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Scriptures With Pictures: Methodology, Unexamined Assumptions, And The Study Of The Book Of Abraham, Mark J. Johnson

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

Research on the origins and nature of the Book of Abraham and the accompanying facsimiles has long been hampered by faulty methodology. And while the last few years have seen a significant reexamination of the assumptions that represent the underpinning of our understandings of the Book of Abraham, some unexamined assumptions persist. This study addresses seven aspects of the Book of Abraham, which include a discussion of the sources, the process, the results, the content, the witnesses, and the historical background. For each of these aspects, this study identifies lingering assumptions and shows how a proper methodology can validate or …

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)

Addressing Prickly Issues, Rick Anderson

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

This collection of essays conveniently assembles faithful and rigorous treatments of difficult questions related to LDS history and doctrine. While two or three of the essays are sufficiently flawed to give cause for concern and while some of its arguments have been expressed differently in earlier publications, overall this book can be confidently recommended to interested and doctrinally mature Latter-day Saints.

"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.”

Book Reviews, Matthew Bowman, Reviewer

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

In his foreward to this book, Richard Bushman praises it for its meticulous attention to the historian's craft. Michael MacKay and Gerrit Dirkmaat have served as editors on the Documents series of the Joseph Smith Papers Project-spending months documenting, annotating, and organizing the surviving historical material from the early years of Joseph Smith's religious career-and their experience with those primary sources shines in this volume. They have tracked down scraps of information in archives from New York to Utah, from obscure nineteenth-century publications as far-flung as the Ohio Observer and the Milwaukee Sentinel, and even from much better-known sources like …

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.

Russell W. Stevenson, For The Cause Of Righteousness: A Global History Of Blacks And Mormonism, 1830-2013; Matthew L. Harris And Newell G. Bringhurst, Eds., The Mormon Church And Blacks: A Documentary History, Reviewed By Quincy D. Newell

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Obadiah 1:21 Context, Text, Interpretation, And Application, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

Latter-day Saints have frequently used the phrase “saviors on mount Zion” in relation to proxy temple work for the dead. This phrase comes from the twenty-first, and last, verse of Obadiah, a prophetic book in the Old Testament. But many people have little awareness of or experience with the previous twenty verses in the book, nor with the intriguing contextual questions those verses raise for understanding verse 21, with its phrase “saviours shall come up on mount Zion” (KJV1; note the British spelling with a u; used herein only in quotations). Furthermore, there has been little Latter-day Saint discussion of …

The Latter-Day Saint Reimaging Of “The Breath Of Life” (Genesis 2:7), Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

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.1 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 …

Formed In And Called From The Womb, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

Jeremiah’s call narrative or vocation report includes a clear example of pre-birth divine election:

(1:4) “Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,

(1:5a) ‘Before I formed you in the womb [babbetẹ n] I knew you,

(5b) and before you were born [came forth from the womb/mēreḥem] I consecrated you;

(5c) I appointed you a prophet to the nations’” (Jer. 1:4–5; NRSV).

However, there is ambiguity about the meaning of the phrase “from the womb” and there are persistent questions about the relationship between Jeremiah 1:5a—“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”—and 1:5b+c, “before you …

Micronesia's Coming Of Age: The Mormon Role In Returning Micronesia To Self-Rule, Devan Jensen

Faculty Publications

Mormons, or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have a distinguished history of service in the U.S. government. During a forty-year period following World War II, Mormon politicians played vital roles in transitioning several islands in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from a quasi-colonial status into the self-governing Federated States of Micronesia. This article briefly traces the complicated transition through the public service of four key Mormon administrators: Elbert D. Thomas, John A. Carver Jr., Stewart L. Udall, and Morris K. Udall. They served respectively as first civilian high commissioner of the Trust Territory, …

Research Support Services For Religious Studies, Trevan Hatch, Ryan Lee, Gerrit Van Dyk

Faculty Publications

This project was part of a larger suite of similar studies being concurrently conducted at fifteen religious studies libraries in US higher education institutions in conjunction with Ithaka S+R, a not-for-profit research and consulting service that helps academic, cultural, and publishing communities. The information gathered in this study will not only be used to improve the research support services at Brigham Young University but also towards writing a larger report from the aggregated results written and publically disseminated by Ithaka S+R.

Book Of Mormon Citations In General Conference, 1965–2014, Sharon Black, Brad Wilcox, Kyle Lyons

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Joseph Smith referred to the Book of Mormon as the keystone of our religion; however, the book was not frequently studied in worship services or in gospel instruction in the early Church. In the 1970s, focus on the scriptures increased as the curriculum for adult gospel study shifted from manuals discussing the scriptures to the actual scripture texts. The Book of Mormon became part of the correlated curriculum for Sunday School Gospel Doctrine lessons, and Seminaries and Institutes also increased their use of scriptural content. In response, Church leaders oversaw the preparation of a fully cross-referenced version of the standard …

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Doctrine: Models To Evaluate Types And Sources Of Latter-Day Saint Teachings, Anthony Sweat, Michael Hubbard Mackay, Gerrit J. Dirkmaat

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In early 1833, the presiding elder of a small branch in Benson, Vermont, wrote to his brother at Church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio, hoping to receive guidance from Joseph Smith on a very important question: How do I know what teachings in my branch I should accept as doctrine? He was writing because Jane Sherwood, a woman in his congregation, asserted that she had seen visions of angels and of God that had given her revelation “concerning that which must come hereafter, p[u]rporting indeed that the power of God’s Judgment has come & astonishing things soon are to take place.”

