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Captain Moroni And The Sermon On The Mount: Resolving A Scriptural Tension, Duane Boyce Apr 2021

Captain Moroni And The Sermon On The Mount: Resolving A Scriptural Tension, Duane Boyce

BYU Studies

A natural tension seems to exist between two important features of the Book of Mormon. On one hand, Mormon includes in his record a version of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus gave to the Nephites—an address that sets the standard for discipleship and that contains teachings obviously opposed to violence.1 In it, we hear about not resisting evil, turning the other cheek, going another mile when compelled to go one, loving our enemies—and so forth (3 Ne. 12:39–44). On the other hand, Mormon also presents various Nephite leaders as righteous even though they were immersed in violence. Captain …


Defend Your Families And Love Your Enemies: A New Look At The Book Of Mormon’S Patterns Of Protection, J. David Pulsipher Apr 2021

Defend Your Families And Love Your Enemies: A New Look At The Book Of Mormon’S Patterns Of Protection, J. David Pulsipher

BYU Studies

A primary purpose of the Book of Mormon, as described on its title page, is to show “what great things the Lord hath done.”1 The whole narrative serves that goal, being saturated with frequent examples of divine goodness and guidance. Then, in the book’s stunning climax, God’s presence is made most explicit through the personal appearance of the resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, during which he displays the physical emblems of his compassion and redemption, heals broken bodies and souls, and invites everyone to become “even as I am” (3 Ne. 27:27). The power of divine love is clearly a central …


Demythicizing The Lamanites’ “Skin Of Blackness”, Gerrit M. Steenblik Jan 2021

Demythicizing The Lamanites’ “Skin Of Blackness”, Gerrit M. Steenblik

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

Racial bias is antithetical to the Book of Mormon’s cardinal purpose: to proclaim the infinite grandeur of the atonement of Jesus Christ. The book teaches that the Lord welcomes and redeems the entire human family, “black and white, bond and free” — people of all hues from ebony to ivory. Critical thinkers have struggled to reconcile this leitmotif with the book’s mention of a “skin of blackness” that was “set upon” some of Lehi’s descendants. Earlier apologetics for that “mark” have been rooted in Old World texts and traditions. However, within the last twenty years, Mesoamerican archaeologists, anthropologists, and ethnohistorians …


If God Does Not Exist, Is Everything Permitted?, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2021

If God Does Not Exist, Is Everything Permitted?, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Can people be good without believing in God? Obviously, yes. They can. Is atheistic naturalism capable of supplying a foundation for morality? That is a separate question, to which more than a few theists have answered No. However, a relatively new book by a very prominent student of religion and society suggests otherwise. A rational morality can, it argues, be founded upon atheistic naturalism — but it will necessarily be a modest and quite limited one, lacking universal scope and without a belief in human rights as objective “moral facts.”


Full Issue Jan 2021

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.


Hugh Nibley Observed, Jeffren M. Bradshaw, Shirly S. Ricks, Stephen T. Whitlock Jan 2021

Hugh Nibley Observed, Jeffren M. Bradshaw, Shirly S. Ricks, Stephen T. Whitlock

Interpreter Foundation Books

Our purpose in creating this volume is twofold. For readers who are already familiar with the life and work of Hugh Nibley, we hope this book will provide a more full account of the story behind the writings—their biographical, historical, literary, and scholarly contexts. For the many more who have never read anything by him, we hope that the fascinating, mostly secondhand accounts in this book will provide encouragement for them to read Nibley’s own works. To read these works is to understand the man — and to better understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and the cause of his …


“Put Off Thy Shoes From Off Thy Feet”: Sandals And Sacred Space, John Gee Jan 2021

“Put Off Thy Shoes From Off Thy Feet”: Sandals And Sacred Space, John Gee

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

While many have written on ancient temples looking at the big picture, John Gee discusses one small detail on a single Egyptian temple from the New Kingdom. He focuses on depictions of Ramses III in and out of the temple of Medinet Habu. Outside the temple and when entering and leaving there are depictions of him wearing sandals. Inside the temple proper the king is always shown barefoot. Ramses III built Medinet Habu only slightly after the time of Moses and as Gee further notes, while not wearing footwear was a clear practice among the Egyptians it is far more …


