Religious Education Commons^™

A Superlative Image: An Original Daguerreotype Of Brigham Young, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Thomas R. Wells

BYU Studies

In July 2005, the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City published a story with the punning headline "Old Young Photo donated to BYU." Even though Mark and Suzanne Richards had donated the rare 1850s daguerreotype of Brigham Young to BYU in December 2004, the donation did not draw media attention until just days before the July 24 pioneer holiday in Utah. For historians, especially photographic historians, the story was compelling—one of those rare moments when something thought to have vanished suddenly reappears. It was known that this particular precious daguerreotype had been created because a later photographic copy of …

Setting A Standard In Lds Art: Four Illustrators Of The Mid-Twentieth Century, Robert T. Barrett, Susan Easton Black

BYU Studies

Prints of paintings of Christ and other people from the scriptures and Church history are displayed in Latter-day Saint meetinghouses, visitors' centers, and temples throughout the world and are used in Church magazines and manuals. Many of these artworks were created in the 1950s and 1960s by American illustrators Arnold Friberg, Harry Anderson, Tom Lovell, and Ken Riley. While the religious works of these illustrators are familiar, less known are the career paths these artists took and the other works of art they created. This article aims to acquaint the reader with the lives of these illustrators and the circumstances …

“Twenty Years Ago Today”: David O. Mckay's Heart Petals Revisited, Mary Jane Woodger

BYU Studies

David Oman McKay and Emma Ray Riggs were married January 2, 1901, making them, as David noted, the first couple sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in the twentieth century. As David's public profile rose with his call as Apostle in 1906 and then as President of the Church in 1951, the McKays became known popularly as the Church's happiest couple. During their marriage, President McKay wrote poems and other expressions of endearment for Emma Ray. He delivered these "heart petals," as he called them, from the Tabernacle pulpit and in the Deseret News Church Section on their anniversary, her …

Hugh Nibley's Articles Of Faith, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

So, Hugh Nibley has two lawyers speaking at his funeral. Good thing he appreciated irony! I have laughed and wept as I have written this final examination.

The Israelite Background Of Moses Typology In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

BYU Studies

Nephi tells the story of the founding events of the Nephite people in such a way that his readers will see him as a second Moses. Although Nephi's use of the Moses typology has been previously noted, what has not been noticed before is that his father, Lehi, also employs this same typology in his farewell address in 2 Nephi 1-4 in order to persuade his descendants of his own divine calling and of their new covenant relationship to the same God who had given the promised land to ancient Israel. The fact that Nephi and Lehi both saw themselves …

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Introductory Pages, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Memoirs Of The Relief Society In Japan, 1951-1991, Yanagida Toshiko

BYU Studies

My poems are my tears,

as my eyes are moistened at once

in joy and in sorrow.

—Yanagida Toshiko

Behold I, Kent P. Jackson

BYU Studies

On two occasions while he worked on his New Translation of Genesis in 1830, the Prophet Joseph Smith dictated to his scribe Oliver Cowdery a word combination that in English is awkward and ungrammatical, though in the Hebrew it is not: "Behold I." The first occurrence reads, "Behold I I am the Lord God Almighty." The second reads, "Behold I send me." Both passages are in the Book of Moses in the Pear of Great Price, but "Behold I" is not found in either of those passages today because, after the time of Joseph Smith, each was edited out of …

As Fire, Richard Tice

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Desert Patriarchy: Mormon And Mennonite Communities In The Chihuahua Valley By Janet Bennion, Mark Metzler Sawin

BYU Studies

Janet Bennion. Desert Patriarchy: Mormon and Mennonite Communities in the Chihuahua Valley. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004.

Reverence: Renewing A Forgotten Virtue By Paul Woodruff, George Bennion

BYU Studies

Paul Woodruff. Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001

End Matter, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Sheep, Marilyn Nielson

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

“The Scriptures Is A Fulfilling”: Sally Parker's Weave, Janiece L. Johnson

BYU Studies

Sally Bradford Parker is not a name most LDS Church members recognize, but her faith, exemplified through the letter featured below, weaves an important fabric distinctive to early Latter-day Saint women. The limited number of known early Mormon women's voices, especially prior to the organization of the Relief Society in 1842, makes this document particularly valuable. As Sally shares her experience, she augments and supports the testimony of Hyrum Smith as a Book of Mormon witness and particularly the witness of another woman—the Prophet's mother, Lucy Mack Smith. When Sally arrived in Kirtland she was in awe of the many …

Early Christians In Disarray: Contemporary Lds Perspectives On The Christian Apostasy, Noel B. Reynolds

Maxwell Institute Publications

This book takes a fresh look at the apostasy of the early Christian church. Most Latter-day Saint scholars and leaders previously based their understanding of the Christian apostasy on the findings of Protestant scholars who provided a seemingly endless array of evidences of apostasy in Christian history.

