Arts and Humanities Commons^™

One Eternal Round, Hugh W. Nibley, Michael D. Rhodes, Gary P. Gillum

BYU Studies

Hugh Nibley began serious research on One Eternal Round as early as 1988. When Nibley's long-time colleague Michael D. Rhodes took over the project following Nibley's death in 2005, he was faced with thirty boxes of research notes and drafts, 450 computer files, and as many as twenty versions of one chapter. Fortunately, Michael is familiar with most of Nibley's prodigious output, as well as the subjects listed in the preface, which are a reflection of Nibley's mind and interests and which are all within the scope of One Eternal Round.

Throughout Nibley's long career, his critics have seen him …

Modern Mormonism: Myths And Realities, James T. Summerhays, Robert L. Millet

BYU Studies

Robert L. Millet, professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, has added to his several books designed to encourage interfaith dialogue between Latter-day Saints and fellow Christians. Considering the current presidential campaign and growing media attention directed at Latter-day Saints, Modern Mormonism could not have been published in a more timely manner.

Millet tackles those doctrinal points that have become sticking points between Mormons and traditional Christians, working to overcome those various doctrinal misconceptions that have unnecessarily divided them. Such misunderstandings (which are clarified in the book) include: Mormons allegedly believe that God has a finite body, therefore God's …

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Dispensation: Latter-Day Fiction, Scott Hales, Angela Hallstrom

BYU Studies

In her preface to Dispensation, Angela Hallstrom writes that "immersing oneself in a completely foreign place or time is one of the fundamental pleasures of reading good literature," which is certainly the lesson I learned from reading Hemingway, Steinbeck, and countless other writers in my teenage years. Even today, I make a habit of reading books by authors of various backgrounds so that my scope does not become too narrow, my worldview too restricted. But, like Hallstrom, I agree that "recognizing oneself in a work of fiction is an exhilarating experience, too." The good news is that I no longer …

A New Pneumatology: Comparing Joseph Smith's Doctrine Of The Spirit With His Contemporaries And The Bible, Lynne H. Wilson

BYU Studies

While Joseph Smith's teachings on the Holy Ghost appear to fall within the mainstream of the enthusiastic outbursts of the Second Great Awakening (circa 1800–1840), a closer look shows that his restored doctrines made an abrupt and radical departure from the pneumatology of his day. Many historians interpret Joseph's claim to revelation as a creative response to the cultural and religious stimulus of the "Burned-over District" in upstate New York. Focused research suggests that Joseph Smith's teachings on the Holy Ghost were not merely a product of his environment or a reaction to his culture. His biblical interpretations of the …

Mormonism In The Methodist Marketplace: James Covel And The Historical Background Of Doctrine And Covenants 39–40, Christopher C. Jones

BYU Studies

Joseph Smith received two revelations in January 1831 (Doctrine and Covenants 39 and 40) directed to one "James Covill." Joseph and his scribes noted that Covill "had been a Baptist minister for about forty years." Historians discovered nothing about a Baptist minister named James Covill, but documents unearthed by the Joseph Smith Papers Project revealed that he was actually a Methodist minister. This sliver of information opened the door to information about a very well-known Methodist minister in upstate New York by the name of James Covel.

Christopher Jones mines this Methodist vein productively and pieces together a short biography …

Eve, The Apple Was A Pomegranate—, E. S. Jenkins

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Stripping The Kitchen Floor, William Deford

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Introduction Of Mormonism To Finnish Society, 1840–1900, Kim Östman, Melvin J. Luthy

BYU Studies

If one were to ask a returned missionary from Finland, or even a member of the Church in Finland, when missionary work began in that country, a likely response would be that it began in 1946, when Elder Ezra Taft Benson dedicated the land for missionary work. The date is well known, and a small monument commemorating the event has been erected in Larsmo, a small town on Finland's northwestern shore. Although many consider missionaries who served in the years immediately following the dedication to be the first missionaries in Finland, there is a general understanding that some members in …

The Fate Of The Davao Penal Colony #502 "Branch" Of The Lds Church, 1944, David L. Clark, Bart J. Kowallis

BYU Studies

On September 7, 1944, 668 American POWs were killed when the unmarked Japanese ship in which they were being transported was hit by friendly fire. Among those POWs were several members of an unofficial LDS "branch" that had formed in a penal colony near Davao, on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The branch of POWs had contraband scriptures and a hymnbook and met together weekly. This article tells as much of their story as has come to light: who they were, their service, and their capture. The article ends with a discussion of the theological implications of their …

"Neat" As A Word Of Approbation, Clinton F. Larson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence In Western Thought, Jesse D. Hurlbut, James L. Siebach, David B. Paxman, Dana M. Pike, Terryl L. Givens

BYU Studies

Four experts in different branches of study review Terryl L. Givens's expansive new book When Souls Had Wings: Pre-mortal Existence in Western Thought.

