Mormon Studies Commons^™

Nauvoo Polygamy: " . . But We Called It Celestial Marriage", Thomas G. Alexander

BYU Studies

Although focusing on the introduction of plural marriage by Joseph Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy is also an analysis of the background of pre-Mormon polygamy, a consideration of the expansion of the institution, and the testimony of those who entered it. Significantly, it is the first attempt since Todd Compton's In Sacred Loneliness to provide a critical list and analysis of the women whom Joseph married. It is not, however, an attempt to provide a statistical analysis of plural marriage, and its consideration of the operation of plural family life is much shorter than we find in the works of Kathryn Daynes …

American Grace: How Religion Divides And Unites Us, James W. Phillips, Robert D. Putnam, David E. Campbell, Shaylyn R. Garrett

BYU Studies

American Grace is the next pivotal work within the social scientific study of religion that LDS readers should find interesting on many levels, including the extensive attention it gives to Mormonism. In this work, Robert Putnam (author of the national bestseller Bowling Alone) teams up with David Campbell (editor of A Matter of Faith: Religion in the 2004 Presidential Election) and field researcher Shayln Romney Garrett to examine the many facets of contemporary American religious pluralism. The authors use data from the nationally representative 2006 and 2007 waves of the Faith Matters survey, in addition to other surveys, …

Think Independently: How To Think In This World But Not Think With It, James T. Summerhays, Chauncey C. Riddle

BYU Studies

Chauncey C. Riddle, emeritus professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University, has placed an attractive capstone on his professional life with a slim and readable volume that will be of great interest to any Latter-day Saint with a strong philosophical bent. Even those without such a bent will find the book understandable and thought-provoking.

Riddle received his MA and PhD from Columbia University, and adds to his education four decades of experience as a philosophy professor. Each thought in Think Independently is carefully crafted; readers will likely have the sense that behind every sentence is a lifetime of examining, weighing, …

The Educational Philosophy Of Eliza R. Snow, Jolene Merica

BYU Studies

Although in her early life Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887) was a school teacher, she gained prominence in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints not as a teacher but as a poet and as general president of the women's organization, the Relief Society. Consequently, her educational thinking and practice remain largely unexplored facets of her contributions to her nineteenth-century Mormon community. But Snow's ideas on education appear repeatedly in her poetry and in her speeches and other writings. The author explores Snow's educational ideas as they appear in four of her poems. "Genius Emancipated" portrays the fruitful effects of …

The Book Of Mormon: The Earliest Text, Robert L. Maxwell, Royal Skousen

BYU Studies

The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text begins with a twenty-two-page introduction by Grant Hardy about the nature and coming forth of the Book of Mormon, together with an inviting call for the further study of that book within LDS, American, and world contexts; and also with a seventeen-page editor's preface by Skousen, describing the nature of the Book of Mormon text and the goals and typographical conventions of this "Yale Edition." The bulk of the book (1-738) consists of a presentation of the complete text of the Book of Mormon itself, a stemma showing the genealogy of the various …

Making Friends Down Under: The Beginnings Of Lds Missionary Work On Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia, 1961, Fred E. Woods

Faculty Publications

The year 2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the beginnings of LDS missionary work on Thursday Island. On this jubilee occasion, it is fitting to ask how the message of Mormonism came to this tiny Australian isle and how American Mormon missionaries adapted to a region far removed from their culture and homeland. Using journal entries, letters, and interviews from the first three full-time elders to preach on the island, it is possible to sketch a portrait of what these young men experienced.

Last Rites And The Dynamics Of Mormon Liturgy, Jonathan A. Stapley

BYU Studies

Jonathan Stapley tells the history of changes in death and burial practices by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a significant departure from Protestant American culture, early Mormons could administer deathbed rituals of placing their hands on the dying, anointing them with oil, and dedicating them to God. In 1922, Church leaders instructed against that practice, but it continues as a folk tradition. Early Mormons washed a deceased family member's body and clothed it and wrapped it in a white shroud; later, bodies were dressed either in good clothing or temple ceremonial clothing by Relief …

"Securing" The Prophet's Copyright In The Book Of Mormon: Historical And Legal Context For The So-Called Canadian Copyright Revelation, Stephen K. Ehat

BYU Studies

The 2009 publication of the Manuscript Revelation Books as part of the Joseph Smith Papers makes available, for the first time, the text of a revelation received in 1829 or 1830 by the Prophet Joseph Smith on securing the copyright of the Book of Mormon in all the world and selling a copyright for its publication in the four then-existing provinces of Canada. This revelation, commonly referred to as the Canadian copyright revelation, designated four of Joseph's associates to travel to Kingston, Upper Canada, to sell a copyright of the Book of Mormon. A group did travel to Kingston, but …

"Entered At Stationers' Hall": The British Copyright Registrations For The Book Of Mormon In 1841 And The Doctrine And Covenants In 1845, Edward L. Carter

BYU Studies

On April 16, 1840, eight members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met in Preston, England. One of the topics they discussed was the need to secure copyright protection for the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants in England. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles recognized the key to gaining copyright protection for Latter-day Saint scriptures in Great Britain would be registration at Stationers' Hall in London in accordance with the requirements of the Statute of Anne, Britain's copyright law since 1710. This article explains the legal process …

Biography, Lon R. Young

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

"That They May Secure It And Hold It Forever": Bluff's Revival, 1885–1886, David S. Carpenter

BYU Studies

This article is an extract of David S. Carpenter's Jens Nielson: Bishop of Bluff (BYU Studies, 2011). Home to only a couple of hundred people in 2011, Bluff is located in southeast Utah. The experiences of the hardy pioneers in this hostile and forbidding region have become legendary among Latter-day Saints. This extract tells the story of Mormon settlers in Bluff in 1884: their struggles over joint ventures, water, cattle grazing, and whether to maintain the settlement at all.

Should I Keep Trying To Work It Out? Sacred And Secular Perspectives On The Crossroads Of Divorce, Tamara A. Fackrell, Alan J. Hawkins

BYU Studies

While the divorce rate for faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is much lower than the average in the United States, still many Latter-day Saints face difficult decisions regarding serious problems in their marriages at one time or another. This article aims to help couples who find themselves at a crossroads, pondering whether their marriages can be repaired or would best be ended. Alan J. Hawkins, a professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University, and Tamara A. Fackrell, an attorney and PhD candidate in marriage, family, and human development at Brigham …

Hourglass, Dixie L. Partridge

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry, Karen L. Davidson, Susan E. Howe, Jill Mulvay Derr

BYU Studies

It is unfortunate but nevertheless true that most of today's educated readers do not understand, are indifferent to, or even dislike poetry. Given that fact, many readers might pass up Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry without so much as a glance at its contents. That would be a mistake. In preparing this comprehensive collection of Eliza R. Snow's poetry, editors Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lynn Davidson have rightly understood that Eliza's writings have great significance in their relationship to her personal life as well as the religious and historical events to which she was responding. Derr and Davidson …

A Search For Place: Eight Generations Of Henrys And The Settlement Of Utah's Uintah Basin, David S. Carpenter, F. Lamond Tullis

BYU Studies

LaMond Tullis, emeritus professor of political science at Brigham Young University and author of Mormons in Mexico and Lord and Peasant in Peru, among other works, tries in his latest book to put his ancestors in their rightful place. He tells the story of the Henrys, from the Scotch-Irish John Henry who settled in Rhode Island in the late 1600s down to the generation of his mother's family, who settled in the Uintah Basin. Migrating from New England through New York to the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains, these westering Henrys are placed by Tullis into larger contexts, their stories …

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

A 17-Year Longitudinal Study Of Religion And Mental Health In A Mormon Sample, Jeremy D. Bartz, P. Scott Richards, Timothy B. Smith, Lane Fischer

Faculty Publications

In 1984, 1987, and 2001, data were collected on a religiously devout group of college students (N=53) in an effort to better understand the process of religious development and the relationship between religiosity and mental health. This study analyzes those data by examining the relationship between devoutness and psychopathology over time, the correlations between intrinsic religiosity and indices of psychopathology, the stability of religious motivations over the course of adulthood, and the stability of two different religious development styles that were identified in 1984. This study found that (1) these religiously devout individuals have consistently fallen within the normal range …

Latter-Day Saint Poetry And Songs Of The Utah War, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

During the Utah War (1857–58), Latter‐day Saints wrote and published a large number of poems and song expressing their loyalty to the Church, anger at the federal government, and defiance of the United States soldiers who were marching toward Utah Territory. This article places those poems and stories in context and shares many of them.

