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Articles 241 - 256 of 256

Full-Text Articles in Mormon Studies

The Coming Forth Of The Book Of Mormon In The Twentieth Century, Noel B. Reynolds Aug 1998

The Coming Forth Of The Book Of Mormon In The Twentieth Century, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

I hope this study, however preliminary it might appear, will provide a sound first step toward developing our self-understanding as Latter-day Saints of the history of Book of Mormon use in the twentieth century and the phenomenal increase in understanding, appreciation, and study that has taken place over the last three to four decades. This study may also offer one useful perspective for the gradually emerging history of cultural Mormonism and its antipathy to the Book of Mormon. This study is grounded in the analysis of a number of possible indicators of intensity of interest in the Book of Mormon …

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The Star-Spangled Banner Forever Be Furled: The Mormon Exodus As Liberty, Richard Bennett Jan 1998

The Star-Spangled Banner Forever Be Furled: The Mormon Exodus As Liberty, Richard Bennett

Faculty Publications

You wanted to know what we waited to move for, wrote Sidney Tanner, an early Mormon pioneer, to his family in the East. "It was to go to a land of freedom where we could enjoy the peace of society and our liberty. We did not want to live in a country where there was no peace, no liberty and its citizens [were] not allowed their rights." So much has been written about the Mormon Trail that one wonders if there is anything of consequence to be said. Surely all the prominent details are well known. And were it not …

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Nephite Kingship Reconsidered, Noel B. Reynolds Aug 1997

Nephite Kingship Reconsidered, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This paper extends and updates previous efforts to understand the political dynamic of the Book of Mormon by looking at four themes or issues that can be developed from the text itself. The first is an expansion of earlier treatments of the contradictory political ideologies of the Nephites and Lamanites, which informed relations between these two groups across their thousand-year history. The second is an exploration of the historical possibility that Nephi may never, in fact, have been anointed as king of the Nephite people, which raises in turn a possible need to reassess the character of Nephite kingship. The …

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Some Reflections At Winter Quarters, Richard E. Bennett Jan 1997

Some Reflections At Winter Quarters, Richard E. Bennett

Faculty Publications

On this Memorial Day weekend, it is altogether fitting and appropriate that we gather today at this sacred place to remember the lives of our progenitors everywhere. From Gettysburg to Hiroshima, from Arlington to Flanders Field, and from the city cemetery to the family plot, we honor our dead ancestors and friends long since stilled. Whether they died on the battle fields of war or perished in the labor of giving birth, we honor them. Whether on the trail to a new life in Oregon or a new chance in Ukraine, they all were the lifeline to our present bright …

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Inmates Of Honor: Mormon Cohabs In The Idaho Penitentiary, 1885-1890, Fred E. Woods, Merle W. Wells Sep 1996

Inmates Of Honor: Mormon Cohabs In The Idaho Penitentiary, 1885-1890, Fred E. Woods, Merle W. Wells

Faculty Publications

While stories of Idaho's Mormon polygamists' capture and trial are well known, the prison experiences of these men are not. Since prison overcrowding was a nineteenth-century problem too, they served their sentences in several states. Many kept diaries or journals, and from these personal accounts we can learn a good deal about their life in prison.

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The True Points Of My Doctrine, Noel B. Reynolds Jan 1996

The True Points Of My Doctrine, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

In a 1991 BYU Studies article, I identified and analyzed three core Book of Mormon passages in which the gospel or doctrine of Jesus Christ is defined. Each of these passages presents the gospel as a six-point formula or message about what men must do if they will be saved. In the present article I go on to examine all other Book of Mormon references to the six elements in this formula. Faith is choosing to trust in Jesus Christ in all that one does. Repentance is turning away from the life of sin by making a covenant to obey …

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On The Cross-Cultural Attitudes And Experiences Of Recently Returned Lds Missionaries, Timothy B. Smith, Richard N. Roberts, Burton Kerr Jan 1996

On The Cross-Cultural Attitudes And Experiences Of Recently Returned Lds Missionaries, Timothy B. Smith, Richard N. Roberts, Burton Kerr

Faculty Publications

To examine the effect of the mission experience upon attitudes towards members of different cultures, 273 recently returned LDS missionaries and 493 LDS college students who had not yet served missions were administered measures of racial attitudes. Subsequently, the highest and lowest fifth of missionaries who had served in non-English speaking nations were interviewed. Results indicated that the missionaries did differ from the non-missionary sample in their racial attitudes and that several key qualitative pre-mission and mission experiences distinguished between the two groups interviewed. Prejudice, with its attendant train of evil, is giving way before the force of truth, whose …

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Seals And Sealing Among Ancient And Latter-Day Israelites, Dana M. Pike Jan 1994

Seals And Sealing Among Ancient And Latter-Day Israelites, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

