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New Book A Milestone In Mormon Studies, Louis C. Midgley

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

Latter-day Saint scholar Terryl L. Givens has recently made two extraordinary contributions to Mormon studies. The first, Viper on the Hearth: Mormons,Myths, and the Construction of Heresy, was published by the prestigious Oxford University Press in 1997 and received virtually uniformly glowing reviews. If one wishes to understand the complex of interests and motivations—pecuniary, personal, and ideological—that fuel both sectarian and secular anti-Mormonism, Viper is the book to consult. The editors at Oxford appreciated the merits of this well-written, informative book and invited Givens to publish again with them. The result is By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture …

Summer Seminar Mentors Rising Scholars

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

Ten graduate and advanced undergraduate students selected from more than half a dozen institutions participated in the Mormon Scholars Foundation summer seminar held this past May and June under the auspices of the Maxwell Institute.

The Sticks Of Judah And Joseph: Reflections On Defending The Kingdom, Joseph M. Spencer

Faculty Publications

I wish to pursue two tasks simultaneously in this essay. First, in line with its title, I will address a very old matter of interpretation. I aim to explain as definitively as possible how to make sense of the relationship between Ezekiel 37:15–19, with its talk of the sticks of Judah and Joseph, and the claims of the Restoration, which include somehow connecting the stick of Joseph to the Book of Mormon. Second, in line with the subtitle of this essay, I wish to draw a crucial lesson from the history of how Latter-day Saints have dealt with this issue …

Teachings Of Church Leaders On Christ’S Final Seven Statements, John Hilton Iii, Megan Cutler, Emily K. Hyde

Faculty Publications

In 1929 Reverend James Reid wrote about the Savior’s directive from the Sermon on the Mount to “pray for them that despitefully use you” (Matthew 5:44). Although many might feel this is an impossible task, Reid offers a reminder: “Yet the words stand, and challenge us today, because He who spoke them passed His own test, and passed it triumphantly. . . . For, as [Luke] tells us, when they crucified Him, and had done their devilish work on his poor body. . . . His first word [on the cross] was a literal prayer for His enemies, ‘Father, forgive …

“Wicked Traditions” And “Cunning Arts”: Wise Men, Sorcery, And Metalwork In Nephite Society, Dan Belnap, Daniel L. Belnap, Daniel Belnap, Dan Belnap

Faculty Publications

In the ninetieth year of the reign of the judges, four years after the ministry of Samuel the Lamanite, the “great signs and wonders” that he had prophesied of concerning the coming of Christ began to appear. Yet even as they convinced some, others expressed doubt as to what the signs meant, believing instead that the coming of Christ was a “wicked tradition, which has been handed down unto us by our fathers, to cause us that we should believe in some great and marvelous thing which should come to pass . . . therefore they can keep us in …

“They Are Of Ancient Date”: Jaredite Traditions And The Politics Of Gadianton’S Dissent, Dan Belnap, Daniel L. Belnap

Faculty Publications

In 2018 Abinadi: He Came Among Them in Disguise was published as what was hoped would be the first in a series of volumes by the Book of Mormon Academy (BOMA).1 Established in 2013 at Brigham Young University, this consortium of Religious Education faculty was created to foster critical thinking about the Book of Mormon and to make their academic, theological, and pedagogical research available to the wider public through publications and presentations. This second volume in the series, Illuminating the Jaredite Records, continues that tradition by exploring the Jaredite record and its impact on the later Nephite and Lamanite …

“Wissenschaft Des” Mormonism: Jewish Studies As A Framework For Exploring Mormon Studies, Trevan Hatch

Faculty Publications

Recently, a significant amount of attention has been directed at the who, what, where, and how of Mormon studies. For example, since 2009, at least six major forums, comprising sixty-two essays and presentations (with dozens of other stand-alone pieces appearing in other venues), were dedicated to discussing the nature and future of Mormon studies as an academic field. Many of these essays discuss the definitions, challenges, opportunities, research gaps, sources, and disciplines of Mormon studies from a variety of angles. Some are highly nuanced treatments of particular aspects of Mormon studies, and others are more general. This article presents the …

Joseph Smith, Gethsemane, And The Crucifixion Of Jesus Christ, John Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

The Savior’s Atonement is central to the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Prophet Joseph Smith wrote, “We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”1 On another occasion, he revealed that those inheriting the celestial kingdom are “made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:69).

Recognizing The Everlasting Covenant In The Scriptures, Kerry Muhlestein

Faculty Publications

The Abrahamic, or new and everlasting, covenant is an important element of the Old Testament. In fact, the main way the Old Testament frames human relationships with God is whether people make and keep a covenant with him. Yet we often do not notice how much that theme is woven throughout all scripture. For example, the Book of Mormon title page specifically references the knowledge of the covenant as part of the purpose of writing and preserving the book, and the covenant is a major theme for many of its authors. The New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants are …

New And Everlasting: The Relationship Between Gospel Covenants In History, Kerry Muhlestein, Joshua M. Sears, Avram R. Shannon

Faculty Publications

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak of covenants in general, baptismal covenants, temple covenants, the new and everlasting covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, and the Mosaic or Sinai covenant. But what are these covenants, and how are they related to each other? Students in many settings experience confusion about these questions. Each book of scripture shares aspects of covenants that students may not understand as well as they could. Greater clarity will allow them to draw more power from scriptural and current prophetic teachings about the centrality of the covenant in every dispensation.

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.

