Religion Commons^™

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Mormons In The Piazza: History Of The Latter-Day Saints In Italy, Mauro Properzi

BYU Studies

James A. Toronto, Eric R. Dursteler, and Michael W. Homer. Mormons in the Piazza: History of the Latter-day Saints in Italy.

Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017.

An Edward Martin Photograph Of The Construction Of The Great Tabernacle, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Ronald L. Fox

BYU Studies

October 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of the first general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle. On October 6, 1867, the first day of the conference, Brigham Young prayed,

O God our Heavenly Father, who dwells in the heavens, in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ we come before thee at this time to worship thee on this occasion. . . .

We pray thee in the name of Jesus to bless this congregation who have assembled within the walls of this house for the first time to …

Catholic And Mormon: A Theological Conversation, Elliott D. Wise

BYU Studies

Stephen H. Webb and Alonzo L. Gaskill. Catholic and Mormon: A Theological Conversation.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Heralding A New Age Of Book Of Mormon Scholarship, Steven T. Densley Jr.

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

Book of Mormon Central has produced a fantastic resource for students and teachers of the Book of Mormon. Knowing Why updates prior discoveries and provides new and interesting insights based upon solid scholarship.

Aviophobia, Kim Webb Reid

BYU Studies

The January day SkyWest Flight 1834 smashed into a private two-seater plane midair over my elementary school, I was at recess. Some of us snatched at clothes drifting down from the sky because we thought they should be handed over to the school’s lost and found. We didn’t know yet of all the lost things that could never be returned: a jagged wing blocking my friend’s front door; a pilot’s black leather seat perched on my neighbor’s roof; the lives of ten passengers, captains, and crew. Grown-ups spoke in whispers about the carnage found in backyards and closed roads and …

Reading Competency In The Book Of Mormon: Abish And Other Model Readers, Michael J. Call

BYU Studies

In chapter 19 of the book of Alma, we are introduced to Abish, described in the narrative as one of the “Lamanitish women” serving in King Lamoni’s court (Alma 19:16). Mormon’s account of her experience on the day of the king’s conversion is compelling for many reasons, but I would like to explore here how Abish and other important figures in the text function as model readers, exhibiting the traits and competencies that the Book of Mormon authors expected the future reader of their text to bring to the reading act. In fact, a careful analysis of important reading acts …

Let Your Hearts And Minds Expand: Reflections On Faith, Reason, Charity, And Beauty, Roger Terry

BYU Studies

Let Your Hearts and Minds Expand: Reflections on Faith, Reason, Charity, and Beauty, by Thomas F. Rogers (Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, 2016)

Mormonism And The Making Of A British Zion, Ronald E. Bartholomew

BYU Studies

Matthew Lyman Rasmussen. Mormonism and the Making of a British Zion.

Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2016.

The Mormon Church And Blacks: A Documentary History, Stephanie Fudge

BYU Studies

The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History, edited by Matthew L. Harris and Newell G. Bringhurst (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2015)

The Lord Is One, Margaret Barker

BYU Studies

This is a lightly edited transcript of a lecture delivered by Old Testament scholar Margaret Barker at Brigham Young University on November 9, 2016. Following the lecture, responses were given by Andrew C. Skinner, David J. Larsen, and Daniel C. Peterson. Edited transcripts of the responses follow in this issue of BYU Studies Quarterly.

An Improvisation On Margaret Baker's "The Lord Is One", Daniel C. Peterson

BYU Studies

It’s a privilege to be here, and I want to thank Dr. Barker for a really, really interesting, dense, and rich paper. What I’m going to do is not so much add to it or comment on it as do an improvisation based upon it. The thought that came to my mind as I was reading it—and as I was thinking about it just now as she was reading it—was that, first of all, Latter-day Saints are naturally going to be very sympathetic to an attempt to view the temple as a model of the universe, something of a scale-model …

Goddess Looking Up, Sowing Mercy, Tyler Chadwick

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Geology Of The Book Of Mormon, Benjamin R. Jordan

BYU Studies

Jerry D. Grover Jr. Geology oof the Book of Mormon.

Provo, Utah: By the author, 2014.

