Digital Commons Network^™

White Horse Village: A Northern Utah Ufo Narrative, Melissa Petersen

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

In the early 1960's a group of UFO believers, called Christ Brotherhood Inc., established themselves in Smithfield Canyon, UT and called their commune White Horse Village. A main house was built where the leader of the group lived and two or three smaller cabins were erected for the believers. Without running water they used an outhouse among them and built a small church where they would meet for lectures. Their beliefs centered around the popular movement of New Age spirituality of the time, which included scientific explanations for Christian beliefs including a belief in benevolent aliens as modern angels. Their …

Liquid Light: Ayahuasca Spirituality And The Santo Daime Tradition, Bonnie Glass-Coffin

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Liquid Light is an important addition to the growing number of published accounts that discuss the use of ayahuasca (known by the name, Daime), and its role within Santo Daime, a fundamentally Christian though highly syncretic new religious movement founded in 1930 in the Amazonian state of Acre by an Afro-Brazilian rubber tapper known to followers as Mestre Irineu. The text is a richly descriptive account of Barnard’s own evolution as a fardado (Santo Daime initiate) and includes first-hand accounts of his participation in many kinds and types of Santo Daime worship services in both the United States …

The Sound Of Mormonism: A Media History Of Latter-Day Saints, Jared Farmer

Arrington Annual Lecture

The Sound of Mormonism is an annotated and expanded version of the 2023 lecture “Music & the Unspoken Truth”—an homage to the Music and the Spoken Word radio program and a meditation on the relationships between religion, music, vocality, and quietude.

The Arrington Lecture series, established in honor of one of the twentieth-century American West’s most distinguished historians, Leonard Arrington, has become a leading forum for prominent scholars to address topics related to Latter-day Saint history. Utah State University hosts the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture Series through the Merrill-Cazier Library’s Special Collections and Archives.

Formulating An 'Epic Religiosity': The Mahābhārata And Contemporary Hindu Traditions, Frank R. Chappell

Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies

The polysemous quality of the Mahābhārata has not only contributed to its timeless popularity across the globe, but also to its evolution as a religious and moral sourcebook for over a millennium. As the "fifth Veda," it continues to prove efficacious in contemporary ethical and spiritual discourses for multiple Hindu traditions in the diaspora. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reception-history of the epic as an evolving narrative and its applicability to the formulation of contemporary Hindu ethics.

Blessed Are The Poor (In Spirit): Wealth And Poverty In The Writings Of The Greek Christian Fathers Of The Second Century, Jacob D. Hayden

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This paper examines how Greek Christian authors engaged with the topics of poverty and wealth during the second and third centuries CE - a period of major transition for the Christian Church. Beginning with the latest documents in the Greek New Testament (c. 90 - 120), this study traces these themes through the works of the Apostolic Fathers, including Clement of Rome (c. 35 - 99), Ignatius of Antioch (c. 34 - 108), and Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 69 - 155). It then addresses to the apologetic authors Justin Martyr (c. 100 - 165) and Irenaeus (c. 130 - 202). …

The Challenge Of Hybridity: Mormonism In Mauritius, 1980-2020, Marie Vinnarasi Chintaram

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis focuses on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mauritius. This thesis illustrates the implications and pressures of the Church trying to globalize the faith, correlating Mormonism with and conforming it to cosmopolitan communities such as Mauritius.

Modern Yoga In America, Emily Parkinson Perry

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Yoga’s immense growth and popularity during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, along with its proliferation into countless varieties and styles, presents teachers, students, and scholars with the question: “What is yoga?” Answering this question requires the investigation of a number of cultural, historical and philosophical tensions at play in modern expressions of this ancient tradition: (1) Is modern postural yoga (MPY)—the yoga widely practiced in studios across the country today—an authentic expression of yoga or is it simply another form of physical fitness? (2) Does the modern focus on the physical dimension of yoga forsake its original purpose of …

Helen Schucman And A Course In Miracles: Personal Revelation To Scripture, Mckinley Smoot

Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies

Since its initial publication in 1976, A Course in Miracles (ACIM) has sold over two million copies in 18 languages. Its vast circulation can be largely accredited to grassroots efforts.¹ This article examines the early development of this key “New Age” text and its significance in modern American spirituality and religion.