Did Captain Moroni Lack The Typical Religious Virtues?, Duane Boyce Jan 2021

Did Captain Moroni Lack The Typical Religious Virtues?, Duane Boyce

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

In his well-known volume about the Book of Mormon, Grant Hardy focuses primarily on the book’s main narrators. However, he also makes a number of observations about other figures in the book that are of particular interest, including some about Captain Moroni. In addition to those I address elsewhere, these observations include the claim that Moroni lacked the typical religious virtues — which Hardy identifies as “humility, self-sacrifice, kindness, and relying upon the Lord.” They also include the assertion that Helaman, in his manifest reliance upon God, serves as a counterexample to Moroni’s military leadership. A close look at the …


Joseph Smith As A Book Of Mormon Storyteller, Brian C. Hales Jan 2021

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 …


Crusading As Philosophical Construct: Thoughts And Actions Of Pope Urban Ii, St. Bernard, And Peter The Venerable, Peter Hecht M.Ed., M.A. Jan 2021

Crusading As Philosophical Construct: Thoughts And Actions Of Pope Urban Ii, St. Bernard, And Peter The Venerable, Peter Hecht M.Ed., M.A.

Comparative Civilizations Review

The First Crusade was a penitential Holy War to aid the Byzantine Empire and to liberate Jerusalem from the perceived threat of Muslim occupation. The Second Crusade was also a penitential war, but this time it was to support the territory reclaimed by the First Crusade. Many scholars believe that these were the only relevant goals of these crusades. My focus in this paper is to contextualize the many possible goals for the early crusades, and to understand the necessary and complex rationalization of ecclesiastical leadership. This research is intended to contribute to the development of a more nuanced understanding …


Christopher Peet. Practicing Transcendence: Axial Age Spiritualities For A World In Crisis, Constance Wilkinson Jan 2021

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."


Macgregor Knox And Williamson Murray, Eds. The Dynamics Of Military Revolution, 1300–2050, Stephen T. Satkiewicz Jan 2021

Macgregor Knox And Williamson Murray, Eds. The Dynamics Of Military Revolution, 1300–2050, Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

Carl von Clausewitz famously declared “War is but the continuation of politics by other means.” It could just as easily be declared that war is the continuation of civilization by other means, concerning how different societies and cultures fight can be reflective of their distinct characters as much as any other factor. The study of war from the civilizational perspective is not new; for example, former ISCSC presidents Pitirim Sorokin and Matthew Melko did their own studies related to the matter. Into this mix come MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray in their edited volume The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300–2050 …


Full Issue Jan 2021

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.


Warfare: The Test Of Human Nature, Paulee Fogleman Jan 2021

Warfare: The Test Of Human Nature, Paulee Fogleman

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

A common theme many Chinese philosophers explore and debate is the state of human nature and how one can best follow the Way. Bryan W. Van Norden, a scholar of Chinese philosophy, explains that the early Chinese thinkers were looking for the Dao, or the “right way to live one’s life and organize society,” also known as the “ultimate metaphysical entity that was responsible for the way the world is and the way that it ought to be.”1 As the philosophers of the “Hundred Schools of Thought” sought to explain the chaotic time that was the Warring States period (475–221 …


Book Review: Christopher I. Beckwith. The Tibetan Empire In Central Asia, Constance Wilkinson Jan 2021

Book Review: Christopher I. Beckwith. The Tibetan Empire In Central Asia, Constance Wilkinson

Comparative Civilizations Review

The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia was brought into being by polyglot polymath philologist MacArthur Fellowship recipient and stupefyingly wide-ranging medieval Central Asian civilizations-ist scholar Christopher I. Beckwith as the "first detailed narrative history of the Tibetan Empire in Central Asia written in any language" (vii). By 1993, Princeton University Press had released a 4th printing/1st paperback edition (with a new afterword by Beckwith), suggesting a widening readership for what some might regard as a rarified subject.


