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Front Matter, Mormon Studies Review

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Janet Bennion, Polygamy In Primetime: Media, Gender, And Politics In Mormon Fundamentalism, Reviewed By Megan Goodwin

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Rough Stone Rising: The Joseph Smith Papers Project, Mark A. Mastromarino

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Situating Nibley On Early Christianity: A Bibliography Note, Louis Midgley

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

No abstract provided.

What They Learned From The Mormons, Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Religious Dialogue Across Lines Of Difference: Mormons, Evangelicals, And Others Agreeing To Disagree, Roy Whitaker

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Christine Talbot, A Foreign Kingdom: Mormons And Polygamy In American Political Culture, 1852-1890, Reviewed By Colleen Mcdannell

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

David J. Howlett, Kirtland Temple: The Biography Of A Shared Mormon Sacred Space, Reviewed By Jeanne Halgren Kilde

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Edward J. Blum And Paul Harvey, The Color Of Christ: The Son Of God And The Saga Of Race In America, Reviewed By Tom Simpson

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Publishing Mormon History: A Conversation With Alexander L. Baugh, Devan Jensen

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

The Treason Of The Geographers: Mythical “Mesoamerican” Conspiracy 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 …

A Response To Denver Snuffer’S Essay On Plural Marriage, Adoption, And The Supposed Falling Away Of The Church Part 2: Façade Or Reality?, Brian C. Hales

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

Part 2 of this response to Denver Snuffer’s essay entitled “Plural Marriage” posted on March 22, 2015, will primarily address non-plural marriage issues as discussed in the last twenty pages.1 Snuffer’s portrayal of adoption teachings and practices is analyzed and shown to be in error, along with his interpretation of presiding priesthood quorums as described in the Doctrine and Covenants. His primary thesis, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in apostasy, is also examined including Snuffer’s personal need for the Church to have fallen away in order to create an opening for his new visionary voice. …

Profound Depth In A Slender Book, Kevin Christensen

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

Occasionally, an LDS author puts out a slender little book that displays a profound depth and insight that belies its size. Truman Madsen’s Eternal Man is one such book, one that forever changed the way I viewed the faith in which I was raised. In that case, Madsen asked a set of basic philosophical questions and compared the LDS answers with those provided by a range of non-LDS and generally famous philosophers. Madsen commented in his preface that

Not Leaving And Going On To Perfection, Matthew L. Bowen

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

In his most recent book, First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple (hereafter First Principles), Samuel M. Brown observes that “the Plan of Salvation [is] fundamentally about relationships.”1 This recognition drove the prophet Joseph Smith and early Church members to “forge communities [of saints] that could endure beyond the veil of death” (151). Today, the importance of the temple and its ordinances to family relationships, eternal in their design, are clear to most Latter-day Saints. However, our collective view of the meaning of the principles and ordinances that precede the temple — and …

"Light And Truth" In The Public University Classroom, John G. Turner

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Reid L. Neilson, Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-Day Saints And The 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Reviewed By Peter J. Thuesen

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

A Narrative Approach To The Joseph Smith Translation Of The Synoptic Gospels, Jared W. Ludlow

BYU Studies

One of the first projects Joseph Smith undertook after the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April 1830 was a translation of the Bible. Although it was not a typical translation from original Greek or Hebrew manuscripts, the project was often called a “translation” nonetheless. The Joseph Smith Translation, or JST as it is often called, was referred to by the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants as “the new translation of my holy word” (D&C 124:89). At the top of the manuscript of the revision of Matthew, it reads, “A translation of the New …

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.

Full Issue

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.

Rediscovering The First Vision, Neal Rappleye

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

The First Vision: A Harmonization of Ten Accounts from the Sacred Grove is a small book, richly illustrated, which provides even the most diligent students of the vision with a fresh and rewarding experience. Boasting a back dust jacket endorsement from none other than Richard Bushman — the dean of Joseph Smith scholars in the early twenty-first century1 — this small, stylishly designed book is, in my opinion, the best way to introduce Latter-day Saints to the various accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision.

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

A Welcome Introduction, Gregory L. Smith

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

Brian C. Hales has established himself as an authority on Latter-day Saint plural marriage. Following his initial award-winning work on “fundamentalist” plural marriage,2 Hales produced an impressive and exhaustive three-volume history of Joseph Smith’s polygamy and its attendant theology.3 (Throughout the review, when referring to this longer work, I will denominate it JSP.)

References

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

No abstract provided.

John Milton, Joseph Smith, And The Book Of Mormon, Robert A. Rees

BYU Studies

In my Introduction to Mormonism class at Graduate Theological Union in 2013, among other topics we discussed the Book of Mormon and its possible provenances. The assignments for the class included my article “Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the American Renaissance,” in which I compare Joseph Smith with his illustrious contemporaries Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman in terms of their respective literary imagination, talent, authorial maturity, education, cultural milieu, knowledge base, and intellectual sophistication. In that article, I attempted to demonstrate that each of these authors enjoyed a much greater …

The Journey Of A People: The Era Of Restoration, 1820 To 1844; The Journey Of A People: The Era Of Reorganization, 1844 To 1946, Alonzo L. Gaskill

BYU Studies

Mark A. Scherer. The Journey of a People: The Era of Restoration, 1820 to 1844.

Independence, Mo.: Community of Christ Seminary Press, 2013.

Mark A. Scherer. The Journey of a People: The Era of Reorganization, 1844 to 1946.

Independence, Mo.: Community of Christ Seminary Press, 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, …

Making The Unfamiliar Familiar: Mormon Studies For Non-Mormon Students, Jill Peterfeso

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Looking Down A Dark Well: An Editorial Introduction, Carl Griffin

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

No abstract provided.