Religious Education Commons^™

Front Matter, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Remembering Christmas Past: Presidents Of The Church Celebrate The Birth Of The Son Of Man And Remember His Servant Joseph Smith, Larry C. Porter

BYU Studies

At Christmastime the story of the sojourn of Jesus Christ from Bethlehem to Calvary enjoys a resurgence among countless millions. For Latter-day Saints there is a second tradition associated with this special season—remembering the Prophet Joseph Smith and the course of events in his life from Sharon, Vermont, to Carthage, Illinois. As we commemorate anew these two births, we have cause to turn back time and review selected Christmas memories and moments from the lives of the fifteen Presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Culture Carol: Dickens's Influence On Lds Christmas Fiction, Rosalynde Frandsen Welch

BYU Studies

During the festive weeks before Christmas feasts, everybody loves to hate Scrooge. That's how it always was in the household of my childhood. On the first Sunday afternoon of December, my father would gather the children in the family room and ceremonially produce our green hardbound edition of A Christmas Carol. He worked his way through the five staves of the Carol during that afternoon and the Sunday afternoons that followed, in order to complete the reading before Christmas Day. Although the younger children would fidget and the older children would complain, we needed the annual retelling of the …

The Evacuation Of The Czechoslovak And German Missions At The Outbreak Of World War Ii, David F. Boone

BYU Studies

The evacuation of Latter-day Saint missionaries from Europe at the outbreak of World War II was truly a unique event in Church history. At the beginning of World War I, a few American missionaries serving in Europe were moved to areas of safety, but until 1939 there had never been a large-scale evacuation of missionaries as a result of their being endangered by impending war (fig. 1). As the threat of war gathered over Europe in the late 1930s, Latter-day Saint Church leaders in Salt Lake City watched anxiously. In August 1939, there were missionaries laboring in Great Britain, Germany, …

Tools Leave Marks: Material Analysis Of The Scotford-Soper-Savage Michigan Relics, Richard B. Stamps

BYU Studies

Extensive collections of supposedly prehistoric artifacts known as the Michigan Relics or the Scotford-Soper-Savage collection—possibly as many as 3,000 pieces—exist across the country. I have personally examined more than 1,000 from four different collections. What is so special about this collection of artifacts? Why does it merit further study? Although numerous previous studies have suggested that the materials were not made by ancient people but are of modern origin, there is ongoing interest in the collections. Dr. John Halsey, the state archaeologist of Michigan, says that his office gets more requests to see these materials than any other single collection. …

Nobody Can, Marilyn Bushman-Carlton

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Cedar Waxwings, Cheryl Carlstrom

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Again, October, Dixie Partridge

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Learning To Be A Woman, Marilyn Bushman-Carlton

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Can Science Be Faith-Promoting? Sterling B. Talmage, Noel L. Owen

BYU Studies

Sterling B. Talmage. Can Science Be Faith-Promoting? Ed. Stan Larson. Salt Lake City: Blue Ribbon Books, 2001. lxiv; 253 pp. Bibliography, index. $18.95.

A Joseph Smith For The Twenty-First Century, Richard Lyman Bushman

BYU Studies

Since Henry Caswall published The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century in 1843, a year before Joseph Smith's death, nineteen book-length biographies of the Prophet have appeared in print, more than half of them since 1940. They differ wildly in tone and perspective, as might be imagined. Several are still worth considering by serious students of Joseph Smith's life. Among the more notable, I. Woodbridge Riley's The Founder of Mormonism is severely critical but ingenious and original, the first biography to attempt a scientific explanation of Joseph Smith's revelations. Fawn Brodie's No Man Knows My History is a magnificent piece of …

“All Hail To Christmas”: Mormon Pioneer Holiday Celebrations, Richard Ian Kimball

BYU Studies

To Mormon historians and members of the Church generally, Christmas is not a particularly "Mormon" holiday. Though contemporary Latter-day Saints throughout the world embrace a variety of traditions that commemorate the holiday, no major body of distinctively Mormon tradition surrounds the day in December traditionally reserved for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Mormons celebrate the holiday like most other Christians—reading from the nativity account in Luke, exchanging presents, and spending time with family and friends. Santa Claus, decorated trees, and the redemptive story of Ebenezer Scrooge all are staples of the winter holiday for Mormons in the …

Home Production, Christin L. Porter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Night Before My Baptism, Mark Bennion

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Brief Notice, Bruce A. Van-Orden

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Brigham Young And The Mission Of Mormonism, Jed Woodworth

BYU Studies

For the most part, Brigham Young chose to ignore his critics, but on occasion he personally responded to them. The letter printed below contains Brigham Young's 1869 answer to a newspaper editor's question, "What is the mission of the Mormons?" Mormonism's fruits, Brigham attested, substantiated its faith claims.

