Mormon Studies Commons^™

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Seven Seals, The Age Of The Earth, And Ongoing Revelation, Nicholas J. Frederick

BYU Studies

One of the more intriguing elements of the book of Revelation is its mention of a book sealed with seven seals (Rev. 5:1). As John’s vision progresses over the next two chapters, each of the seven seals is broken. These have been interpreted by scholars in a variety of ways. One interpretation, typically known as the “historicist” view, saw the seals as representing periods of time in the earth’s history, whether the entirety of the earth’s history from Adam on or just parts, such as early Christian history.1

Practical Faith For The Real World Reading As If, Believing As If, Kylie Turley

BYU Studies

A few years ago, I was talking with some friends about the Book of Mormon. Actually, if you know me much at all, then you know that those last five words are unnecessary. Of course I was talking about the Book of Mormon. My children have been known to complain that the Book of Mormon is all I talk about. But let’s continue the story: One of my friends indicated that we “cannot read the Book of Mormon down to the word level.” She insisted that it was just not possible to read it “as if individual words are meaningful.”

The Heyday Of The Mia Latter-Day Saint Youth Programs In The Postwar Era, Lisa Olsen Tait, Amber C. Taylor

BYU Studies

On Saturday, June 16, 1956, a crowd of twenty thousand spectators filled the University of Utah football stadium, nestled against the foothills to the east of Salt Lake City, to witness the Mutual Improvement Association (MIA) Dance-Drama Festival of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hopes were high that the weather would hold, since Friday night’s performance had been canceled because of rain. The weather did cooperate, and for over two hours, a massive procession of brightly costumed young women and men, representing almost every stake in the Church, presented a spectacular program of intricately choreographed dances and …

Using A Reconciliation Approach To Teach Evolution May Help Religious Students Remain Faithful, Danny Ferguson, Ethan Tolman, Spencer Shumway, Cassidy Shively

BYU Studies

Many religious people struggle to accept the theory of evolution, and about 40 percent of Americans reject the theory outright, preferring a literalist, creationist account that confirms a young earth.1 As Latter-day Saints ourselves, we understand the trepidation surrounding the idea that perhaps evolution contradicts our belief of an earth created by a loving Father and Savior. People may feel that the scientific theory of evolution implies that there is no need for a God or that our existence is simply an accident. As college-age youth, we are familiar with the struggles that students face as they confront evolution in …

Getting To 100, Vauna Davis

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Review: Latter-Day Saint Art: A Critical Reader Edited By Amanda K. Beardsley And Mason Kamana Allred Oxford University Press, 2024, Maddie Blonquist

BYU Studies

The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts’ impressive new volume, Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader (Oxford University Press, 2024), makes an ambitious and long-awaited contribution to the fields of religious studies, art history, visual and material culture, and cultural theory. This edited collection is both intellectually and physically substantial, with over 600 pages, nearly 250 reproductions, and twenty-two authors from a myriad of disciplines. Scholars of history, art, film, and media studies share space with artists, museum directors, filmmakers, curators, theologians, and journalists who span the spectrum in their relationship to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The …

End Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Dear Adam, Cristie Cowles Charles

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Far West, Isaac James Richards

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Baptisms For The Dead, Stacy Delange

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Brigham Young Unfiltered His Life, Conversion, And Faith In His Own Words, Lajean Purcell Carruth

BYU Studies

On October 6, 1867, the Saints met in the new Salt Lake Tabernacle for the first time. Brigham Young rose, made some remarks about the still unfinished state of the organ, and then dedicated the tabernacle to the Lord. This dedicatory prayer was completely unknown until I found the original shorthand record of it several years ago and transcribed it; prior to that time, the earliest known dedication of the tabernacle was 1875. He 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 …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

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Artist’S Note On This Is . . ., Eli Peterson

BYU Studies

The First Vision has always been an inspiration to me—the opening of heaven, the burst of such a powerful presence that our Father in Heaven and Savior brought to the earth after nearly two thousand years.

“Not Only Men But Women Also” An Argument For Alma’S Intentional Inclusion Of Women, Cassidy Nichole Pyper

BYU Studies

In an interestingly specific inclusion of women, Alma taught the Zoramites that “[God] imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only men but women also” (Alma 32:23). This phrase suggests that Alma had an awareness of women and their ability to receive revelation despite how little the Book of Mormon explicitly includes women in its narrative.1 The Book of Mormon mentions women at drastically lower rates than even the Bible.2 Some students of the Book of Mormon are concerned not only that women are rarely spoken of in the text but also that women may have been ignored …

This Branch Of The Church The Early Development Of Local Administration In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Part 1, The Emergent Church, 1830–1845, Brandon Plewe

BYU Studies

It is easy for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to read the Doctrine and Covenants, or most basic histories of the Church, and assume that the Church has always operated like it operates today, if a bit simpler. By the mid-1830s, most significant local and general offices and titles of Church leadership that we recognize today were in place, and it is possible to interpret historical texts through a modern understanding. Occasional inconsistencies can be easily dismissed as the vagaries of frontier language.

