Digital Commons Network^™

Empowering Young Adult Women Through Female Role Models In The Old Testament, Jean B. Bingham, Barbara Morgan Gardner

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The following is Barbara Morgan Gardner’s interview of President Jean B. Bingham about women in the Old Testament and young adult women today.

Barbara: What do you remember about teaching the Old Testament as an early-morning seminary teacher?

Models Of Motherhood Expansive Mothering In The Old Testament, Avram R. Shannon, Thora Florence Shannon

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Motherhood, both in the scriptures and in our own experiences, is a wonderful and beautiful thing, but it can sometimes be a fraught category. Societal and religious expectations on mothers can be overwhelming and can lead to despair, difficulty, and marginalization.[1] Motherhood is often defined as a narrow range of nurturing behaviors such as bearing, nursing, feeding, and fulfilling other physical needs of children.[2] Some people have used the Old Testament to proscribe women's roles to motherhood and then to define their roles of motherhood as a limited range of these mostly physical acts of childcare.[3] While these are vitally …

Did Joseph Smith Use A Seer Stone In The Translation Of The Book Of Abraham?, Stephen O. Smoot

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

A complete understanding of how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Abraham unfortunately remains elusive. Writing in the introduction to the Joseph Smith Papers Project’s edition of the manuscripts pertaining to the Book of Abraham, volume editors Robin Scott Jensen and Brian M. Hauglid observe how “no known first-person account from Joseph Smith exists to explain the translation of the Book of Abraham, and the scribes who worked on the project and others who claimed knowledge of the process provided only vague or general reminiscences.”[1] Complicating matters is the fact that scholars have not reached consensus on the exact relationship …

Khirbet Beit Lei And The Lehi Of Samson Old Testament And Book Of Mormon Considerations, And A Newly Identified Site For Biblical Leḥi And En-Hakkore, Jeffrey R. Chadwick

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In the study, appreciation, and teaching of ancient scripture, the disciplines of archaeology, geography, history, and language can often provide helpful and instructive insights for understanding the settings and events of scriptural narratives. The doctrinal and applicative aspects of those narratives may be enhanced by a correct understanding of their ancient backgrounds. But caution must be taken that data and interpretations from these disciplines be used in accurate and responsible ways, and that sensational claims or wishful thinking unsupported by the data not be advanced in our classes nor become part of the teaching experience. A case in point in …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Lifelong Conversion, Dale G. Renlund

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

My dear brothers and sisters, thank you for being here, early in the semester and for some of you the beginning of your university experience. Thank you for taking the time to be here. I am grateful for President Kevin J Worthen and for the remarkable things he does. I have looked up to him for a long time.

“Holiness To The Lord” And Personal Temple Worship, Gaye Strathearn

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Over thirty years ago, I embarked on a three-day excursion into the Sinai Peninsula and the traditional site of Mount Sinai. This mountain is in the middle of a mountainous desert, miles from anywhere. We arrived there in the early evening and had dinner in a Bedouin camp and then bunked down in some tents, waiting for 3:00 a.m. to arrive. That is when we were to make the 2,500-foot ascent, because our leaders said that it would be much too hot if we waited until the sun came up. Somewhere along the line, I ended up being the one …

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

"A Kingdom Of Priests, And An Holy Nation" The Work Of Covenant Women And Men In Building Zion, Sharon Eubank

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

I’m so pleased to be invited to speak at this year’s Sperry Symposium and especially on a theme I care deeply about: “A Covenant of Compassion: Caring for the Marginalized and Disadvantaged”—particularly examples from the Old Testament. The scope of the topic I have chosen tonight is too big to be confined simply to Old Testament times, but that is where I am going to start. The expansive vision of a covenantal kingdom of priests as a holy nation has animated prophets since Enoch actually achieved it in his day, and the promise of it has everything to do with …

The Ascension Of Abraham A Mortal Model For The Climb To Exaltation, Fred E. Woods

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Talmudic literature proclaims, “We do not see things as they are.” Rather, “we see things as we are.”[1] This profound statement reminds us that our vision is often blurred by our mortal misjudgments and forgetfulness; we forget that we are in fact the sons and daughters of God, the literal offspring of Deity. The talmudic aphorism is an invitation to introspection, an adjustment of our lens, before we give serious thought to another person, particularly one so enlightened as Abraham, who we are told has entered into his exaltation (see Doctrine and Covenants 132:29). We can learn much from viewing …

