Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mormonism And The Scientific Persistence Of Circles: Aristotle, Spacetime, And One Eternal Round, Elizabeth Nielson

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

The prominence of circles and circular motion has been one present in scientific discussion of the structure of the universe from Aristotle to Einstein. Development through Ptolemy, Copernicus and Kepler created elliptical variations, but in essence, the scientific community has been unable to break free of a certain degree of circular motion that ultimately seems fundamental to the very nature of the universe. Just as the circle featured prominently in Aristotle’s cosmology, it remains an integral aspect of reality, though perhaps it is more difficult to pick out in its present forms as planetary ellipses and curved space-time. In this …

Nephi’S Change Of Heart, Dennis Newton

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

How long did it take Nephi to compose his portions of the “small account?” Careful text analysis and data mining suggest that “Nephi’s” texts may have been composed across periods as great as forty years apart. I propose a timeline with four distinct periods of composition. The merits of this timeline are weighed, and some thoughts are explored as to how this timeline alters the reader’s perceptions of Nephi. The net effect is that Nephi becomes more sympathetic, more personable, and more relatable as his record progresses and that the totality of Nephi’s writings are best understood and interpreted when …

The Temple: A Multi-Faceted Center And Its Problems, Joshua Berman

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

One of the primary identities of the Temple is that it is the place of hashra’at ha-shekhinah, the site at which God’s presence is most manifest. It is no surprise then, that the Temple is the focal point of prayer. Yet, as the site at which God’s presence is most intimately manifest, the Temple is also the center of the nation in several major spheres of collective life. This centrality is exhibited in the structure of the Book of Deuteronomy. Chapters 12-26 depict commandments that are to be the social and religious frame of life in the land of Israel. …

Do You Hear The People Sing?: Populist Discourse In The French Revolution, Rebecca Dudley

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

The rallying cry of the French Revolutionaries was "Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite!" (liberty, equality, fraternity), and the French Revolution, a pivotal moment in French, European, and world history, has been consistently considered one of the first and most significant nationalist movements. Research and literature thus far on discourse in this revolution have focused on nationalism Qenkins 1990; Hayward 1991; O'Brien 1988), along with the discourses of violence and terror that led to the graphic revolution (Ozouf 1984; Leoussi 2001). The presence of nationalist discourse and nationalist sentiment in the French Revolution is undeniable, but there are other elements potentially missing from …

Lived Leadership, Kate Holbrook

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

The Materiality Of Lived Mormonism, Josh E. Probert

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

"All Things Denote There Is A God": Platonic Metaphysics, Thomistic Analogy, And The Creation Of A Christian Philosophy, Neil Longo

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

In Raphael's School of Athens, Plato famously points upward, while Aristotle brings his hand forward, parallel to the ground. Western thought has positioned itself between these two poles. Its dual purpose was to explain what was and explore what could be. This distinction worked its way into Christianity, which quickly divided itself between the spiritual and the physical, the church militant and the church triumphant, the city of God and the city of man. The audacious goal of St. Thomas Aquinas was to synthesize these urges in such a way as to logically describe the Kingdom of God using the …

Accounting For Whiteness In Mormon Religion, Sylvester A. Johnson

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

“The Man In The Shyppe That Showeth The Unstableness Of The World”: Social Memory And The Early Modern English Sailor, 1475-1650, Vincent V. Patarino Jr., Ph.D.

Quidditas

Both medieval and early modern English writers described the tumultuous, raging sea as the epitome of chaos and evil. By the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, both manuscript and print documents connected seething storms with the power and influence of evil, especially the devil. As the Reformation advanced, this link included Satan’s supposed minions, witches. In addition to these texts, woodcut illustrations confirmed in very stark terms, a direct association between the devil, the sea, and sailors’ supposedly anti-religious behavior and beliefs. One powerful image revealed “the man in the shyppe” tormented by the devil; others depicted the devil steering a …

Delno C. West Award Winner (2016)

Quidditas

The Delno C. West Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a senior scholar at the annual conference.

This year’s recipient is Ruth Frost, Associate Professor of History, the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna, BC.

Richard Iii: Beyond The Mystery, Daniel Hobbins

Quidditas

He is not the likeliest theme for an American undergraduate classroom: his reign lasted barely two years; he contributed nothing of lasting significance to history; he is more memorable for his spectacular final defeat than for any victory; he was accused of murdering children; and he was after all an English king, as far removed as possible from the typical experience of an American undergraduate. Even the times he lived in are against him. In the immortal words of Mark Twain, his century was “the brutalest, the wickedest, the rottenest in history since the darkest ages.”1 Yet he continues to …

“Like To My Soft Sex”: Female Revenge And Violence In The Fatal Contract, Samantha Dressel

Quidditas

The Fatal Contract by William Heminge is not a good play. Its critical afterlife is essentially non-existent, with Fredson Thayer Bowers being one of the only critics to discuss it, criticizing its lack of “inspiration” and “ethical spirit.”1 I argue however, that the play is both inventive and moral, despite its many derivative aspects and narrative foibles. I suggest a new reading of the play as deeply innovative in terms of gender and revenge. Bowers criticizes the play’s morality because of the ultimate exoneration of Chrotilda, the central revengeress. The play can be reinterpreted and partially redeemed by understanding Chrotilda’s …

“With The Tongue Of Angels”: Angelic Speech As A Form Of Deification1, Neal Rappleye