The Wonder Is Scripture, Jared Halverson

BYU Studies

It’s an honor to be associated in any way with this institute, as it’s my second-favorite thing named after Elder Neal A. Maxwell. The first is my eldest son, whose middle name was an obvious choice, largely because my wife loves Elder Maxwell even more than she loves me, which might be a problem were it not for the fact that I agree with her. I once spent so much time in this library creating a compilation of Elder Maxwell’s talks that by the time I was finished, my wife had called the police to report a missing person. When …

What Are We To Make Of The Gold Plates?, Richard Lyman Bushman

BYU Studies

During the winter of 2020–2021, I worked on the manuscript that was eventually published as Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (Oxford University Press, 2023). The book was an attempt to describe the many ways the plates had been imagined from the time they were first described as a “Golden Bible” in the June 1829 Wayne Sentinel1 down to the Sunday School and missionary lessons today. I marveled at the enduring interest in the plates over time, not only among Latter-day Saints but also among other American writers. In my lifetime, the plates had appeared in the Book of …

James Walks Home From Nain, Robbie Taggart

BYU Studies

A pleasant place, he thinks as they descend the steep hill where sparrows dance, making their way among the tombs that line their narrow path. He imagines the lives and dreams of the inhabitants of these stone rooms. The way their voices have flown like leaves, the way they abide like trees.

“Struck With Wonder And Amazement” On Reading The Book Of Mosiah, Joseph M. Spencer

BYU Studies

The Wonder of Scripture”: that’s the title of this lecture series.1 Book of Mormon scholar that I am, that title draws my mind to a passage in our keystone scripture. It’s a passage where the word “wonder” is used in connection with people’s responses to sacred records—to scripture. Tucked away somewhere most of us wouldn’t think to look, the Book of Mormon stages a remarkable scene that’s precisely about the wonder of scripture. I can’t help seeing that as just a little too appropriate, so I’d like to examine that scene. I’m going to argue that Mormon, serving simultaneously in …

Seam Allowance, Sarah Hafen D’Evegnée

BYU Studies

The shirts hang like a battalion of cotton soldiers on the large metal rack sticking out of the wall. I remove them from the hangers one by one, letting my fingers linger over the stripes, checks, and plaids. Some of them still feel new. The laundry room mingles the freshness of laundry soap with the odor of aging linoleum and tangy, rusty overtones— the same way it has for the past twenty-five years. My children’s younger faces, their grins all gaps and crowded teeth, peer out at me from an assortment of paper flowers glued to a frame on the …

Royal Skousen’S Book Of Mormon Critical Text Project, Roger Terry

BYU Studies

Between 1984 and 1986, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) published a critical text of the Book of Mormon. While this early publication was useful in certain ways, it was also woefully inadequate. It was, for instance, based on a computerized text of the 1830 printed edition of the Book of Mormon rather than on the remnants of the two handwritten manuscripts.1 Recognizing its inadequacies, Brigham Young University linguistics professor Royal Skousen began in 1988 what would become a thirty-seven- year endeavor and his life’s work: a fully professional critical text of the Book of Mormon.2

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Where Risk And Reward Meet Interfaith Engagement And Learning, Andrew C. Reed

BYU Studies

The Lutheran Bishop of Stockholm, Krister Stendahl, sought to accomplish one grand thing in the world. He hoped to help human beings learn to see others, to use Elder Dale G. Renlund’s words, “through Heavenly Father’s eyes.”1 While that may appear at first glance simple enough, the practice of doing so presents real challenges. Learning to see others as God does requires a curious empathy, one that fosters a desire to both know and appreciate. Stendahl publicly modeled what would become known as his “rules” for interfaith relationships in 1985 when he stood up for Latter-day Saints and their desire …

Words Never To Be Forgotten The Thoughtful Legacy Of Neal A. Maxwell, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

Many people in the world today cherish precious memories of times when Elder Maxwell (1926–2004) indelibly touched their lives. In so many cases, the thoughtful and thought-filled legacy of Neal A. Maxwell has left us all with a trove of words never to be forgotten.1 In subtitling this article “The Thoughtful Legacy of Neal A. Maxwell,” the ambiguity embedded there is intentional. His legacy is not only full of thought but also thoughtful. Everything he said and did was perfectly framed and eloquently stated; and, more than that, it was also perfectly thoughtful, kind, and concerned about other people. I …

“There Is Law” Joseph Smith’S Use Of Arbitration To Protect The Book Of Mormon, Jeffrey N. Walker, Andrew H. Hedges, Gerrit J. Dirkmaat

BYU Studies

This case marks the first time Joseph Smith invoked his legal rights to safeguard work connected with his prophetic calling from abuse or exploitation. The case arose from Abner Cole’s1 January 1830 efforts to publish Book of Mormon excerpts in his newspaper The Reflector, which he printed on the same Palmyra, New York, press that the Book of Mormon was being printed on. The case was evidently settled in Joseph Smith’s favor through arbitration, an out-of- court option for adjudication that New York law considered legally binding.2

This Branch Of The Church The Early Development Of Local Administration In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Part 2, The Church In Flux, 1846–1851, Brandon Plewe

BYU Studies

A primary concern of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the spiritual and physical welfare of its members, and local congregations have always been the primary mechanism for that ministry. However, the structure and leadership of local administrative organizations has changed significantly over the history of the Church, most significantly under its first two presidents, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. During these years, the terms and structures that are familiar to us—wards, presidents, bishops, stakes, and so on—emerged, but so did many practices that did not survive the 1877 Priesthood Reorganization.

Review: Latter-Day Saint Theology Among Christian Theologies By Grant Underwood William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2025, John G. Turner

BYU Studies

Grant Underwood’s Latter-day Saint Theology Among Christian Theologies is a project born out of hope. Underwood, a former Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University, has spent years in dialogue with other Christians. In particular, he was part of a “Mormon-Evangelical Dialogue” that met at least once a year for more than two decades. (Full disclosure: I attended two sessions.) Underwood didn’t only talk with other Christians. He read their theology—a lot of their theology.

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …