Mormon Studies Commons^™

"Dark And Loathsome": The Construction And Persistence Of Racial Theology In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Margaret Phillips

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints banned Black men from holding the priesthood until 1978, a policy many mistake for the whole of the faith's engagement with race. This thesis argues that the priesthood ban was only a symptom of a far deeper theology of race, one built into Mormonism's broader theology from its founding. Two intertwined beliefs anchor this theology: the default whiteness of the human body and soul, and twin curse narratives that mark Black and Indigenous peoples alike as bearers of a divine curse— dark skin read as the visible penalty for their ancestors' sin. …

Ammonihah's Allegory Of Damnation: "Fire And Brimstone" In The Book Of Mormon And Doctrine & Covenants, Ella Bethany Sessions

Honors Projects

This paper examines D&C 76, an 1832 revelation penned by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon that details Mormon theology in regards to eternity, salvation, and damnation, and Mosiah 27 and Alma 9–14 from the Book of Mormon to observe and analyze how the D&C 76’s specificity is mirrored and encased in two Book of Mormon stories: Alma the Younger and Ammonihah. The first section synthesizes D&C 76’s doctrinal claims and contextualizes Mormonism’s salvation and damnation as uniquely epistemic—or reliant on knowledge—and oriented around the internal processes of progression towards or away from God as necessary precedents to external and eternal …

Explaining Mormonism: A Believing Skeptic’S Guide To The Latter-Day Saint Worldview By Gregory Steven Dundas, Roger Terry

BYU Studies

BYU Studies author Gregory Dundas has written a book aimed primarily at a non– Latter-day Saint audience to inform them about the beliefs, culture, and practices of the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dundas is an engaging writer who has a diverse background and whose research is both broad and thorough.

"I Know The Dream Mine Is True": Mormons, Mining, And The Making Of "Bad Religion" In Early Twentieth-Century Utah, Christine V. Shell

American Studies ETDs

In 1894, folksy Mormon farmer-turned-prophet John H. Koyle, Jr, dreamed that an angel from the Book of Mormon showed him where and how to mine for golden ore and Book of Mormon treasures. Shortly afterwards, Koyle and a handful of friends established the “Dream Mine” at the revealed location, and as word spread additional workers joined the cause—for this was a mine destined to save the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members from financial and spiritual ruin during the long-foretold apocalyptic “Last Days.”

Koyle’s followers took delight and solace from their participation in the Dream Mine’s …

Byu Religion Prof Traces History Of Book Of Abraham

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

For nearly thirty years, H. Donl Peterson, a member of the Religious Education faculty at BYU, pursued solutions to the puzzles surrounding the papyri from which the book of Abraham was translated. His final book, The Story of the Book of Abraham: Mummies, Manuscripts, and Mormonism, completed just before his death in March 1994, aims to answer some of the questions surrounding the second and perhaps most controversial book of the Pearl of Great Price.

New Edition Of Abraham In Egypt Released

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Eminent LDS scholar Hugh W. Nibley has long been a student and defender of the Book of Abraham. Now released in an enlarged and expanded second edition, Nibley's Abraham in Egypt (originally published by Deseret Book in 1981) focuses on the authenticity of the Book of Abraham. The edition includes four new chapters and several new sections within existing chapters. Additionally, more than 100 helpful illustrations enhance the text, and meticulous source checking and a new documentation format make the references easier for the reader to navigate.

Review: Taylor G. Petrey And Amy Hoyt, Eds. The Routledge Handbook Of Mormonism And Gender. New York: Routledge, 2020., Brenda R. Weber

Mormon Studies Review

Taylor Petrey and Amy Hoyt’s The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is a veritable gold mine of material for scholars interested in the historical and contemporary consideration of gender and gender identity as it relates to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, here referred to as the Mormons. Putting together a volume such as this requires an adroit balance, since the editors and authors must be aware of larger field questions related to gender studies, social science methodologies, religious studies and theological approaches to scholarship, and, obviously, discussions in Mormon studies and Mormon history. Mormonism itself is …

“I Dreamed Of An Alliance Between The Authority Of Dogma And Political Liberty”: Mormonism And Socialism In France In The Nineteenth Century, Christian Euvrard

Mormon Studies Review

Many historians and other scholars have noticed the social and political fervor observed in France between 1830 and 1870. This is also the period when Mormonism first arrived in the nation. Yet while the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints only achieved limited success in France, its doctrine and practices generated unusual interest, raising a number of important questions. What were the forces at work during this pivotal period? How can we reconcile the large cultural interest with the faith’s mediocre success? This essay offers several avenues of research.