When a Latter-day Saint encounters the terms seal and sealing, thoughts of temples and eternal marriage come immediately to mind. In a more secular context, we may look for the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" when purchasing certain products, and we obtain a notary's seal on important documents. What we may not realize is that our use of secular seals and our religious concepts of sealing have a history that can be traced back several thousands of years to the ancient Near East. Knowledge of the history of seals and sealing helps us to understand the figurative use of these …

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Nephite Uses And Interpretations Of Zenos, Noel B. Reynolds Jul 1992

Nephite Uses And Interpretations Of Zenos, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The allegory of the olive tree attributed to the ancient prophet Zenos and copied from the plates of brass into the small plates by Jacob was a source used by several Book of Mormon prophets. Lehi, Nephi, Jacob, and Alma seemed to be relying on the allegory at several points in the elaboration of their own visions, prophecies, and teachings. This paper provides a systematic documentation of this phenomenon, including passages that have not previously been linked to Zenos. It also demonstrates how the interpretations of the allegory by the earliest Nephite prophets advanced distinctive concepts and language that also …

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The Gospel Of Jesus Christ As Taught By The Nephite Prophets, Noel B. Reynolds Jan 1991

The Gospel Of Jesus Christ As Taught By The Nephite Prophets, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Three definitional passages in the Book of Mormon define the gospel or doctrine of Christ precisely as the way or means by which an individual can come to Christ and be saved. Jesus Christ is quoted in all three passages teaching a six-part formula: All men and women who will (1) believe or trust in him, (2) repent of all their sins, and (3) witness to the Father that they have so repented and taken his name upon them, will (4) receive a remission of sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost, which will guide and sustain them as …

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The Brass Plates Version Of Genesis, Noel B. Reynolds Mar 1990

The Brass Plates Version Of Genesis, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Phraseology occurring in Joseph Smith's "Book of Moses" matches Book of Mormon passages, but not the Bible. Given that the Book of Mormon claims a different source, the brass plates, this finding would be consistent with the conclusion that the Book of Moses and the brass plates versions of Genesis are more similar to each other than to the modern biblical version.

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Creating A Shared History: Serial Narratives In The Young Woman's Journal, 1889-1894, Sherry Baker Dec 1988

Creating A Shared History: Serial Narratives In The Young Woman's Journal, 1889-1894, Sherry Baker

Faculty Publications

"Creating a Shared History: Serial Narratives in The Young Woman's Journal, 1889-1894" is a cultural press history and textual analysis of contemporary indigenous serial literature in a nineteenth-century Mormon young women's periodical. It tests press historian Catherine Covert's assertions that some of the functions of the press are (1) to be a conservator of values, and (2) to engender harmony and affiliation among community members. The investigator places the Journal within the historical/ cultural context from which it was written, and identifies specific messages in the serial narratives that encouraged the preservation of Mormon values and Mormon community affiliation. The …

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Eastward To Eden: The Nauvoo Rescue Missions, Richard E. Bennett Dec 1986

Eastward To Eden: The Nauvoo Rescue Missions, Richard E. Bennett

Faculty Publications

I have felt sensibly there was a good deal of suffering among the saints in Nauvoo, as there has been amongst us, but the Lord God who has fed us all the day long, has his care still over us and when the saints are chastened enough, it will cease. I have ever believed the Lord would suffer a general massacre of this people by a mob. If ten thousand men were to come against us, and no other way was open for our deliverance, the earth would swallow them up (Journal History, 27 Sept. 1846). These were the words …

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Cousin Laman In The Wilderness: The Beginnings Of Brigham Young's Indian Policy, Richard E. Bennett Jan 1986

Cousin Laman In The Wilderness: The Beginnings Of Brigham Young's Indian Policy, Richard E. Bennett

Faculty Publications

Historians of the American West have observed that compared with most other mid-19th century American overlanders, whether Oregon-bound farmers or California Agronauts, the Mormons enjoyed a relatively more amicable, more peaceful relationship with the American Indian. Furthermore several contend with cause that Brigham Young was the principal architect of peace with the Ute, Shoshoni, Navaho, Hopi, and other tribes in the deserts and valleys of "Deseret," the Mormon Zion in the Great Basin Kingdom. Leonard Arrington, Davis Bitton, James Allen, and other modern writers have argued that Young pursued a conciliatory (if not self protective and condescending) policy toward the …

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Reason And Revelation, Noel B. Reynolds Jun 1981

Reason And Revelation, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This paper outlines and recommends a distinctively LDS approach to the ancient questions about reason and revelation in religious communities. It treats the variety of spiritual experience and distinguishes them from sentimentality and other pseudo spiritual experiences. It also explains how reason and revelation are important helps for one another and how better education can help individuals use reason and science to strengthen the role of revelation in their lives.

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The Mysteries Of God, Noel B. Reynolds Mar 1973

The Mysteries Of God, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

LDS discourse commonly uses the term mysteries to refer to truths that we don’t know or shouldn’t worry about. But the scriptures—and particularly the Book of Mormon—speak of the mysteries very positively, as something we should seek to know. The scriptural terminology appears to refer to the things of God that the faithful come to know—things that nonbelievers never understand.

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