The Work Of Their Hands, Taylor Cozzens

BYU Studies Quarterly

When I turned eighteen, I took a job as a laborer for a construction company that was building dormitories on a university campus in High Point, North Carolina. It was a new world for me, one of mud, concrete, and rebar. The Lulls, excavators, and flatbeds crawled around the job site, engines roaring, back-up beepers blaring. Meanwhile, the chop saws competed with the quickie saws to see which could scream the loudest as they sliced through wood, metal, and concrete. I soon came to know the tingling in the fingers after using a Sawzall and the smell of hot metal …

Saints At Devil's Gate: Landscapes Along The Mormon Trail, Herman Du Toit

BYU Studies Quarterly

Laura Allred Hurtado and Bryon C. Andreasen. Saints at Devil's Gate: Landscapes along the Mormon Trail.

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

Approaching Completion: The Book Of Mormon Critical Text Project: A Review Of Royal Skousen's Analysis Of Textual Variants Of The Book Of Mormon And The History Of The Text Of The Book Of Mormon: Grammatical Variation, Grant Hardy

BYU Studies Quarterly

Analysis of Textual Variants

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.

A Plain And Precious Part Restored: An Essay Based On Matthew Bates's The Birth Of The Trinity: Jesus, God, And Spirit In New Testament And Early Christian Interpretations Of The Old Testament, Paul Y. Hoskisson

BYU Studies Quarterly

Once every ten or twenty years, it seems, a book happens on the scene that promises to dislodge a long-held and often beloved paradigm. It is not that the old paradigm is necessarily abandoned, but rather it makes room for a different, equally valid one. The subtitle of The Birth of the Trinity announced such a shift and to my utmost delight delivered on that promise.

At Sword's Point, Part 1: A Documentary History Of The Utah War To 1858; Part 2: A Documentary History Of The Utah War, 1858-1859; Vols. 10 And 11 Of Kingdom In The West: The Mormons And The American Frontier, Devan Jensen

BYU Studies Quarterly

William P. MacKinnon, ed., At Sword’s Point, Part 1: A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858, and Part 2: A Documentary History of the Utah War, 1858– 1859, vols. 10 and 11 of Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier, ed. Will Bagley and David L. Bigler (Norman, Okla.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2008, 2016)

From The Editor, John W. Welch

BYU Studies Quarterly

I am once again pleased and proud to complete the production of this issue of BYU Studies Quarterly at the beginning of this fall season. These pages represent the harvest of another fine summer season of wonderful writing, reviewing, source checking, editing, and publication. Looking back over the past months and years, I speak for everyone in thanking all the extended family of scholars, friends, and supporters who have made this issue possible.

Review Of Why Liberals Win (Even Win They Lose Elections): How America’S Raucous, Nasty, And Mean ‘Culture Wars’ Make For A More Inclusive Nation, By Stephen Prothero, Neil J. Young

Mormon Studies Review

Depending on how one feels about the 2016 election, reading a book titled Why Liberals Win (Even When They Lose Elections) might seem like either a deluded endeavor or much-needed balm. In his latest work, Stephen Prothero argues that liberals stand on the victorious side of history, if not always the ballot box, because they have won every culture war battle since the nation’s founding. Liberals win, Prothero contends, because conservatives launch culture wars to preserve a way of life that has already begun to change, an ill-fated effort that cannot turn back the progressive forces of history that churn …

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.

Religion And Families: An Introduction, Alison Palmer

BYU Studies Quarterly

Loren D. Marks and David C. Dollahite, Religion and Families: An Introduction, Textbooks in Family Studies Series (New York: Routledge, 2017)

Front Matter

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.]

"Why Are Your Kids Late To School Today?", Lisa Martin

BYU Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Mormonism And The Emotions: An Analysis Of Lds Scriptural Texts, Richard N. Williams

BYU Studies Quarterly

Mauro Properzi. Mormonism and the Emotions: An Analysis of LDS Scriptural Texts.

Vancouver, B.C.: Farleigh Dickenson University Press, 2015.

To Be Learned Is Good: Essays On Faith And Scholarship In Honor Of Richard Lyman Bushman, Hannah Charlesworth

BYU Studies Quarterly

J. Spencer Fluhman, Kathleen Flake, and Jed Woodworth, eds., To Be Learned Is Good: Essays on Faith and Scholarship in Honor of Richard Lyman Bushman (Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2017)

Timing The Translation Of The Book Of Mormon: "Days [And Hours] Never To Be Forgotten", John W. Welch

BYU Studies Quarterly

This paper aims to stimulate specific thinking about the intense and complex events during which the Book of Mormon was translated in 1829. Encouraged initially by Elder Neal A. Maxwell, and building on my chapter in the second edition of Opening the Heavens, this article strives to be as precise as possible about the timing of the events and progress of the Book of Mormon translation during the months and days it took place. In 1834, Oliver Cowdery wrote, “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, …

Fine, Thanks, Darlene Young

BYU Studies Quarterly

This doctor, yet another one I hoped would be able to help when others couldn’t, calls me “Sweetheart.” Is there anything more patronizing? He pats my shoulder. He thinks I’m crying because I feel lousy and he can’t figure out why. I’m crying out of fury that he, and everyone in his office, treats me like a child, like I don’t have a brain and a life and better things to do. And fury that I’m crying in front of him. And, yes, a little bit because I feel lousy.

Back, Mark D. Bennion

BYU Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Jane And Emma, Eric Samuelsen

BYU Studies Quarterly

Jane and Emma Directed by Chantelle Squires

Excel Entertainment, 2018