Help Husband Get a Wife!

An important part of early Mormon culture making was the promotion of polygamy in the ranks. Although Kathy Daynes is correct to note that the brethren had to preach polygamy from the pulpit in order to get the members to enter into polygamous relationships, it is also important to remember that polygamy was promoted in other forms as well, such as in the following song. According to Carmon Hardy, “[t]his verse appeared as part of a ballad sung to the tune of ‘Rosa May’ in the 17th Ward School House in Salt Lake City, on 15 October 1856,” at the height of the Mormon Reformation

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B. H. Roberts and Pragmatism. Part III on William James and Mormonism

(continued from Part II)

With the Mormon conception of a premortal council in mind, as Roberts continued reading Pragmatism he set about noting where James steered askew from a Mormon way of seeing things, filling in the gaps where James does not follow the Mormon line of reasoning all the way out as well as identifying other elements that resonate with Mormonism. Where James suggests–again, perhaps hypothetically–that some proto-individuals, at this pre-dawn of creation, might recoil from such a dangerous proposition and prefer rather to “relapse into the slumber of nonentity” from which they had “been momentarily aroused by the tempter’s voice,” Roberts demurs. In the bottom margin of his copy of Pragmatism–and later in the footnotes of his published works–Roberts offered this corrective of James’s implication that God brought human souls into being out of a nonentity to which they might at any time return:

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“Infinite Regress” or “Monarchical Monotheism”

In Brian Birch’s class, “Mormonism and Christian Theology,” at CGU we recently discussed the “King Follet Discourse” and the “Sermon in the Grove” and the ways Mormon scholars have interpreted records of these sermons over the years. A point of conversation relates to what Smith meant in stating that God “is a man like one of yourselves” who “dwelt on a Earth same as Js. himself did.”[1] In a related recorded statement, Smith is said to have explained that “Paul says there are gods many & Lords many” I want to set it in a plain simple manner–but to us there is but one God pertaining to us.”[2] Smith’s words generally have been interpreted in two ways.

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O’Dea, Sources of Strain, and Rank-and-File Mormons

Writing in 1957, Catholic sociologist Thomas F. O’Dea devoted a chapter of his important work, The Mormons, to what he saw as “sources of strain and conflict” in the Latter-day Saint church.  The most significant of those sources of strain, according to O’Dea, was the unsettled issue of the relationship between the institutional church and the growing number of “liberal intellectual” Mormons who had encountered “modern secular thought.”  While admitting that “the situation of the intellectual is likely to be somewhat ambiguous in any society,” [1] O’Dea felt that especially in the paradoxical Mormon church, which emphasized ecclesiastical authority and revelation but also encouraged education and intellectual pursuit among the rank-and-file, the intellectuals’ dilemma was especially enigmatic.  After briefly tracing the history of the strain, conflict, and compromise in the early 20th century between the conservative church and the liberal intellectuals, O’Dea ended by suggesting that the matter was far from settled.

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Is There A Place at the Academic Table for Mormon Studies?

I will soundly argue that the answer to the question above is an unequivocal “No!” Just playing. The formation of Mormon Studies Chairs at Utah State University and Claremont Graduate School with similar programs in the works at other institutions of higher learning suggests an affirmative answer to this query. I think it is obvious that our intellectual predecessors have worked long and hard to make this possible, and consequently we should be grateful. The formation of chairs, along with other movements in the media and politics, mark a new era in the scholarly study of Mormonism, as universities “scramble” to create classes in Mormonism. Sunday night I attended a fireside in Pasadena where Drs. Richard and Claudia Bushman spoke of this exciting time. As Claudia was speaking she mentioned the idea that we had the opportunity to become intellectual pioneers. This struck me. To be honest, I felt rather overwhelmed thinking about the legacy that budding scholars of Mormonism have to live up to. Further, it seems that we must participate in forming the idea of what it means to study Mormonism at a graduate level. Consequently, I think the important question relates to what kind of place we will create for ourselves at the academic table.