Jennifer E. Sessions. By Sword And Plow: France And The Conquest Of Algeria, Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue, And Jacob Tatsitsa. Kamerun! Une Guerre Cachée De La Françafrique (1948-1971), Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue, And Jacob Tatsitsa. La Guerre Du Cameroun: L’Invention De La Françafrique 1948-1971, Leland Conley Barrows Jan 2021

Jennifer E. Sessions. By Sword And Plow: France And The Conquest Of Algeria, Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue, And Jacob Tatsitsa. Kamerun! Une Guerre Cachée De La Françafrique (1948-1971), Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue, And Jacob Tatsitsa. La Guerre Du Cameroun: L’Invention De La Françafrique 1948-1971, Leland Conley Barrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

The legacy of the colonial period continues to weigh on France. Recently, President Emmanuel Macron called for the creation of a “Memories and Truth Commission” to lay to rest the lingering questions, bitterness, and controversies surrounding the French occupation of Algeria, the independence war, and the country’s accession to independence. Questions regarding the brutality of French colonial conquests and colonial rule in tropical Africa are also being raised. Immigration from Algeria and other formerly French territories is provoking controversy as is also the fact that France has the largest Muslim population of any European country. Many French citizens, particularly those …


Signs Of The Times: Racism, Tribalism, And Disinformation Before The Comings Of Christ, Luke Drake Jan 2021

Signs Of The Times: Racism, Tribalism, And Disinformation Before The Comings Of Christ, Luke Drake

BYU Studies

Each of the major narrators/compilers of the Book of Mormon evince varying degrees of understanding that their work is destined for modern readers who would face a set of modern concerns.2 This essay suggests that Mormon’s editorial hand—on display both in the redaction of the words of Samuel the Lamanite and in the narration of the events surrounding Samuel’s ministry—can be understood to address pressing issues faced by latter-day readers: specifically, the perils posed by racism, “tribalism,” and disinformation.


Michael Scott. Ancient Worlds: A Global History Of Antiquity, Leland Conley Barrows Jan 2021

Michael Scott. Ancient Worlds: A Global History Of Antiquity, Leland Conley Barrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

Michael Scott, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick in England, who has written prolifically on Ancient Greece and the Greco-Roman world, has broadened his scope in writing the book under review to include consideration of the ancient histories of selected societies in the Near East, India, Central Asia, and China. Scott is motivated by the thought that, scholars, particularly in the West, have been provincial, treating the designation, ancient worlds or ancient history, as if Greece, Rome, and the peripheral areas with which they interacted constituted the sum total of the ancient world. Or, if …


Do All Roads Lead To Rome? Exploring The Underlying Logics Of Similar Policies And Practices Of Recruiting Barbarian Soldiers In Roman And Early Chinese Empires, Pengfei Su Jan 2021

Do All Roads Lead To Rome? Exploring The Underlying Logics Of Similar Policies And Practices Of Recruiting Barbarian Soldiers In Roman And Early Chinese Empires, Pengfei Su

Comparative Civilizations Review

There are many similarities between various aspects of the Roman and early Chinese empires, which have been the focus of much academic discussion. A wide range of comparative studies have been carried out and resulted in the publication of numerous research papers. Scholars have been using different approaches focusing upon different areas to address this very broad comparative topic. Detailed analyses were made to compare the two empires in respect to their coinage and monetary systems, state revenue and expenditures, elite formation and social class advancement, and executive decision-making processes, just to mention a few. In a broader context, the …


The Human Search For A Sense Of Wholeness, Ross R. Maxwell Jan 2021

The Human Search For A Sense Of Wholeness, Ross R. Maxwell

Comparative Civilizations Review

How can we characterize a civilization? From an economic point of view, a civilization consists of a system of interacting fulltime interdependent specialized occupations. From a cultural point of view, on the other hand, a civilization consists of what Ben Nelson, the late president of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (1971-1977), called a civilizational complex, a structure that developed from the blending of multiple cultures.


Full Issue Jan 2021

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.


The Poor And The Needy In The Book Of Isaiah, Dana M. Pike Jan 2021

The Poor And The Needy In The Book Of Isaiah, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

When we read Jesus’s pronouncement in 3 Nephi that “great are the words of Isaiah” (3 Nephi 23:1), prophecies about the Messiah and the scattering and gathering of Israel are what may quickly come to mind. However, the book of Isaiah also contains important passages addressing the treatment of the poor and needy. These passages, which particularly focus on one of the many social ills in ancient Israelite society, range from condemning the unrighteous treatment of the poor to promising how the Lord will (eventually) deliver them.1


The Good, The Bad, And The Violent: Analyzing Beowulf’S Heroic Displacement And Transgressive Violence During The Grendel Quest, Jessie Bonafede Jan 2021

