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Review Of R. Gordon Shepherd, A. Gary Shepherd, And Ryan T. Cragun, Eds. The Palgrave Handbook Of Global Mormonism. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2020., Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye

Mormon Studies Review

At 868 pages, this volume is more comprehensive than any that have come before, with thirty-one chapters written by forty-two authors on three restoration traditions, discussing over forty countries and even more ethnic and cultural groupings. The editors have brought together not only scholars from the fields already well represented within Mormon studies (history, religious studies, sociology, anthropology, studies of gender, race, and culture) but also scholars with provocative perspectives from geography, demography, and corporate research. There is a pleasing mix of new and familiar names.

Reviewing a book such as this one could easily consume the allotted space with …

Joseph Smith At The Veil: Significant Ritual, Symbolism, And Temple Influence At Latter-Day Saint Beginnings, George L. Mitton

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

The prophet Joseph Smith was paced through a life steeped in ritual and symbolism. Notable things Joseph did or experienced under angelic guidance may be seen as ritual procedures that may require careful consideration to discern their meaning, what they symbolize, their purpose, and their importance to the restoration of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Failure to recognize the function of ritual has resulted in much misunderstanding and criticism of Joseph. Many of his early actions and procedures were closely related to the ancient temple. They amount to an anticipation and witness of the temple and its …

Joseph Smith's Iowa Quest For Legal Assistance: His Letters To Edward Johnstone And Others On Sunday, June 23, 1844, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

When Joseph and Hyrum Smith were threatened with arrest on June 22, 1844, they left Nauvoo, Illinois, and went across the Mississippi River in the very early morning hours of Sunday, June 23. As evidenced by the letters and records of that crucial day, Joseph and Hyrum were considering several options that pointed in divergent directions. Recently found sources give new information about a little-known and underestimated purpose for their midnight rowing across the Mississippi River to Montrose, Iowa—namely, to seek and retain the legal assistance of experienced lawyers necessary before submitting to a warrant requiring them to go to …

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

BYU Studies

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 …

The Council Of Fifty And Its Minutes: A Review, Stephen O. Smoot

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

The publication of the Council of Fifty minutes is a momentous occasion in modern studies of Mormon history. The minutes are invaluable in helping historians understand the last days of Joseph Smith and his project to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth. They offer an important glimpse into the religious and political mindset of early Latterday Saint leaders and shed much light on events once obscured by lack of access to the minutes. The Joseph Smith Papers Project has outdone itself in its presentation of the minutes in the latest volume of the series. The minutes are essential …

Ann Booth's Vision And Early Conceptions Of Redeeming The Dead Among Latter-Day Saints, Christopher James Blythe

BYU Studies

On October 5, 1840, Joseph Smith addressed the general church body in Nauvoo on the subject of baptism for the dead, an ordinance he had introduced less than two months previously. On this historic occasion, the Prophet referenced a vision or dream that has until now escaped thorough study by Church historians. The vision was received by Ann Booth, a recent convert in Great Britain, and included images of John Wesley accepting the restored gospel and being baptized in the spirit world through the administration of David W. Patten. Booth’s revelation had garnered attention of missionaries in England and among …

Joseph Smith Translating Genesis, Kent P. Jackson

BYU Studies

Joseph Smith’s revision of the Bible was one of his signature projects as founder and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (originally called the Church of Christ). He began it sometime in June 1830, just three months after the first copies of the Book of Mormon came out of the bindery of the Howard and Grandin Company in Palmyra, New York. The Bible project lasted three years, until July 1833, when he dictated the last pages and declared the work finished. The venture was formidable, eventually producing seven manuscripts totaling 446 pages. Two of those manuscripts …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

"In The Land Of The Chaldeans": The Search For Abraham's Homeland Revisited, Stephen O. Smoot

