Religious Education Commons^™

Shoulders, Bethany Sorensen

BYU Studies

"We” are taking a nap, but she’s the only one sleeping. The canvas shade above our heads and the subtle breeze off the water make the 95-degree heat tolerable. The gentle rocking of the houseboat lulls us both into a trance.

Manuscripts, Murder, And A Miniseries: A Personal Essay, Richard E. Turley Jr.

BYU Studies

On March 3, 2021, a three-part miniseries on the Mark Hofmann forgery-murder case of the 1980s premiered on Netflix, a popular subscription-based streaming service. The three-part miniseries, titled Murder among the Mormons, quickly catapulted into the top echelon of most-watched Netflix programs in the United States.1 Because I appeared in the miniseries, many people began asking me questions about this criminal case I have followed since it first attracted widespread public attention.

Latter-Day Saints In Washington, D.C., Tina Hawley

BYU Studies

Latter-day Saints in Washington, D.C., is edited by Brigham Young University professors of Church history and doctrine Kenneth L. Alford, Lloyd D. Newell, and Alexander L. Baugh. This volume collects essays written by the faculty of the Department of Church History and Doctrine at BYU after they traveled to D.C., attending a symposium in the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center. The essays are organized into three sections—“History,” “People,” and “Places”—aiming to educate readers about the intriguing, complicated relationship between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the United States federal government.

Hugh Nibley Observed, David R. Seely

BYU Studies

As a tribute to Hugh Nibley the editors of this volume have collected forty essays written by Nibley’s family, peers, colleagues, students, and friends. The title of the book is a play on the title of Nibley’s autobiographical film, The Faith of an Observer: Conversations with Hugh Nibley. As described in the introduction, this volume contains “a kaleidoscope of portraits, perspectives, and memories from family, friends, and colleagues—observers, as it were, of a preeminent observer.”

A Teacher’S Plea, Tyler Johnson

BYU Studies

Modernity surges from change to change.

The last thirty years, after all, have seen the advent of the smartphone, the proliferation of the internet, the democratization of the press, the dawn of social media, the creation of eBay and Amazon, the beginning of Google, and the birth of the post-9/11 world order.

Captain Moroni And The Sermon On The Mount: Resolving A Scriptural Tension, Duane Boyce

BYU Studies

A natural tension seems to exist between two important features of the Book of Mormon. On one hand, Mormon includes in his record a version of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus gave to the Nephites—an address that sets the standard for discipleship and that contains teachings obviously opposed to violence.1 In it, we hear about not resisting evil, turning the other cheek, going another mile when compelled to go one, loving our enemies—and so forth (3 Ne. 12:39–44). On the other hand, Mormon also presents various Nephite leaders as righteous even though they were immersed in violence. Captain …

Defend Your Families And Love Your Enemies: A New Look At The Book Of Mormon’S Patterns Of Protection, J. David Pulsipher

BYU Studies

A primary purpose of the Book of Mormon, as described on its title page, is to show “what great things the Lord hath done.”1 The whole narrative serves that goal, being saturated with frequent examples of divine goodness and guidance. Then, in the book’s stunning climax, God’s presence is made most explicit through the personal appearance of the resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, during which he displays the physical emblems of his compassion and redemption, heals broken bodies and souls, and invites everyone to become “even as I am” (3 Ne. 27:27). The power of divine love is clearly a central …

Moon To Moon Nights, Dixie Partridge

BYU Studies

like time-lapse film, signify now a moment, now a lifetime. A bonedrift of stone shapes pale and rise like years along garden’s edge. . . .

Desert Harvest, Ben De Hoyos

BYU Studies

At last, it came, The cleansing rain at the fading Of this long, parched day.

Murder Among The Mormons: Reflections On The Docuseries— And On Its Historical And Theological Implications, J. B. Hawes

BYU Studies

You know that you’ve hit upon something when a docuseries you have produced soars to number two on Netflix’s weekly list of most-watched shows. That is the place where Jared Hess and Tyler Measom found themselves with their film Murder among the Mormons in mid- March 2021.1 Their retelling of the tragic deaths of Steven Christensen and Kathleen Sheets at the hands of Mark Hofmann—and the police investigation that exposed Hofmann as a forger and murderer—made for compelling television, and millions of Netflix customers agreed.

