Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Count Your Many Mormons: Mormon’S Personalized And Personal Messages In Mosiah 18 And 3 Nephi 5, Nathan J. Arp

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

The present work analyzes the narrative art Mormon employs, specifically Mormon’s unique strategies for personalized and personal messaging, which can be seen in how Mormon connects the narration of the baptism at the waters of Mormon in Mosiah chapter 18 with his self- introductory material in 3 Nephi chapter 5. In these narratives, Mormon seems to simultaneously present an overt personalized message about Christ and a covert personal connection to Alma1 through the almost excessive repetition of his own name. Mormon discreetly plants evidence to suggest his intention for the careful re-reader to discover that Mormon was a 12th generation …

La Jefa, Mario Alcauter

Inscape

No abstract provided.

Jacob A. Riis: The Ideal American Citizen, Flemming Just

The Bridge

At his death in 1914, Jacob A. Riis was one of the US's best-known and most admired citizens, who had been able to effect more social change than most of his peers. President Theodore Roosevelt had earlier declared Riis to be "the most useful citizen of New York," and now called him "the ideal American citizen." In one of many obituaries of Riis we read:

Denmark gave him to us, and if we gave Denmark millions in return, we could not pay her for what Riis did for us and for what Riis inspired us to do. He landed in …

A Note In Favor Of Rereading Great Works, Including The Scriptures, Daniel C. Peterson

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

When I was young, I learned an important lesson that has stayed with me through my life. This lesson has led me, on many occasions, to reread great works by great authors. The scriptures are no exceptions, and rereading them can be beneficial to any reader.

Joseph Smith’S Translation Projects Under A Microscope, Brant A. Gardner

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

Producing Ancient Scripture is a collection of sixteen detailed essays with an introduction by the editors. This is the first such collection that examines the greater range of Joseph Smith’s translation projects. As such, it is uniquely positioned to begin more sophisticated answers about the relationship between Joseph Smith and both the concept of translation and the specific translation works he produced.

The Lady At The Horizon: Egyptian Tree Goddess Iconography And Sacred Trees In Israelite Scripture And Temple Theology, John S. Thompson

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

John S. Thompson explores scholarly discussions about the relationship of the Egyptian tree goddess to sacred trees in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the temple. He describes related iconography and its symbolism in the Egyptian literature in great detail. He highlights parallels with Jewish, Christian, and Latter-day Saint teachings, suggesting that, as in Egyptian culture, symbolic encounters with two trees of life — one in the courtyard and one in the temple itself — are part of Israelite temple theology and may shed light on the difference between Lehi’s vision of the path of initial contact with Tree …

The Tabernacle: Mountain Of God In The Cultus Of Israel, L. Michael Morales

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

In this article, Michael Morales considers how the building of the Tabernacle had been pre-figured from the earliest narratives of Genesis onward. It describes some of the parallels between the creation, deluge, and Sinai narratives and the tabernacle account; examines how the high priest’s office functions as something of a new Adam; and considers how the completed tabernacle resolves the storyline of Genesis and Exodus, via the biblical theme of “to dwell in the divine Presence.”

Review: Ronit Y. Stahl. Enlisting Faith: How The Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion And State In Modern America. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2017., Patrick Q. Mason

Mormon Studies Review

Pop quiz: What do Mormons, Eastern Orthodox, and Buddhists have in common? Answer: For much of the twentieth-century, members of all three groups were classified as “Protestants” by the United States military. Why? Because in the “Protestant-Catholic-Jew” schema of “tri-faith America” that dominated for many decades, if you weren’t Roman Catholic or Jewish, you must have been Protestant. American historian Ronit Stahl has elevated this and many other head-scratching bureaucratic idiosyncrasies into a readable and insightful analysis of how the military chaplaincy both reflected and shaped the dynamic relationship of religion and the state in twentieth-century America. Enlisting Faith is …

Review: Robin Scott Jensen And Brian M. Hauglid, Eds. The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations And Translations, Volume 4: Book Of Abraham And Related Manuscripts. Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’S Press, 2018., Susanna Morrill

Mormon Studies Review

The staff of the Joseph Smith Papers have published the Book of Abraham and related documents as volume 4 of the “Revelations and Translations” series of the project. As with the other facsimile volumes of the project, it is a physically handsome, high quality production: durable, easy to use, and easy to read. The content of the volume is fascinating, obscure, and invitingly important for scholars of religion. The introduction ends with the statement, which captures the broader anxieties concerning its contents: “This volume does not . . . seek to assist readers in understanding the Book of Abraham narrative …

Review: James R. Swenson. In A Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, And The Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953–1954. Salt Lake City: University Of Utah Press, 2018., Rachel Mcbride Lindsey

Mormon Studies Review

When Brigham Young surveyed the vista before him in 1847 and uttered “this is the place,” he meant that the wearied band of Latter-day Saints had finally arrived in Zion. More than a century later, those same words, simple but filled with divine promise, were seen on a neon cowboy at the Nevada state line and scribbled by a young Daniel Dixon as the first in his essay accompanying the Life magazine photo-essay, “Three Mormon Towns.” The year before the essay was printed, Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams pitched an idea to the editors at Life and were granted approval …