Since the classic treatments of this topic were written, many newly discovered manuscripts written during the first Christian centuries have come to light, giving a clearer picture of what the early Christian experience was like. Drawing on this material, LDS scholars today are able to shift the focus of study to the causes …

The Message Of The Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, Hugh Nibley

Maxwell Institute Publications

When Hugh Nibley first wrote The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, he wrote it for an audience that understood things both Egyptian and Latter-day Saint. It was an audience that at the time did not exist. For the bemused audience that did find the book, many failed to comprehend it. Many of Nibley's readers have supposed that, like Nibley's other works, it was designed to be read straight through and have expressed frustration at the difficulty of doing so. Only the first few chapters are designed to be read in this manner. The rest of the book is …

Astronomy, Papyrus, And Covenant: Proceedings Of The 1999 Book Of Abraham Conference, John Gee, Brian M. Hauglid

Maxwell Institute Publications

This third volume in the series Studies in the Book of Abraham includes nine papers from a FARMS-sponsored conference on the Book of Abraham, one of the canonized works of scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Three papers on related subjects are also included. An assumption underlying the papers in this volume is that the Book of Abraham is both an authentic and ancient text.

In seeking to illuminate the background of the Book of Abraham from historical, geographical, cultural, scientific, and doctrinal perspectives, these studies deal with three broad themes: astronomy in the Book of …

No Man Knows My Psychology: Fawn Brodie, Joseph Smith, And Psychoanalysis, Charles L. Cohen

BYU Studies

Anyone (like me) approaching the study of Mormon history wet behind the ears soon confronts Fawn McKay Brodie's famous (or, in certain LDS circles, infamous) biography of Joseph Smith. Quickly fulfilling Herbert Brayer's prophecy that it "will probably of be one of the most highly praised as well as highly condemned historical works of 1945," No Man Knows My History elicited both wholesale acclaim ("the best book about the Mormons so far published," Bernard De Voto enthused; a "definitive treatment," seconded her friend Dale Morgan) and whole-hearted condemnation ("the statement made by Joseph Smith that "no man knows my history," …

Introductory Pages, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Joseph Smith And The 1834 D. P. Hurlbut Case, David W. Grua

BYU Studies

Joseph Smith, the Latter-day Saint Prophet, was not a lawyer by training, but he became well acquainted with the court system in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois during his brief lifetime. Through his encounters with the law, he developed a distinct view of the law's prospect for delivering justice. At first, Smith had a firm belief that, through faith and God's assistance, he would find justice. He was willing to go before the courts to present his complaints with confidence that he would ultimately prevail against all challenges. But after 1837, when his enemies began assailing him with numerous …

End Matter, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Early Mormon And Shaker Visions Of Sanctified Community, J. Spencer Fluhman

BYU Studies

Polly Knight's health was failing as she and her family trudged toward western Missouri. Having accepted Joseph Smith Jr. as God's prophet on earth, the Knights left heir Colesville, New York, farm and joined with other Mormon converts at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831. Finding a brief respite there, they again set out, this time for the city of "Zion" that Joseph Smith said they would help build in Jackson County, Missouri. Worried that Polly was too ill to complete the trek, her family considered stopping in hopes she might recover. But "she would not consent to stop traveling," recalled her …

The Lost Commandment: The Sacred Rites Of Hospitality, Peter J. Sorensen

BYU Studies

Also when a stranger came into their cities and brought goods which he had purchased with a view to dispose of there, the people of these cities would assemble, men, women and children, young and old, and go to the man and take his goods by force, giving a little to each man until there was an end to all the goods of the owner which he had brought into the land. (Sepher Ha-Yashar 18:16)

The Curse Of Ham: Race And Slavery In Early Judaism, Christianity, And Islam By David M. Goldenberg And Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification Of American Slavery By Stephen R. Haynes, Stirling Adams

BYU Studies

David M. Goldenbert. The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Stephen R. Haynes. Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Building Zion: The Latter-Day Saint Legacy Of Urban Planning, Craig D. Galli

BYU Studies

As with the founding of Plymouth Colony, distinctive historical circumstances and theological beliefs converged to motivate early Latter-day Saint community builders. While the historic roots of Salt Lake City are well known to virtually every grade school student in Utah and to Church members around the world, aspects of our remarkable legacy of urban and transportation planning remain obscure. The physical design and community values underlying early attempts to build Zion provide useful perspective and inspiration as today's community leaders now grapple with managing urban growth along Utah's Wasatch Front (from Brigham City to Nephi and Grantsville to Kamas) and …

An Examination Of The 1829 “Articles Of The Church Of Christ” In Relation To Section 20 Of The Doctrine And Covenants, Scott H. Faulring

BYU Studies

The 1829 "Articles of the Church of Christ" is a little-known antecedent to section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants. This article explores Joseph Smith's and Oliver Cowdery's involvement in bringing forth these two documents that were important in laying the foundation for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Introductory Pages, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

To Journey Beyond Infinity, Kent A. Bessey

BYU Studies

The notion of infinity has fascinated philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians for millennia. Its enigmatic nature seemed to thwart all attempts to unlock its secrets. Scriptural allusions to the infinite evoke a similar sense of mystery. Few have been as intrigued by the concept of infinity—or as tenacious in trying to understand it—as the German mathematician Georg Cantor. Between 1874 and 1884, Cantor published numerous papers that illuminated some of the shadowy regions of the infinite. He discovered a remarkable realm where half of a pie is as large as the whole, infinity comes in different sizes, and miracles are mathematically …