Religious Education Commons^™

Being Latter-Day Saints (1841–1857): Four Matriarchs In The Centreville, Delaware, Branch, Marie Cornwall

BYU Studies

After Joseph Smith established The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he began sending missionaries to the eastern states. It did not take long before small branches began popping up in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware. While many of the new converts joined with the main body of the Saints, first in Missouri and later in Nauvoo, others remained in their communities. With few exceptions, much of the history of the Latter-day Saints focuses on the migrations to Nauvoo and settlements in Utah. Available histories offer few details about community life among Latter-day Saints who remained where …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Approaching The Tree: Interpreting 1 Nephi 8, Edited By Benjamin Keogh, Joseph M. Spencer, And Jennifer Champoux, Sydney Gee

BYU Studies

Approaching the Tree: Interpreting 1 Nephi 8 is a collection of essays and artwork about Lehi’s dream compiled by Benjamin Keogh, a PhD candidate in systematic and historical theology at the University of St Andrews; Joseph M. Spencer, an associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University; and Jennifer Champoux, the director of the Book of Mormon Art Catalog. It focuses on “providing original readings” of 1 Nephi 8 from a variety of scholars and artists (xi).

Divine Attachment: A Canonical Model For Discipleship And Religious Education, Kristina Marie Freed

Dissertations

Problem

Christianity is in decline in the United States and, with it, discipleship engagement. While several explanations and many remedies have been offered as solutions to the problem over the last half-century, demographic research shows that the decline continues. The problem addressed in this dissertation is the lack of a theological model to augment psychological models of religious attachment theory. The research sought to identify a canonical model of divine attachment which may contribute to the revitalization of personal discipleship and religious education by offering a new relational context. This model is based on an understanding of God as an …

Moral Formation In A Culture Of Relativism: Correlates Of Universalism And Relativism In The Moral Outlooks Of Emerging Adults, Steven Crawford Hayward

Journal of Catholic Education

This study explores some of the demographic, personal, and experiential factors of emerging adults that correlate to a spectrum of moral outlooks ranging from moral universalism to moral relativism. Data was gathered from 466 volunteer undergraduate students. Respondents’ demographic, experiential, and personal factors served as independent variables. The relativism index score form Forsyth’s Ethics Position Questionnaire (1980) served as the dependent variable. Results suggest several conclusions: First, adults in the life of youth are a significant factor in moral outlook, exerting influence in both universalistic and relativistic directions. Second, religious practice and involvement contribute to a universal moral outlook. Third, …

Exploring The Status Of Transgender Students In Catholic High Schools, Dirk De Jong

Journal of Catholic Education

This paper reports on a recent survey of principals of Catholic high schools across the country regarding the existence of formal gender identity policies or informal practices with respect to the behavior and treatment of transgender students in their schools. The survey’s findings are discussed in the context of recent developments with respect to the science, clinical interventions, and legal accommodations surrounding gender variance. The paper also describes the political developments with respect to this issue and some of the pushback in communities of faith. It concludes by suggesting the need for receptivity to scientific findings as part of a …

Religiously Responsive Pedagogy In Christian Schools: A Qualitative Exploration Of Faculty Perceptions Of Faith Integration, Andrea R. Woodard

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study introduced a theoretical framework of Religiously Responsive Pedagogy (RRP) and explored the ways in which RRP is enacted in Christian schools, along with the barriers and supports that may exist for effective RRP within those schools. The study investigated PK-12 faculty perceptions of faith integration, responsiveness to students, and school support in order to develop this new framework. Twelve teachers participated in a semi-structured interview via Zoom, which included four scenarios to probe teacher perspectives on RRP. The data was coded recursively using Boeije’s (2002) constant-comparative method.