Times Of Reckoning And Set Times In Abraham 3, J. Ward Moody

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

The third chapter of Abraham considers two types of times regarding the moon, the earth, and the planets: “times of reckoning” and “set times.” A straightforward interpretation of these two times, if correct, sheds light on the cosmology known to Abraham. “Times of reckoning” may be understood as the times of celestial movements directly observed or reckoned by someone standing on the surface of the earth. These times would most likely be synodic, meaning the motion being considered is referenced to the sun, but they could also be sidereal, meaning referenced to the stars. Observed from the earth’s surface, times …

“Effusions Of An Enthusiastic Brain”, Jeremy Talmage

BYU Studies

[I] wanted to get Religion too,” reminisced the Latter-day Saint prophet Joseph Smith. “[I] wanted to feel & shout like the Rest but could feel nothing.”¹ A wide-eyed witness of the nineteenth-century religious revivals that enveloped western New York, Smith made this lament to a close acquaintance shortly before his death in 1844. Reflecting back on the religious excitement of his youth, he detailed how he longed for a spiritual manifestation like many others enjoyed but for whatever reason seemed unable to experience the evangelical enthusiasm he so deeply desired. As a fourteen-year-old adolescent, Smith had been torn among …

The Garden, Zach Murphy

Inscape

The wildflowers wilt over their own feet as I trudge through the dusty, jaded soil. One of my legs is broken. My mouth is parched. And my stripes burn.

Twenty Years Of The Religious Educator, Brad Wilcox, Timothy G. Morrison

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Where were you twenty years ago? That was before the terrorist attacks of 2001 and the heightened airport security that followed. Do you remember when the vote between George W. Bush and Al Gore dangled on a few hanging chads in Florida? President Gordon B. Hinckley was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2000 and dedicated the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Faith Hill was singing “Breathe,” and the Yankees beat the Mets in the 2000 World Series. The Sixth Sense was an Oscar-nominated movie that had us on the edge of our …

Creating And Conveying A Christlike Culture: More Than A Job, Elder Dale G. Renlund

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Thank you, Sister Johnson, Sister Evans, and Sister Haws for singing and accompanying the hymn “Savior, Redeemer of My Soul.” I am here to declare what Sister Johnson just sang, those remarkable words by Elder Orson F. Whitney: that our Savior and Redeemer is the only One whose mighty hand can make us whole. He is the only one who can fill with sweet a bitter cup. Our united prayer is that we all can come to be in perfect harmony with Him and be fit for the life above. That is what I would like to talk about.

The Isaiah Map: An Approach To Teaching Isaiah, John Hilton Iii

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Isaiah is an extremely important prophet—his words were endorsed by the Savior himself (see 3 Nephi 23:1). Because Isaiah’s words can be difficult to comprehend, religious educators have a significant responsibility to help their students understand them. Perhaps the best opportunity to teach Isaiah in a Sunday School, seminary, or institute setting is during a course in the Old Testament. The next best opportunity is when teaching the Book of Mormon. “Nineteen of Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters are quoted in their entirety in the Book of Mormon and, except for two verses, two other chapters are completely quoted. Of the 1,292 …

A Jershon Classroom, Scott Royal Bagley

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

A powerful tool for recruiting students can be our classroom environment. The scriptures give us a wonderful example of this idea. After the people of Ammon are given the land of Jershon, they are soon joined by religious refugees from among the Zoramites (Alma 35:6–9), fugitives from among the Lamanites (Alma 47:29), and Lamanite wartime prisoners (Alma 62:17, 27–29). The people of Ammon accept all of these people as their own. But the question is this: what was it about the people of Ammon that attracted these societal refugees? As we examine the people of Ammon and how they cared …

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Welcome to our twentieth anniversary issue of the Religious Educator. This issue represents the beginning of our third decade serving those who study and teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Begun as an annual publication in 2000, the journal has become an important resource for those interested in Latter-day Saint scripture, doctrine, and history. Within the pages of the current issue, Professors Brad Wilcox and Timothy G. Morrison narrate the story of the Religious Educator while analyzing its contents over the first twenty years. Additional authors examine the plan of salvation as taught in the Book of Mormon, present …

A Simple But Powerful Path To Forgiveness (Alma 36), Brad W. Farnsworth

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

As children of our Heavenly Father, we come to this earth to be tested—to prove that we will do the things he commands us to do (see Abraham 3:25). Inevitably, we fall short. But through faith in Jesus Christ, we can repent and become clean again so that we may return to God’s presence. The Father’s plan of happiness invites his children to seek his Son with faith, even “faith unto repentance [to bring] about the great and eternal plan of redemption” (Alma 34:16).

“Between The Time Of Death And The Resurrection”: A Doctrinal Examination Of The Spirit World, Mark A. Mathews

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

All men know that they must die,” explained the Prophet Joseph Smith, “and it is . . . but reasonable to suppose that God would reveal something in reference to the matter.”

