Digital Commons Network^™

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

What Has Moroni To Do With John?

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Mormon Studies And Religious Studies: A Conversation With Spencer Fluhman

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Talking With Mormons: An Invitation To Evangelicals, David Dominguez, Richard J. Mouw

BYU Studies

As an Evangelical who has resided in Utah County since 1989 and as a law professor at BYU for the past twenty-four years, I read with great interest Richard J. Mouw's latest book, Talking with Mormons: An Invitation to Evangelicals. I was pleased that the author, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, helped me sort out my thoughts on countless conversations with LDS colleagues, students, and neighbors concerning differences in our religious traditions and, even more importantly, provided a structure for more fruitful dialogue. I encourage anyone who cares about building bridges between and among Evangelicals and Mormons to take time …

The Judaic Library Of The Jewish Community Centre Of Hong Kong, Patrick Lo

Journal of East Asian Libraries

An interview with Brenda Yi, Librarian of the Jewish Community Centre of Hong Kong.

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Design And Construction Of The Great Tabernacle Arches, Elwin C. Robison, W Randall Dixon

BYU Studies

Brigham Young desired to build a place where thousands of Saints could meet and a speaker could be heard. The Great Tabernacle in Salt Lake City was built using trussed arches. The genesis of this type of construction was the lattice truss, patented in 1820. The design was brought to Utah by Henry Grow. Brigham Young hired Grow to design and build a road bridge made of straight wooden lattice trusses over the Jordan River in 1860. Trusses could also be built as arches, and the Tabernacle was built as a long barrel vault with half-arch ends. This design allowed …

Joseph F. Smith And The Reshaping Of Church Education, Scott C. Esplin

BYU Studies

This article examines the educational background, philosophy, and legacy of Joseph F. Smith and his impact on Church education. It traces the role President Smith played in expanding the Church academies and later facilitating the formation of the current seminary system. It places these changes within the context of the dramatic growth in U.S. public education and the financial challenges faced by the Church and its academies, demonstrating how Smith was shaped by his time and the part he played during a transformative era in Church education.

The Textual Development Of D&C 130:22 And The Embodiment Of The Holy Ghost, Ronald E. Bartholomew

BYU Studies

The unique LDS doctrine of the embodiment of the Holy Ghost has a fascinating history. Ron Bartholomew looks at the text of Doctrine and Covenants 130:

"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us."

The text went through several stages of development before arriving at its current wording and punctuation. This article details, step by step, the various modifications that were made …

The Mormon People: The Making Of An American Faith, Matthew Bowman, Armand L. Mauss

BYU Studies

Matthew Bowman is an up-and-coming young scholar of the generation now rising with the relatively new field of Mormon studies. Having completed his doctorate in American religious history at Georgetown University in 2011, he has nevertheless already been very visible for some time at academic conferences and in periodical literature of both Mormon and American religious histories. He has appeared on various public media sites, electronic and otherwise, as a commentator about Mormons and Mormonism, including discussions of his new book.

This book provides eight solid chapters, a brief introduction, and an even briefer conclusion, followed by four appendices, a …

Parallels Between Psalms 25-31 And The Psalm Of Nephi, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D., D. Bryce Baker

Faculty Publications

Chapter 18 of the 2013 BYU Sperry Symposium volume, "Parallels between Psalms 25-31 and the Psalm of Nephi," by Kenneth L. Alford and D. Bryce Baker, highlights numerous similarities in the structure and language of 2 Nephi 4 (also known as the Psalm of Nephi) to wording found in Psalms 25 to 31 -- opening the possibility that Nephi may have consulted those psalms on the brass plates prior to composing his psalm.

Latter-Day Saint Missionaries Encounter The London Missionary Society In The South Pacific, 1844–1852, Fred E. Woods

BYU Studies

In fall 1843, four Latter-day Saints were called as the first missionaries to the South Pacific. One, Knowlton Hanks, died on the voyage. In May 1844, Addison Pratt began proselytizing on the island of Tubuai, 350 miles south of Tahiti. Benjamin Grouard and Noah Rogers went on to Tahiti, but after a few months they were forced to leave by the French colonizers and went to other islands. Rogers returned to the US in 1845, but Pratt and Grouard remained. On these various islands they encountered missionaries of the London Missionary Society, who had already been preaching in the South …

The Lot Smith Cavalry Company: Utah Goes To War, Joseph R. Stuart, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

In this chapter from "Civil War Saints" (2012, published by the Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center and the Deseret Book Company), Joseph R. Stuart and Kenneth L. Alford take a close look at the cavalry unit that was called to military service on April 28, 1862, at President Lincoln’s request. Their ninety-day period of service was the only unit-level active duty military contribution Utah Territory made during the Civil War. An earlier version of this paper, written by a student for the Library Research Grant Program, can be found here.

