Mormon Studies Commons^™

Joseph Smith's Dog, Old Major, Alexander L. Baugh

BYU Studies

When it comes to history, interesting information is often found in the little-known, incidental details. Discovering the lesser-known facts in people’s lives helps one understand more about their disposition, character, temperament, motivation, and personality—who they really were and what they were like. One such aspect of the life of Joseph Smith is how he came to own a dog and his close relationship with this canine companion.

Masters Of Light: Coming Unto Christ Through Inspired Devotional Art, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

BYU Studies

Herman du Toit. Masters of Light: Coming unto Christ through Inspired Devotional Art.

Springville, Utah: Cedar Fort, 2016.

From The Editor, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

The front and back covers of this issue of BYU Studies Quarterly feature a unique stained glass window. It is found in the chapel of the La Cañada Ward meetinghouse in Southern California. Since I grew up in that ward, where my parents lived and served for fifty years, I have many special personal reasons for wanting to share these pictures with all who enjoy this journal.

Against The Wall: Johann Huber And The First Mormons In Austria, Melissa Howland

BYU Studies

Against the Wall: Johann Huber and the First Mormons in Austria, by Roger P. Minert (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2015)

The Mapmakers Of New Zion: A Cartographic History Of Mormonism, Brandon S. Plewe

BYU Studies

Richard V. Francaviglia. The Mapmakers of New Zion: A Cartographic History of Mormonism.

Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2015.

Margaret Barker's "The Lord Is One"–A Response, Andrew C. Skinner

BYU Studies

Margaret Barker’s essay “The Lord Is One” aims at extending the discussion about the doctrine of theosis or deification of humans back to its earliest scriptural roots. From a certain perspective, then, the title of the essay could very well be changed from “The Lord Is One” to “The Lord Is Many,” for by its very definition that is the nature of theosis—many gods. Barker’s paper provides a resource in helping us trace the Old Testament roots and rituals of the doctrine of theosis.

"What Is It About This Place?": Truman Madsen, Religious Education, And The Mission Of Byu, Bruce C. Hafen

BYU Studies

Barnard (“Barney”) Madsen has written a readable, thoughtful, and well-informed biography about his charismatic father, Truman Madsen. Although Truman didn’t keep a conventional journal, he maintained “journal files”—“crucial journal entries or documents he preserved for his posterity.” Those files, along with Barney’s intimate and observant relationship with his father, have now yielded rich biographical resources.

No Words, Elizabeth Dodds

BYU Studies

After all these years, I’m still afraid of getting a brain aneurysm. Just a few weeks ago in church, my head started hurting, and I reached up and felt a vein throbbing on the side of my skull. I leaned over to my uncle sitting beside me and whispered, “What if it’s a brain aneurysm?” He laughed and said it wasn’t. “But how can you be sure?” I thought. Because I looked up brain aneurysms a long time ago and found out that they have no symptoms. No warnings before they hit you like an air bag. Wham. Suddenly, there’s …

Eighth Witness: The Biography Of John Whitmer, Kyle R. Walker

BYU Studies

Ronald E. Romig. Eighth Witness: The Biography of John Whitmer.

Independence, Mo.: John Whitmer Books, 2014.

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Let There Be Light–, Tyler Chadwick

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

"The Little Head Stones Became Monuments": Death In The Early Samoan Mission And The Creation Of The Fagali'i Cemetery, Reid L. Neilson, Scott D. Marianno

BYU Studies

When the call first went forth, Samoa was as far from people’s minds as the islands themselves are from the rest of the civilized world,” a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wrote from Apia in 1899. “Women were among the Gospel pioneers on these islands; what they endured, their trials and their hardships, even to parting with life itself, it is a story that today dims the eye with tears. Samoa has never been a happy home for our sisters.”

End Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

America 1844: Religious Fervor, Westward Expansion, And The Presidential Election That Transformed The Nation, Benjamin E. Park

BYU Studies

John Bicknell. America 1844: Religious Fervor, Westward Expansion, and the Presidential Election That Transformed the Nation.

Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2015.

Birth And Calling Of The Prophet Samuel: A Literary Reading Of The Biblical Text, Steven L. Olsen

BYU Studies

Chapters 1–3 of 1 Samuel describe the miraculous origins and auspicious upbringing of the first major Hebrew prophet since Joshua, who by all measures lived centuries before Samuel. The biblical account of Samuel’s beginnings forecasts the exceptional ministry of the man who served as Israel’s last complete sovereign. By faithfully filling the crucial roles of prophet, priest, and judge, Samuel helped to transform the House of Israel from a collection of weak and often warring tribes to a relatively permanent and somewhat stable nation in the contentious ancient Middle East. Thus, Samuel is rightly considered to be one of the …

The First Fifty Years Of Relief Society, Karen Lynn Davidson

BYU Studies

Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society.

Salt Lake City: Church Historian's Press, 2016.

"An Angel Or Rather The Savior" At The Kirtland Temple Dedication: The Vision Of Frederick G. Williams, Frederick G. Williams

BYU Studies

At the Kirtland Temple dedication on Sunday, March 27, 1836, Presi-dent Frederick G. Williams testified that he saw a holy angel enter the temple during the opening prayer and take his seat between Joseph Smith Sr. and himself in the upper pulpits on the Melchizedek priesthood side of the room, a holy site that had just been dedicated and consecrated to the Lord earlier that morning. This study collects nine eyewitness statements regarding Williams’s vision of the heavenly personage to see if the identity of the angel as well as the purpose of his visit can be determined from their …

William B. Smith: In The Shadow Of A Prophet, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

BYU Studies

Kyle R. Walker. William B. Smith: In the Shadow of a Prophet.

Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2015.

The Awkward State Of Utah: Coming Of Age In The Nation, 1896-1945

BYU Studies

The Awkward State of Utah: Coming of Age in the Nation, 1896–1945, by Charles S. Peterson and Brian Q. Cannon (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2015)

Postponing Heaven: The Three Nephites, The Bodhisattvaa, And The Mahdi, Spencer L. Green

BYU Studies

Jad Hatem. Postponing Heaven: The Three Nephites, the Bodhisattva, and the Mahdi. Trans. Jonathon Penny.

Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2015.

The Field Is White: Harvest In The Three Counties Of England, Ronald E. Bartholomew

BYU Studies

Carol Wilkinson and Cynthia Doxey Green. The Field Is White: Harvest in the Three Counties of England.

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

History Of The Taipei Temple, John Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

MANY PRISONERS SUFFERED at the Taihoku Prison in Taipei, Taiwan, during World War II. Yet, less than two decades later, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased a portion of this land and transformed it from a desolate site into a warm and inviting chapel where Latter-day Saints sought to bring their friends. Elder Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated it on October 16, 1966. Fewer than five thousand members resided in Taiwan at the time. In 1984, Hinckley returned to the same plot of land to dedicate a temple adjacent to the chapel. During one of his addresses, he …

Way Below The Angels: The Pretty Clearly Troubled But Not Even Close To Tragic Confessions Of A Real Live Mormon Missionary, Lisa Torcasso Downing

BYU Studies

Craig Harline. Way Below the Angels: The Pretty Clearly Troubled but Not Even Close to Tragic Confessions of a Real Live Mormon Missionary.

Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2014.

The Israelite Roots Of Atonement Terminology, T. Benjamin Spackman

BYU Studies

When Latter-day Saints speak of atonement, they use vocabulary drawn from the scriptures, including common verbs like atone, save, and redeem, and the corresponding nouns atonement, savior, salvation, redeemer, and redemption. There are other, perhaps more vivid, words for salvific acts, such as the Book of Mormon references to being “snatched” (Mosiah 27:28–29; Alma 26:17).1 Such rare terms in scripture have not found place in LDS discourse, which tends to use the most common terms related to atonement interchangeably. While they are indeed at some level synonymous, their distinctive meanings gesture toward …

Edward Hunter Snow: Pioneer-Educator-Statesman, Benjamin A. Johnson

BYU Studies

Thomas G. Alexander. Edward Hunter Snow: Pioneer-Educator-Statesman.

Norman, Okla.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 2012.

By Divine Design: Best Practices For Family Success And Happiness, Sean Brotherson

BYU Studies

By Divine Design: Best Practices for Family Success and Happiness, edited by Brent L. Top and Michael A. Goodman (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014)

Ancient Temple Worship: Proceedings Of The Expound Symposium, 14 May 2011; Temple Insights: Proceedings Of The Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference: "The Temple On Mount Zion," 22 September 2012

BYU Studies

Ancient Temple Worship: Proceedings of the Expound Symposium, 14 May 2011, edited by Matthew B. Brown, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Stephen D. Ricks, and John S. Thompson (Salt Lake City: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014)

Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference: “The Temple on Mount Zion,” 22 September 2012, edited by Matthew B. Brown, William J. Hamblin, and David Rolph Seely (Salt Lake City: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014)

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir: A Biography, George L. Mitton

BYU Studies

Michael Hicks. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir: A Biography.

Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015.

End Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.