Anton Lavey's Satanic Philosophy: An Analysis, Gabriel Andrade

Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies

The history of Satanism goes back to at least 2500 years. Yet, only in the seventeenth century, was the devil perceived in more sympathetic terms, in large part due to John Milton’s Paradise Lost.¹ In the twentieth century, Aleister Crowley assumed the name of “The Beast 666,” as well as owning the title of “the wickedest man in the world.”² But, it was during the second half of the twentieth century, when an openly Satanic movement arose and gained significant attention from mass media with the enigmatic and sensationalist Anton LaVey at its helm.³ In this article, …

Not To Teach Any Different Doctrine: Examining The Doctrines Of The Early Latter-Day Saints Movement And The Church Fathers, Jacob D. Hayden

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Explanations of the nature of humanity, God, and the purpose of life have a direct influence on the daily lives of the adherents of a given religious tradition. In the early third century, Origen of Alexandria proposed doctrines of preexistence, subordinationism, and theosis, which were dismissed in the early Church to various degrees. Some sixteen hundred years later, members of the upstart Latter-day Saints movement, such as Orson Pratt, would maintain strikingly similar positions about the nature of the soul, the godhead, and the final cause of humanity. These concepts represent essential aspects of the worldviews of these traditions; …

Anatomy Of A Rupture: Identity Maintenance In The 1844 Latter-Day Saint Reform Sect, Robert M. Call

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, managed dissent throughout his prophetic career. Most of the earliest dissenters came and went with little lasting impact on Mormonism—the church maintained a coherent structure despite attempted disjuncture. However, when Smith was assassinated in June 1844 (just fourteen years after he established the church), the Mormon community ruptured. Claimants to Smith’s ecclesiastical office competed for church-wide leadership. Brigham Young led thousands westward to the Rocky Mountains, but thousands of Mormons rejected Young and his version of Mormonism. This crisis over succession sparked the growth of schisms in …

Religious Outsiders And The Catholic Critique Of Protestantism In America, Bradley Kime

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, numerous new religious and irreligious groups arose throughout the United States. These groups were often radical in their assertions of religious authority, their interpretations of scripture, their predictions about Christ’s second coming, their practice of supernatural gifts, their rejection of traditional Christian doctrines, or their rejection of Christianity altogether. American Catholics watched and commented as these groups multiplied and gained momentum. Catholics believed that the growth of radical religious and irreligious groups was the fault of mainstream Protestantism. Over the centuries, Catholics had argued that the Pope’s authority was necessary to provide spiritual …

Book Reviews

Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Volume 39, Issue 3 (2013) Summer 2013

Journal of Mormon History

ARTICLES

--Monogamy Underground: The Burial of Mormon Plural Marriage in the Graves of Joseph and Emma Smith, Lee Wiles, 1

--William Smith’s Patriarchal Blessings and Contested Authority in the Post-Martyrdom Church Christine, Elyse Blythe, 60

--When Mormonism Mattered Less in Presidential Politics: George Romney’s 1968 Window of Possibilities, J. B. Haws, 96

--“Prepared to Abide the Penalty”: Latter-day Saints and Civil Disobedience, J. David Pulsipher, 131

--Almon W. Babbitt, Joseph E. Johnson, and the Western Bugle: An LDS Frontier Newspaper at Kanesville, Nicholas D. Harmon, Michael S. Huefner, and Shauna C. Anderson Young, 163

--Into the Fray: Sam Houston’s …

“Cada Espíritu Es Un Libro”: Spiritualism In Turn-Of-The-Century Spain, Alicia Cerezo Paredes

Decimonónica

On October 9, 1861, one of history’s last autos de fe was celebrated by the Spanish Catholic Church in Barcelona. The site chosen, an esplanade leading to a fortification known as the Ciutadella, was already famous for inquisitional autos dating back to the Middle Ages (Abend 518). This time the moral spectacle involved the burning of three hundred books confiscated at the French border by order of the Bishop of Barcelona. Each of these books concerned a particular and relatively new religious movement known as Spiritualism. Twenty-seven years after the official abolition of the Inquisition, Catholic orthodoxy still sought to …

This Was The Place: Apostasy From The Lds Church, Traci K. Burnett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As with every religion, the LDS (Mormon) Church suffers from attrition of membership. This study looks at the experiences of 21 individuals who have left the LDS church, asking about the reasons for leaving the church and about the consequences of making such a decision.

Unlike many other studies concerning religious apostasy, this research takes a strictly qualitative approach to examining the causes and consequences for leaving the LDS Church. Instead of focusing on demographic characteristics such as race, class, or gender as indicators for apostasy, this research asks a small group of individuals in-depth questions to gain a deeper …

Recreating Religion: The Response To Joseph Smith’S Innovations In The Second Prophetic Generation Of Mormonism, Christopher James Blythe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, was assassinated. In the wake of his death, a number of would-be
successors emerged. Each of these leaders - part of what I call the second prophetic
generation - established a unique vision of Mormonism.