The Garden, Ellen Gregory

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Guest Editors' Introduction, Richard L. Jensen, Jed Woodworth

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Leopold Bierwirth's Impressions Of Brigham Young And The Mormons, 1872, Donald Q. Cannon

BYU Studies

Tourists frequently passed through Salt Lake City after the trans-continental railroad was completed in 1869. Many visitors recorded their impressions of the city and its inhabitants. One visitor, Leopold Bierwirth, a New York City merchant, kept a diary during his 1872 railroad journey from New York to San Francisco. The diary is similar to other travel narratives but contains much more detail and insight than most others. Bierwirth's observations are particularly valuable because they were written during his visit rather than later. The portion of Bierwirth's diary reporting his visit to Salt Lake City, including his impressions of Brigham Young, …

End Matter, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Irony And Grace, Frederick Mark Gedicks

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Popol Vuh: The Mythic Sections—Tales Of First Beginnings From The Ancient K'Iche'-Maya Allen J. Christenson, John S. Robertson

BYU Studies

Allen J. Christenson, translator and editor. Popol Vuh: The Mythic Sections—Tales of First Beginnings from the Ancient K'iche'-Maya. Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2000. xv; 278 pp. Illustrations, notes, appendix, bibliography. Softbound, $19.95.

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Father Brigham In His Western Canaan, John K. Carmack

BYU Studies

If you were to paint a word picture of Brigham Young by comparing him to an earlier spiritual leader, to whom would you compare him? Maybe the most dramatic comparison comes from that pivotal moment when he spoke to nearly five thousand Saints gathered in Nauvoo to select those who would take the reins of leadership in the restored Church. To many, including my own forbears, as he delivered his address he looked and sounded like Joseph Smith. Or perhaps, as Leonard Arrington did, you would compare him to Moses leading the children of Israel on a long and perilous …

The Lion And The Lioness: Brigham Young And Eliza R. Snow, Jill Mulvay Derr

BYU Studies

He was born in 1801, she in 1804. He was a man known for his humor and gruffness, she a woman known for her sobriety and refinement. He preached unforgettable sermons, though he never learned to spell. She wrote reams of poetry and songs. He provided her a home as one of his wives for thirty years, but she never took his name. Both he and she were passionately devoted to the Prophet Joseph Smith and his expansive vision of eternity. President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and presidentess of its Relief Society, Brigham Young and …

“Cows To Milk Instead Of Novels To Read”: Brigham Young, Novel Reading, And Kingdom Building, Richard H. Cracroft

BYU Studies

To read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise.

—Henry David Thoreau

Read the true and the wise. The perusal of the rest is worse than time wasted, it is time abused.

—Brigham Young

Mormon Healer And Folk Poet: Mary Susannah Fowler's Life Of “Unselfish Usefulness.” Margaret K. Brady, Kristi A. Bell

BYU Studies

Margaret K. Brady. Mormon Healer and Folk Poet: Mary Susannah Fowler's Life of "Unselfish Usefulness." Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2000. xi; 222 pp. Photos, sketches, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $44.95.

“A Man That You Could Not Help Likeing”: Joseph Smith And Nauvoo Portrayed In A Letter By Susannah And George W. Taggart, Ronald O. Barney

BYU Studies

The Prophet Joseph Smith's call for members of The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints to gather to Nauvoo, Illinois, had a wide effect once the settlement acquired the trappings of civilization. What had been the obscure riverside village of Commerce soon evidenced expansion and progress: new inhabitants and bustling construction. Among those who gathered to Nauvoo were Washington and Susannah Taggart, who converted to Mormonism in 1841 or 1842 in Peterborough, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. Taught the gospel by Elder Eli P. Maginn, the Taggarts soon planned their departure for the Mormon capital. Their eldest son, George Washington Taggart …