David O. Mckay And Progressive Education Implementation For The Sunday School, Mary Jane Woodger

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In 1897 David O. McKay graduated from the University of Utah with a Normal (Teaching) Certificate. He would become the first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have a college education and to have previously been a professional educator. This educational background would permeate every position McKay would hold in the hierarchy of the Church.

Old Books, Old Methods, But Enduring (Even Eternal) Influence, Brent L. Top

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

I am honored to address you women and men who take teaching seriously, not just because of your vocation, but because of your Latter-day Saint heritage of education and your eternal identity as daughters and sons of God. Teaching is part of our spiritual DNA. The oft-used phrase “Education for Eternity” reflects the Latter-day Saint view of the importance of teaching and learning. But it is much more than a maxim, it is indeed our theology, as evidenced by numerous scriptural injunctions and examples of the importance of education for this life and eternity. Teaching is in our souls—part of …

Teaching In The Savior’S Way: True Principles In Both Spiritual And Secular Learning, Damon L. Bahr

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

While I was serving as a stake president in 2012, members of the coordinating council of which I was a member were assigned to teach the leadership of their respective stakes about the new Come, Follow Me youth curriculum, the first explicit, curriculum-based embodiment of Teaching in the Savior’s Way. In my preparations for fulfilling this assignment, I observed that teaching in his way is not just a teaching “method,” but rather a perspective on teaching and learning. I also noticed there were a number of similarities between teaching in the Savior’s way and the pedagogy I had been …

St. Roch Military Marches In Wallonia: Memory, Commemoration, And Identity, 1866-1940, Erik Hadley

Quidditas

Ritualized public processionals known as military saint marches thrive in popular memory and define local identity in Francophone Belgium (Wallonia). The annual processionals involve thousands of marchers dressed in Napoleonic-era military uniforms, carrying authentic muskets and escorting a statue of St. Roch, the patron saint of disease protection. Many of these marchers trace family participation through multiple generations and two St. Roch marches received UNESCO recognition as examples of “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in 2012. While participants claim there is no historical rupture between the modern marches and the processionals celebrated prior to the French Revolution, there is a …

Full Issue

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

“That Kingdom Is Mine”: On Spain’S Early Modern Polemics Of Possession Over Jerusalem, Circa 1605, Chad Leahy

Quidditas

Spanish claims to the throne of Jerusalem in the early modern period have often been viewed in light either of royal mythologies connecting the Habsburgh monarchy to the biblical kings David and Solomon or to prophetic discourses of imperial Messianism relating to universal monarchy. This paper broadens our understanding of Spanish claims to Jerusalem through close reading of two archival documents produced in 1605. In defending Spanish preeminence and sovereignty in Jerusalem, I argue that these documents participate in a “polemics of possession” that crucially informed cultural production related to the Holy City in the period more broadly. These documents …

Allusive Fontaines, Sicamors, And Pins: Figurative Prophecies Of Grail Piety In The Prose Lancelot, David S. King

Quidditas

At the conclusion of Chrétien de Troyes’s twelfth-century verse Chevalier de la charrete, a spring and sycamore allude to concupiscence and betrayal in Scripture, evoking the hero’s and the queen’s adulterous liaison. The author of the thirteenth-century French Prose Lancelot translates this allusion from a moment of joy for the queen to one of terror, foreshadowing a change in fortune for the hero and his prowess. Every subsequent adventure where the hero encounters a spring and sycamore points to his love for the queen as a source of corruption. Springs shaded by a pine tree hint at the sanctity of …

The Vanishing Lady: Mélusine, Emblems, And Jacques Yver’S Le Printemps D’Yver (1572), Joshua M. Blaylock

Quidditas

In the opening pages of Le Printemps d’Yver (1572), the narrator evokes Mélusine, the cursed half-snake fairy queen, as the architect of the idyllic castle that serves as the locus amoenus of the novella collection. And yet, as suddenly as she appears, Mélusine vanishes from the text with only one other explicit reference to her at the transition point between the third and fourth novellas. While literary scholars have analyzed the two explicit references to Mélusine in Le Printemps as well as Yver’s emblematic prose, none has systematically explored the possibility that her presence pervades the novella collection in ways …

The Prophets Who Wrote The Book Of Omni, Clifford P. Jones

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

The brief accounts written by Omni, Amaron, Chemish, Abinadom, and Amaleki, taken alone, don’t always inspire confidence in their righteousness. Nevertheless, when the specific words used by these men and all relevant context are taken into consideration, it’s reasonable to conclude that each of these authors of the book of Omni was a prophet of God.

Chapter 9: Nephi Writing, Brant Gardner

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

Noel B. Reynolds noted: “Of course [The Book of Mormon] is a witness for Christ and his teachings. But in addition, it provides reasons why we should believe that the tradition of the Nephites was just and correct. The two messages of the book are tied together in such a way that whoever accepts the teachings of Christ accepts that Nephi was a legitimate ruler, and vice versa.”237 Politics, science, and religion were interrelated belief systems that were difficult to separate in antiquity.238 The Book of Mormon — the product of an author reared, trained, and immersed in such a …