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Welcome JI’s newest guest blogger, Jordan W.

The Juvenile Instructor is pleased to introduce its newest guest blogger, Jordan Watkins.  Jordan has long been friends with many of the bloggers here at JI, and is an aspiring young scholar interested in Mormon and American Religious History.  He describes himself thus:

My name is Jordan Watkins and I’m pretty awesome…and objective:) I was born and raised in Alpine, Utah in the heart of “Happy Valley” where above 95% of the population is LDS. I served an LDS mission in Leon, Mexico. I received my BA in history at BYU. I am in my second semester at Claremont Graduate University in the MA history program, emphasizing in 19th Century US Religious History as best I can (small history faculty, none specializing in US Religious History). I have no wife, no kids, and no pets. I realize this should translate into a large number of brilliant publications and conference presentations, but alas, I think I like watching movies and sleeping too much.

We should add that he has, indeed, presented a few fascinating papers at academic conferences and his work has been published, including a recent article he co-authored in BYU Studies.  Please join us in welcoming Jordan to the Juvenile Instructor.

The Joseph Smith Papers will be Published by…The Church Historian’s Press

After months years of anticipation, the Joseph Smith Papers Project has finally announced a publisher…The Church Historian’s Press. If you haven’t heard of this press before it’s because it hasn’t existed prior to now. There have been high hopes that a University press (other than BYU’s) would agree to be the publisher, but apparently those hopes have been in vain. Let’s just say that this is disappointing news.

The Project has also launched a project website, which looks to be a great site that will include transcri

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B. H. Roberts and Pragmatism. Part II on William James and Mormonism

(continued from Part I)

Brigham Henry Roberts (1857-1933), LDS general authority, historian, and theologian–twice nominated as “the most eminent intellectual in Mormon history”[1]–owned copies of at least five of James’s works: Psychology, Pragmatism, A Pluralistic Universe, The Meaning of Truth, and Some Problems of Philosophy. Of those books, Roberts first read Pragmatism, which he finished reading, as indicated by an inscription on the last page of Roberts’s personal copy of the book, on the morning of March 16, 1908. In July of that same year he purchased A Pluralistic Universe and in October, Psychology.[2] These five books are now housed as part of the B. H. Roberts Memorial Library in the archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. Due to Roberts’s habit of writing in the margins of his books, an examination of the collection can be revealing of how he read, particularly where he saw resonance with Mormon thought and where he parted ways with certain ideas.

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Pragmatizing Mormonism and Baptizing William James; or Was William James a Closet Mormon (and Joseph Smith a Proto-Pragmatist). Part I on William James and Mormonism

In the spring of 1914, at a bi-annual general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Levi Edgar Young, a relative of Brigham Young, stood at the pulpit of the Mormon tabernacle in Salt Lake City and declared that “if Dr. William James, of Harvard College, had come to Utah before he died, he would have found a society that, above all other human societies, illustrates better the theory of pragmatism, brought about by that great psychologist[,] than any other society on earth today.” [1] James almost had the chance to do just that-to visit Utah-having been invited by Brigham Young Academy president Benjamin Cluff to come to Provo, Utah, to lecture-an invitation James unfortunately had to decline due to his poor health. [2] But even though James never had the chance to see pragmatism in action in the Mormon West, he was no stranger to the faith. He had had several Mormon students at Harvard, including Levi Edgar Young, and had on one occasion dined with Benjamin Cluff during Cluff’s visit to Cambridge in 1892.

In his diary, Cluff described the conversation that took place during his dinner engagement with the renowned professor. “During the conversation,” writes Cluff,

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Frontier Women FRAMED!

As my final act as guest poster, I’m offering another selection from my GEA collection paper about how these compositions were framed (thought a sensational post title might attract a few more readers ;-).

I look forward to joining you more permanently at the end of March! Thanks for the invite future fellow Instructors!

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