Digital Commons Network^™

Joseph Smith As A Book Of Mormon Storyteller, Brian C. Hales

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

For nearly 200 years, skeptics have promoted different naturalistic explanations to describe how Joseph Smith generated all the words of the Book of Mormon. The more popular theories include plagiarism (e.g. of the Solomon Spaulding manuscript), collaboration (with Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, etc.), mental illness (bipolar, dissociative, or narcissistic personality disorders) and automatic writing, also called “spirit writing, “trance writing,” or “channeling.” A fifth and currently the most popular theory posits that Joseph Smith possessed all the intellectual abilities needed to complete the task. A variation on this last explanation proposes that he used the methods of professional storytellers. For …

The Good God Hermeneutic: A Reconsideration Of Religious Vocabulary, Garrett R. Maxwell

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

Fiona and Terryl Givens once again deliver a book worthy of the comparatively wide readership they have gained within Latter- day Saint circles. Their orderly treatment of individual gospel concepts in this book can rightly be seen as a distillation and unification of their previous work, boldly attempting to awaken us from our ignorance of the sheer novelty and vitality contained in the Restoration vision of God and humanity. They convincingly argue that the historically wrought semantic baggage that comes with the most basic religious vocabulary we use must be consciously jettisoned to fully appreciate and articulate the meaning of …

The Rise And Fall Of Korihor, A Zoramite: A New Look At The Failed Mission Of An Agent Of Zoram, Godfrey J. Ellis

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

The accounts of the Anti-Christ, Korihor, and of Alma’s mission to the Zoramites raise a variety of apparently unanswered questions. These involve Korihor’s origins, the reason for the similarity of his beliefs to those of the Zoramites, and why he switched so quickly from an atheistic attack to an agnostic plea. Another intriguing question is whether it was actually the devil himself who taught him what to say and sent him on a mission to the land of Zarahemla — or was it a surrogate of the devil or a human “devil” such as, perhaps, Zoram? Final questions are how …

The Phenomenology Of Civilization: A Dialogue Between Profs. Gabriel Breton And George Drury At Monteith College Plus, Two Associated Commentaries On Civilization By George Drury, Kenneth Feigenbaum Editor

Comparative Civilizations Review

This dialogue on the nature of civilization took place on the stage at Wayne State University fifty- seven years ago on January 29, 1964, and shortly thereafter. It was part of an interdisciplinary course titled “The Science of Society,” given by Monteith College.

Indices Of The Comparative Civilizations Review, No. 1-83

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Ross R. Maxwell: An Autobiography, Ross R. Maxwell

Comparative Civilizations Review

Sometimes the most significant event is something that did not happen. I did not go to nursery school or to kindergarten, and I now suspect that this helped me keep my curiosity and imagination unfettered. Either something interested me, or it did not. In school, from first grade to graduate school, I never asked for help. I would listen to others only if what they had to say interested me — if not, I would tune them out.

Bits Of Wisdom, Ross R. Maxwell

Comparative Civilizations Review

I collected theses thoughts and intuitions, because in one way or another they were meaningful to me.

R.R.M. 12/20/82

Christopher Peet. Practicing Transcendence: Axial Age Spiritualities For A World In Crisis, Constance Wilkinson

Comparative Civilizations Review

This unusual and enlightening scholarly work by Christopher Peet draws our contemplative attention to what post-war German philosopher Karl Jaspers called "the Axial Age," a "span of several centuries from 800 to 200 BCE . . . constituting a dividing line or 'axis' between a long prehistory of human beings before and the emergence of a world history after."

