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Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: The Political Dimension, John W. Welch

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

To conclude our reflections on when, where, and why Nephi wrote his final small plates account, we can now turn attention to three political dimensions of those plates. Once again, the real-life situations of Nephi and his people supply important contexts that bring interesting things to light.

Race And Making Of The Mormon People, Matthew L. Harris

BYU Studies Quarterly

Max Perry Mueller. Race and the Making of the Mormon People.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.

Cecil B. Demille And David O. Mckay–An Unexpected Friendship, Fred E. Woods

BYU Studies Quarterly

Early in the twentieth century, what should have been a most unlikely friendship curiously evolved into a lifelong amiable relationship between world-renowned filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille and David O. McKay, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In some ways, the two men were polar opposites. DeMille was an icon in the twentieth-century film industry who directed seventy motion pictures in an illustrious career that spanned over four decades. Dwelling in the midst of “Babylon” (Los Angeles), he was referred to as “Mr. Hollywood.” McKay presided from the heart of Latter-day Saint conservatism, Salt Lake City, dedicated …

Voice Of The Saints In Taiwan, Richard B. Stamps

BYU Studies Quarterly

Voice of the Saints in Taiwan By Po Nien (Felipe) Chou and Mei Wah Sin (Petra) Chou

Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2017

From The Editor, John W. Welch

BYU Studies Quarterly

As we send this issue of BYU Studies Quarterly to press, I find myself reflecting on the influences of many people upon my life. Goodly parents and beloved family members always come at the top of my appreciation list. I recently met with many friends associated with BYU Studies and was filled with overwhelming thankfulness for the many editors, authors, advisors, administrators, readers, and subscribers, who sustain this extraordinary publication. And I feel more profoundly indebted to BYU for its increasingly unusual mission. As President Dallin H. Oaks recently said at a BYU leadership conference, the mandate given to BYU …

"Ye Are No More Strangers And Foreigners": Theological And Economic Perspectives On The Lds Church And Immigration, Walker A. Wright

BYU Studies Quarterly

While always a heated topic, immigration has once again taken center stage in political discourse across multiple countries in recent years. The controversial debate surrounding the Syrian refugee crisis was especially critical to the 2016 United States presidential election. In response to the crisis, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced its “I Was a Stranger” relief effort, encouraging members—and the women in particular—to seek out and assist refugees in their local communities. With this contentious political climate in mind, this paper will review the Church’s “I Was a Stranger” initiative as well as its position on immigration. …

The Council Of Fifty: What The Records Reveal About Mormon History, Alison Palmer

BYU Studies Quarterly

Matthew J. Grow and R. Eric Smith, eds., The Council of Fifty: What the Records Reveal about Mormon History (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017)

At The Pulpit: 185 Years Of Discourses By Latter-Day Saint Women, Jennifer Hurlbut

BYU Studies Quarterly

Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook, eds., At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2017)

A Genealogical Turn: Possibilities For Mormon Studies And Genealogical Scholarship, Amy Harris

Mormon Studies Review

There is a growing scholarly field, crucial to Mormon studies, that scholars of Mormonism have yet to engage with: the history of genealogical practices. Mormon studies contains a robust and mature literature on the history of temple theology and the importance of kin to Mormon teachings.1 The connections between this flourishing scholarship and genealogical practices are largely missing, however. Scholarly history of genealogy is currently enjoying a rebirth—a renaissance that comes at a fortuitous time for Mormon studies.

Handcart Trekking: From Commemorative Reenactment To Modern Phenomenon, Melvin L. Bashore

BYU Studies Quarterly

From an early date, Mormons have remembered and celebrated their history with jubilees, commemorative celebrations, pageants, markers, and reenactments. Only two years after the first Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, several thousand Church members celebrated the event with the first Mormon Pioneer Day on July 24, 1849. There was a procession, speeches, songs, prayers, and a bounteous feast reminiscent of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving. By the second half of the nineteenth century, the Pioneer Day celebration had been firmly established throughout the Mormon corridor.

True And Faithful: Joseph Fielding Smith As Mormon Historian And Theologian, Reid L. Neilson, Scott D. Marianno

BYU Studies Quarterly

Each year hundreds of thousands of visitors to Salt Lake City’s Temple Square make their way to the Church History Museum of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While many of the museum’s exhibits have been rotated over the past three decades, the “Presidents of the Church” gallery, made of individual displays for each previous Church president, is a longstanding exhibit that has generally been refreshed only after a Mormon prophet has died and his artifacts have been added to the chronological display cases. The current museum exhibit commemorating President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) hangs on the east …

The Development Of The Council On The Disposition Of The Tithes, David W. Smith

BYU Studies Quarterly

On December 1, 2009, Presiding Bishop H. David Burton spoke to Brigham Young University students about the current opportunities and pressing challenges they would face throughout the world. He observed, “We all have to determine for ourselves if we—in mixed turbulent times like we are currently in—perceive the glass of water to be half full or half empty. I’m a half-full sort of guy. I propose that we are, indeed, living in the best of times.” He then shared one reason he was so full of optimism:

Let me give you a little perspective. Do you know what important event …

Settling The Valley, Proclaiming The Gospel: The General Epistles Of The Mormon First Presidency, Gerrit Van Dyk

BYU Studies Quarterly

Reid L. Neilson and Nathan N. Waite, eds., Settling the Valley, Proclaiming the Gospel: The General Epistles of the Mormon First Presidency (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)

Leonard Arrington And The Writing Of Mormon History, James B. Allen

BYU Studies Quarterly

Gregory A. Prince. Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History.

Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2016.

Out Of Obscurity: Mormonism Since 1945, Roger Terry

BYU Studies Quarterly

Patrick Q. Mason and John G. Turner, eds., Out of Obscurity: Mormonism since 1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016)

Full Issue

BYU Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Martin Harris Comes To Utah, 1870, Susan Easton Black, Larry C. Porter

BYU Studies Quarterly

[The following is an excerpt from chapter 14 of the new biography Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon by Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter. This biography, published by BYU Studies, will be available in October 2018. For further information, see the advertisement on page 208 of this issue.]

Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons And The Federal Management Of Early Utah Territory, Jay H. Buckley

BYU Studies Quarterly

Brent M. Rogers. Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory.

Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017.

Jane And Emma, Eric Samuelsen

BYU Studies Quarterly

Jane and Emma Directed by Chantelle Squires

Excel Entertainment, 2018

Photographs Of The First Presidency, April 6, 1893, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Thomas R. Wells

BYU Studies Quarterly

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints witnessed momentous events that directly affected them in 1893. Along with other Americans, the Latter-day Saints in the western United States experienced the terrible effects of the Panic of 1893, one of the worst financial depressions in the nation’s history. The early signs of the economic decline appeared in February 1893 when receivers were appointed for the debt-ridden Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. Soon thereafter, stock prices plummeted, more than fifteen thousand businesses failed, people walked away from their farms and homes unable to pay their mortgages, unemployment rates hit as …

The Power Of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy And Cosmology, Dan Belnap

BYU Studies Quarterly

The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology By Jonathan A. Stapley

New York: Oxford University Press, 2018

American Universities And The Birth Of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940, Heather M. Seferovich

BYU Studies Quarterly

Thomas W. Simpson. American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

Eighth Witness: The Biography Of John Whitmer, Kyle R. Walker

BYU Studies Quarterly

Ronald E. Romig. Eighth Witness: The Biography of John Whitmer.

Independence, Mo.: John Whitmer Books, 2014.

William B. Smith: In The Shadow Of A Prophet, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

BYU Studies Quarterly

Kyle R. Walker. William B. Smith: In the Shadow of a Prophet.

Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2015.

Envisioning Brigham Young University: Foreword To John S. Tanner's Learning In The Light, Bruce C. Hafen

BYU Studies Quarterly

Editor’s note: Bruce C. Hafen, an emeritus General Authority and former president of Ricks College, wrote this foreword to Learning in the Light: Selected Talks at BYU by John S. Tanner, who is the current president of BYU–Hawaii. This book, a new title offered by BYU Studies, gives insight into John Tanner the person and into his views on the Latter-day Saint endeavor to advance in light and knowledge “by study and also by faith.” The following encapsulates well the issues that have long concerned both educators and students of the Mormon community.

"What Is It About This Place?": Truman Madsen, Religious Education, And The Mission Of Byu, Bruce C. Hafen

BYU Studies Quarterly

Barnard (“Barney”) Madsen has written a readable, thoughtful, and well-informed biography about his charismatic father, Truman Madsen. Although Truman didn’t keep a conventional journal, he maintained “journal files”—“crucial journal entries or documents he preserved for his posterity.” Those files, along with Barney’s intimate and observant relationship with his father, have now yielded rich biographical resources.

Catholic And Mormon: A Theological Conversation, Elliott D. Wise

BYU Studies Quarterly

Stephen H. Webb and Alonzo L. Gaskill. Catholic and Mormon: A Theological Conversation.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

The First Fifty Years Of Relief Society, Karen Lynn Davidson

BYU Studies Quarterly

Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society.

Salt Lake City: Church Historian's Press, 2016.

Kingship, Democracy, And The Message Of The Book Of Mormon, Gregory Steven Dundas

BYU Studies Quarterly

Chapter 29 of the book of Mosiah, in which the people of Zarahemla transform their government from a monarchy to a rule of judges, is a crucial—indeed, pivotal—chapter in the Book of Mormon. Modern readers of the book, particularly those of us raised in Western nations, are prone to react very positively to this story, viewing it as the creation of a free, democratic system, and we are inclined to read this account with something of the same thrill with which we observed the freedom-loving, democratic urges of peoples worldwide, most notably in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in more …

The Political Climate Of Saxony During The Conversion Of Karl G. Maeser: With Special Reference To The Franklin D. Richards Letter To Brigham Young, November 1855, A. Legrand Richards

BYU Studies Quarterly

In September 1855, Franklin D. Richards, who was serving as “President of the Church in Europe,” toured the Church membership on the Continent. In three weeks, he visited the members in France, Switzerland, and Italy, bearing testimony, strengthening the members, and hearing the stories of their struggles.