Exploring The Role Of Divine Providence In History

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Most modern historians view social, economic, and political factors as the sole shaping influences of history. For other scholars, the role of divine providence in history cannot be denied and is a topic worthy of serious consideration. Last year, Latter-day Saint scholars who embrace the notion of “providential history” shared their perspectives at a symposium titled “A Latter-day Saint View of History,” held at Brigham Young University on 6–7 February 2003. Among the 21 presenters at this unique event was John W. Welch, publications director for the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, editor in chief of BYU …

Joseph Smith, Responses To Early Missionaries Topics In Byu Studies

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Following closely on the heels of a recent double-sized issue on Mormons and film, the latest issue of BYU Studies contains a landmark study by historian Max H Parkin entitled “Joseph Smith and the United Firm: The Growth and Decline of the Church’s First Master Plan of Business and Finance, Ohio and Missouri, 1832–1834.” Never before have the historical documents been so thoroughly and masterfully marshaled to give readers a heightened appreciation for the importance of the “United Firm” in the early Church. Along with all else that Joseph Smith was revealing and directing during these years, the consecrated legacy …

Books To Build Faith, Daniel C. Peterson

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

I am sometimes contacted by people who are expe- riencing doubts about the claims of Mormonism or whose spouse or father or daughter has lost faith. I always ask what the specific issues might be, and I then try to address those or to locate colleagues or printed resources that might help resolve their concerns.

Review: Christopher James Blythe. Terrible Revolution: Latter-Day Saints And The American Apocalypse. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020., Matthew Avery Sutton

Mormon Studies Review

For too long, many scholars have argued that Christian groups obsessed with a coming apocalypse are so other-worldly focused that they have little impact on the politics or cultures around them. Those scholars are wrong. Rather than fostering a sense of indifference regarding the coming of an inevitable end of days, apocalypse-obsessed Christians have used their beliefs as a call to battle rather than a justification for withdrawal. God, they insist, has given them much to do and very little time in which to do it. Positive that Jesus is coming soon, they have sought converts and engaged directly and …

Review: Elisa Eastwood Pulido. The Spiritual Evolution Of Margarito Bautista: Mexican Mormon Evangelizer, Polygamist Dissident, And Utopian Founder, 1878–1961. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020., Susie S. Porter

Mormon Studies Review

Margarito Bautista was born in 1878 in Atlautla, Mexico, a small farming community tucked into the folds of the Popocatépetl volcano in the state of Mexico. Even today, the community remains small, with fewer than thirty thousand people in 2010. Bautista’s father was a farmer and respected community member, serving at one time as municipal president. Elisa Eastwood Pulido provides no occupation for his mother, whom she describes as “pure Nahua” (50). Margarito Bautista converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1901, moved to the Mormon colonies in Northern Mexico, and became a volunteer evangelizer. His …

Review: Spencer W. Mcbride, Brent M. Rogers, And Keith A. Erekson, Eds. Contingent Citizens: Shifting Perceptions Of Latter-Day Saints In American Political Culture. Ithaca, Ny: Cornell University Press, 2020., R. Marie Griffith

Mormon Studies Review

There has been no shortage of books devoted to studying the intersections of religion and politics across US history. And the interest has cut across several scholarly fields: no more is religion the possession only or even predominantly of religious studies and anthropology, nor politics sequestered within the high and inward-looking walls of political science. Social history, a guild whose members once exuded a kind of deathly allergy to religion, has perhaps seen the greatest transformation; indeed, the field of history broadly speaking has experienced an unexpected gush of attention to religion and politics. Some of the historians new to …

Review: Benjamin E. Park. Kingdom Of Nauvoo: The Rise And Fall Of A Religious Empire On The American Frontier. New York: Liveright, 2020., Christopher Childers

Mormon Studies Review

Benjamin E. Park’s Kingdom of Nauvoo integrates social, cultural, and political history to explain how the Mormon movement sought to build a community of believers on the western frontier and how the experiment at Nauvoo ultimately failed. This experiment, a radical reinvention of Christianity based on the revelations of a charismatic religious figure—Joseph Smith—and the building of a community of like-minded believers, reveals much about the history of the early American republic. Kingdom of Nauvoo shows how Smith’s church evolved in the context of early nineteenth-century America and how the structure of early American society struggled to deal with movements …

Review: Patrick Q. Mason. Mormonism And Violence: The Battles Of Zion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019., David J. Howlett

Mormon Studies Review

John Krakauer’s 2003 best-seller, Under the Banner of Heaven, played upon a common narrative told in sections of American culture— a story that claimed that some religions are inherently violent. In Krakauer’s work, of course, the group under consideration was Mormonism, and his narrative was encapsulated in his pithy subtitle, “A Story of Violent Faith.”1 Patrick Mason’s new book fundamentally contradicts Krakauer’s salacious claim. Mason argues that all religious groups, including the Mormon tradition, contain “multiple and complex sources—scriptures, histories, myths, social networks, authority structures, and cosmologies that can be mobilized in the service of either violence or non-violence” (78). …

