Religion Commons^™

Restoring The Original Text Of The Book Of Mormon, Royal Shousen

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

The Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, under the editorship of Royal Skousen, began in 1988 and is now nearing completion. In 2001, facsimile transcripts of the two Book of Mormon manuscripts (volumes 1 and 2 of the critical text) were published by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). From 2004 to 2009 the six books of volume 4 of the critical text, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, were published, also by FARMS. Parts 1 and 2 of volume 3 of the critical text, The History of the Text of the Book of …

Where In Cincinnati Was The Third Edition Of The Book Of Mormon Printed?, Chris Miasnik

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

The third edition of the Book of Mormon was stereotyped and printed in Cincinnati in 1840. The story of the Church’s printer, Ebenezer Robinson, accomplishing this mission has been available since 1883. What has remained a mystery is exactly where in Cincinnati this event took place; there is no plaque marking the spot, no walking tour pamphlet, no previous images, and its history contains conflicting documentation. This article will attempt to untangle the mystery by using old descriptions, maps of the area, and images. I also honor the printer, Edwin Shepard, whose metal and ink made this edition a reality.

A Redemptive Reading Of Mark 5:25-34, Julie M. Smith

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

In what is surely one of the saddest tales in the Bible, Jephthah vows that if granted success in battle, he will sacrifice the first person to cross the threshold of his home upon his return. Tragically, it is his only child, a daughter, who hurries out to meet him (Judges 11:29-34). New Testament scholar Mary Ann Beavis shows that this harrowing text has many similarities to the story of Jairus and his daughter in the Gospel of Mark (5:21-24 and 35-43).1 Mark’s story, however, has a joyous outcome: Jairus intercedes for his daughter, and Jesus raises her from the …

Rediscovering The First Vision, Neal Rappleye

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

The First Vision: A Harmonization of Ten Accounts from the Sacred Grove is a small book, richly illustrated, which provides even the most diligent students of the vision with a fresh and rewarding experience. Boasting a back dust jacket endorsement from none other than Richard Bushman — the dean of Joseph Smith scholars in the early twenty-first century1 — this small, stylishly designed book is, in my opinion, the best way to introduce Latter-day Saints to the various accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision.

Lehi The Smelter: New Light On Lehi’S Profession, Neal Rappleye

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

A strong case has been made by John A. Tvedtnes and Jeffrey R. Chadwick that Lehi was a metalworker by profession.1 Although the text gives several indications of Nephi’s (and by implications, Lehi’s) familiarity with the craft of working metals, prominent Book of Mormon scholar John L. Sorenson nonetheless disagreed with this assessment on the grounds that, “it would be highly unlikely that a man who had inherited land and was considered very wealthy (1 Nephi 3:25) would have been a metalworker, for the men in that role tended to be of lower social status and were usually landless.”2 More …

Getting Cain And Gain, Matthew L. Bowen

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

The biblical etiology (story of origin) for the name “Cain” associates his name with the Hebrew verb qny/qnh, “to get,” “gain,” “acquire,” “create,” or “procreate” in a positive sense. A fuller form of this etiology, known to us indirectly through the Book of Mormon text and directly through the restored text of the Joseph Smith Translation, creates additional wordplay on “Cain” that associates his name with murder to “get gain.” This fuller narrative is thus also an etiology for organized evil—secret combinations “built up to get power and gain” (Ether 8:22–23; 11:15). The original etiology exerted a tremendous influence on …

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Three Streams Of Gratitude For Jesus, Mitt Romney

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

Three streams of gratitude for Jesus have arisen during my lifetime. The first crested when as a child, fearing polio or tornadoes or intruders, I learned that “Jesus loves me.” Not only did “the Bible tell me so,” but also my mother and my Bishop. I felt Jesus looking down on me, protecting me, caring for me, answering my prayers. As life progressed, I came to learn that Jesus would not always intervene to shield me from the trials and travails of life, but I knew that He loved me and cared.