"For A Wise Purpose In Him" Alma 37'S Implications For Future Generations, Matthew Scott Stenson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

After briefly describing and differentiating between his two sets of plates, Nephi writes, “Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates [the small plates] for a wise purpose in him, which [complete] purpose I know not. But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen” (1 Nephi 9:5–6). From these words of Nephi we can extrapolate what has been called the “doctrine of providence.”[1] The …

The First Commandment First, D. Todd Christofferson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Each of the three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—recounts a question put to Jesus about the greatest commandment in the law. In Matthew, the questioner is a lawyer of impure motive, tempting the Master. [1] In Mark, it is a scribe asking the question, but one who sincerely seems to want to know. [2] In Luke, we are back to “a certain lawyer [who] stood up, and tempted him.” [3]

The Important Role Of Relationships In Our Heavenly Father's Plan Of Salvation, Brian Mead

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

President Boyd K. Packer was a master teacher who spent both his professional life and his personal time in full-time service to the Church, seeking to build faith and testimony in the lives of youth and young adults. As a teacher, he understood the value of providing students with a “framework upon which the truths they discover at random can be organized into a personal testimony.” [1] Because of this understanding, he invited religious educators to begin each year by providing an overview of the plan of salvation. He believed that this overview would “be of immense value to . …

The Cry Of The Widow, The Fatherless, And The Stranger The Covenant Obligation To Help The Poor And Oppressed, David Rolph Seely

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

On January 14, 1847, President Brigham Young, who was at Winter Quarters organizing the Saints for the trek west, received a revelation from the Lord that would become section 136 of the Doctrine and Covenants. The revelation was entitled “The Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeyings to the West” and commanded the Saints to “be organized into companies, with a covenant and promise to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God.” The “covenant and promise” included the commandment to care for each and every one of the Saints. …

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Remembering Christ's Blood Which Was Shed, Ryder Seamons, John Hilton Iii

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Each Sunday, as part of one of the most familiar rituals in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we hear in our sacrament prayers that the broken bread we eat is a symbol of Christ’s body, and the water we drink a symbol of Christ’s “blood . . . , which was shed for [us]” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:79). Most importantly, we are invited to take these emblems “in remembrance” of his body and shed blood, both at that moment and “always.” Integral to the spiritual cleansing we can experience as we take the sacrament is our remembrance …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Moo At The Moon, Susan Elizabeth Howe

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Cradled, Kevin Klein

BYU Studies

Son, if my breath were mine to give. If I could spend more than a ragged few to welcome and say goodbye to you. If we knew your mother could live

The Happiest Day Of Your Life, Michael Lavers

BYU Studies

You wake up and hear rain. You wake up and think there’s not enough rain, not enough songs about rain or memories of rain. Of being numbed or warmed by rain.

“Truth Is The Only Ground” How Journalism Contributes To Good Government, Edward L. Carter

BYU Studies

Growing up in the years after Watergate, I became a true believer in the power of the press to make society better by reporting on government’s corruption, lies, ineptitudes, and inefficiencies—as well as genuine public service, improvements, and accomplishments. In junior high school, I wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper critiquing the city garbage trucks in my neighborhood that left a trail of trash in their wake. In high school, I reported for the school newspaper about events and people as well as things I thought could be improved. I worked as a journalist during and …

Review: Stretching The Heavens: The Life Of Eugene England And The Crisis Of Modern Mormonism; Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal , Terryl L. Givens, Kristine L. Haglund, Steven C. Walker, Reviewer

BYU Studies

Kristine Haglund’s compact biography, Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal, is an illuminating contribution to the new Introduction to Mormon Thought series. Mormon Thought provides “short and accessible introductions” to those who have “shaped” the many manifestations of “Mormonism” (vii). Haglund situates England historically, as a liberal influence on a developing faith. Born 1933—the year of the deaths of old-style expansive theologians B. H. Roberts and James E. Talmage, and the same year J. Reuben Clark introduced more conservative influence in the First Presidency—Gene was caught in the collision between Mormonism’s original enthusiasm for innovative theology and the increasing rigidity of …

Editors' Introduction, Sharlee Mullins Glenn, Kristine Haglund, Linda Hoffman Kimball, Susan Elizabeth Howe