Coming To Terms: The Challenge Of Creating Christian Vocabulary In A Non-Christian Land, Van C. Gessel

BYU Studies

Because words, in any language, are not actual concrete objects but simply "sounds," "symbols," or "signifiers" that at best can only be a shadowy approximation of reality and truth, we must regard language as one of the slipperiest of the slippery treasures of mortality. If language itself produces, at best, a shadowy approximation of reality and truth, then translating that shadowy approximation from one language to another significantly compounds the slipperiness. The difficulty increases when translating Christian terms into a historically non-Christian language and culture such as Japanese. Thus, as Christian translators have attempted to borrow words from other languages …

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Religious Metaphor And Cross-Cultural Communication: Transforming National And International Identities, Joseph E. Richardson

BYU Studies

The challenges of intercultural communication multiply in religious discourse, with its objective of translating abstract ideas into cultures and languages with sufficient power to transform individual, ethnic, and regional identities and to build cohesive communities of faith. Metaphor plays a primary role in this transformative communication. A powerful tool to abbreviate and facilitate communication, metaphor enables individuals to transmit abstract ideas quickly, efficiently, and memorably. Metaphor is not just a tool for efficient communication; it also guides thought, extends ideas, and influences behavior. Daily language is full of metaphor, which affects our beliefs and faith and, consequently, our actions. As …

The Spirit And The Intellect: Lessons In Humility, Duane Boyce

BYU Studies

Some individuals have great confidence in their knowledge of both intellectual and spiritual things. Boyce does not share this confidence. "I have come to believe, after many a false start," he admits, "that if I am honest and thorough in my approach to the gospel, and if I am honest and thorough in my approach to intellectual disciplines, there resides in each the imperative for a profound sense of humility. I discover in both of them that what we don't know far outstrips what we do." He then goes on to illustrate the limits of human knowledge by presenting three …

Quotidiana, Eric D'Evegnee, Patrick Madden

BYU Studies

Some LDS readers have an intriguing tendency to venerate obviously scholarly research while turning up their noses at what they consider less "academic" work. These readers are missing out on a potentially impactful genre. Eugene England wrote, "It is the personal essay that seems to me to have the greatest potential for making a uniquely valuable Mormon contribution both to Mormon cultural and religious life and to that of others." If that notion is true, reading works like Pat Madden's collection of personal essays, Quotidiana, should be added to our academic diet to refine and broaden the value we place …

The Book Of Moses, Linda Etherington, Glen Nelson

BYU Studies

Since Linda Etherington graduated from BYU in 1991, her paintings have been exhibited in numerous local and international shows in places such as New York, California, Virginia, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and Mississippi. Her work is also in the permanent collection of Brigham Young University Museum of Art and the Springville Museum of Art.

In 2008, at the invitation of the Mormon Artists Group, she began a project of creating thirteen large-scale paintings to illustrate the Book of Moses. The process of painting required two years and reflects Etherington's point of view that this book of scripture is about extended family. …

Confessing History: Explorations In Christian Faith And The Historian's Perspective, Rachel Cope, John Fea, Jay Green, Eric Miller

BYU Studies

George Marsden's 1994 book The Soul of the American University ended rather unusually for an academic work--this well-respected historian suggested that religious faith should have a place in the academy. Such a bold assertion sparked a number of heated discussions within and without the intellectual world. Three years later, Marsden responded again to his critics by producing a volume that explored this topic, which he aptly titled The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. As a result of this book, additional conversations ensued in which Christian and non-Christian scholars grappled with Marsden's proposition. More recently, the contributors to the edited volume …

Now You See It, Now You Don't: Biblical Perspectives On The Relationship Between Magic And Religion, Shawna Dolansky, David A. Allred