A Welcome Introduction, Gregory L. Smith

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

Brian C. Hales has established himself as an authority on Latter-day Saint plural marriage. Following his initial award-winning work on “fundamentalist” plural marriage,2 Hales produced an impressive and exhaustive three-volume history of Joseph Smith’s polygamy and its attendant theology.3 (Throughout the review, when referring to this longer work, I will denominate it JSP.)

Questioning: The Divine Plan, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Some critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, chiefly of the secular variety, claim that Latter-day Saints are mind-controlled robots who are forbidden to think for themselves. I collected an example of this claim nearly twenty years ago that will serve to represent many other such expressions before and since.

A Mormon Theodicy: Jacob And The Problem Of Evil, Val Larsen

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

Lehi’s son Jacob was troubled by a great theological mystery of his and our day — the problem of evil. If God is both all good and all-powerful, how is it possible for the world to be so full of human and natural evils? Jacob was able to elicit from the Lord responses to the question of why He permits evil to flourish in this world. The Lord elucidates the perennial problem of evil for Jacob and us in three distinct genres and at three different levels of abstraction: at a metaphysical level in a philosophical patriarchal blessing, at a …

References

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

No abstract provided.

Psalm 82 In Contemporary Latter-Day Saint Tradition, Daniel O. Mcclellan

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

The nature and function of Psalm 82 has long been a subject of debate within biblical scholarship.1 The text is rather brief and has no real significant textual instabilities,2 but it stands out within the Hebrew Bible as a text particularly steeped in mythological imagery. Precritical exegetes understood the gods of the narrative to be human judges, but subsequent textual discoveries and concomitant lexicographical advances, combined with more critical methodologies, have largely undermined that reading.3 A divine assembly setting has become widely accepted since the middle of the twentieth century,4 and more contemporary scholarship focuses on the psalm’s possible distinction …

Say Now Shibboleth, Or Maybe Cumorah, Loren Blake Spendlove

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

The Deseret Alphabet represents a bold but failed attempt by 19th century LDS Church leaders to revolutionize English language orthography. As 21st century members of the LDS Church, we can benefit from this less than successful experiment by studying the 1869 Deseret Alphabet Book of Mormon and learning how early church members most likely pronounced Book of Mormon names.

“The Great And Terrible Judgments Of The Lord”: Destruction And Disaster In 3 Nephi And The Geology Of Mesoamerica, Neal Rappleye

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

Over recent decades, several Latter-day Saint scholars and scientists have offered analysis and comparison to geologic events and the destruction recorded in 3 Nephi 8-9. Jerry Grover makes an important contribution to this literature as he provides background on geologic processes and phenomena, details the geologic features of the Tehuantepec region (Mesoamerica), and applies this information to not only the description of 3 Nephi 8-9, but other incidents in the Book of Mormon likely connected to geologic events. In doing so, Grover yields new insights into the narratives he examines, and adds clarity to geographic details that have been subject …

Freemasonry And The Origins Of Modern Temple Ordinances, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

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

Joseph Smith taught that the origins of modern temple ordinances go back beyond the foundation of the world.1 Even for believers, the claim that rites known anciently have been restored through revelation raises complex questions because we know that revelation almost never occurs in a vacuum. Rather, it comes most often through reflection on the impressions of immediate experience, confirmed and elaborated through subsequent study and prayer.2 Because Joseph Smith became a Mason not long before he began to introduce others to the Nauvoo endowment, some suppose that Masonry must have been the starting point for his inspiration on temple …

Seeing Ourselves Through The Eyes Of A Friendly And Thoughtful Evangelical, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Some Latter-day Saints will recall Richard Mouw from the introductory remarks that he offered in November 2004 when the Evangelical Protestant apologist Ravi Zacharias was the featured speaker at a special interfaith meeting in the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. In the course of his remarks, Professor Mouw apologized to Latter-day Saints for the way in which Evangelicals have often treated the Mormon faith. Carrie Moore, of the Deseret News, reported about Zacharias’s speech on 15 November 2004:

The Stromata Vol. 56, No. 1, Calvin Theological Seminary

Stromata (1956-2020)

Inside This Issue

2- There’s a Want and There’s a Need by Benjamin Gandy

5- The Meaning of καινὴ κτίσις in Paul’s Epistles by Chungyeol Lim

29- A Wise Woman from Tekoa: Lady Wisdom in the Court of King David? by Doren G. Snoek

41- The Reasons of the Christian Religion: Richard Baxter’s Apologetics in its Seventeenth-Century Context by Shelby Gemmen

61- The Significance of ἀρχή in Colossians 11:8 and Revelation 3:14 in Light of Roman Imperialism by Kyusung Jang

79- Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us by Christine Pohl by Blake Campbell

Human Rights: A Jurisprudential And Objective Perspective With Application To The United Arab Emirates., Dr. Mahmoud Ismaeil Mohamed Mashal

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Papers | بحوث هيئة التدريس المحكمة

No abstract provided.

“Pia Desideria” Reimagined For Contemporary Theological Education, Benjamin D. Espinoza

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Elements Of Cultic Prophecy In Psalm 75., Nielsen A. Tomazini

CTS Master of Theology (ThM) Theses

This work defends the thesis that Psalm 75 is the result of the participation of cult prophets in the worship of Israel. We argue that Gunkel’s form critical method and Mowinckel’s cult functional approach provides the necessary features to satisfactory explain the switches in speakers and addressees in this psalm. Additionally, we conclude that cultic prophecy is a valid approach to interpret the so-called “prophetic psalms” in the Psalter and, consequently, to interpret Psalm 75. In search for more arguments in defense of our thesis we use 2 Chronicles 20 as an example of the participation of prophets in a …

Junior Topics Outlined 1908, Ella N. Wood

Books

No abstract provided.

How To Play, Amos R. Wells

Books

No abstract provided.

Deeper Yet: Meditations For The Quiet Hour, Clarence E. Eberman

Books

No abstract provided.

Luto 7-¡Aunque Mueras, Vivirás!, Marcos Kempff

Crisis y luto

Luto 7-¡Aunque mueras, vivirás!

The Marian Library Newsletter: Issue No. 62, University Of Dayton. Marian Library

Marian Library Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Negotiating The Doing To Being Boundary In J. Robert Clinton's Leadership Emergence Theory, Charles W. Sattgast

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to the research of J. Robert Clinton only a third of leaders finish well. Clinton describes a developmental barrier he refers to as “the doing to being” boundary that many leaders face in their forties or fifties. This barrier requires leaders to undergo a paradigm shift from finding their meaning and fulfillment in achievement to ministry that flows out of being. According to Clinton many leaders fail to successfully negotiate this important transition which contributes to the alarming failure rate of leaders. This research project addressed this problem by exploring the nature and meaning of doing and being and …

Explicit And Implicit Religion In Doctor Who And Star Trek, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

It has often been proposed that the original series of Star Trek reflected a modern, enlightenment perspective on religion, and that subsequent spinoffs like Deep Space Nine moved in a more post-modern direction. Doctor Who, the longest running science fiction show, provides an interesting basis for comparison. Both television shows offer similar tropes, and in both instances, the rhetoric that claims to explain away religion in scientific terms ends up treating it as literally true. Both shows depict our universe as populated with “natural gods” which are sometimes explicitly identified with the gods and demons of ancient human religious literature.

Mythicism And The Making Of Mark, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Carrier’s approach allows him to say that every single thing he finds in the relevant sources is “exactly what we’d expect” if mythicism is true – “as symbolic myth, every oddity is explained, and indeed expected.” This is because “they made this up” is compatible with everything that any text says – especially if one excludes in advance the possibility of using traditional critical methods and criteria for determining that some details may reflect actual historical events.

Forward To The Son Of God: Three Views Of The Identity Of Jesus, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

James McGrath's Forward to: The Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus, by Charles Lee Irons, Danny Andre Dixon, and Dustin R. Smith. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015.