BYU Studies

Readers of the Hebrew Bible first encounter Abram (later Abraham), the spiritual father of the three great monotheistic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—at the end of Genesis 11. There they discover he was the son of a certain Terah and claimed “Ur of the Chaldeans” as his home (Gen. 11:28). Being as central as Abraham is to the patriarchal narratives of Genesis and, subsequently, to the faith of scores of believers across the globe, both faithful and nonbelieving readers have turned a critical eye toward the passages where Abraham makes an appearance and have attempted to discern if any historicity lies …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Samuel And His Nephite Sources, John Hilton Iii, Sunny Hendry Hafen, Jaron Hansen

BYU Studies

Samuel the Lamanite is a unique and powerful individual in the Book of Mormon. Dennis Largey described him as “one of the most colorful figures in the Book of Mormon,” stating that “few readers can forget the image of this fearless servant of God announcing the dramatic signs of Christ’s birth and death, crying repentance from the walls of Zarahemla."

Joseph Smith's Dog, Old Major, Alexander L. Baugh

BYU Studies

When it comes to history, interesting information is often found in the little-known, incidental details. Discovering the lesser-known facts in people’s lives helps one understand more about their disposition, character, temperament, motivation, and personality—who they really were and what they were like. One such aspect of the life of Joseph Smith is how he came to own a dog and his close relationship with this canine companion.

The First Fifty Years Of Relief Society, Karen Lynn Davidson

BYU Studies

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.

The Field Is White: Harvest In The Three Counties Of England, Ronald E. Bartholomew

BYU Studies

Carol Wilkinson and Cynthia Doxey Green. The Field Is White: Harvest in the Three Counties of England.

Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2017.

Viewing The Temple Through Wilford Woodruff’S Eyes, Laura Harris Hales

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

In Wilford Woodruff’s Witness, Jennifer Ann Mackley takes what could easily be a dry topic and turns it into a fascinating study not only of the unfolding of Latter-day Saint temple doctrine but also of early Mormonism. Primarily using Woodruff’s own words taken from his journals and published discourses, the narrative follows the line-upon‑line revelation of doctrine pertaining to the purpose and ordinances of the temple and the quest for sacred space to conduct these rites.

The Israelite Roots Of Atonement Terminology, T. Benjamin Spackman

BYU Studies

When Latter-day Saints speak of atonement, they use vocabulary drawn from the scriptures, including common verbs like atone, save, and redeem, and the corresponding nouns atonement, savior, salvation, redeemer, and redemption. There are other, perhaps more vivid, words for salvific acts, such as the Book of Mormon references to being “snatched” (Mosiah 27:28–29; Alma 26:17).1 Such rare terms in scripture have not found place in LDS discourse, which tends to use the most common terms related to atonement interchangeably. While they are indeed at some level synonymous, their distinctive meanings gesture toward …

"This Is Very Historic": The Young Ambassadors 1979 Tour Of China, John Hilton Iii, Brady Liu

BYU Studies

On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established by Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of China. While this commenced a new political organization in China, it marked at least a temporary end of the potential for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to directly proselytize in mainland China. While LDS proselyting took place in Taiwan and Hong Kong over the next several decades, there was no formal LDS Church presence in mainland China. The United States government did not officially recognize the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate government of China, causing …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Seer Stones, Salamanders, And Early Mormon "Folk Magic" In The Light Of Folklore Studies And Bible Scholarship, Eric A. Eliason

BYU Studies

The 2015 publication of an Ensign article on, and especially photos of, one of Joseph Smith’s seer stones still owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints caused quite a sensation in the blogosphere. Many responses focused on the “weirdness” of the stone and its use, the ostensibly alien nature of this odd relic from the past, so out of place in modern religion, and posited it as a troubling problem in need of explanation. Mormon studies as a discipline has struggled to make sense of seer stones too. These responses are understandable, considering how often communities tend …

Road To Martyrdom: Joseph Smith's Last Legal Cases, Joseph I. Bentley

BYU Studies

In 1842, Joseph Smith looked back on the events of his life and said, “Deep water is what I am wont to swim in” (D&C 127:2). This was especially true of his experiences with the law. Starting with his first exposure to the judicial system in 1819, at age thirteen, he spent much of his next twenty-five years of life entangled with legal concerns. The Joseph Smith Papers Project team now can count about 220 cases involving Joseph as plaintiff, defendant, witness, or judge. Of those, approximately fifty were criminal cases capable of taking away his liberty, his resources, or, …

The Lds Church In Taiwan: The First Three Years, John Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

Located approximately one hundred miles east of continental Asia, the island of Taiwan has a rich and complicated history. The history of Taiwan intersected with the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) when LDS military personnel were stationed there in 1955. This led to the celebrated date of June 4, 1956, when the ship SS Szechuen carried among its passengers four LDS missionaries. While this would be the first time LDS missionaries would begin proselyting efforts in Taiwan, Christian missionaries had sailed into Taiwan’s harbor centuries previously. The purpose of the present study is to …

From The Editor, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

Dear Readers

The Kirtland Safety Society And The Fraud Of Grandison Newell: A Legal Examination, Jeffrey N. Walker

BYU Studies

The Kirtland Safety Society has long been the source of research and debate within the historical community. Most commentators agree that the Safety Society was an imprudent venture. Some have even argued that its failure marked an almost fatal blow to Joseph Smith’s leadership. Charges of personal gain and illegality are sometimes included in their critique. In addition to the good work done by many scholars, there is more to be said about the legal history of the Kirtland Safety Society. This article seeks to provide a more thorough analysis of the legal establishment of the Society and the challenges …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Mortality On The Mormon Trail, 1847–1868, Melvin L. Bashore, Byu Pioneer Mortality Team, H. Dennis Tolley

BYU Studies

Over two decades, staff and volunteers at the Church History Department compiled a database of thousands of pioneer records, now available at http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels(link is external), containing diaries and company reports of known Mormon pioneers from 1847 to 1868 (56,042 of them). Data were then compiled in tabular format in an Excel file, available at http://statistics.byu.edu/news(link is external). Researchers working with BYU actuarial students analyzed these data and report their findings: Slightly more males than females made the journey. Fully 45% of the immigrants were under age twenty. For about 25% of known pioneers, no death date is available, …

The Journals Of Reba Booth, First Lds Sister Missionary To The Middle East, Laura R. Ostler, Dr. James A. Toronto

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Even before September 11, 2001 exploded the region onto global consciousness, the Middle East had a special fascination for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Church doctrine ties modern Saints with ancient Israel. The “gathering of Israel” is a topic commonly discussed in formal and informal LDS gatherings. In fact, this interest has existed since the Church began; a Latter-day Saint dedicated the Holy Land only a few years after the Church was officially organized.

The Council House As A House For Sacred Ordinances In The Early Church, Gil Bradshaw, Dr. Fred E. Woods

Journal of Undergraduate Research

With no available temples wherein they could perform their endowments, early Saints performed endowments for the living in various other places. For example, when Church members first entered the Salt Lake valley, their early endowments were performed on top of Ensign Peak. This was a special exception for missionaries returning from the South Pacific who missed the Nauvoo era completely1. For this paper I concentrated on the Council House as a similar temple substitute. Though not a temple, between its construction in 1850 and its eventual destruction in 1883, the Council House on Temple Square served as Utah’s first established …

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 …

Gathering To La'ie, Riley M. Moffat, Jeffrey N. Walker, Fred E. Woods, Steven C. Walker

BYU Studies

I stayed in La'ie last winter, a stone's throw from the temple, which is within easy walking distance of Brigham Young University-Hawaii, which is next door to the Polynesian Cultural Center--all the major landmarks of the town within an easy ten-minute circuit. It is surprising to see how compact a place has earned so expansive a reputation. This book surprised me in the same way. There's a lot going on in this history of the little town--Gathering to La'ie traces how the sleepy village wrought dramatic influence on Hawaii, managed the miracle of melding diverse factions into a united …

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.