Rachel M. Stein, Vengeful Citizens, Violent States. A Theory Of War And Revenge, Jamie Gonzalez

Comparative Civilizations Review

From the very outset, Western civilization postulated revenge as a significant cause of armed conflict. The Iliad’s storyline, the first extant literary text in our Western tradition, revolves around the concept of a Greek retaliatory military campaign against a foreign enemy. The Greeks sail to Priam’s city, intending to make the Trojans pay for the abduction of Helen. The first historiography work in the Western canon (Herodotus’ Histories) posits a framework of an eternal cycle of revenge between East and West. The “Father of History” structures the narrative at the beginning of his work as a cycle of abduction …

End Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

Inscape

No abstract provided.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre: Examining The Tragedy From A Social Psychological Perspective, Spencer C. Black

Theses and Dissertations

In September 1857, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints massacred emigrants traveling through southern Utah to California. The perpetrators, who were also members of the Cedar City militia, slaughtered one hundred and twenty men, women, and children. They only spared seventeen young children. Historians have written at length about this event. In this paper, I analyze the Mountain Meadows Massacre through the perspective of social-psychological constructs. In particular, I use the constructs of human motivation, moral disengagement, group behavior, and obedience to authority to help provide further understanding regarding how seemingly ordinary Christian people committed such …

Forgiveness And Gratitude As Mediators Between Religious Commitment And Well-Being Among Latter-Day Saint Polynesian Americans, Davis Kealanohea Kane, G. E. Kawika Allen, Timothy B. Smith, M Ming, Aaron Jackson, Derek Griner, Elizabeth Cutrer-Parraga

Faculty Publications

An abundance of research has investigated well-being as it relates to religiosity and character strengths, such as forgiveness and gratitude. However, few studies have investigated how increases in forgiveness and gratitude might explain why religious commitment enhances well-being, particularly for U.S. ethnic/racial minority populations. This study investigated if the character strengths of forgiveness and gratitude mediated the relationship between religious commitment and well-being among Latter-day Saint Polynesian Americans – a fast growing, yet understudied, population. Results indicated that forgiveness and gratitude fully mediated the relationship between religious commitment and self-esteem, and gratitude partially mediated the relationship between religious commitment and …

Working Out Salvation History In The Book Of Mormon Politeia With Fear And Trembling, Alan Goff

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

The Maxwell Institute for the Study of Religion has released another book in its series The Book of Mormon: Brief Theological Introductions. This book by James E. Faulconer more than ably engages five core elements of the book of Mosiah, exploring their theological implications. Faulconer puzzles through confusing passages and elements: why is the book rearranged so that it isn’t in chronological order? What might King Benjamin mean when he refers to the nothingness of humans? And what might Abinadi mean when he declares that Christ is both the Father and the Son? The most interesting parts of the introduction …

The Contested Works Of The Bakhtin Circle: A Stylometric Investigation, Brittany Pheiffer Noble

Russian Language Journal

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895–1975) emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century as one of the most important theorists of literature, language, and cultural theory in the West. The discovery of the thinker in the nearly immediate wake of his death dovetailed with late twentieth-century critiques of language, authorial authority, and questions around the ethics of reading and media consumption. Bakhtin’s biography fueled his popularity: his was a life largely lived on the margins of an oppressive regime, and he wrote prolifically while surviving famine, siege, exile, health problems, and an almost complete absence of professional recognition save for …

Reading Russian For The Disciplines: Google Translate, Richard Robin

Russian Language Journal

For many graduate students in areas such as history, economics, sociology, security policy studies, and arms control, the Russian reading requirement represents a significant barrier in terms of required coursework or reading proficiency, since Advanced-level reading proficiency at a minimum is necessary for reading in these disciplines. The question is, must that barrier be maintained? In a time when online machine translation (MT) is available on smartphones, is requiring a demonstration of L2 reading proficiency as part of the path to an advanced degree any more meaningful than requiring that statisticians be able to add up a column of figures …

Towards Intelligent Correction Of Collocational Errors In Russian L2 Academic Texts In The Cat&Kittens Writing Support Platform, Aleksandr Klimov, Olesya Kisselev, Mikhail Kopotev

Russian Language Journal

The study of academic language is driven to a large extent by the need to teach second language (L2) writers about established practices and patterns found across different genres and registers common in academic written discourse. Over the span of the past few decades, the area of academic language research has been hugely influenced by two interconnected digital approaches: computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and computational linguistics, including corpus linguistics approaches and tools.