In 1844, Mormonism was in the middle of a major shift in its character. Joseph
Smith’s death left numerous theological and practical questions unresolved. This thesis argues that, rather than merely a succession struggle of competition and power, a principal function of the second prophetic generation in Mormonism …

Desert Solecisms: The Revitalization Of Self And Community Through Edward Abbey, The Cold War, And The Sacred Fire Circle, Lyra Hilliard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This creative thesis is a braided narrative in which I explore the promised lands of Utah through my travels in the summer of 2008, the Cold War defense industry, and the early career of writer Edward Abbey. America's domestic and foreign policy shifts in the first decade of the Cold War contributed to the rise of modern environmentalism and to the creation of countless new religious movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. To illustrate the cataclysmic upheavals of this era, each chapter of this thesis has been organized according to anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace's schema of revitalization …

In-Laws And Outlaws: Lessons In Research And Friendship And A Report From The Archives, Sarah Barringer Gordon

Arrington Annual Lecture

No abstract provided.

Junius And Joseph: Presidential Politics And The Assassination Of The First Mormon Prophet, Robert S. Wicks, Fred R. Foister

All USU Press Publications

"Junius and Joseph examines Joseph Smith's nearly forgotten [1844] presidential bid, the events leading up to his assassination on June 27, 1844, and the tangled aftermath of the tragic incident. It... establishes that Joseph Smith's murder, rather than being the deadly outcome of a spontaneous mob uprising, was in fact a carefully planned military-style execution. It is now possible to identify many of the key individuals engaged in planning his assassination as well as those who took part in the assault on Carthage jail. And furthermore, this study presents incontrovertible evidence that the effort to remove the Mormon leader from …

Journal Of Mormon History Vol. 31, No. 1, 2005

Journal of Mormon History

CONTENTS

ARTICLES

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

• --Creating the Sacred Space of Zion Martha Sonntag Bradley, 1

• --The Kinderhook Plates, the Tucson Artifacts, and Mormon Archeological Zeal J. Michael Hunter, 31

• --Desert Imagery and Sacred Symbolism: The Design of the Arizona Temple Paul L. Anderson, 71

• --The Historic Arizona Temple Richard O. Cowan, 99

• --Eliza R. Snow and the Prophet's Gold Watch: Time Keeper as Relic Jennifer Reeder, 119

• --A Turbulent Coexistence: Duane Hunt, David O. McKay, and a Quarter-Century of Catholic-Mormon Relations
  Gregory A. Prince and Gary Topping, 142

REVIEWS

--Spencer J. Condie, Russell M. Nelson: Father, Surgeon, Apostle Samuel Brown, 164 …

Journal Of Mormon History Vol. 30, No.1, 2004

Journal of Mormon History

CONTENTS

ARTICLES

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

• --A Personal Odyssey Revisited: My Continuing Encounter with Mormon History Lawrence Foster, 1

TANNER LECTURE

• --"Faith in the Religion of Their Fathers": Passing Mormonism from One Generation to the Next Randall Balmer, 37

• --A "Goodly Heritage" in a Time of Transformation: History and Identity in the Community of Christ W. Grant McMurray, 59

• --The Hymns of Kirtland: A Festival of Hymns and History Richard Clothier, 76

• --"Lest We Forget:" The Meaning of Kirtland's History in the Present D. Todd Christofferson, 105

• --The Restoration of Historic Kirtland: A Panel
  A History of Restoring Historic Kirtland
  Steven L. …

The Importance Of The Temple In Understanding The Latter-Day Saint Nauvoo Experience: Then And Now, Kenneth W. Godfrey

Arrington Annual Lecture

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Mormon History Vol. 6, 1979

Journal of Mormon History

• --From Frontier Activism to Neo-Victorian Domesticity: Mormon Women in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Lawrence Foster, 3

• --New Light on the Sun: Emma Smith and the New York Sun Letter

Linda K. Newell and Valeen T. Avery, 23

• --One Man's Nauvoo: William Clayton's Experience in Mormon Illinois

James B. Allen, 37

• --Alice Smith Edwards: The Little Princess

Nancy Hiles Ishikawa, 61

• --Amasa Mason Lyman, the Spiritualist

Loretta L. Hefner, 75

• --Welfare before Welfare: Twentieth Century LDS Church Charity before the Great Depression

Bruce D. Blumell, 89

• --Winifred Graham and the Mormon Image

Malcolm R. Thorp, 107 …