BYU Studies

It would be nice if Isaiah had enumerated the law into a statutory code, or if Enoch had left some city council minutes behind. While Restoration scriptures give tantalizing hints of societies that have achieved

the kind of harmony God intends, the descriptions are thin and short on practical details. Even the Doctrine and Covenants, which mentions Zion even more often than the Old Testament and has precise directions about many aspects of organizing the Saints in the earliest days of the Church, doesn’t easily translate into a roadmap for governance or citizenship in the many countries where Latter-day Saints—in …

“Things Which Are Abroad” Latter-Day Saints And Foreign Affairs, Patrick Moran

BYU Studies

When the Lord instructed Joseph Smith in May 1833 to “obtain a knowledge of . . . countries, and of kingdoms, of laws of God and man” (D&C 93:53), that counsel may have seemed incongruous to the young prophet. After all, the entirety of the revelation that preceded it dealt with lofty theological concepts of light, truth, progression, and grace, in addition to exhortations to make family and home life more in keeping with God’s will. The sudden commandment to learn about countries, kingdoms, and earthly law might have struck the twenty- seven-year-old Joseph as out of place, even though …

From Stumbling Blocks To Stepping Stones What America Can Learn From Germany About Reconciliation, Melissa Dalton-Bradford

BYU Studies

On December 7, 1970, while in Poland to sign the Warsaw Treaty, German chancellor Willy Brandt visited the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The towering stone and bronze monument commemorates the bloody confrontation between Polish resistance groups and German military that took place on the eve of Passover in April 1943, when seven hundred Jewish insurgents wielding only pistols and homemade grenades fought against the well-equipped SS, who, in the end, leveled and incinerated the entire ghetto. More than seven thousand Jews died in that uprising, and an additional forty-two thousand were rounded up and deported to concentration camps. …

Bending The Arc Of Politics Toward Zion Voices From Mormon Women For Ethical Government, Jennifer Walker Thomas, Emma Petty Addams

BYU Studies

At the conclusion of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, Martin Luther King Jr. paraphrased the words of Theodore Parker to situate small battles for justice within a larger movement toward God’s ideal

world. Parker, a Boston abolitionist, beautifully described the ache of discipleship that results when spirits reach for worlds they cannot quite see: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience.

And from what I …

Women Of Faith Speak Up And Speak Out The Genesis And Philosophical Underpinnings Of Mormon Women For Ethical Government, Sharlee Mullins Glenn

BYU Studies

Good government is ethical government. That is the premise upon which the nonprofit organization Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG) was founded.

Like millions of people across the United States, I found myself growing increasingly alarmed during the 2016 U.S. election cycle as I watched the great rifts in our political landscape widen and deepen, abetted by the divisive and often vitriolic discourse on all sides. This division, combined with the flagrant flouting of basic human decency by some who were running for public office, awakened many of us to a sense of our duty as citizens.

Going Forward With Religious Freedom And Nondiscrimination, Dallin H. Oaks

BYU Studies

Friends:

I feel privileged to be in this honored place. I love this country, which I believe was established with the blessings of God. I love its Constitution, whose principles I believe were divinely inspired. I am, therefore, distressed at the way we are handling the national issues that divide us. We have always had to work through serious political conflicts, but today too many approach that task as if their preferred outcome must entirely prevail over all others, even in our pluralistic society. We need to work for a better way—a way to resolve differences without compromising core values. …

Information Filtering In Electronic Networks Of Practice: An Fmri Investigation Of Expectation (Dis)Confirmation, Kelly J. Fadel, Thomas O. Meservy, C. Brock Kirwan

Faculty Publications

Online forums sponsored by electronic networks of practice (ENPs) have become an important platform for technology-mediated knowledge exchange, yet relatively little is known about how ENP participants filter and evaluate the information they encounter on these forums. This study integrates perspectives from expectation confirmation theory, prospect theory, and neuroscience research to explore how ENP forum filtering judgments are influenced when expectations formed on the basis of contextual cues are confirmed or disconfirmed by the examination of solution quality. We summarize six different models of expectation confirmation explored in previous IS literature and report the results of a neuroimaging experiment using …

Understanding Joseph Smith's Translation Of The Bible By Kent P. Jackson, Kerry Muhlestein

BYU Studies

Kent Jackson has spent about three decades studying Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible and has put all that research together in a masterful volume that is informative yet not overwhelming for the nonacademic. While there are a few minor things that could have been done differently, this book, combined with Jackson’s recent Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: The Joseph Smith Translation and the King James Translation in Parallel Columns (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021), have made it possible for us to better use and understand Joseph Smith’s translation than …