Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Half-Heard Voices Of The Primal Zone; Sleep And Waking In A Poem By Cao Shuying, George O’Connell, Diana Shi

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

Initially touching artifacts and sculpture from ancient Greece, and the risk of misreading thought or emotion cross-culturally, this essay draws briefly on Wordsworth’s testimony that poetic process arises first in a primally sensual and pre-verbal zone. The essay then proposes that similar practice, carried by craft and poetic experience in the target language, may be equally advantageous in poetry translation, while helping bridge individual and cross-cultural differences. In light of this, the essay’s second half addresses translational details in rendering Cao Shuying’s poem “I Often Read, Early Mornings.”

Intersectionality And Feminist Pedagogy: Lessons From Teaching About Racism And Economic Inequity, Lisa Cunningham, Pao Lee Vue, Virginia B. Maier

English Faculty/Staff Publications

This paper utilizes Rochester, NY, as a case study to argue that approaching race intersectionally and across disciplines creates a stronger model of feminist pedagogy. It is based on our work in the classroom and on the Fisher Race Initiatives—a series of three interactive workshops we created on our campus to create change in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, MO, and in the subsequent rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Our goals were to promote dialogue on race, to expose participants to factual information on race, and to emphasize the intersectional causes of poverty in the Rochester …

Editorial Introduction: Women Have Achieved This, I Follow: What If?, Deborah Uman, Barbara Lesavoy

English Faculty/Staff Publications

In turning to questions of gender, economics and entrepreneurship, the 2016 Seneca Falls Dialogues asked participants to explore how various forms of labor and compensation affect individual lives, societal movements, and institutions. One of the sub-themes for the conference was “Arts and Activism,” which led to our choice of keynote speaker Brenda Ann Kenneally and inspired Eastman professor of music education, Philip Silvey, to propose a performance of the University of Rochester’s women’s chorus at the Dialogues. With the full support of the Department of Music at University of Rochester, chaired by Professor Honey Meconi, and the full enthusiasm of …

Dean Conant Worcester (1866–1924): Colonizing And Collecting The Philippines, Mark Rice

American Studies Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the chapter's first paragraph:

Although his fame has faded over the years, there was a time when Dean Conant Worcester (1866-1924) was a very influential—and equally controversial—individual (fig. 57). A physically imposing man with an abundance of energy and self-confidence, Worcester’s career path went from scientist to colonial administrator to successful businessman. He was one of the many players who helped usher the United States into its position of global dominance in the twentieth century. His representations of the Philippines in writing and images were instrumental in the debates within the United States …

Lead Us Not Into Temptation, Deliver Us From Evil (Chapter In The Lord's Prayer, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary), Nijay K. Gupta

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

I recall, as a young child, having a number of superstitious assumptions. I remember being afraid of the dark, and at night, as I stood in my doorway, I believed that when I turned off the light switch I had to jump to my bed (for some reason thinking that I would be gobbled up by evil if my feet touched the ground in the darkness). Over time, though, I became less concerned about the dark and also about "evil." Even today, as an adult, I do not think much about evil powers or spirits. I may make a one-off …

Early Christianity: Introduction To Chapter 4 Of Essential Readings In Medicine And Religion, Ekaterina Lomperis, Gary Ferngren

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

No abstract provided.

It Took A Village To Prepare For The Restoration, David C. Peterson

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

“No man,” wrote the early seventeenth-century English poet John Donne, “is an island entire of itself.” Likewise, nothing in human history springs entirely from a vacuum, ex nihilo. Even the Restoration, although it was initiated by God and is orchestrated in the heavens, draws on resources created by previous generations of men and women. We are borne on a tide of scriptural texts and freedoms bequeathed to us by our ancestors, whom we should not forget.

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 …

Scary Ghost Stories In The Light Of Day, Allen L. Wyatt

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

I have always been interested in the topic of polygamy and have, over the past few decades, read just about every book and commentary on the topic that I could find. I have spent many hours in the Church History Library, the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library at BYU, and various other repositories poring over all of the source documents I could locate. Thus, I looked forward to reading a recent addition to the literary corpus on the subject contributed by Carol Lynn Pearson. Her book, The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy: Haunting the Hearts and Heaven of Mormon Women …

Experiencing Battle In The Book Of Mormon, Morgan Deane

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

Historical chronicles of military conflict normally focus on the decisions and perspectives of leaders. But new methodologies, pioneered by John Keegan’s Face of Battle, have focused attention on the battle experience of the common soldier. Applying this methodology to a careful reading of details within the Book of Mormon shows an experience in battle that is just as horrific as it is authentic.

