Mormon Studies Commons^™

Textual Studies Of The Doctrine And Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation, Brian C. Hales

BYU Studies

Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation By William Victor Smith

Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2018.

Finding Jane, Melissa Leilani Larson

BYU Studies

The first time I tried to find Jane Manning James’s grave was in November 2016. It was a brisk autumn afternoon, and traffic was horrible. My apartment at the time was pretty far east in Salt Lake City, not too far off Foothill Drive, and I had been downtown for a play reading. I couldn’t get home because of University of Utah football traffic, so I took a detour and stopped by the city cemetery to pass the time. When I had the idea to look for Jane, the sun was already low in the sky. I parked the car …

The Return Of The King, Larry Y. Wilson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

From a Brigham Young University devotional address on 1 December 2015.

Today I would like to talk about some of the big issues of our time through the lens of history and literature as well as the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We live in a day of technological and scientific marvels. It is also a time of uncertainty—one in which many question whether or not faith and religion have a place in their lives or in the public square. You too will have to decide whether faith has an enduring place in your own life.

Response To Margaret Barker's "The Lord Is One", David J. Larsen

BYU Studies

I appreciate the opportunity to be here and to give a brief response to what Margaret Barker shared with us. I would like to talk about some of the ideas she explored and perhaps how we may apply them to our LDS scriptures to better understand what we are reading there. Barker touched on the idea of the ascent to heaven and the fact that we can find this ascent, this journey to the heavenly holy of holies, in the writing of Isaiah and other prophetic texts in the Bible. There is so much to consider as we look at …

The Kingdom Of God, Tyler Chadwick

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Polygamous Wives Writing Club: From The Diaries Of Mormon Pioneer Women, Andrea G. Radke-Moss

BYU Studies

Paula Kelly Harline. The Polygamous Wives Writing Club: From the Diaries of Mormon Pioneer Women.

New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Envisioning Brigham Young University: Foreword To John S. Tanner's Learning In The Light, Bruce C. Hafen

BYU Studies

Editor’s note: Bruce C. Hafen, an emeritus General Authority and former president of Ricks College, wrote this foreword to Learning in the Light: Selected Talks at BYU by John S. Tanner, who is the current president of BYU–Hawaii. This book, a new title offered by BYU Studies, gives insight into John Tanner the person and into his views on the Latter-day Saint endeavor to advance in light and knowledge “by study and also by faith.” The following encapsulates well the issues that have long concerned both educators and students of the Mormon community.

Future Mormon: Essays In Mormon Theology, James E. Faulconer

BYU Studies

Adam S. Miller. Future Mormon: Essays in Mormon Theology.

Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2016.

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Ann Booth's Vision And Early Conceptions Of Redeeming The Dead Among Latter-Day Saints, Christopher James Blythe

BYU Studies

On October 5, 1840, Joseph Smith addressed the general church body in Nauvoo on the subject of baptism for the dead, an ordinance he had introduced less than two months previously. On this historic occasion, the Prophet referenced a vision or dream that has until now escaped thorough study by Church historians. The vision was received by Ann Booth, a recent convert in Great Britain, and included images of John Wesley accepting the restored gospel and being baptized in the spirit world through the administration of David W. Patten. Booth’s revelation had garnered attention of missionaries in England and among …

The Latter-Day Saint Reimagining Of "The Breath Of Life" (Genesis 2:7), Dana M. Pike

BYU Studies

The creation and flood accounts in Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) contain variations on a phrase commonly translated “the breath of life.” This phrase additionally occurs in some uniquely Latter-day Saint materials relating to creation. After overviewing and analyzing this phrase and its meaning in the Bible, this paper then examines the occurrences of the phrase “the breath of life” in important early Latter-day Saint texts. The purpose of this study is to illustrate and explain how and why many Latter-day Saints have come to often employ the phrase “the breath of life,” transforming its traditional …

Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged An Unconventional War Against The Taliban To Win In Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley, Cless Young

BYU Studies

Captain Ronald Fry, with Tad Tuleja. Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged on Unconventional War against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley.

New York: Hachette Books, 2016.