Trinity And Monotheism: A Historical And Theological Review Of The Origins And Substance Of The Doctrine, Jason Robert Combs

BYU Studies

The history of Christian beliefs about the nature of God is complex. It would be helpful for Latter-day Saints and other Christians to have a simple, straightforward introduction to this topic. A. Keith Thompson, professor of law and the associate dean at the Sydney School of Law of the University of Notre Dame Australia, who previously worked as international legal counsel for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, set out to write such a book. Motivated in part by his interfaith work and by his own religious beliefs as a Latter-day Saint, Thompson wrote Trinity and Monotheism to …

Watchman On The Tower: Ezra Taft Benson And The Making Of The Mormon Right Thunder From The Right: Ezra Taft Benson In Mormonism And Politics, Roger Terry

BYU Studies

Although I was already fairly well acquainted with the activities and rhetoric of Ezra Taft Benson, a controversial twentieth-century Apostle, what surprised me when reading these two books about him was their relevance to what is happening in the United States today. Historian Matthew L. Harris authored the biography of Benson titled Watchman on the Tower and edited the anthology Thunder from the Right. They help explain not only Benson’s life and times but also political conservatism and paranoia about government conspiracy among American Latter-day Saints today.

Clogs And Shawls: Mormons, Moorlands, And The Search For Zion, Amy Harris

BYU Studies

Born in turn-of-the-century Bradford, Yorkshire, the eight Whitaker sisters were raised as Latter-day Saints, all eventually immigrated to Utah, and all remained members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout their lives. Their lifelong faithfulness was an important cornerstone of their family story, a story Ann Chamberlin, a granddaughter of one of the sisters, situates within a larger narrative about their family culture—both its positive and negative elements and the parts that tipped into becoming family mythology.

Mezuzah On My Doorpost, Heather Thomson

BYU Studies

When my husband and I moved across the city into a Jewish community in Montreal four years ago, we discovered the previous owners of our newly purchased home had left their mezuzah on the front doorpost. I don’t remember now if I’d noticed it when we first stepped through the doorframe of the mid-century, red-brick bungalow on a Friday evening—so unused to the rhythms of Jewish religious observance were we then that we’d unwittingly requested a showing that fell just before sunset, the beginning of Shabbat. But we did see the mezuzah when we moved in a month later, on …

Mercy, Elizabeth Smith

BYU Studies

I merge into surging highway wind, my backseat baby babbles to the Tim-Tams macaroni yogurt burger cookies and bananas, and a crackling alto announces the world this hour: buildings burst in a distant port, scoundrel stabs doctor in a clinic past the mountains, furious inferno feasts on trees, towns just south of here.

A Short Tribute To My Genealogical Butcher Chart, Linda Hoffman Kimball

BYU Studies

If you were to parse me Like meat on a banner You’d find all my ancestors In parts or in manner.

The Danite Constitution And Theories Of Democratic Justice In Frontier America, Benjamin E. Park

BYU Studies

Most modern Americans define liberty as the freedom to do things: freedom to speak, freedom to congregate, freedom to vote, freedom to worship. That is, we define it in proactive terms. But in early America, many citizens were just as likely to define liberty as freedom from things: freedom not to be taxed without representation, freedom not to be unjustly imprisoned, or freedom not to be oppressed. In other words, they defined it in preventive terms. And among Americans in the 1830s, per- haps the most poignant political discussion concerned the freedom to not be forcibly removed from the land …

Remnant Or Replacement? Outlining A Possible Apostasy Narrative, Nicholas J. Frederick, Joseph M. Spencer

BYU Studies

Since early in the twentieth century, it has been common for Latter- day Saints to speak of a “Great Apostasy” that occurred in the centuries following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Such a general apostasy has been viewed as providing the basic motivation for the Restoration, begun in earnest with Joseph Smith’s First Vision in 1820. The traditional apostasy narrative has centered on the argument that the church founded by Jesus Christ once possessed the same organization, doctrine, and authority restored in the nineteenth century but that, over time, these crucial components were either lost or corrupted. It …

Gospel Ethics, Hinckley A. Jones-Sanpei

BYU Studies

Unavoidable ethical and moral decisions permeate our lives. From the personal (how we treat our family members and the people we interact with) to the political (what we do about the increasing number of mass shootings in our country and refugees at our borders or how we behave during a worldwide pandemic), our decisions have moral and ethical implications that reveal our priorities and values. Traditional approaches to ethics and economic policymaking emphasize isolated rational individuals and their direct interactions with other self-sufficient, rational individuals. Yet at different points in our lives, all of us are dependent on others—some we …

Signs Of The Times: Racism, Tribalism, And Disinformation Before The Comings Of Christ, Luke Drake

BYU Studies

Each of the major narrators/compilers of the Book of Mormon evince varying degrees of understanding that their work is destined for modern readers who would face a set of modern concerns.² This essay suggests that Mormon’s editorial hand—on display both in the redaction of the words of Samuel the Lamanite and in the narration of the events surrounding Samuel’s ministry—can be understood to address pressing issues faced by latter-day readers: specifically, the perils posed by racism, “tribalism,” and disinformation.

