The Book of Abraham and the Ancient Wisdom

Many Christians have found Plato valuable and those who have have often promoted the idea of prisca theologia, or, the ancient wisdom. The idea was the Plato got his ideas from somewhere else, like hermetic or orphic texts, and some thinkers constructed larger narratives of where the ancient wisdom (Platonic ideas that predated Plato) came from. ?In order to preserve the uniqueness of the Judeo-Christian revelation,? argues D. P. Walker, ?it was usual to claim that pagan Ancient Theology derived from Moses; but sometimes it was supposed to go back further, to Noah and his good sons, Shem and Japeth, or to antediluvian Patriarchs, such as Enoch, or even Adam.? [1]

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Overlooked and Under-appreciated Books in Mormon History

For a book project I am currently working on, I recently revisited Ron Walker’s Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young (which you can download for free here). I had glanced through the book years ago, but it never really made that big of an impression. However, this time through it struck me as a phenomenal volume. Not only is it full of nuance, sophistication, and exhaustive research, but it is better written than a majority of Mormon history books I’ve read. It made me better appreciate Leonard Arrington’s description of Walker as the “best writer” in Mormon studies.

This got me thinking: what other books do we sometimes overlook in the field? Wayward Saints, for instance, only received one vote in a recent survey here on JI, and I failed to include it on my list of the “Mormon History Canon.” (I would probably add it were I to try the list over again.) Some other books that come to mind:

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JSPP Internship

Joseph Smith Papers Project Internship-Church History Department

Purpose

The Church History Department announces an opening for a one-year internship with the Joseph Smith Papers Project. This will be a full-time temporary position beginning in October 2011.

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Picturing Lamanites building the New Jerusalem: an addendum to “Trying to make our children’s…”

Ardis Parshall has graciously provided this scan of an image, the possibility of which was discussed in my post of a few days ago.

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“the seemingly simple issue of heaven”: Jon Butler on Mormonism in American Grace

Over at The Immanent Frame, the always insightful and provocative Jon Butler offers “a historian’s reaction to American Grace,” a sweeping treatment of  “how religion divides and unites us” in contemporary America that has rightly gained a fair amount of publicity and praise since its release last October. Butler’s thoughtful critique wonders whether authors Robert Putnam and David Campbell allow the “many and complex “beliefs'” they survey to “float too free from their historical moorings.”

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Lecture Announcement: David Holland at BYU

From our good friend Rachel Cope:

The Department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University is hosting a talk titled, “Prophet of Doom, Apostle of Hope: Slavery, Marriage and an Antebellum Search for Authority,” by visiting Scholar David Holland on Thursday, Sept 29, at 7:00 pm. It will be held in W111 Benson. All are invited to attend.

Holland’s recent book, Sacred Borders has received great praise, both from the ‘nacle and the broader academic community. Holland, who teaches history at UNLV, is a rising young scholar in American intellectual, religious, and cultural history. He is also the dissertation advisor of (at least in spirit) JI contributor Jordan Watkins. His (somewhat dated) C.V. is found here.

I hope it gets good attendance, and I wish I could attend!

Trying to make our children’s Book of Mormon illustrations not quite so politically incorrect

While visiting a friend’s home in Utah this past summer, I noticed on the bookshelf a complete set of the Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon, a 16-volume production, geared toward families with kids, published by Promised Land Publications in 1967. I pulled a volume off the shelf and began flipping through. It was great! If I didn’t know any better, though, I might have been a bit confused by the array of colorful pictures that confronted me. Was this a history of the ancient americas or a modern U.S. History textbook? It seemed a strange hybrid of both. Pictures of Nephites and Lamanites and Mesoamerican temples were interspersed with pictures of the Statue of Liberty, Columbus, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the transcontinental railroad, and the American West!

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Call for Papers: The LDS Church During the Joseph F. Smith Era

CALL FOR PAPERS
CHURCH HISTORY SYMPOSIUM
JOSEPH F. SMITH ERA
MARCH 2?3, 2012

Jointly sponsored by the Department of Church History and Doctrine of Brigham Young University and the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Joseph F. Smith, the sixth President of the Church and the last to have personally known the Prophet Joseph Smith, served for 52 years as a General Authority, including as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as a counselor to four Church Presidents, and as President of the Church from 1901 to 1918. Joseph F. Smith?s tenure as Church President was a key transitional period in Church history. We invite paper proposals that consider the life, teachings, and family of Joseph F. Smith and the social, political, religious, and historical developments during his tenure as President.

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Designing a Course on Early Mormonism: Picking Topics

A few of us at the blog have started teaching our own courses, so we’re thinking more about teaching than as a blog we’ve done in the past. So I thought it might be fun to do a series of posts discussing how we’d design a college course on early Mormonism. I picked early Mormonism because it’s something most of the permas are familiar with, even if it’s not our primary area of study. And most of our non-academic readership also knows a fair amount about this period. So let’s start with organizing the weekly topics. At my university, we’re on a sixteen-week schedule per semester, so here’s how I would do it:

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Q&A with Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow on Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism, Part II

[What follows are the final six responses from Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow on their recent volume, Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). Part I can be found here. We wish to sincerely thank Terryl and Matt for participating and offering such insightful answers.]

7. From David G: ?Historians often separate ?the Joseph Smith era? (1820-1844/47) from the ?territorial period? (1844/47-1890). Does Pratt?s life problematize this periodization scheme? Stated differently, does looking at Pratt reveal more continuity or change after JS?s death (at least in the Brighamite group)??

All periodization schemes are inherently problematic. I think that Pratt could be used to support either argument?either continuity or change between the Joseph Smith era and the territorial period. Pratt and the other apostles saw themselves as faithful inheritors of the legacy of Joseph Smith and they sought to extend what they understood as his legacy (including activities from missionary work to plural marriage). Some discontinuities which Pratt?s life highlights includes a decline in doctrinal innovation after Joseph Smith?s death, the establishment of plural marriage as an open system, the turn of missionary work towards the Pacific (including Pratt?s mission to Chile and his supervision of missionary work in California, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands), and an eventual decline in the rich print culture of early Mormonism (Parley?s writing dropped off after the migration to Utah, with the major exception of his Key to the Science of Theology).

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