Center for Communal Studies Travel Grant (from Matt Grow, sort of)

(Matt is apparently too busy guest-blogging at Big Brown to have remembered to send this our way, but I’ve cribbed this announcement from H-Net, which may be of interest to our readers doing comparative research on communalism.)

The Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana
invites applications for a travel grant to fund research at the Communal
Studies Collection at USI’s David L. Rice Library. The Communal Studies

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Teaching Joseph Smith

I’m teaching a course this semester called “Prophecy in American History.”   We’re examining particularly the interaction between prophetic figures and the society around them.  How did they use religion to critique, affirm, or offer alternatives to the world they lived in?   In what ways does religion shape what it means to be an American, and vice versa?  After an introductory class in which we read Max Weber, Rodney Stark, Anthony Wallace, and Walter Brueggemann on the nature of prophecy, we have turned our attention to a series of American prophets.   We began with Anne Hutchinson; next week we’ll discuss Nat Turner.

The week following, we’ll visit Joseph Smith.

What I’ve reproduced below is the blog entry that I’ll post the night after the Nat Turner course, introducing the students to the readings they will do for Smith.

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Anglo-American Culture Wars and the Early Missionary Effort in England

The prevailing “special relationship” between Britain and the United States is of fairly recent vintage (1). It has grown out the close cooperation of the two nations during the World Wars and other political engagements since. Previous to this, there was much political jockeying and often animosity that has now been lost from public memory. The American Revolution (or The American Rebellion, I suppose) was, of course, not a time of harmony; the War of 1812 ensured that the separation between the two nations was permanent and reaffirmed their differences.

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Conference on Mormon Thought and Engineering

Although this is noted at MormonConferences.org, Dr. Bushman asked that I use the JI to advertise this interesting conference on Mormon thought and engineering to be held in March at Claremont Graduate University.  So, here’s the info…

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Avoiding the “Dupes of the Mormon Delusion”: An Antebellum Unitarian Weighs in on Mormon Success

(I am taking a break from Woodruff for a moment, and thought I would post something related to Unitarianism in honor of Ryan T’s guest-blogging.)

The quick success of early Mormonism came as a shock to many contemporaries. This left religious thinkers scrambling to find a way to account for this “heretical” movement’s growth, attempting to explain why so many people were finding the Mormon message so persuasive.

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New Guest Blogger Ryan T.

Please join us in welcoming the latest guest blogger here at the Juvenile Instructor. Ryan T. describes himself thus:

Hello Juvenile Instructor! I?m Ryan Tobler, an undergrad just winding up my degree in English/History at BYU and nursing ulcers while I wait to hear back on my applications to grad programs in religious and Transatlantic studies.  My areas of interest are still crystallizing, but broadly I study British and American 18th and 19th century intellectual history (generally with a Transatlantic paradigm). More specifically I?m interested in literature and literary figures as public intellectuals, secularization, and cosmopolitanism, especially as all these bear upon religion. These issues typically put me on the more ?liberal? and learned fringe of the religion of that period: Unitarians, Universalists, and so on. I enjoy travel and languages, cross-country skiing, ?canyoneering,? and play soccer at every available opportunity.

Thanks for having me aboard.