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Articles 199681 - 199710 of 574116

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

The Case Of Plural Was In The Earliest Text, Standford Carmack Jan 2016

The Case Of Plural Was In The Earliest Text, Standford Carmack

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

Because it is primarily an Early Modern English text (in terms of its English language), the earliest text of the Book of Mormon understandably employs plural was — for example, “the words which was delivered” (Alma 5:11). It does so in a way that is substantially similar to what is found in many writings of the Early Modern period — that is, it manifests the syntactic usage, variation, and differential rates typical of that era.

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Untangling Scripture From The Philosophies Of Men, Mark Bukowski Jan 2016

Untangling Scripture From The Philosophies Of Men, Mark Bukowski

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

Terryl Givens’ masterful work Wrestling the Angel takes on the daunting task of examining the history of Christian belief while also examining the worldly philosophies which shaped its scriptural interpretation. As in the biblical story of Jacob’s struggle with the angel, we all must forge our own testimonies while confronting a secular world including godless philosophies. Sometimes testimony wins, and tragically sometimes the world wins and a testimony is lost. In dealing with this intellectual “matter unorganized,” interpretation of the secular philosophy becomes the key. With the right interpretation, philosophies deemed “secular” or “godless” can be seen as helpful and …

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Front Matter Jan 2016

Front Matter

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

No abstract provided.

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The “Fiery Darts Of The Adversary” In 1 Nephi 15:24, Stephen O. Smoot Jan 2016

The “Fiery Darts Of The Adversary” In 1 Nephi 15:24, Stephen O. Smoot

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

After receiving a revelation (1 Nephi 11–14) that clarified the meaning of his father Lehi’s dream (1 Nephi 8), Nephi explained to his rebellious brothers the significance of the various symbols of that dream. Concerning the “rod of iron,” which led to the tree of life, Nephi recorded, And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. …

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Science And Mormonism, David H. Bailey, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw Jan 2016

Science And Mormonism, David H. Bailey, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

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

From the beginning, Latter-day Saints have rejected the notion that science and religion are incompatible. In this article, we give an overview of studies that have surveyed the professional participation of Mormons in science and the views of American academics and scientists on religion in general, Mormons in particular, and why many thoughtful people in our day might be disinclined to take religion seriously. We conclude with a brief survey of current LDS perspectives on science. Our brief survey demonstrates that it is not only futile for religion and science to battle each other; it is also unnecessary.

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Why Did You Choose Me?, Joseph Grenny Jan 2016

Why Did You Choose Me?, Joseph Grenny

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

By seeing the example of a county prosecutor, I learned that we are never more like the Savior than when we willingly and vulnerably enter the self-created pain of another person’s life.

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Full Issue Jan 2016

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

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On Being A Tool, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2016

On Being A Tool, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Members, missionaries, and apologists must never lose sight of the fact that the gospel isn’t merely about abstractions and theoretical principles. It’s also, and most importantly, about people, about people with their own life stories, fears, hopes, and questions. Thus, if we want to be optimally effective, we must listen to people, understand them, and craft our message to reach them individually, where they are. The Interpreter Foundation is committed to helping with this task, but it cannot replace personalized instruction and caring.

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Shulem, One Of The King’S Principal Waiters, John Gee Jan 2016

Shulem, One Of The King’S Principal Waiters, John Gee

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

Shulem is mentioned once in the Book of Abraham. All we are told about him is his name and title. Using onomastics, the study of names, and the study of titles, we can find out more about Shulem than would at first appear. The form of Shulem's name is attested only at two times: the time period of Abraham and the time period of the Joseph Smith papyri. (Shulem thus constitutes a Book of Abraham bullseye.) If Joseph Smith had gotten the name from his environment, the name would have been Shillem.