Discussing Difficult Topics: Race And The Priesthood, W. Paul Reeve, Thomas A. Wayment

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Wayment: Paul, tell us a little bit about your background on race and Mormonism. What brings you to this discussion?

Reeve: I started research for the book Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) in 2007. I was familiar with some of the existing historiography in the field of whiteness studies. The whiteness historiography has largely revolved around immigration and labor history. There have been studies of Irish immigrants who were racialized as not white or not white enough. The histories of Irish immigrants trace the ways in which …

The Willie And Martin Handcart Companies: Application And Insights Into A Recurring Rescue, Jeffrey D. Meservy

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The purpose of this paper is not to retell the stories of the handcart companies, one led by James G. Willie and another led by Edward Martin; many have done that very well. Rather, the purpose of this paper is to draw from their examples and experiences and find application for us today. Context, stories, and quotes of these pioneers are used here only in a supportive effort to identify principles, which can guide us today as we strive to live the gospel. President Gordon B. Hinckley stated, “Stories of their rescue need to be repeated again and again. They …

Taking Mormon History Into All The World, D. Brent Smith

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The Mormon History Association (MHA) has sought, per its vision statement, to be “the preeminent catalyst worldwide for encouraging the scholarly study and appreciation of the Mormon past.”1 In connection with the MHA’s fiftieth anniversary and the 2015 MHA Conference in Provo, I surveyed the degree to which MHA, as well as other scholarly and even social media organizations that are engaged in the study and writing of Mormon history, have achieved a broad and integrated global focus. While much progress can be noted, I suggest that more should be attempted with regard to broader international participation and engagement. My …

Full Issue

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Editor's Preface, Juan D. Pinto

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Out Of The Best Books: Mormon Assimilation And Exceptionalism Through Secular Reading, Lauren Ann Fields

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to explore the relationship between Mormon assimilation, exceptionalism, and their endeavors in secular reading by analyzing Out of the Best Books (OOBB), a 1964–71 five-volume reading guide and reading program on secular reading established by the Mormon Church for its women’s organization, the Relief Society. Examining the approaches to secular literature in the OOBB program suggests that Mormons can respond to their competing desires to separate and assimilate by making efforts that fulfill both aspirations simultaneously rather than moving exclusively in one direction. Yet OOBB’s efforts to achieve both objectives did not amount to an entirely seamless …

Uncanny Bodies In Sacred Settings: Creating The Divine In Rodney Smith's Photography, Rebecca Leigh Langham

Theses and Dissertations

The photographer Rodney Smith shows us images of real things and people, but real things and people that aren’t positioned in real ways and places people would actually be. Instead, he uses something very familiar to each of us–the human body–and consistently puts it in very unfamiliar situations. By using something so intimately familiar to each of us as the body in weird ways, he automatically jars our own experienced sensations. And this jarring of familiar sensations, this defamiliarization of something so familiar to us, is what typically results in what literary critics term the feeling of the uncanny. What …

The Papers Of Jay Jensen And The Japan First Mission

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Academic objectives of our research project have been extremely successful. Several of our students produced papers from our research and presented them at a regional conference of the Association for Asian Studies. One of our students published her essay in the Religious Education student journal and won an award for her contribution.
We have produced a whole transcript of the journal of Jay Clair Jensen, including translations and reproduction of thousands photographs. We also produced annotation of the whole journal, which will be submitted for publication at the Religious Studies Center, to add to literature about the worldwide church.

Utah Territory In Official Civil War Records, Kenneth L. Alford

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met

The purpose of this project was to find, transcribe, assemble, categorize, organize, edit, and publish (both a printed version and an electronic database version) the official records relating to Utah Territory’s involvement in the Civil War.

"A Fine Field": Rio De Janeiro's Journey To Become A Center Of Strength For The Lds Church, Garret S. Shields

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this work is to chronicle the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from its earliest beginnings in the late 1930s to the events surrounding the revelation on the priesthood in 1978. This thesis will show that as the Church in Rio became less American and more Brazilian, Church growth accelerated. When missionaries first began working in the city, its membership, leadership, culture, and even language was based on North American society and practices, and the Church struggled to establish itself. Only as these aspects of the Church became …

Reading And Receiving: An Interpretation Of Moroni's Promise(S)

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

The Book, The Words Of The Book: What The Book Of Mormon Says About Its Own Coming Forth

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

The Educational Legacy Of Karl G. Maeser

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Two Case Studies On The Development Of The Concept Of Religion: The New Testament And The Book Of Mormon

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.