Review: Gordon Shepherd And Gary Shepherd. Jan Shipps: A Social And Intellectual Portrait. Salt Lake City: Kofford Books, 2019., Amy Hoyt

Mormon Studies Review

As a young graduate student at Claremont, I was excited to meet Jan Shipps when she came to deliver a public lecture on Mormonism on campus. A few of us graduate students were asked to bring her to the event from her hotel room on the evening of the lecture. My overall impression of her was that she was down to earth, funny, and quick. And perhaps a little intimidating. I noticed that she was able to talk to anyone about anything and, at the same time, command the room when needed. After reading the biography of Jan Shipps by …

No Queers Here, Kathryn Lofton

Mormon Studies Review

Taylor G. Petrey’s Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism uses a word that has an activist past and an electric capacity. This is a word also worn out by its bandying; it is a word perhaps nearing retirement. That word is queer. Tabernacles of Clay is not a book about queer life. It is not a book with any people who call themselves queer, or think within the traditions of queer political activism, or who articulate feelings of queer temporality, queer kinship, or queer emplacement. It is not a book written in a queer way or arguing …

Review: Joanna Brooks. Mormonism And White Supremacy: American Religion And The Problem Of Racial Innocence. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020., Nichole Renée Phillips

Mormon Studies Review

Race and religion scholar Joanna Brooks offers an atypical treatment of the imbrication of anti-Black racism and American Christianity in her book, Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence. While treatment of the subject is influenced by her background and membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, readers are given new language and the vocabulary to dissect and understand White supremacy and White racial privilege, particularly regarding how it has infiltrated and operated in the American Christian church. Brooks accomplishes this through content analysis of rare but significant documents and a historical …

Contemporary Femininities In Mormonism And In Ireland: Challenging And Confirming Essentialism In Online Spaces, Hazel O'Brien

Mormon Studies Review

How are gender identities negotiated within Irish Mormonism, and does this intersect with trends identifiable within Mormonism more generally? In this paper I use the examples of modern Ireland and modern Mormonism to speculate regarding the nature of gendered identities online. I suggest that Irish and Mormon cultures are both confronting serious challenges to traditional essentialist interpretations of femininity that have long dominated their cultural landscapes. I also suggest that social media (SM) and online spaces are facilitating these challenges. However, I observe that online spaces are also used in Irish Mormonism to conform to hegemonic Mormon understandings of gender …

Review: Stretching The Heavens: The Life Of Eugene England And The Crisis Of Modern Mormonism; Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal , Terryl L. Givens, Kristine L. Haglund, Steven C. Walker, Reviewer

BYU Studies

Kristine Haglund’s compact biography, Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal, is an illuminating contribution to the new Introduction to Mormon Thought series. Mormon Thought provides “short and accessible introductions” to those who have “shaped” the many manifestations of “Mormonism” (vii). Haglund situates England historically, as a liberal influence on a developing faith. Born 1933—the year of the deaths of old-style expansive theologians B. H. Roberts and James E. Talmage, and the same year J. Reuben Clark introduced more conservative influence in the First Presidency—Gene was caught in the collision between Mormonism’s original enthusiasm for innovative theology and the increasing rigidity of …

Review: Quincy D. Newell. Your Sister In The Gospel: The Life Of Jane Manning James, A Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019., Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh

Mormon Studies Review

In Your Sister in the Gospel: The Life of Jane Manning James, A Nineteenth Century Black Mormon, Quincy D. Newell explores the earliest years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints through a biography of Jane James, an African American convert whose devotion to the church situated her amid some of its most pivotal moments. Beginning with Jane’s birth to free parents in Connecticut in the 1820s and ending with her death in Salt Lake City in 1908, Newell documents how race and gender shaped Jane’s experiences of Mormonism, as well as how Jane’s and other Black Mormons’ …

Book Notice: The Ancient Order Of Things: Essays On The Mormon Temple; Why I Stay 2: The Challenges Of Discipleship For Contemporary Latter-Day Saints; Real Vs. Rumor: How To Dispel Latter-Day Myths , Brooke James, Roger Terry, Matthew B. Christensen, Christian Larsen, Editor, Robert A. Rees, Editor, Keith A. Erekson

BYU Studies

The Ancient Order of Things: Essays on the Mormon Temple presents a variety of academic discussions on different aspects of temples. In the introduction, the collection’s editor, Christian Larsen, explains that the essays focus on historical perspectives of significant and “unique facets” (x) of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The essays cover themes such as histories of ordinances, the role of temples beyond mainstream LDS tradition, and the position of temples within wider cultural contexts.