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Latter-Day Saint Youths’ Construction Of Sacred Texts, Eric D. Rackley Jan 2016

Latter-Day Saint Youths’ Construction Of Sacred Texts, Eric D. Rackley

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

The texts that religious youth negotiate are often deeply embedded in their sociocultural practices, which can have profound influences on their religious literacy development, construction and manifestation of religious identities, and the development of their faith. Yet, although 85% of American youth claim a specific religious tradition, literacy research has not explored how these youth construct their views of sacred texts. In this two-year qualitative study of the literacy practices of nine Latter-day Saint youth, interviews and observations were used to explore what texts these youth considered sacred and how their views of these texts were informed by their religiocultural …

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“My People Are Willing”: The Mention Of Aminadab In The Narrative Context Of Helaman 5-6, Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2016

“My People Are Willing”: The Mention Of Aminadab In The Narrative Context Of Helaman 5-6, Matthew L. Bowen

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

Aminadab, a Nephite by birth who later dissented to the Lamanites, played a crucial role in the mass conversion of three hundred Lamanites (and eventually many others). At the end of the pericope in which these events are recorded, Mormon states: “And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words” (Helaman 6:36), whereas he “began to withdraw” his Spirit from the Nephites “because of the wickedness and the hardness of their hearts” (Helaman 6:35). The name Aminadab is a Semitic/Hebrew name meaning …

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Conversations With Mormon Historians, Craig L. Foster Jan 2016

Conversations With Mormon Historians, Craig L. Foster

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

Conversations with Mormon Historians is a compilation of interviews with sixteen Latter-day Saint scholars. The book reveals why they went into their chosen professions, their rise to prominence as historians, and their thoughts regarding important topics such as the Prophet Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Front Matter Jan 2016

Front Matter

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

No abstract provided.

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Reflecting On The “Marks Of Jesus”, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2016

Reflecting On The “Marks Of Jesus”, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Loss, pain, and suffering are too often, it seems, co-sojourners through our lives. To one degree or another, we all become familiar with these elements of a life lived in an imperfect world. It is inevitable — and virtually universal — that such companions foster questions about the meaning of life and whether there is a God who is the author, director, and finisher of that meaning. For those who conclude that God is real and has part in our lives, suffering can have or acquire eternal significance, enhanced by the personal realization that God, too, suffers and has suffered. …

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Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 Of 2, Jeff Lindsay Jan 2016

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 Of 2, Jeff Lindsay

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

The Arabian Peninsula has provided a significant body of evidence related to the plausibility of Nephi’s account of the ancient journey made by Lehi’s family across Arabia. Relatively few critics have seriously considered the evidence, generally nitpicking at details and insisting that the evidences are insignificant. Recently more meaningful responses have been offered by well educated writers showing familiarity with the Arabian evidences and the Book of Mormon. They argue that Nephi’s account is not historical and any apparent evidence in its favor can be attributed to weak LDS apologetics coupled with Joseph’s use of modern sources such as a …

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Dating Joseph Smith’S First Nauvoo Sealings, Brian C. Hales Jan 2016

Dating Joseph Smith’S First Nauvoo Sealings, Brian C. Hales

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

In the October 2015 issue of The Journal of Mormon History, Gary Bergera presents a richly illustrated article, “Memory as Evidence: Dating Joseph Smith’s Plural Marriages to Louisa Beaman, Zina Jacobs, and Presendia Buell” (95–131). It focuses on a page from the “Historian’s Private Journal,” which Bergera dates to “specifically September or thereabouts” of 1866 (99). Wilford Woodruff’s handwriting on that page describes Joseph Smith’s plural marriage sealings and dates his marriage to Louisa Beaman to “May 1840,” to Zina Huntington on “October 27, 1840,” to Presendia Huntington on “December 11, 1840,” and also to Rhoda Richards on “June 12, …

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“Idle And Slothful Strange Stories”: Book Of Mormon Origins And The Historical Record, Neal Rappleye Jan 2016

“Idle And Slothful Strange Stories”: Book Of Mormon Origins And The Historical Record, Neal Rappleye

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

From the very beginning, Joseph’s story about the origins of the Book of Mormon seemed wild and unbelievable. Today, however, Joseph’s account enjoys a high degree of corroboration from (1) eyewitness accounts confirming Joseph’s possession of actual metal plates and other artifacts, with some even corroborating the involvement of an angel in providing access to the record; (2) eyewitness reports on the process of producing the text; and (3) evidence from the original manuscript. This evidence is reviewed here, and the implications it has for the Book of Mormon’s origin are considered.