Improvisation And Extemporaneous Change In The Book Of Mormon Part 1: Evidence Of An Imperfect, Authentic, Ancient Work Of Scripture, Gerald E. Smith

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

Joseph Smith made various refining changes to the Book of Mormon text, most of them minor and grammatical in nature. However, one type of textual change has been virtually unstudied in Book of Mormon scholarship: extemporaneous change that was present the moment Smith dictated the original text to his scribes. This type of change appears to have been improvisational, a fix or repair made in the middle of a thought or expression. I study these improvisations in depth — where they might appear historically, their purpose, and their authorship — in two articles. The evidence points to ancient authors and …

The Song I Cannot Sing, Sharon Eubank

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

Scene One

The story of her birth is a raucous family tale that begins with her arrival into the world on December 19. Her parents named her Joy. She was the youngest in a line of eight children, and every one of them could tell a story, so a person couldn’t breathe for laughing. One or another of them would string this story up over the family dinner table each year — rushing to tell it, piling on top of each other’s words. And then they would sit back in their chairs as the room pealed with laughter like big, …

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Looking Back, Almost Five Years On, Daniel C. Peterson

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

As the axiom states, hindsight is 20/20. As Volume 24 of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture nears the press, it seems relevant to look back to a tumultuous time nearly five years ago when the Interpreter Foundation was visualized and launched. If history has any value at all (particularly recent history), it provides a context for understanding the course on which we find ourselves. For the Interpreter Foundation, that course continues to be full of surprises and promise.

Opportunity Lost, Brian C. Hales

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

The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy boldly declares “that plural marriage never was — is not now — and never will be ordained of God” (21) and that the Mormon religion is guilty of “extraordinary spiritual abuse” (22) due to the practice. Seven distinct problems associated with plural marriage are identified, four of which have merit: polygamy history is often messy; earthly polygamy is unfair to women; widows and widowers are treated differently regarding future sealings; and the cancellation of sealings has not always paralleled the desires of the participants. Three additional issues form the bulk of the discussion and are …

“Their Anger Did Increase Against Me”: Nephi’S Autobiographical Permutation Of A Biblical Wordplay On The Name Joseph, Matthew L. Bowen

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

Nephi’s record on the small plates includes seven distinct scenes in which Nephi depicts the anger of his brethren against him. Each of these scenes includes language that recalls Genesis 37:5‒10, 20, the biblical scene in which Joseph’s brothers “hate him yet the more [wayyôsipû ʿôd] for his dreams and for his words” because they fear that he intends to “reign” and to “have dominion” or rule over them (Genesis 37:8). Later, they plot to kill him (Genesis 37:20). Two of these “anger” scenes culminate in Nephi’s brothers’ bowing down before him in the same way that Joseph’s brothers bowed …

Bare Record: The Nephite Archivist, The Record Of Records, And The Book Of Mormon Provenance, Anita Wells

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

This paper looks at the Book of Mormon through the lens of library science and the concept of archival provenance. The Nephites cared deeply about their records, and Mormon documented a thorough chain of custody for the plates he edited. However, ideas of archival science and provenance are recent developments in the western world, unknown to biblical authors or to anyone at Joseph Smith’s time. Understanding this aspect of Mormon’s authorship and Joseph Smith’s translation provides additional evidence to the historical validity of the Book of Mormon.

The Great And Spacious Book Of Mormon Arcade Game: More Curious Works From Book Of Mormon Critics, Jeff Lindsay

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

A novel theory for the origins of Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life has been offered by Rick Grunder, who argues that the story was inspired by a June 1829 visit to Rochester where Joseph could have seen a “great and spacious building,” a river, an iron railing, and even fruit trees. The purported source for the great and spacious building, the Reynolds Arcade, has even been suggested by one critic as a place where Joseph might have found “rare maps,” such as a map of Arabia that could have guided his fabrication of Lehi’s trail. As beautiful as …

Exploring Semitic And Egyptian In Uto-Aztecan Languages, John S. Robertson

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

Review of Brian D. Stubbs, Exploring the Explanatory Power of Semitic and Egyptian in Uto-Aztecan, Provo, UT: Grover Publications, 2015. 436 pp. $30.

Some thirty-plus years ago, toward the beginning of my career as professor of linguistics at BYU, a young Brian Stubbs knocked at my office door to make what was, in my opinion, a wild claim — that he had found a significant number of cognates1 that would link a New World language family (Uto-Aztecan) to an Old World language family (pre exilic Hebrew2 and later others).

On Doubting Nephi’S Break Between 1 And 2 Nephi: A Critique Of Joseph Spencer’S An Other Testament: On Typology, Noel B. Reynolds

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

In 2012 Joseph Spencer published an analysis of 1st and 2nd Nephi that interprets a phrase in 1 Nephi 19:5 as implying the true break in Nephi’s writings is not between the two scriptural books we now use but rather to be found at the end of 2 Nephi 5 and that the spiritual core (the “more sacred part”) of the small plates is in 2 Nephi chapters 6–30. In this essay I have mobilized several arguments from the canons of literary interpretation and basics of the Hebrew language to demonstrate that this starting point for Spencer’s interpretation of Nephi’s …

Seers And Stones: The Translation Of The Book Of Mormon As Divine Visions Of An Old-Time Seer, Stan Spencer

