Mormon Studies Commons^™

The Politics Of Proselytizing: Europe After 1848 And The Development Of Mormon Pre-Millenialism, Jacob G. Bury

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In the second year of his reign as King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar II dreamt of a large stone that rolled down the side of a mountain, shattered a great metallic statue, and grew into a mountain range large enough to cover the earth. The accomplished ruler, who went on to oversee the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, as well as the destruction of Jerusalem’s Jewish temple, was no revelator, and so enlisted Daniel, an exiled Jew, to interpret his dream. According to Daniel, the statue, divided into five parts from head to toe, portrayed mankind’s present …

Editor's Introduction, Mormon Studies Review

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Pedagogical Impulses And Incommensurables: Lived Mormonism In Hong Kong, Stacilee Ford

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

The Book Of Mormon As Biblical Interpretation: An Approach To Lds Biblical Studies, Joseph M. Spencer

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

Recent years have witnessed a growing recognition in the academy that the Book of Mormon deserves closer attention than it has received. Not surprisingly, adherents to the various Mormon faiths have long read the book with some care. But larger numbers of believing and nonbelieving academics have come to recognize that, despite its often didactic style and relative literary artlessness, the Book of Mormon exhibits remarkable sophistication. This is perhaps nowhere truer than in those passages where the volume interacts—whether explicitly or implicitly—with biblical texts (always in or in relation to the King James rendering). Close reading of the Book …

David E. Bokovoy. Authoring The Old Testament: Genesis–Deuteronomy. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2014., Alex Douglas

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

David Bokovoy’s most recent book, Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis–Deuteronomy, represents a fresh and much-needed perspective on how Latter-day Saints can simultaneously embrace both scholarship and faith. This book is the first in what is anticipated to be a three-volume set exploring issues of authorship in the Old Testament published by Bokovoy with Greg Kofford Books. Bokovoy uses current scholarship on the Pentateuch as a springboard for discussing LDS perspectives on scripture, revelation, and cultural influence. To my knowledge, this is the first book-length attempt to popularize the classical Documentary Hypothesis among Latter-day Saints, and Bokovoy does an exemplary job …

Front Matter, Mormon Studies Review

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

“Beloved, . . . It Doth Not Yet Appear What We Shall Be”: The Fractured Reality Of Lds Biblical Studies, D. Jill Kirby

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

According to the non-Mormon historian Jan Shipps, “the mystery of Mormonism cannot be solved until we solve the mystery of Joseph Smith.”1 Stated more casually, this is called the “prophet puzzle,” and it is sometimes suggested that Latter-day Saints will understand themselves only to the degree that they understand Joseph Smith. The classic definition of the role played by Joseph Smith was contributed by LDS leader B. H. Roberts in the late nineteenth century: “What was Joseph Smith’s mission? It was the mission of Joseph Smith, under God’s direction, to establish the Church of Christ and the Kingdom of God …

The Term Of President And Sister Melvin B. & Carol R. Butler Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission--July 1983 To June 1986

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

How does one begin to describe in a few paragraphs the joys, blessings, challenges, miracles, hardships and successes of the Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission during the period of July, 1983 to the end of June 1986, at which time the mission was presided over by myself, Melvin B. Butler from Salt Lake City, UT. Together with my precious wife Carol and seven beautiful children, Holly, Melony, Paul, Jill, David, Mark, and Russell, we willingly left our home, families and cherished friends to start a new life for three years in the islands of Tonga.

Mphs 2016 Call For Proposals

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Mphs 2016 Registration

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

The Vital Apostolic Visits Of Elder David O. Mckay And Elder George Albert Smith For Tonga, Mary Jane Woodger

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Early on in the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior was adamant that the Quorum of the Twelve would travel and traveling became a distinctive feature of those who became modern day Apostles. As early as 1832, the Savior made traveling a commandment. He revealed, “It is expedient that I give unto you this commandment that ye become even as my friends in days when I was with them, traveling to preach the gospel in my power.” (D&C 84:77). In this revelation the Lord acquainted traveling with power. Later in 1834, the Savior identified that the Traveling …

Lds Church History Sites In The Kingdom Of Tonga, Riley Moffat

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

The Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific is known as the country with the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints in the world. Out of a population of about 100,000 people in the Kingdom about 60,000 are baptized members of the Church according to Leitoni Tupou, recently released president of the Tongan mission. Of that number he says about 30,000 are active, 30,000 are less active and the other 40,000 haven’t been baptized yet. Tongan government statistics give lower figures but the fact that there are 166 congregations meeting in 106 chapels organized into 19 stakes (soon to be 21) …

President Emile Craner Dunn And The Tongan Mission: 1936-1950, Mark D. Ogletree, Ph.D.