The Good, The Bad, And The Violent: Analyzing Beowulf’S Heroic Displacement And Transgressive Violence During The Grendel Quest, Jessie Bonafede

Quidditas

Heroic actions are often associated with altruistic feats of humanitarianism, but in Beowulf, the connection between heroism and performative acts of violence reveal significant complications concerning how the poem codifies violence for social honor. A central conflict arises with the poem’s contrasting presentation of Beowulf’s dominance and physical power before and during the Grendel quest with the relatively low social status he incurs amongst his maternal kin group, the Geats. In this paper, I use anthropological and sociological theories of collective violence and dominance versus prestige hierarchies to rethink how violence interplays with the poem’s treatment of lineage and other …


Full Issue Jan 2021

Full Issue

Quidditas

No abstract provided.


Full Issue Jan 2021

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

No abstract provided.


“Lions On The Beach”: Ernest Hemingway And Postcolonial Representations Of Cuba As A ‘Dark Shadow’ Of Spain, Laila Jackson Jan 2021

“Lions On The Beach”: Ernest Hemingway And Postcolonial Representations Of Cuba As A ‘Dark Shadow’ Of Spain, Laila Jackson

ScholarsArchive Data

Hemingway represents both Spain and Cuba in very different lights, despite the similarities inherent in the countries. As a colonial holding of Spain until 1898, and a U.S. holding until 1902, Cuba is an off shoot of Spanish culture, with differences based on the indigenous people conquered in the 1500s. Though unsurprising, it is interesting that both nations drew Hemingway’s attention. For Hemingway, Spain represented this noble beauty, this majestic heaven on earth, even while in the midst of war. When he writes about Spain, Hemingway waxes romantic. However, this attitude isn’t reflected in his writings about Cuba, which focus …


Antimicrobial Peptide Development: From Massively Parallel Peptide Sequencing To Bioinformatic Motif Identification, Alexander K. Erikson Dec 2020

Antimicrobial Peptide Development: From Massively Parallel Peptide Sequencing To Bioinformatic Motif Identification, Alexander K. Erikson

Theses and Dissertations

The isolation, purification, and clinical deployment of antibiotics is one of the major drivers of decrease in morbidity and mortality from infectious bacteria in the 20th century. The rapid, ubiquitous deployment of antibiotics encouraged swift development and distribution of antibiotic resistance. New, novel techniques, technologies, and ultimately therapeutic antimicrobial compounds will be required to counter the rise of antibiotic resistant microbes. Historically, mimicking naturally occurring compounds has been the most fruitful method for discovering new antibiotics; unsurprisingly, many recent efforts have focused on expanding the cultivation and detection of previously unknown microbes and compounds, respectively. Other techniques explore developing compounds …


The Swiss In The Swabian War Of 1499: An Analysis Of The Swiss Military At The End Of The Fifteenth Century, Albert Winkler Nov 2020

The Swiss In The Swabian War Of 1499: An Analysis Of The Swiss Military At The End Of The Fifteenth Century, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

By the end of the fifteenth century, the states of the Swiss Confederation had enjoyed almost complete autonomy from the neighboring feudal powers for generations. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the states of the Swiss Confederation were beset by external threats to their security, independence, and existence. The largest single menace to Swiss independence was the Habsburg family who often controlled their lands according to monarchal authority and a social structure which kept their subject peoples as unfree serfs.


William Clark, The Fur Trade, And Indian Affairs, Jay H. Buckley Nov 2020

William Clark, The Fur Trade, And Indian Affairs, Jay H. Buckley

Faculty Publications

There are so many things that are admirable about William Clark. Sometimes I shudder to think what the great expedition would have been if Clark had declined Lewis’ offer to share in what Clark called “the dangers, difficulties, and fatigues” of the journey. Without wishing to denigrate the possible contributions of Moses Hooke, I believe that the expedition would have been a much less successful enterprise if Clark had remained at the Falls of the Ohio when Lewis ventured into the unknown in 1803.


Tom's 3rd Nephi Experience, Kamorah Wolfgramm Oct 2020

Tom's 3rd Nephi Experience, Kamorah Wolfgramm

Individual Item Submissions

A story about a Tongan chief who takes over a village through violence, and how it affected his bloodline.