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

Joseph Smith used the term the Urim and Thummim to refer to the pair of seer stones, or “interpreters,” he obtained for translating the Book of Mormon as well as to other seer stones he used in a similar manner. According to witness accounts, he would put the stone(s) in a hat and pull the hat close around his face to exclude the light, and then he would see the translated text of the Book of Mormon. By what property or principle these stones enabled Joseph Smith to see the translated text has long been a matter of conjecture among …

Apostate Religion In The Book Of Mormon, A. Keith Thompson

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

Nephite missionaries in the first century BC had significant difficulty preaching the gospel among Nephites and Lamanites who followed Zoramite and Nehorite teaching. Both of these groups built synagogues and other places of worship suggesting that some of their beliefs originated in Israelite practice, but both denied the coming or the necessity of a Messiah. T his article explores the nature of Zoramite and Nehorite beliefs, identifies how their beliefs and practices differed from orthodox Nephite teaching, and suggests that some of these religious differences are attributable to cultural and political differences that resonate in the present.

How Joseph Smith’S Grammar Differed From Book Of Mormon Grammar: Evidence From The 1832 History, Standford Carmack

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

Some of the grammar of Joseph Smith’s 1832 History is examined. T hree archaic, extra-biblical features that occur quite frequently in the Book of Mormon are not present in the history, even though there was ample opportunity for use. Relevant usage in the 1832 History is typical of modern English, in line with independent linguistic studies. This leads to the conclusion that Joseph’s grammar was not archaizing in these three types of morphosyntax which are prominent in the earliest text of the Book of Mormon. This corroborating evidence also indicates that English words were transmitted to Joseph throughout the dictation …

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

The Book Of Mormon Versus The Consensus Of Scholars: Surprises From The Disputed Longer Ending Of Mark, Part 1, Jeff Lindsay

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

Following the account of the ministry of Christ among the Nephites as recorded in the Book of Mormon, Christ gave a charge to His New World disciples (Mormon 9:22–25). These words are very similar to the commission of Christ to His apostles at the end of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:9–20). According to the consensus of modern Bible scholars, Christ did not speak those words; they are a later addition. If so, this is a problem for the Book of Mormon. Fortunately, recent modern scholarship offers compelling reasons for overturning the old consensus against the longer ending of Mark. …

The Life-Giving “Water” Of The Restoration, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Where there is water, there is life, not only literally, as in the Nile River in Egypt and in the cities of Mesopotamia, but also symbolically, as we read in the words of the prophet Ezekiel, who in vision saw a magnificent spring of fresh water flowing east from the temple, healing even the waters of the Dead Sea (Ezekiel 47). A psalm also testifies to the divine beneficence of water (Psalm 1) and John, in Revelation, quotes the Lord as giving to those “athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely” (21:10‒14), a “crystal clear river” that …

Looking Deeper Into Joseph Smith’S First Vision: Imagery, Cognitive Neuroscience, And The Construction Of Memory, Robert A. Rees

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

Critics of Joseph Smith assert that he invented or imagined the First Vision and then deliberately altered the details in his subsequent f irst-person accounts of the event (also reflected in accounts recorded or related by others) to mislead his followers. That the details of the narrative changed so dramatically between the first version (1832) and the last authorized version (1842) is considered prima facie evidence that Joseph was deliberately inventing and embellishing his narrative to make it more credible. The only thing, say critics, that could possibly explain such divergent, and in some cases, radically different versions of the …

Understanding Jacob’S Teachings About Plural Marriage From A Law Of Moses Context, Brian J. Baird

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

This paper reviews the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob’s proscription against plural marriage, arguing that the verses in Jacob 24–30 should be interpreted in a Law of Moses context regarding levirate marriage, by which a man was responsible for marrying his dead brother’s wife if that brother died before having an heir. I also review how these verses have been used in arguments for and against plural marriage, and how levirate marriage practices worked in Mosaic tradition.

“By The Blood Ye Are Sanctified”: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, And Anticipatory Nature Of The Ordinances Of Spiritual Rebirth In John 3 And Moses 6, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen

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

In chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus described spiritual rebirth as consisting of two parts: being “born of water and of the spirit.”1 To this requirement of being “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit,” Moses 6:59–60 adds that one must “be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; … For … by the blood ye are sanctified.”2 In this article, we will discuss the symbolism of water, spirit, and blood in scripture as they are actualized in the process of spiritual rebirth. We will highlight in particular the …

The Book Of Mormon Versus The Consensus Of Scholars: Surprises From The Disputed Longer Ending Of Mark, Part 2, Jeff Lindsay

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

Following the account of the ministry of Christ among the Nephites as recorded in the Book of Mormon, Christ gave a charge to His New World disciples (Mormon 9:22–25). These words are nearly like the commission of Christ to His apostles at the end of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:9–20). According to the general consensus of modern Bible scholars, Christ did not speak those words; they are a later addition. If so, this is a problem for the Book of Mormon. Fortunately, recent modern scholarship offers compelling reasons for overturning the old consensus against the longer ending of Mark. …