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

"In The Land Of The Chaldeans": The Search For Abraham's Homeland Revisited, Stephen O. Smoot

BYU Studies

Readers of the Hebrew Bible first encounter Abram (later Abraham), the spiritual father of the three great monotheistic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—at the end of Genesis 11. There they discover he was the son of a certain Terah and claimed “Ur of the Chaldeans” as his home (Gen. 11:28). Being as central as Abraham is to the patriarchal narratives of Genesis and, subsequently, to the faith of scores of believers across the globe, both faithful and nonbelieving readers have turned a critical eye toward the passages where Abraham makes an appearance and have attempted to discern if any historicity lies …

The Political Climate Of Saxony During The Conversion Of Karl G. Maeser: With Special Reference To The Franklin D. Richards Letter To Brigham Young, November 1855, A. Legrand Richards

BYU Studies

In September 1855, Franklin D. Richards, who was serving as “President of the Church in Europe,” toured the Church membership on the Continent. In three weeks, he visited the members in France, Switzerland, and Italy, bearing testimony, strengthening the members, and hearing the stories of their struggles.

Constructively Broken, Sarah D'Evegnee

BYU Studies

“Crazy world. Cockeyed.”

Mr. Savo, in The Chosen, by Chiam Potok

I Have Traced A Jagged Autumn, Scott Cameron

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Evolving Faith: Wanderings Of A Mormon Biologist, Blake T. Ostler

BYU Studies

Steven L. Peck. Evolving Faith: Wanderings of a Mormon Biologist.

Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute, 2015.

Defender: The Life Of Daniel H. Wells, Cherry B. Silver

BYU Studies

Quentin Thomas Wells. Defender: The Life of Daniel H. Wells.

Logan: Utah State University Press, 2016.

The Bible, Mormon Scripture, And The Rhetoric Of Allusivity, Jeffrey D. Tucker

BYU Studies

Nicholas J. Frederick. The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the Rhetoric of Allusivity.

Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016.

Far Away In The West: Reflections On The Mormon Pioneer Trail, Veronica J. Anderson

BYU Studies

Far Away in the West: Reflections on the Mormon Pioneer Trail, edited by Scott C. Esplin, Richard E. Bennett, Susan Easton Black, and Craig K. Manscill (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2015)

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

"I Was Not Ready To Die Yet": William Stowell's Utah War Ordeal, R. Devan Jensen, Kenneth L. Alford

BYU Studies

In the fall of 1857, twenty-one-year-old Cynthia Jane Stowell bade farewell to her husband, William R. R. Stowell, a lieutenant in the Utah militia working to hinder the US Army from entering Utah Territory. Cynthia, who was pregnant, was tending nine children—six of whom were orphans she and William had adopted. Sophronia Stowell, a plural wife of William, also had children to tend. That winter they received news that William had been captured and was being held as a prisoner of war at Camp Scott, near Fort Bridger, in present-day Wyoming. The two women must have worried that they might …

Jewels, Michelle Forstrom

BYU Studies

The first time it happened, I was seven. My grandma had mailed me a tiny ring for my birthday, an aquamarine set in silver. I clapped my hands and couldn’t stop jumping when I saw it. It was the first piece of jewelry I had ever owned; like wearing a piece of the sky. I took it everywhere—presenting my hand to the world, palm down, as if I were queen. It was the most beautiful ring in the history of rings.

Ways Of Thinking, Dawn Baker Brimley

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Kingship, Democracy, And The Message Of The Book Of Mormon, Gregory Steven Dundas

BYU Studies

Chapter 29 of the book of Mosiah, in which the people of Zarahemla transform their government from a monarchy to a rule of judges, is a crucial—indeed, pivotal—chapter in the Book of Mormon. Modern readers of the book, particularly those of us raised in Western nations, are prone to react very positively to this story, viewing it as the creation of a free, democratic system, and we are inclined to read this account with something of the same thrill with which we observed the freedom-loving, democratic urges of peoples worldwide, most notably in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in more …

From The Editor, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

The year 2017 promises to be a very exciting year for readers of BYU Studies Quarterly. With many challenges as well as positive developments happening around the world, we expect that our readers are on the constant lookout for solid information and commendable perspectives. The carefully written and rigorously peer-reviewed pages of this journal continue to offer new insights into old problems and to bring old wisdom to bear on new issues. With this in mind, my thoughts returned to the frequently cited section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

The Ancient Doctrine Of The Two Ways And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

BYU Studies

From its opening pages to the end, the Bible describes a bifurcated world in which God bids, commands, and teaches the people he has created to follow him in the way of righteousness, and in which the devil leads people into wickedness. And while great blessings and cursings are promised and realized in this life according to which way people choose to live their lives, the final judgment comes after this life when all will be judged according to whether they chose to follow good or evil. This way of seeing things surfaces explicitly in various texts and is known …