The Law...Could Not Be Kept Here: Consecration In Nauvoo, 1840-1842, Mitchell K. Schaefer

Student Works

Since the earliest days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there has been an ongoing discussion on the law of consecration and stewardship, the Church's earliest attempt to establish what Joseph Smith's revelations called Zion, a society unified in heart and mind and void of both poverty and materialism. Within a decade of Joseph Smith's death Orson Pratt, and other Church leaders, taught said doctrine as though Joseph had revoked or rescinded the law sometime in the 1830s and that it was no longer necessary for the Saints to practice the principles contained therein. This ideology has …

30th Annual Conference Of The Mphs, Waianae, Hawaii, 2011

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Descriptions Of Old Laie, 1871-1921, Riley Moffat

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Along with the few photographs of La’ie during the early plantation era from about 1865 to 1920, several people made verbal sketches of La’ie. La’ie and Hawai’i always have been considered exotic, and before photographs were common in newspapers, magazines and books, a verbal description was a highly developed means of sharing with readers what a place was like. It was meant to help a reader visualize a place the way we now use photographic images. We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words; here follows some examples of people using words in the place of a …

The Branch At Nanakuli, Ross Moody

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Brother Low reports, "A jack hammer was necessary to dig footing the entire length of the building except the spot where the baptismal font was designed in the plans. Considerable time and effort was spent trying to get me to relocate the building in another location rather than the one chosen by the authorities, but I refused to change the plan. Consequently, the excavating for the font was carried on by two sisters and was accomplished with ease."

The Lds Church In Waianae From A Bishop, A Stake President, And A Patriach's Point Of View, Reuben Paet

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

June 30, 1935--Oahu Stake Organized Nanakuli Branch became a branch in the newly organized stake with Joseph K. Kauhi as Branch President.

Walter Spalding And The Building Of The Laie Temple, Riley Moffat, Max Moody, Lloyd Walsh

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Ross Moody alerted me to an interview his father, Max Moody, temple president from 1978 to 1982, recorded with Walter Spalding of the Spalding Construction Company after a dinner party at the home of Max Moody in Kahala with Hawai‘i temple president Lloyd Walch on the evening of May 28, 1973.

A Bishop's Experience In The Nanakuli Branch And The Waianae Ward, Joseph Allen

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

I arrived in Hawaii in 1957 to teach at Waianae High School. Soon after, I was introduced to the members of the Nanakuli Branch. At this time, Sam Alama was the Branch President with Ash Tun Soon as a counselor, James Chong and Bill Keiki were clerks.

"With The Voice Together Shall They Sing", Laurence P. Hemming

BYU Studies

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe that in their temples, as they make covenants with God and participate in worship, they are restoring ancient practices that were lost over the centuries.

Mormons have participated with people of other religions in the scholarly study of the meaning and effect of temples in history and in modern worship. This article by Laurence Hemming was first presented at Brigham Young University in September 2009 as part of the Vulgate seminar.

Laurence Hemming, a British Catholic scholar and theologian, looks back to the ancient Temple of Jerusalem to …

Diversity In Nineteenth-Century St. Louis, Robert D. Palmer, Rachel Cope

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Letter Concerning Story Of Attempted Bombing Of The Laie Temple, James Hallstrom

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

As I promised I am sending you information on the December 7th Incident and the Miracle of all Miracles.

Exhibit A is a copy of the various stories the Church has on file in Salt Lake City. They maintain records on inspirational stories and even "rumors" that come to light. Exhibit B just surfaced last year in Arizona and varies just a little from the earlier version. An Elder Abe Ekins and his wife claim they met the pilot while they were serving as missionaries in Japan in 1985. They are searching through their dairies to find his name. …

The Four Discourses Of Mormonism, Joseph M. Spencer

BYU Studies

Alain Badiou, an important French philosopher, used a theoretical model of discourses to analyze the epistles of Saint Paul. Joseph Spencer applies Badiou's reading of Paul to Mormonism to answer the question, "What does it mean to be Mormon?"

Badiou viewed Greek and Jewish thought as a closed circle—Hellenistic discourse as a totalizing universalism, and Jewish discourse as an exception to Greek universalism based on "the prophetic sign, the miracle, [and] election." Paul's apostolic discourse broke free from this closed circle, for he was concerned with faith, or fidelity, to a particular event, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Spencer identifies …

"And Gladly Wolde He Lerne And Gladly Teche", Marilyn Bushman-Carlton

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.