Review: Brenda R. Weber. Latter-Day Screens: Genre, Sexuality, And Mediated Mormonism. Durham, Nc: Duke University Press, 2019., Andrew Patrick Nelson

Mormon Studies Review

For a religion whose adherents make up only 2 percent of the nation’s population, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has occupied an outsized place in the American media landscape of the new millennium. Highly publicized events like the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the kidnapping of fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the arrest and trial of fugitive polygamist child rapist Warren Jeffs, and the presidential campaigns of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney have repeatedly thrust the Latter-day Saint faith into the national media spotlight. So have a variety of popular entertainments with Mormons as their subject, including the hit …

Review: Craig L. Foster And Marianne T. Watson. American Polygamy: A History Of Fundamentalist Mormon Faith. Charleston, Sc: The History Press, 2019., Cristina Rosetti

Mormon Studies Review

For most of the time that Mormon studies has been a field, the study of Mormonism was synonymous with the study of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With its rich archival resources, the LDS Church is a goldmine for scholars interested in American religion. However, the great interest in the LDS Church often came to the detriment of other religions that trace their history to Joseph Smith’s restoration. As Mormon history became synonymous with Latter-day Saint history, other Mormon groups went unknown or were derided as less authentic expressions of Mormonism.

“Same-Sex Marriage?! What Next Polygamy?”: Mormonism In Us Political Culture, K. Mohrman

Mormon Studies Review

In his dissent to Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision

that determined marriage was a right that could not be constitutionally

denied to same-sex couples under the Free Exercise and

Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, Chief Justice

John Roberts queried, “if ‘[t]here is dignity in the bond between

two men or two women who seek to marry and in their autonomy to

make such profound choices,’ . . . why would there be any less dignity

in the bond between three people, who in exercising their autonomy,

seek to make the profound choice to marry?”1 In …

Review: Konden Smith Hansen. Frontier Religion: Mormons And Americans, 1857–1907. Salt Lake City: University Of Utah Press, 2019., Tammy Heise

Mormon Studies Review

Through a series of thought-provoking case studies, Konden Smith Hansen breathes new life into Frederick Jackson Turner’s famous (or, perhaps more accurately, now infamous) “Frontier Thesis” as a paradigm for examining Mormonism as a distinctly American religion. This historical survey revolves around a deft historiographical argument that the Frontier Thesis functioned and, in many respects, continues to function as a religion by defining American national identity and purpose not just for Mormons but for all Americans. Hansen’s attention to Turner’s theory serves to reopen an old frontier for historians of the American West, and by uncovering traditional and innovative forms …

Joseph Smith’S Translation: The Words And Worlds Of Early Mormonism, Samuel Morris Brown, Kent P. Jackson, Reviewer

BYU Studies

Samuel Morris Brown’s Joseph Smith’s Translation: The Words and Worlds of Early Mormonism announces a sweeping objective: to place all of Joseph Smith’s prophetic projects under a single heading: translation. The thesis of the book is that “translation as a source of scriptural texts” is mirrored in “translation as a process by which humans became assimilable to the divine presence” (ix). “Translation was about more than words and sentences. Translation was also concerned with the transformation of human beings and the worlds they were capable of inhabiting. These twin senses of translation run together in early Latter-day Saint thought” (4).

“Wicked Traditions” And “Cunning Arts”: Wise Men, Sorcery, And Metalwork In Nephite Society, Dan Belnap, Daniel L. Belnap, Daniel Belnap, Dan Belnap

Faculty Publications

In the ninetieth year of the reign of the judges, four years after the ministry of Samuel the Lamanite, the “great signs and wonders” that he had prophesied of concerning the coming of Christ began to appear. Yet even as they convinced some, others expressed doubt as to what the signs meant, believing instead that the coming of Christ was a “wicked tradition, which has been handed down unto us by our fathers, to cause us that we should believe in some great and marvelous thing which should come to pass . . . therefore they can keep us in …

Not The First But The Second, Richard E. Bennett

BYU Studies

Professor James B. Allen, distinguished scholar of Joseph Smith’s First Vision accounts, wrote the following in a 2012 article: “The writing of Mormon history has only begun. As in the case of other institutions and movements, there is still room in Mormonism for fresh historical scholarship. . . . What is needed, simply, is the sympathetic historian who can approach his tradition with scholarship as well as faith and who will make fresh appraisal of the development of the Mormon mind.”1 The purpose of this presentation is to provide such a “fresh appraisal” of Joseph Smith’s 1820 theophany, less perhaps …