Building Bridges With Language And Culture In Russia (Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad): Focusing On Intercultural Sensitivity, Alla Kourova, Florin M. Mihai

Russian Language Journal

In our progressively globalized world, the need to build bridges between people of different languages and cultures has grown exponentially. The phrases globalization , global citizen, and increasingly interconnected world are frequently present in public discourse (Kulturel-Konak, Konak, and D’Allegro 2017). Educators can potentially play a core role in bridging linguistic and cultural gaps between people, groups, and institutions. Closing these gaps was the main goal of the Building Bridges with Language and Culture in Russia project. The project was funded by the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) program, which aims to improve US intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural …

Teaching Russian To Visually Impaired Students During Covid-19: Technological Tools, Teaching Strategies, And Digital Materials, Giorgia Pomarolli

Russian Language Journal

With the transition of traditional programs to emergency remote teaching contexts due to the COVID-19 crisis, we have been faced with a challenge that primarily concerns access to instruction for all students. This unprecedented situation has reshaped the issue of inclusive education. This paper aims at furthering the debate on inclusive distance education in Russian language learning by presenting the experience of teaching Russian as a foreign language (FL) at an elementary level to a group of 20 Italian native learners, including some who are visually impaired (VI). The course took place in Autumn 2020 and was originally planned as …

Assessment Design In Online Russian Language Courses: Lessons From Covid-19, Yuliana Gunn

Russian Language Journal

This article examines various tools, approaches, and strategies for conducting language assessments in an online environment for all language levels during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. To complement tools available through the learning management system, online assessments can be retooled to be more communicative and interactive tasks, and measure language gains across the three modes of communication (interpersonal, interpretive and presentational). This article argues for increasing transparency in online classrooms and provides insights into initial student receptiveness and preferences for these new online assessments through an examination of anonymous student survey results.

Teaching And Learning Indigenous Languages Of The Russian Federation, Hilah Kohen, Irina Sadovina, Tetyana Dzyadevych, Dylan Charter, Anna Gomboeva, Lenore A. Grenoble, Jessica Kantarovich, Rossina Soyan

Russian Language Journal

On March 20, 2021, one of my students sent a message through his college network: “Happy New Year! Happy Naýryz! Наурыз құтты бол- сын! Naýryz qutty bolsyn! S Vesennim prazdnikom Nauryz! ... Remember to celebrate with friends and family (family meaning chosen, adoptive, or biological, etc.)!” This student grew up in a Spanish-speaking foster family and recently, after a DNA test, discovered his ancestral roots in Bashkiria, Tatarstan, and Kazakhstan. He now wants to learn more about his origins, and he is looking for sources to learn about non-Russian languages and cultures in the Russian Federation (RF) and former USSR. …

Modeling Continental-Scale Outdoor Environmental Sound Levels With Limited Data, Katrina Lynn Pedersen

Theses and Dissertations

Modeling outdoor acoustic environments is a challenging problem because outdoor acoustic environments are the combination of diverse sources and propagation effects, including barriers to propagation such as buildings or vegetation. Outdoor acoustic environments are most commonly modeled on small geographic scales (e.g., within a single city). Extending modeling efforts to continental scales is particularly challenging due to an increase in the variety of geographic environments. Furthermore, acoustic data on which to train and validate models are expensive to collect and therefore relatively limited. It is unclear how models trained on this limited acoustic data will perform across continental-scales, which likely …

Gospel Ethics, Hinckley A. Jones-Sanpei

BYU Studies

Unavoidable ethical and moral decisions permeate our lives. From the personal (how we treat our family members and the people we interact with) to the political (what we do about the increasing number of mass shootings in our country and refugees at our borders or how we behave during a worldwide pandemic), our decisions have moral and ethical implications that reveal our priorities and values. Traditional approaches to ethics and economic policymaking emphasize isolated rational individuals and their direct interactions with other self-sufficient, rational individuals. Yet at different points in our lives, all of us are dependent on others—some we …

