cox, Alan Melby

Faculty Publications

Determining translation quality requires a precise measure of the traits being examined. This article evaluates a new framework for translation quality evaluation, Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM), to the task of grading student translations. It demonstrates the viability (i.e. the practicality, validity and reliability) of using the MQM framework by novice raters to judge translations based on the American Translators Association’s translator certification exam grading system. The data gathered for this study were drawn from 29 student translations of a single news story that were rated by nine novice and two expert raters. The study used average time on task, correlations …

Traveling The Distance: Danish “Empire Migration” To The U.S. Virgin Islands, Pernille Østergaard Hansen

The Bridge

In 1917, Denmark sold its Caribbean colonies—known at the time as the Danish West Indies—to the United States and thus made its final, official break with the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John. The transfer of the islands to the United States involved a juxtaposition of both rupture and continuity, however. Although the year 1917 marked a significant decline in Danish colonial rule, “new imperial” ideas and practices continued without interruption. Moreover, the transfer did not break Danish ties to the former colony. Several Danes stayed on and continued their island lives, while other Danes chose to …

The Self-Critical Book Of Mormon: Notes On An Emergent Literary Approach, Joseph M. Spencer

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

No abstract provided.

The Iconography Of The Turkish Lira, David Covey

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Southeast European and Black Sea Studies on 4 April 2022, available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2022.2054171.

Turkey seems to forever be at a balancing point—between East and West, secular and Muslim, autocratic and liberal, ancient and modern. As a rising economic power in a region plagued by turmoil, it has enormous strategic importance as both a center of power and a model for others. Pulled in multiple directions by its diverse population, few outcomes seem implausible for Turkey. In the coming decades, it could become a model …

Symbiotic Werewolves And Cybernetic Anchoresses: Premodern Posthumans In Medieval Literature, Jennifer K. Cox

Quidditas

This paper examines how individual agency in medieval society might be expanded through posthuman configurations; in so doing, it pushes the boundaries of traditional practices in medieval research to include more contemporary ideas. Although as scholars, we must avoid anachronistic readings of these texts, ignoring modern thinkers like N. Katherine Hayles (How We Became Posthuman) and Donna Haraway (“A Cyborg Manifesto”) too easily disregards their valuable – and timeless – insights. While the term “posthuman” can evoke images of cyborgs or superhuman mutants using wormholes to traverse space and time, this pop culture perspective often overlooks less technoscientific examples of …

John Bernhisel’S Gift To A Prophet: Incidents Of Travel In Central America And The Book Of Mormon, Matthew Roper

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

The claim that God revealed the details of Book of Mormon geography is not new, but the recent argument that there was a conspiracy while the Prophet was still alive to oppose a revealed geography is a novel innovation. A recent theory argues that the “Mesoamerican theory” or “limited Mesoamerican geography” originated in 1841 with Benjamin Winchester, an early Mormon missionary, writer, and dissident, who rejected the leadership of Brigham Young and the Twelve after 1844. This theory also claims that three unsigned editorials on Central America and the Book of Mormon published in the Times and Seasons on September …

Full Issue

The Bridge

No abstract provided.