Religious Education Commons^™

Letters On Mormon Polygamy And Progeny: Eliza R. Snow And Martin Luther Holbrook, 1866–1869, Jill Mulvay Derr, Matthew J. Grow

BYU Studies

Almost from their inception, cinematic media and technologies have been accepted and appropriated with surprising enthusiasm by Iranians and Mormons alike. Both cultures appear to have embraced cinema as a natural outgrowth of their lively and longstanding appreciation for art and family-oriented entertainment in general. The author finds that the artistic progress and quality of Mormon cinema as of 2009 has thus far, with few exceptions, fallen short of its potential, while Iranian film artists have made an astonishing number of spiritually profound, culturally insightful, and cinematically sophisticated films despite having formidable obstacles. The author encourages Mormon filmmakers to attain …

Open And Relational Theology An Evangelical In Dialogue With A Latter-Day Saint, Samuel M. Brown

BYU Studies

Clark H. Pinnock and David L. Paulsen dialogue about open theism and Latter-day Saint theology, examining the convergences and divergences between the two traditions. Open and Relational Theology: A Latter-day Saint in Dialogue with an Evangelical explores beliefs on divine embodiment, spiritual warfare, deification, omniscience and omnipotence of God, divine feminine, theodicy, creation, and pragmatic applications of religion.

Theology And Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability In Late Modernity, Amos Yong, Rosalynde F. Welch

BYU Studies

Amos Yong's Theology and Down Syndrome represents an ambitious attempt by an Evangelical theologian to come to grips with the conditions and conundrums of disability in a contemporary Christian context. The book's nine chapters and formidable bibliography inquire into cognitive disability of all kinds, not, despite its title, narrowly into Down syndrome alone. Yong writes in the dense idiom of critical academic theology and disability studies that may put off some readers, but the text is leavened with epigraphs, personal asides, and case studies that will appeal to most readers.

Yong sets himself three aims in this volume: to edify …

Thomas Farrar Whitley's Mission Photos Of Tonga, 1935–1938, Colleen Whitley

BYU Studies

Thomas Farrar Whitley served an LDS Church mission to Tonga in the late 1930s and documented his experiences there through journaling, correspondence, and photography. The author shares photographs and quotes from Whitley's journal, capturing the Tongan way of life in the 1930s. The article documents the small group of faithful Latter-day Saints and missionaries who established a foothold for the faltering Church in Tonga and created a foundation upon which today's thriving Tongan LDS population could build.

The Thirteenth Apostle: What The Gospel Of Judas Really Says, April D. Deconick, Grant Adamson

BYU Studies

Among the various apocryphal titles mentioned by the early Church fathers is the Gospel of Judas, a Coptic version of which was recently found in Egypt, purportedly taken from a limestone box together with several other texts during an illegal raid of a burial cave in 1978. Before its first publication by the National Geographic Society in 2006, it was apparently sold, stolen, recovered, sold again, then again, frozen, thawed, and repossessed, such that by the time the work of conservation finally began in 2001, the pages of the Gospel of Judas had been broken into numerous pieces, some of …

The Patterns Of Missionary Work And Emigration In Early Victorian Buckinghamshire, England, 1849–1878, Ronald E. Bartholomew

BYU Studies

Latter-day Saint missionaries from America began proselyting in Buckinhamshire, England, in the 1840s and established the first branches of the Church here in 1849, but they did not experience the same dramatic successes their colleagues encountered in other regions of the British Isles.

The Boggs Shooting And Attempted Extradition: Joseph Smith’S Most Famous Case, Morris A. Thurston

BYU Studies

When Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs accused Joseph Smith (founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) of being the mastermind behind his attempted assassination in 1842, Joseph Smith's enemies tried to extradite him to Missouri for trial three times. Each time, Joseph successfully appealed to the laws of the land and exerted self-preserving political influence through the Nauvoo City Council to avoid extradition. This article examines closely the second of the three cases, illuminating how Joseph Smith emerged temporarily victorious but ultimately turned public opinion against himself. The public viewed the Prophet as taking advantage of legal loopholes …