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Now That We Have The Words Of Joseph Smith, How Shall We Begin To Understand Them? Illustrations Of Selected Challenges Within The 21 May 1843 Discourse On 2 Peter 1, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw Jan 2016

Now That We Have The Words Of Joseph Smith, How Shall We Begin To Understand Them? Illustrations Of Selected Challenges Within The 21 May 1843 Discourse On 2 Peter 1, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

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

In this article, I explore some of the opportunities and challenges that lie before us as we try to reach a better understanding of the prophetic corpus that has come to us from Joseph Smith. I turn my attention to a specific instance of these opportunities and challenges: the 21 May 1843 discourse on the doctrine of election, which Joseph Smith discussed in conjunction with the “more sure word of prophecy” mentioned in 2 Peter 1:19.

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The Ammonites Were Not Pacifists, Duane Boyce Jan 2016

The Ammonites Were Not Pacifists, Duane Boyce

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

Although it is common to believe that the Ammonites were pacifists, the report of their story demonstrates that this is a mistake. Appreciating the Ammonites’ non-pacifism helps us think more clearly about them, and it also explains several features of the text. These are textual elements that surprise us if we assume that the Ammonites were pacifists, but that make perfect sense once we understand that they were not. Moreover, in addition to telling us that the Ammonites were not pacifists, the text also gives us the actual reason the Ammonites came to eschew all conflict — and we learn …

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Full Issue Jan 2016

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

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Front Matter Jan 2016

Front Matter

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

No abstract provided.

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Beauty Way More Than Skin Deep, Brant A. Gardner Jan 2016

Beauty Way More Than Skin Deep, Brant A. Gardner

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

All of the volumes in the Joseph Smith Papers series are beautifully presented, with important photographic and excellent typographic versions of the texts. This volume continues by providing this treatment for the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.

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Beyond Agency As Idolatry, Ralph C. Hancock Jan 2016

Beyond Agency As Idolatry, Ralph C. Hancock

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

Adam Miller has already established himself as the most venturesome and original of LDS thinkers exploring our complex inheritance of Mormon beliefs with the tools of contemporary academic philosophy. Richard Bushman, certainly the most highly honored living scholar of Mormonism, in a foreword to an earlier collection of Miller’s essays, Rube Goldberg Theology, praised the author as today’s “most original and provocative Latter-day Saint theologian.” This originality and provocation are all the more impressive given Miller’s institutional prominence in the LDS academic establishment as, practically, the leading philosopher/theologian of BYU’s Maxwell Institute, where he is a series co-editor as well …

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Mormonism, Materialism, And Politics: Six Things We Must Understand In Order To Survive As Latter-Day Saints, Rick Anderson Jan 2016

Mormonism, Materialism, And Politics: Six Things We Must Understand In Order To Survive As Latter-Day Saints, Rick Anderson

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

We are called as Latter-day Saints to be a force for good in the world in every way possible, which necessarily includes active and positive engagement with political and social issues. At the same time, it is essential to our spiritual survival that we never allow ourselves to forget the radical difference between the philosophies of men — no matter how superficially harmonious some of these may seem with particular principles of the gospel or with some aspects of traditional Mormon culture — and the teachings of the prophets. In a world that constantly entices us with messages designed to …

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“There’S The Boy I Can Trust”: Dennison Lott Harris’ First-Person Account Of The Conspiracy Of Nauvoo And Events Surrounding Joseph Smith’S “Last Charge” To The Twelve Apostles, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw Jan 2016