In Harmony: History And Perceptions Of Mormonism In Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, 1829–Present, Stanley J. Thayne, Dr. J. Spencer Fluhman

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Since Mormonism’s exodus from New York and Pennsylvania, due to what Joseph Smith described as a “spirit of persecution” in the area, popular perceptions among many locals have been anything but positive. “It is a fact, of which we are not particularly proud, that Susquehanna County harbored such a madman as Joe Smith,” wrote Emily C. Blackman in her 1873 History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Negative perceptions were perpetuated throughout the twentieth century through continually recited folklore, often printed in newspapers and county histories, and even manifest itself in occasional hostility toward missionaries. More recently, however, popular attitudes to Mormonism …

Exploring The Shaker Aesthetic At Sabbathday Lake, Elizabeth Pinborogh, Dr. Kimberly Johnson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My goal was to study the Shaker aesthetic, the distinctive set of characteristics that define Shaker art and architecture. Through preliminary research, I had discovered that Shaker buildings where characterized by symmetry, straight lines, squareness, and simplicity, and I wanted to experience the aesthetic firsthand. The questions I was trying to answer were: Why is the Shaker aesthetic appealing to artists and to people from many different academic disciplines? What is my poetic interpretation of the Shaker aesthetic? I also wanted to read Shaker women’s autobiographical and spiritual writings that I could not get access to anywhere else.

Civil War Saints: Research Update, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This article, which appeared in the Fall 2013 issue of the "Religious Education Review," discusses additional discoveries regarding Latter-day Saint military service during the American Civil War (since the book "Civil War Saints" was published in 2012).

Joseph Smith, The Prophet-Editor, Joshua Wheatley, Dr. Grant Underwood

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I focused my research on an effort to better understand Joseph Smith’s process of revelation, in light of the many revisions that he later made to his own revelations. I decided that my primary source material would be the revelations that Joseph recorded between 1828 and 1831. The goal of my research was to compare variant texts of each revelation, tracking the revisions that were made to each text. My hypothesis was that, by using historical context and by critically analyzing patterns of revision that reoccurred in many revelations, it would be possible to classify the revisions into categories. I …

Byu Office Of Research And Creative Activities, Benjamin Park

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The reception of a BYU ORCA Mentoring Grant, and the research and writing it enabled me to perform, was one of the best experiences during my time at BYU. I researched the intellectual environment of early Mormon rhetoric, focusing specifically on how it balanced the tensions of Enlightenment thought on the one hand and Romantic intimations on the other. The grant provided me with the opportunity to not only delve into secondary literature, but also a vast amount of primary sources. The benefit of this project not only resulted in several individual papers, but also helped prepare me for more …

An Introduction To The Historical Development And Doctrinal Contributions Of Joseph Smith’S Revision Of The Bible With German Translation Of Key Revised Passages [In German], David Charles, Dr. David Seely

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The aim of this project was to produce, in German, a substantial piece of writing on the Joseph Smith Translation for the benefit of LDS and non-LDS interested in the JST. To date, there is virtually no literature available on the JST in German, nor have the Prophet’s revised passages ever been translated and published in German. The general outline of my study is as follows:

Development And Validation Of The Abstinence Motivation Scale, Natalie Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to design the Abstinence Motivation Scale-Sex (AMS-Sex), a scale to assess adolescent motivations for sexual abstinence using the self-determination theory (SDT) motivation continuum as a framework. Previous sexual abstinence research, SDT measurement studies, pilot study data, and expert panel feedback were used to develop the initial 77-item AMS-Sex. The sample consisted of 695 adolescents (aged 15 to 18; M age = 16.49, SD = 1.08; 50.8% male) recruited online from the across the U.S. Participants completed an online survey. The sample was randomly split into two samples. Independent samples t-tests indicated that sample 1 …

"The Brave Men, Living And Dead, Who Struggled Here": Utah Veterans And The Gettysburg Reunion Of 1913, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D., Ken Nelson

Faculty Publications

Gettysburg was the defining battle of the American Civil War as Union and CSA soldiers clashed in Pennsylvania. This Utah Historical Quarterly article from Summer 2013 explains how Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War, who were living in Utah, traveled to and participated in the 1913 50th Anniversary Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg (which took place July 1-3, 1863). The article also includes lists of the Utah veterans who attended and additionally notes which veterans participated in the battle of Gettysburg.

Reconciling Joseph Smith—History 1:10 And 1:18–19

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Trust In Religious Education

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

The Confusing Case Of Zacharias

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

What's On The Other Side? A Conversation With Brent L. Top On The Spirit World

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Using The Joseph Smith Papers In The Classroom

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Using "The Joseph Smith Papers" In The Classroom, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This article discusses how several discoveries made by the research team at the Joseph Smith Papers (josephsmithpapers.org) can be shared in LDS teaching situations, such as seminary, institute, family home evening, and sunday school. Specific examples are shared from D&C 1, 4, 20, 21, 23, 29, 30, 39, 40, 41, 74, 94, 97, 104 and 107. Summary tables also compare section heading information from the 1981 D&C, the 2013 D&C, and the various early Church revelatory books.

Believing Adoption, Samuel M. Brown

BYU Studies

Adoption theology is concerned with salvation and entry into the family of God. Early Latter-day Saint (Mormon) adoption theology taught by Joseph Smith came to include priesthood, baptism for the dead, temple rites, and more. The author concludes that this doctrine informs important questions, including: Are spirits born? What is the nature of salvation? What is the shape of the heaven family (the interlocking network of familial connections that will exist in the afterlife)? Adoption theology offers an alternative to the popular doctrine of spirit birth, one that is consistent with what Joseph Smith taught about the nature of God …