Pieces Of April: From The Life And Journal Of Lance Larsen, Lance Larsen, Casualene Meyer

BYU Studies

Lance Larsen, BYU professor of English, completed in May 2017 a five-year appointment as Utah’s poet laureate. BYU Studies is pleased to present a series of journal entries from Professor Larsen, preceded by a conversation between Larsen and BYU Studies poetry editor, Casualene Meyer.

The Experience Of Love And The Limitations Of Psychological Explanation, Brent D. Slife

BYU Studies

BYU Studies has a long history of publishing the annual lecture given by the recipient of the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award, BYU’s highest faculty honor. It is with great pleasure that BYU Studies Quarterly publishes this year’s lecture by Dr. Brent D. Slife, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology. His speech was delivered as a forum address on May 16, 2017, at Brigham Young University.

Hosea Stout: Lawman, Legislator, Mormon Defender, Jay H. Buckley

BYU Studies

Stephen L. Prince. Hosea Stout: Lawman, Legislator, Mormon Defender.

Logan: Utah State University Press; Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2016.

Just South Of Zion: The Mormons In Mexico And Its Borderlands, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

BYU Studies

Just South of Zion: The Mormons in Mexico and Its Borderlands, ed. Jason H. Dormady and Jared M. Tamez (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015)

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Joseph Smith Translating Genesis, Kent P. Jackson

BYU Studies

Joseph Smith’s revision of the Bible was one of his signature projects as founder and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (originally called the Church of Christ). He began it sometime in June 1830, just three months after the first copies of the Book of Mormon came out of the bindery of the Howard and Grandin Company in Palmyra, New York. The Bible project lasted three years, until July 1833, when he dictated the last pages and declared the work finished. The venture was formidable, eventually producing seven manuscripts totaling 446 pages. Two of those manuscripts …

"We Believe The Hand Of The Lord Is In It": Memories Of Divine Intervention In The Zion's Camp Expedition, Matthew C. Godfrey

BYU Studies

On February 23, 1834, Joseph Smith attended a high council meeting in Kirtland, Ohio, and heard Lyman Wight and Parley P. Pratt explain how over a thousand members of the Church of Christ—now The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—had been violently ejected from their homes in Jackson County, Missouri. The Saints had been forced to leave the county—which had been previously identified by revelation as Zion—by irate Missouri citizens who saw Church members and their beliefs as a political and ideological threat. Hearing this report, Smith arose from his seat and declared “that he was going to Zion …

Animals In The Book Of Mormon: Challenges And Perspectives, Wade E. Miller, Matthew Roper

BYU Studies

When the Book of Mormon first appeared, skeptics said that references to horses, asses, elephants, and other animals (such as swine and cows) were out of place. During the first century after its publication, Book of Mormon critics argued that such animals never existed anywhere in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and western Europeans in the late fifteenth century. In time, however, scientific discoveries showed that species of horses, asses, elephants, and other animals had once been present in North America, although dating to an earlier period than that covered in the Book of Mormon. Encouraged by such …

Photographs Of The Fourteen Apostles Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, September And October 1898, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Ronald L. Fox

BYU Studies

Ninety-one-year-old Wilford Woodruff, fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died unexpectedly at 6:40 a.m. on Saturday morning, September 2, 1898, during a visit to San Francisco, California. Woodruff’s well-attended funeral was held six days later, at 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 8, 1898, at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sixty-six-year-old George Teasdale, one of the Church’s fourteen Apostles, reported, “Weather sunshine and fair Arose early and . . . went to Woodruff villa and saw the body of our beloved President laying in state. . . . saw the body borne into the …

From The Editor, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

A nephew recently asked me, “Why do we care about the Old Testament? Is it even relevant today?” After catching my breath, I got wondering, how many others might share this feeling as the Church Sunday School curriculum returns in 2018 to the study of the Old Testament? And for those who feel that way, might some of the intriguing articles published in BYU Studies over the years on Old Testament topics pique their interest? I would definitely hope so.

American Universities And The Birth Of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940, Heather M. Seferovich

BYU Studies

Thomas W. Simpson. American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

The Mormon Missionary: Who Is That Knocking At My Door?, Tim Zeidner

BYU Studies

Robert L. Lively Jr. The Mormon Missionary: Who IS That Knocking at My Door?

Wilton, Maine: By the Author, 2015.

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

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.