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Voting About God In Early Church Councils, Gaye Strathearn, Ramsay Macmullen

BYU Studies

In his latest monograph, Ramsay MacMullen, emeritus professor of history at Yale University, takes a wonderfully fresh look at the early Christian councils. At the beginning of his study, MacMullen recognizes the primacy of the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) whose definition of the Supreme Being forms the basis of the majority Christian view on the nature of God. The Nicene Creed was "made formal and given weight by majority vote and supported after much struggle by later assemblies, notably at Chalcedon (451)--likewise by majority vote. Such was the determining process. Thus agreement was arrived at, and became dogma widely …

American Religions And The Family: How Faith Traditions Cope With Modernization And Democracy, Don S. Browning, David A. Clairmont, Loren Marks

BYU Studies

This fifteen-chapter volume addresses two key questions: (a) How do various American religions negotiate the pressures of modernization, such as technology, the speed of life, and consumerism? and (b) How do various American religions wrestle with challenging aspects of democracy, such as heightened individualism, the social reconstruction of morality, and the waning acceptance of traditional authority? Chapter-length responses to these questions are offered by a carefully selected array of social scientists, historians, theologians, and legal scholars.

The volume is stimulating, readable, and relevant. The lead editor, Don S. Browning, summarily states, "Studies about the effect of religious thought and behavior …

Mormon Cinema On The Web, Randy Astle

BYU Studies

Mormon cinema on the Internet is a moving target. Because change in this medium occurs so rapidly, the information presented in this review will necessarily become dated in a few months and much more so in the years to come. What I hope to provide, therefore, is a snapshot of online resources related to LDS or Mormon cinema near the beginning of their evolution. I believe that the Internet will become the next great force in both Mormon cinema and world cinema in general, if it has not already done so. Hence, while the current article may prove useful for …

Goodbye, Marilyn Bushman-Carlton

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Singing The Word Of God: Five Hymns By President Frederick G. Williams, Frederick G. Williams

BYU Studies

Frederick G. Williams (1787–1842) was a member of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under Joseph Smith and served as his personal scribe. His descendant of the same name now examines evidence proving that the Church leader, historian, doctor, editor, and Kirtland landowner also composed hymns. The article discusses the subject matter of Williams's hymns, including Joseph Smith's vision of Enoch, Zion, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and Williams's own experience with the gift of tongues.

Massacre At Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy. By Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., And Glen M. Leonard, Jared Farmer

BYU Studies

Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard. Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Samuel Knight Statement, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Ellott Willden, Andrew Jenson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Massacre At Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy. By Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., And Glen M. Leonard, Brian Q. Cannon

BYU Studies

Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Guest Editors' Introduction, Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Editorial Procedures, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Andrew Jenson Collection, Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr.

BYU Studies

Andrew Jenson, who later became an Assistant Church Historian, collected material on Mountain Meadows for the immediate need of helping Orson F. Whitney write his History of Utah and the longer-range purpose of one day bringing to light all of “the true facts” of the massacre. Nearly from its inception, the Jenson material has been housed at the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah—a portion of it in the First Presidency’s Office and the rest in the Church Historian’s Office (now the Church History Library). The Jenson material includes statements made …

Mary S. Campbell, Andrew Jenson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Mary H. White, Andrew Jenson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

William Barton, Andrew Jenson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Samuel Knight, Andrew Jenson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Richard S. Robinson, Andrew Jenson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

David W. Tullis, Andrew Jenson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Joseph Anderson Memorandum, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

John W. Judd Letter, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Nephi Johnson 1908 Statement, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Problems With Mountain Meadows Massacre Sources, Richard E. Turley Jr.

BYU Studies

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints houses a large collection of information regarding the Mountain Meadows Massacre in its Church History Department. However, none of the sources are wholly reliable and must be analyzed carefully in order to piece together the complicated events of the massacre. Turley explains what possible errors exist in Major James Henry Carleton's report, the John D. Lee trial transcripts, and John D. Lee's autobiography, Mormonism Unveiled. Against most evidence, Carleton recorded that the wagon train massacred was the Perkins train, a fact that has been repeated without much scrutiny in other works …