The primary research questions addressed were:

• How do teachers at …

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Evolution Of A Protestant Theology Institution In Croatia: From Private Church College To University Center, Lidija Matošević, Marina Schumann, Enoh Šeba

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The focus of this case study is the Faculty of Theology “Matthias Flacius Illyricus” (Teološki fakultet “Matija Vlačić Ilirik” – TFMVI) in Zagreb, founded by two minority religious communities: the Lutheran Church and the Baptist Union. The authors’ premise is that by examining over forty years of the institution’s existence, prominent trends and attitudes can be identified that continue to shape the interaction between churches and the state within Croatian society, where the Roman Catholic Church represents the overwhelming majority. The authors begin with a historical overview of the position of churches under the Communist regime in Yugoslavia, with particular …

A Distributional Synoptic Perspective On The So-Called "Historical Present" Tense Of Mark's Gospel, Oliver Glanz

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Pure Language Project, Dan Belnap, Michael Mackay

Faculty Publications

In the summer of 1835, Joseph Smith and his associates purchased four mummies and some papyri scrolls from Michael Chandler.1 That summer Joseph would participate in a project that would produce a fascinating set of texts, referred to today as the Egyptian Language Documents (ELD), used and compiled mostly in Kirtland, but also consulted and expanded in Nauvoo.2 These documents, which include three incomplete variants of what was called an “alphabet” as well as an incomplete “grammar,” integrated a series of characters with explanations.

Children Are A Heritage From The Lord: A Procreation-Centric Approach To Christian Marriage And Family Education, Nicholas Lee Hagerman

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Hagerman, Nicholas L. "Children Are a Heritage from the Lord: A Procreation-Centric Approach to Christian Marriage and Family Education." Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2022. 242 pp.

As youth and young adults are being raised in the church, they are often taught about issues related to sex and marriage. However, procreation and raising families are rarely mentioned in such teaching, which tends to focus instead on relational issues between spouses, the avoidance of sexual sins, and the marital institution's reflection of the relationship between Christ and His church. This project seeks to remedy this deficiency by taking …

Book Review: Worship With Teenagers: Adolescent Spirituality And Congregational Practice, Chelsea Flow Stirman

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

Worship with Teenagers: Adolescent Spirituality and Congregational Practice, by Eric Mathis. Baker Academic, 2022. 243 pages, $17.00.

The First Jesuits And The First Jesuit Universities, Paul Grendler

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

John W. O’Malley S. J. in The First Jesuits described well the basic principles of the Jesuit educational ministry that shapeed Jesuit schools and universities. He did not discuss what constituted a Jesuit university because that was not the purpose of the book. After assessing the major contributions that O’Malley made to define the principles of Jesuit education, this article will pick up where O’Malley left off by describing the first Jesuit universities. There was not a single model of a Jesuit university. Instead, the Jesuits taught in four kinds of universities: the all-Jesuit university, the civic-Jesuit collegiate university, the …

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Forthcoming Publications

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

Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, edited by John Gee
and Brian Hauglid, is volume 3 in the Book of Abraham
Series. It includes FARMS conference papers on the Book
of Abraham and its commonalities with ancient texts,
Abraham’s vision of the heavens, and the significance of
the Abrahamic covenant. Available autumn 2003.

A Call For Emendations, Royal Skousen

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

As I have been working on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, people have
occasionally written or talked to me about passages in the Book of Mormon that seem strange or difficult. A good many have made specific suggestions about emendations (or revisions to the text). Surprisingly, a large percentage of these have ended up being correct or have led me to come up with an appropriate emendation.

The New World Promised Land’S Economic Base

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

A majority of people in the modern world are absorbed in performing their daily work, conceived in terms of jobs, money, food, and other things practical and economic. Would it have been different for the Nephites or Lamanites? Not really. The center of their daily concerns, too, was “making a living.” But what that meant differed greatly from what we mean by the expression.

The Desert Libraries Of Timbuktu

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

The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution have opened an exhibit titled “Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu,” the famous trading town at the edge of the Sahara Desert in Mali. The manuscripts include Qur’anic teachings, mathematics, physics, medicine, and astronomy.

Institute Researchers Share Findings At Lds Apologetics Conference

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

Three Institute researchers were among the speakers at the fifth annual FAIR conference, held August 7–8 at Utah Valley State College, in Orem, Utah. Founded in 1997, the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research is a nonprofit
corporation dedicated to providing sound information and research that support the doctrine, beliefs, and practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, particularly on matters that are challenged by unbelievers.