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

The “tongue of angels” has long been a point of interest to Latterday Saints, who wonder whether it really is as simple as speaking under the influence of the Spirit or if it might mean something more. Drawing on the structure of Nephi’s record and the interactions with angels that Nephi recorded, we learn that this notion of speaking with the tongue of angels has connections with ancient Israelite temple worship and the divine council. Nephi places the act of speaking with the tongue of angels at the culmination of a literary ascent, where one must pass through a gate …

“From The Sea East Even To The Sea West”: Thoughts On A Proposed Book Of Mormon Chiasm Describing Geography In Alma 22:27, Gregory L. Smith

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

Jonathan Neville, an advocate of the “Heartland” geography setting for the Book of Mormon, claims to have identified a novel chiastic structure that begins in Alma 22:27. Neville argues that this chiasmus allows the reconstruction of a geography that stretches south to the Gulf of Mexico in the continental United States. One expert, Donald W. Parry, doubts the existence of a fine-tuned chiasmus in this verse. An analysis which assumes the presence of the chiasmus demonstrates that multiple internal difficulties result from such a reading. Neville’s reading requires two different “sea west” bodies of water: one “sea west” placed at …

“He Is A Good Man”: The Fulfillment Of Helaman 5:6-7 In Helaman 8:7 And 11:18-19, Matthew L. Bowen

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

Mormon, as an author and editor, was concerned to show the fulfillment of earlier Nephite prophecy when such fulfillment occurred. Mormon took care to show that Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Helaman, fulfilled their father’s prophetic and paranetic expectations regarding them as enshrined in their given names — the names of their “first parents.” It had been “said and also written” (Helaman 5:6-7) that Nephi’s and Lehi’s namesakes were “good” in 1 Nephi 1:1. Using onomastic play on the meaning of “Nephi,” Mormon demonstrates in Helaman 8:7 that it also came to be said and written of Nephi the …

From The Editor, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

As I scan the contents of this new issue of BYU Studies Quarterly, I am gratified by the hard work of the many authors, reviewers, editors, and assistants that has made this latest installment possible. I am also excited to send this issue to you, our readers, all around the world.

On Fear, Food, And Flight, Elizabeth Brady

BYU Studies

I’m having trouble eating.

Motives And The Path To Perfection, Lindon J. Robison, David R. Just

BYU Studies

Motives and the Desires of Our Hearts

Wandering Realities: The Mormonish Short Fiction Of Steven L. Peck, Scott R. Parkin

BYU Studies

Steven L. Peck. Wandering Realities: The Mormonish Short Fiction of Steven L. Peck.

Provo, Utah: Zarahemla Books, 2015.

Talking Doctrine: Mormons And Evangelicals In Conversation, Christine Wilkins

BYU Studies

Talking Doctrine: Mormons and Evangelicals in Conversation, edited by Richard J. Mouw and Robert L. Millet (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2015)

Meine Suche Nach Dem Lebendigen Gott: Gedanken Aus Dem Leben Von F. Enzio Busche, Roger Terry

BYU Studies

Meine Suche nach dem lebendigen Gott: Gedanken aus dem Leben von F. Enzio Busche, edited by Tracie A. Lamb, translated by Wolfgang Gebauer (Leipzig: Leipziger Universit tsverlag, 2015)

Conversations With Mormon Historians, Allyson Jones

BYU Studies

Conversations with Mormon Historians, edited by Alexander L. Baugh and Reid L. Neilson (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015)

Last Laborer: Thoughts And Reflections Of A Black Mormon, Scott R. Parkin

BYU Studies

Last Laborer: Thoughts and Reflections of a Black Mormon by Keith N. Hamilton (Salt Lake City: Ammon Works, 2011)

By Simple Yet Propitious Means: The Art Of Jorge Cocco Santangelo, Herman Du Toit

BYU Studies

Inspired devotional art always strives for essential meaning, communicating across the widest range of cultural boundaries. This kind of art has always resisted the vanities of idiosyncratic expression, striving instead to subordinate the artist’s personal virtuosity to the sacral nature of its subject matter. There have been few artists of repute who have achieved this fine balance in their work. Jorge Cocco Santangelo, or “Cocco” as he is known, is one such artist who has devoted his professional career to the creation of art as an expression of his testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. His work recently …

The Time It Takes To Age, Rebecca Smylie

BYU Studies

We moved to Africa for my husband’s job, and those first months in Dakar, Senegal, were hard. We had a newborn and were sleep deprived. The antimalarials gave me bad dreams. We were living out of suitcases, we found dead birds in the back bedroom, and our three-year-old couldn’t seem to stop crying. Increasingly, we heard her fighting with a row of new imaginary friends, who were more often than not consigned to time out in the “bird room.” How would I survive two years?

Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings, Camille S. Williams

BYU Studies

Joanna Brooks, Rachel Hunt Steenblik, and Hannah Wheelwright, eds. Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Becoming Divine: An Introduction To Deification In Western Culture, Daniel C. Peterson

BYU Studies

M. David Litwa. Becoming Divine: An Introduction to Deification in Western Culture.

Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2013.

From The Editor, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

True to the long-standing character of BYU Studies, this issue contains something exciting and enriching for just about everyone. Looking over this latest issue, I am grateful for the academic quality and faithful integrity of its contents and for the authors who have worked hard to bring this information to you.

Silent Wednesday, Mark Bennion

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

First Principles And Ordinances: The Fourth Article Of Faith In Light Of The Temple, Eric Samuelsen

BYU Studies

Samuel M. Brown, First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple (Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University, 2014).