Wake Up And Dream, Eva Koleva Timothy

BYU Studies

The cover piece, Star Stretching, was inspired by a favorite saying of my mission president, Elder Ronald Rasband: “It is better to aim for the stars and drag your feet in the treetops than to aim for the treetops and drag your feet in the mud.”

My Stepdad Was A Bank Robber, Billy Wilson

BYU Studies

I remember standing on the back porch of our rental in Meadow Vista, California—the steady gurgles of a running creek in the backyard, the faint smell of dry firewood in the cardboard box behind me. Dad (the con- tract killer, not the bank robber) wore a tank top and jeans with the pant legs cut into very short shorts. He was six foot two, an anomaly in our lineage of shorter men. I don’t recall him ever yelling at me, and he was naturally amicable, but he did raise his voice on occasion and could crack granite with his eyes. …

Aguas Vivas, Thea Jo Buell

BYU Studies

"So, was there anything you just couldn’t find there?” I asked the newly returned missionary. He had been home from Guatemala for a few months, and I would be leaving for the same country soon.

He looked puzzled at my question and thought for several seconds before answering. “Balloons,” he said.

His Body Breaks, James Goldberg

BYU Studies

His body breaks long before he hangs on the cross.

All Things Sing Praise, Susan Elizabeth Howe

BYU Studies

The anteater’s tongue licking praise in the tunnels of the termite mound.

The alpaca spitting praise, olé!

Serrano peppers’ praise in perspiration.

Plastic praise: the Taj Mahal, a million interlocking Lego blocks.

Bayou, Pamela J. Hamblin

BYU Studies

Slowly the rain plays thin strings, plucking.

Life And Times Of John Pierce Hawley: A Mormon Ulysses Of The American West, Adam Oliver Stokes

BYU Studies

In recent years there has been a growing effort to expand the definition of “Mormonism” within Mormon studies. “Mormonism,” in twenty-first-century scholarship, refers not only to the largest organization in the restoration tradition—namely, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquartered in Utah—but also to other branches and movements within the restoration tradition. Joseph Smith’s movement includes the Reorganized Church (RLDS, now known as the Com- munity of Christ), the Bickertonite church (Church of Jesus Christ), the Strangite church, and the Elijah Message church, among others. In large part, this expanded understanding of what qualifies as “Mormon” has come …

“In Their Promised Canaan Stand”: Outlawry, Landscape, And Memory In C. C. A. Christensen’S Mormon Panorama, Jennifer Champoux

BYU Studies

What do Robin Hood and Joseph Smith have in common? This article examines C. C. A. Christensen’s Mormon Panorama according to themes of outlawry in Anglo-Saxon literature, revealing insights into the nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint understanding of exile and sacred space in relation to both the landscape and to America. In Christensen’s paintings, the moral rightness of Latter-day Saints is contrasted with injustice by both government officials and local vigilantes, thereby equating outcast status with righteousness and true justice. In collating early stories of persecution and miracles, and presenting them with an aura of objective truth, the Mormon Panorama helped shape …

Latter-Day Saints And Images Of Christ’S Crucifixion, John Hilton Iii, Anthony Sweat, Josh Stratford

BYU Studies

In his classic 1897 work The Ministry of Art, Frank Bristol proclaimed, “Art has glorified Christianity. It has set forth her doctrines, portrayed her saints, and even her very God and Savior. Limited only by the necessary restrictions of her powers, art has been a teacher of things divine.”¹ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (herein referred to as “the Church”) also employs the power of visual art to portray its central doctrines and perpetuate its sacred history. Religious paintings adorn hallways and classrooms of Latter-day Saint meetinghouses, fill the walls of sacred temples, and accompany …

Becoming Zion: Some Reflections On Forgiveness And Reconciliation, Deidre Nicole Green

BYU Studies

Some years ago, I was confronted with the realization that other people’s betrayal and deception, which eventually crescendoed into blatant and dehumanizing cruelty, might result in the loss of much of what I had worked for in my professional, ecclesial, and personal life. This situation drove me to a deep need to understand forgiveness, which I pursued through studying philosophical and theological perspectives on the topic as well as through personal reflection. Through specific academic opportunities that included fieldwork in Rwanda and South Africa, I discovered the voices of Latter-day Saint women who had gained hard-won knowledge and wisdom about …