BYU Studies

Defining terms is a foundational task in academic studies, and a clear example of its importance is in the ongoing debates on the relationship between magic and religion. Because of the various ways in which magic has been defined over time and because of the negative connotations that can accompany some definitions, explorations of magic and religion are rife with misunderstanding and ethnocentrism, most famously dating back to the milieu of cultural evolution that characterized nineteenth-century anthropology, especially in the works of Edward B. Taylor and James G. Frazer. However, questions about the relationship between magic and religion go back …

Joseph Smith Encounters Calvinism, Robert L. Millet

BYU Studies

In seventeenth-century Europe, followers of John Calvin debated with followers of Jacob Arminius about five main doctrinal points: the total depravity of man, God's unconditional election of certain people, the limited nature of the Atonement, the irresistibility of God's grace, and the perseverance of the Saints. This article gives a brief account of that controversy and then compares the teachings of Joseph Smith and Mormonism on these same five points of doctrine.

Understanding The Book Of Mormon: A Reader's Guide, Steven C. Walker, Grant Hardy

BYU Studies

Understanding the Book of Mormon may be the book for a lot of us. As often as we Latter-day Saints have read the Book of Mormon, we may yet read it better, read it with more understanding, if we were to read it with the benefit of the perceptive perspective that Hardy opens up for us with this volume. For all our Book of Mormon enthusiasms and even our critically careful analyses, we may have sometimes shortchanged ourselves in our readings in the same way Oliver Cowdery did in his translating: "Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that …

The Journey Of The James G. Willie Handcart Company, Gary D. Long, Howard A. Christy

BYU Studies

Author Gary D. Long is uniquely equipped to produce this quality map study of the tragic experience of the Willie Handcart Company as it struggled through Wyoming in October and November 1856. During a long career with the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming, he has made an extensive study of the famed Oregon and Mormon Trails. Additionally, he has exhaustively examined the Willie experience to include walking over the full length of the Company's route through Wyoming and probing all extant written material (books, articles, journals, church records, and individual reminiscences), with particular emphasis on the day-to-day entries found …

Godbodied: The Matter Of The Latter-Day Saints, Stephen H. Webb

BYU Studies

Christian theologian Stephen H. Webb is the author of Jesus Christ, Eternal God (Oxford University Press, 2012). This article, excerpted from that book, gives readers Webb's unique view of Mormonism. A professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College in Indiana, Webb researched an obscure heretical position on the nature of Jesus Christ and soon encountered Joseph Smith's doctrine that God has a body. Webb writes that Mormons reject the Nicene Creed and Augustine's Platonization of Christianity. They affirm the eternal nature of matter and claim that Jesus and humans are members of one family because they are made of …

Appetite, Dixie L. Partridge

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

"Myself . . . I Consecrate To The God Of Heaven": Twenty Affidavits Of Consecration In Nauvoo, June–July 1842, Sherilyn Farnes, Mitchell K. Schaefer

BYU Studies

Early in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith taught the Saints that the Lord had revealed a law of consecration, in which members would consecrate all their time, talents, and possessions to the Church and its purposes. It has been commonly believed that the law of consecration was not practiced in Nauvoo, where the Church was headquartered from 1839 to 1846. But the recent discovery of twenty affidavits of consecration, handwritten in the summer of 1842 by Latter-day Saints determined to follow an apostolic invitation to consecrate themselves and property to the Church, …

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

John Taylor's June 27, 1854, Account Of The Martyrdom, Lajean P. Carruth, Mark L. Staker

BYU Studies

On June 27, 1854, John Taylor, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave what appears to be his first public address sharing his eyewitness account of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Two scribes, George D. Watt and Thomas Bullock, recorded the meeting. George D. Watt's skill with Pitman shorthand enabled him to work quickly. He recorded these sermons virtually verbatim, only occasionally missing a few words as he strove to keep up with the speakers. Most of what Watt recorded survives in his 1854 papers in a bound notebook. Two-thirds of John Taylor's …

Conductor, Lon R. Young

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Bible: The Story Of The King James Version, 1611-2011; Begat: The Story Of The King James Bible And The English Language, Gordon Campbell, David Crystal, Brandie R. Siegfried

BYU Studies

GORDON CAMPBELL. Bible: The Story of the King James Version, 1611-2011. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010

DAVID CRYSTAL. Begat: The Story of the King James Bible and the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010

We are celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the first publication of the King James Version of the Bible, and Oxford University Press has published several books in support of that commemoration. I review two such here, both of which are intended for a general readership, well worth reading on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Each book provides a historical framework for understanding the continued influence …