“There’S The Boy I Can Trust”: Dennison Lott Harris’ First-Person Account Of The Conspiracy Of Nauvoo And Events Surrounding Joseph Smith’S “Last Charge” To The Twelve Apostles, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

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

A well-known account from early Church history describes how, in the spring of 1844, two young men, Dennison Lott Harris and Robert Scott, helped protect Joseph Smith from dissidents plotting against his life. Almost completely unknown, however, is Dennison’s account of his subsequent role as a firsthand witness to events that appear to have taken place on the morning of 26 March 1844, just prior to the meeting in which Joseph Smith gave his “Last Charge” to the Quorum of the Twelve and “roll[ed] the kingdom off [his] shoulders” onto theirs in the presence of the Council of Fifty. This …

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Remembering And Honoring Māori Latter-Day Saints, Louis Midgley Jan 2016

Remembering And Honoring Māori Latter-Day Saints, Louis Midgley

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

Dr. Robert (Rob) Joseph’s essay on Māori matakite (seers) is described and assessed, along with the contents of a book, edited by Dr. Selwyn Kātene, consisting of essays on twelve nineteenth-century Māori Latter-day Saint “leaders.” All these essays are indications that Māori scholars are setting out and defending the Māori Latter-day Saint narrative. These essays also make available to future generations the stories of some of the Māori who subsequently helped set in place a Māori community of Latterday Saints in Aotearoa (now the official Māori name for all of New Zealand rather than merely the name for the North …

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A Brighter Future For Mormon Theology: Adam S. Miller’S Future Mormon, Jeff Lindsay Jan 2016

A Brighter Future For Mormon Theology: Adam S. Miller’S Future Mormon, Jeff Lindsay

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

Adam S. Miller’s Future Mormon, his collection of “Essays in Mormon Theology,” is one of the most intriguing reads I’ve encountered in LDS studies. It is a book intended to make students of Mormonism, especially those within the Church, challenge lazy assumptions in our theological thinking and rethink our approach to help us build a stronger faith. Some of Miller’s work here will be readily grasped and appreciated by LDS students, while other parts may be more radical or opaque. From my perspective, the gems should make the book a valued addition to any LDS library, in spite of my …

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Three Degrees Of Gospel Understanding, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2016

Three Degrees Of Gospel Understanding, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Few fireside talks outlive the week in which they are given. But Professor Stanley Kimball’s remarks, offered one evening long ago in southern California, have stayed with me for nearly three and a half decades. In my view, they offer a key to surviving challenges or even what have come to be called “faith crises” — and, indeed, a key not only to surviving them but to thriving spiritually by having overcome them.

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Were We Foreordained To The Priesthood, Or Was The Standard Of Worthiness Foreordained? Alma 13 Reconsidered, A. Keith Thompson Jan 2016

Were We Foreordained To The Priesthood, Or Was The Standard Of Worthiness Foreordained? Alma 13 Reconsidered, A. Keith Thompson

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

Alma 13:3–4 is often interpreted as Book of Mormon confirmation of the doctrine that all those who are ordained to the Priesthood on the earth were foreordained to receive that Priesthood in the pre-existence as a result of their exceeding faith and good works. That interpretation is inconsistent with the 1978 revelation on Priesthood. A contextual reading of the account of Alma2’s ministry to the people of Ammonihah also suggests that Alma2 was not telling the men of Ammonihah that they (or anyone else) had been foreordained to receive the Priesthood. Rather, Alma2 was teaching that what we now call …

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Front Matter Jan 2016

Front Matter

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

Revelation comes in various forms, some of them spectacular and some of them extremely subtle. The scriptures and the history of the Restoration offer numerous examples across the entire spectrum. Whatever its form, however, divine revelation remains divine revelation, and it is the avowed mission of the Interpreter Foundation to thoughtfully ponder such revelation, to try to explicate its meaning, and to illustrate its richness. In turn, such examination can itself provide an opportunity for personal revelation—both for the examiners and, we hope, for those who read or hear the results of their work.

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