Brown Bag Report

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

With fall semester under way at Brigham Young University, we look forward to keeping you abreast of another round of Institute-sponsored brown bag lectures. These presentations, which are not open to the general public, enable researchers to share their expertise and findings with their peers in related fields and to receive constructive input. Following are reports of three such presentations from earlier this year.

Confession Of Sins Before Execution, John A. Tvedtnes

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

Alma 1:15 records the execution of Nehor for the murder of Gideon: And it came to pass that they took him; and his name was Nehor; and they carried him upon the top of the hill Manti, and there he was caused, or rather did acknowledge, between the heavens and the earth, that what he had taught to the people was contrary to the word of God; and there he suffered an ignominious death.

Etruscan Gold Book From 600 B.C. Discovered

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

The Bulgarian National Museum of History in Sofia, Bulgaria, recently placed on public display an ancient book comprising six pages of 23.82-karat gold (measuring 5 centimeters in length and 4.5 centimeters in width) bound together by gold rings. The plates contain a text written in Etruscan characters and also depict a horse, a horseman, a Siren, a lyre, and soldiers. According to Elka Penkova, who
heads the museum’s archaeology department, the find may be the oldest complete book in the world, dating to about 600 B.C.

Spiritual Intelligence And Personality, Jayne Ann Harder, Andrew S. I. D. Lang, Leighanne Locke, J. Bryan Osborne, Aleksandra Turtova, Enrique F. Valderrama-Araya, Stephen R. Wheat, Jan H. R. Wörner

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

This study quantifies the relationship between measures of spiritual intelligence and personality traits. A random sample of 240 undergraduate students from a mid-sized private Christian university in the West South-Central United States were administered both the SISRI-24 survey instrument for spiritual intelligence as well as the Pathway U survey for HEXACO personality traits. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between critical existential thinking and openness to experience; personal meaning production and extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness; transcendental awareness and extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness; and conscious state expansion and extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. Statistically significant negative …

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Jacob’S Connections To First Temple Traditions, Kevin Christensen

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

In a previous report I showed how the Book of Mormon’s portrayal of Nephi, son of Lehi, compares favorably to a preexilic Hebrew wisdom tradition reconstructed by biblical scholar Margaret Barker.1 This report highlights further connections between the Book of Mormon and traditions from ancient Israel that Barker asserts “have been lost but for the accidents of archaeological discovery and the evidence of pre-Christian texts preserved and transmitted only by Christian hands.”

Latest Meti Book Probes Soul, Self-Knowledge

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

A parallel English-Arabic text of the Islamic philosophical work Iksir al-Arifin, or Elixir of the Gnostics, is the latest publication in the Islamic Translation Series, part of the Institute’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative. The author, Sadr al-Din Muhammad Shirazi, better known as Mulla Íadrā (A.D. 1572–1640), is considered one of the greatest Islamic philosophers of the last 600 years and in recent years has become one of the most well known. Adept at finding flaws in the work of previous great thinkers, he was at the same time able to think independently of them, creating his own philosophical approach that …

Biblical Scholar Presents Lectures At Byu

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

During the week of 5–9 May, the Institute sponsored a visit by British biblical scholar Margaret Barker to Brigham Young University. Each morning, Barker offered a seminar (usually three hours in length) to a group of invited faculty and guests in which she summarized her research and numerous publications. She also delivered a university forum address during her stay, as well as an evening public lecture in the auditorium of the Harold B. Lee Library.

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Institute News

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

Noel B. Reynolds has been appointed director of the Institute. A professor of political science and a past president of FARMS, he recently completed a five-year term as associate academic vice president for undergraduate studies at BYU. Further coverage on this change in leadership will appear in a future issue of Insights.

The Baptism Of Little Children In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, Matthew P. Roper

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

In a letter to his son Moroni, Mormon warns against the practice of baptizing little children. He identifies two false assumptions of his day used to justify infant baptism: little children are born with sin (see Moroni 8:8) and will suffer divine punishment in hell if they die without having been baptized (see Moroni 8:13). While the exact nature of this aberrant practice is unknown, it was apparently common enough among the Nephites of Mormon’s day to warrant swift and unequivocal prophetic censure. Mormon describes the rite as particularly wicked and erroneous in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.