Conference Schedule: War and Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives

By February 28, 2011


?War and Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives?
Claremont Graduate University
March 18-19, 2011

Under the sponsorship of
The LDS Council on Mormon Studies
and the
Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
at the University of Notre Dame

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Not that we’re a “Big Blog” or anything…

By February 27, 2011


…but vote for us anyway: Niblets Awards for 2010. Meaning, even though the judges aren’t separating the “best blog” voting into “big blogs” and “group blogs” (we either won or tied the latter category for the last three years, I believe), Juvenile Instructor is still deserving of some votes.

Also, several JI permas are up for “best blogger,” so vote for them as well!


Reassessing: The Refiner?s Fire: the making of Mormon cosmology, 1644-1844

By February 25, 2011


It’s my opinion that the further we get from the publication of John Brooke’s The Refiner’s Fire, a wildly inventive examination of Mormon origins through the lens of various esoteric European -isms (including occultism, the quest for hidden and often mysterical knowledge;  hermeticism, a particular brand of the occult supposedly derived from ancient Egypt and for Brooke basically a restorationist concept that sought to regain Adam’s access to God, and the non -ism alchemy, or the transformation of the mundane into the exalted) the more interesting a book it seems. 

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Measuring Church History, One Apostle At a Time

By February 24, 2011


I have been doing research in the Wilford Woodruff journals for a piece on Woodruff’s use of memory. Today I found an unusual entry from May 1887. On the 26th, Woodruff, along with Francis M. Lyman and John Henry Smith, were in the St. George Temple and decided to weigh and measure each other.

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[Repost] The JI is on Facebook and Twitter!!

By February 24, 2011


[This is a repost from March 24, 2010.]

Perhaps perpetuating a horrible stereotype about historians (stuck in the past, not up on the cutting edge of technology), the JI is finally on Facebook (I guess you can search for “Juvenile Instructor” and it’ll come up) and Twitter (@MormonHistoryJI). So take a second to  become a Fan or to follow us.


First Edition of the Book of Mormon, British Library

By February 21, 2011


The British Library at St Pancras, London has a first edition Book of Mormon available for view in its rare book reading room. I initially discovered this as a BYU London Centre study abroad student in 2007. As I looked up sources on Sir Robert Walpole for British Politics research at the BL, I also decided to see what LDS sources the Library might also hold. I discovered the first edition in the catalogue. As a former BYU Nauvoo student, the prospect of holding and paging through a first edition Book of Mormon was extremely exciting. I quickly requested the item, as well as those for my other research, and then raced over to King?s Cross/St Pancras.

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2011 BYU Church History Symposium Schedule, “Go Ye Into All The World”

By February 18, 2011


Our own Brett D. will be presenting. Congrats, Brett!

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From the Archives: Wynetta Martin’s autobiography, Black Mormon Tells Her Story

By February 17, 2011


In the late 1960s, a black woman named Wynetta Martin joined the church in California, finding in Mormonism a loving God with whom she could identify. Martin moved to Utah at a time when the church was seeking to diversify its public face in response to boycotts of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and BYU. It was therefore a combination of her own tenacity as an individual (she drove all night from Los Angeles to make her audition) and the church’s need to adapt to changing circumstances that allowed Martin to become the first African American member of the Tabernacle Choir and the first black instructor at BYU (she taught classes on “Black Culture” in the Nursing department).

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Book Notice-The Book of Mormon: The Biography of a Book by Paul Gutjahr + Lecture

By February 15, 2011


H/T: Keith Erekson.

[forwarded message] Please join us on Thursday, February 17, at 4:00 p.m., for a talk by Prof. Paul Gutjahr about his forthcoming book, The Book of Mormon: The Biography of a Book.  This book, which will be published by thePrinceton University Press in its series on “The Lives of Great Religious Books,” tells the story of The Book of Mormon from its publication in 1830 to the present day.  Professor Gutjahr states in his abstract:

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Book Notice-Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore

By February 13, 2011


Hitting shelves this April is this long-awaited collection of essays edited by Paul Reeve and Michael S. Van Wagenen and which features the work of two JIers: Matt and Stan. The book’s webpage states that,

Mormons gave distinctive meanings to supernatural legends and events, but their narratives incorporated motifs found in many cultures. Many such historical legends and beliefs found adherents down to the present. This collection employs folklore to illuminate the cultural and religious history of a people.

The contents:

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