Increasing Workplace Diversity: Evidence From A Recruiting Experiment At A Fortune 500 Company, Jeffrey A. Flory, Andreas Leibbrandt, Christina Rott, Olga B. Stoddard

Faculty Publications

While many firms have set ambitious goals to increase diversity in their ranks, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on effective ways to reach them. We use a natural field experiment to test several hypotheses on effective means to attract minority candidates for top professional careers. By randomly varying the content in recruiting materials of a major financial services corporation with more than 10,000 employees, we find that signaling explicit interest in employee diversity more than doubles the interest in openings among racial minority candidates, as well as the likelihood that they apply and are selected. Impacts on gender …

Rationalizing Self-Defeating Behaviors: Theory And Evidence, Lars J. Lefgren, Olga B. Stoddard

Faculty Publications

Why do individuals engage in self-defeating behaviors like self-harm, addiction, and risky sexual behaviors? Why do they experience the apathy of depression or inaction when trapped by multiple competing problems? We propose a framework for explaining these and other related behaviors based on the insight that individuals can only experience a limited number of latent stimuli to which they are exposed. We conduct an experiment to test this model and find that more than two thirds of the subjects behave consistent with our theoretical framework.

Perceived Family And Partner Support And The Work-Family Interface: A Meta-Analytic Review, Heather H. Kelley, Ashley B. Lebaron, E. Jeffery Hill, Diana Meter

Faculty Publications

This study employed meta-analytic techniques to elucidate the role of perceived partner and family support in four measures of the work-family interface. We extracted 183 effect sizes from 82 samples and a total of N = 36,226 individuals. We found perceived familial (partner and family) support was negatively associated with work-to-family conflict (r = -.099) and family-to-work conflict (r = -.178). It was positively associated with work-to-family enrichment (r = .173) and family-to-work enrichment (r = .378). Various sample-level moderators were investigated through meta regression and subgroup analyses, including whether the support measure was family or partner focused. Perceived family …

Treating Children Exposed To Domestic Violence: Group-Based Intervention, Gary M. Burlingame, Rachel A. Arnold

Faculty Publications

D omestic violence is a serious societal problem that sadly threatens many children. Results from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) demonstrate that nearly 26% of children are exposed to family violence during their lifetime, including psychological/emotional intimate partner violence, physical intimate partner violence, parental assault of a sibling, and/or other family violence (Hamby et al., 2011). The consequences can be significant. For instance, childhood exposure to intimate partner violence is associated with mental health issues, such as posttraumatic stress and anxiety symptoms (Hamby et al., 2011). While rates of domestic violence have been declining in the …

Association Between Toxoplasma Gondii Seropositivity And Serointensity And Brain Volume In Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study, Bruce L. Brown, Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

The intracellular protozoal parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been associated with worsened cognitive function in animal models and in humans. Despite these associations, the mechanisms by which Toxoplasma gondii might affect cognitive function remain unknown, although Toxoplasma gondii does produce physiologically active intraneuronal cysts and appears to affect dopamine synthesis. Using data from the UK Biobank, we sought to determine whether Toxoplasma gondii is associated with decreased prefrontal, hippocampal, and thalamic gray-matter volumes and with decreased total gray-matter and total white-matter volumes in an adult community-based sample. The results from adjusted multivariable regression modelling showed no associations between Toxoplasma gondii and …

The Effects Of Metacognitive Listening Strategy Instruction On Esl Learners’ Listening Motivation, Grant Eckstein, Corbin Kalanikiakahi Rivera, Benjamin L. Mcmurry, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

Prior studies examining the effects of listening strategy instruction on motivation have shown a positive correlation between the two. However, the participants of these studies all shared a first language (L1) and were not enrolled in an intensive English program (IEP). This study aims to investigate the correlation between listening strategy instruction and listening motivation in an IEP classroom for students from different L1s. Listening motivation was recorded utilizing the English Listening Comprehension Motivation Scale (ELCMS), and strategy use was tracked with the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ). Pre- and post-test scores of 56 participants (control group, n=30; experiment group, …