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Several years ago, Elder James E. Faust related the following experience. He and Elder Spencer J. Condie were in the Salt Lake City Airport and as they were walking down the terminal, they met a devoted and faithful couple that they both had known for many years. “This couple had spent a lifetime of service, meekly, faithfully, and effectively trying to build up the Church in many places in the world. Elder Condie noted, ‘Isn’t it remarkable what people with five loaves and two fishes do to build up the kingdom of God.’”1 Elder Faust then stated, “This kind of …

Nuku’Alofa Tonga Mission 1989-92

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Mormon Intruders In Tonga: The Passport Act Of 1922, R. Lanier Britsch

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

On 29 June 1922 the Legislative Assembly in the island kingdom of Tonga enacted a law that prohibited all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from entering that country. 1 This event occurred after considerable discussion and debate among governmental officials in Tonga, Fiji, Great Britain, and the United States. This study reviews the Latter-day Saint exclusion issue as it relates to the historical development of Christianity in Tonga, including sectarian relationships and government involvement in ecclesiastical affairs, the official attitude of the U.S. government regarding the Latter-day Saints and polygamy, and the United Kingdom's official …

Brandon S. Plewe, S. Kent Brown, Donald Q. Cannon, And Richard H. Jackson, Eds., Mapping Mormonism: An Atlas Of Latter-Day Saint History, Reviewed By Philip Barlow

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Michael Hicks, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir: A Biography, Reviewed By Stephen A. Marini

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Testimony In The Muscles, In The Body: Proxy Performance At The Mesa Easter Pageant, Megan Sanborn Jones

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A Greener Faith: A Review Of Recent Mormon Environmental Scholarship, George B. Handley

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Craig Harline, Way Below The Angels: The Pretty Clearly Troubled But Not Even Close To Tragic Confessions Of A Real Live Mormon Missionary, Reviewed By Anne Blue Wills

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

The Temple: Ancient And Restored, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry

Interpreter Foundation Books

Joseph Smith taught that the origins of modern temple ordinances go back beyond the foundation of the world. For example in 1835, as the Saints prepared to receive the ordinances that would be available to them in the Kirtland Temple, the Prophet stated:1

The order of the house of God has been, and ever will be, the same, even after Christ comes; and after the termination of the thousand years it will be the same; and we shall finally enter into the celestial kingdom of God, and enjoy it forever.

Cosmos, Earth, And Man, David H. Bailey, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Lewis, Gregory L. Smith, Michael R. Stark

Interpreter Foundation Books

I’ve long resisted the claim, typically (as in C. S. Lewis’s allegorical exchange between the pilgrim John and Mr. Enlightenment) assumed rather than explicitly argued, that no well-educated person, and certainly nobody with a solid grounding in modern science, can rationally choose to be a religious believer.2 So I was delighted with the proposal that The Interpreter Foundation organize and sponsor a conference on the relationship between science and Mormonism. When Dr. David Bailey called me regarding the possibility of such a conference, I jumped at the opportunity.

Joseph Smith's First Vision: New Methods For The Analysis Of Experience-Related Texts, Ann Taves, Steven C. Harper

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Miranda Wilcox And John D. Young, Eds., Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness And The Concept Of Apostasy, Reviewed By Randall J. Stephens

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

"Provident Living": Ethnography, Material Culture, And The Performance Of Mormonism In Everyday Life, Danille Elise Christensen

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Tibetan Book Of The Dead: A Biography, Reviewed By Greg Wilkinson

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Samuel Morris Brown, In Heaven As It Is On Earth: Joseph Smith And The Early Mormon Conquest Of Death, Reviewed By Charles L. Cohen

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Jedediah S. Rogers, Ed., The Council Of Fifty: A Documentary History, Reviewed By Adam Jortner

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

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 …