An Unsigned Letter to Edward Hunter: Any Guesses Who and When?

Edward Hunter was perhaps the wealthiest convert to early Mormonism.[1] His coming to Nauvoo was a major boon to Joseph Smith as he set up a factory and brought a lot of store goods.[2]  ?My wife and myself had made up our minds to let Joseph have all of our means,” Hunter wrote in his autobiography, “until Joseph came to me and said, ?Keep it.??[3]  The following unsigned and undated letter seems to confirm that narrative.  It seems to have been written by a dissenter who was irritated by Hunter’s consecration.

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Scholarly Q&A on the Succession: Christine and Christopher Blythe

(The following is a give-and-take with Christopher and Christine Blythe, graduate students in American religious history who specialize in the many divergent forms of Mormonism. Christopher attends Florida State University, where he is nearing completion of his PhD, and Christine recently started a master’s program at Memorial University of Newfoundland. A couple weeks ago, I highlighted two of their recent articles; today, they answer a few questions presented to them by the JI cabal. The Blythes have a documentary history of the succession period due to be published by Kofford Books next year.)

Mormon-themed Aphrodisiacs, Part 1 of 4: Damiana (Possibly NSFW)

Note: this post discusses sexual activity in general and erectile dysfunction in particular, though mostly with nineteenth-century language. It also contains an image of a female nude as printed on the packaging and advertising for a late-nineteenth-century aphrodisiac pill.

Two weeks back Christopher had a socks-rocking post (with great comments) on the alleged pharmacoactive properties and Mormon uses of ?Mormon Tea.? At the moment I don?t have anything to add to the discussion of Mormon Tea, but I think there are some related, interesting things to say about damiana (see image at right), which also grows in the American Southwest, also affects human physiology, and was also allegedly part of the Mormon materia medica.

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Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup (7 September 2013); Thunderstruck Edition

The biggest Mormon studies news this week is either that: A) the American Bible Society still exists, and also that 47% of Americans, according to the still-existing American Bible Society, believe that the Book of Mormon and Bible “teach the same spiritual truths.”

Or, B) That TLC is going to grace us with another reality show about a polygamous family.

Shut down the presses, everybody.

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Kathleen Flake: Richard L. Bushman Professor of Mormon Studies

The University of Virginia announced this week that Kathleen Flake will be the inaugural Richard L. Bushman Chair for Mormon Studies in UVA’s Religious Studies Department (that’s a lot of capital letters!).

Professor Flake’s academic credentials are impressive. She received her undergraduate degree in English at BYU and her J.D. from the University of Utah Law School. She received her M.A. from Catholic University of American in Religious Studies, and her Ph.D.  from the University of Chicago.  Professor Flake has spent the past thirteen years at Vanderbilt teaching American Religious History. Her first book, The Politics of Religious Identity: the Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle, is well regarded in non-Mormon and Mormon circles alike. The American Historical Review proclaimed of Flake, “no more sophisticated mind has turned its attention to the history of the Latter-day Saints.”[i]

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Joseph Smith Papers Launch Party: The Documents Series

On Wednesday, September 4, 2013, the Joseph Smith Papers Project hosted a launch party for journalists and bloggers to introduce the Documents Series, which will serve as the chronological backbone of the project. Previously, the project has released volumes from Journals Series (2), the Revelations and Translations Series (2, plus an oversized facsimile volume), and the Histories Series (2). The first volume of the Documents Series reproduces in chronological order all of Joseph Smith?s papers from July 1828 to June 1831, beginning with the earliest extant recorded revelation (D&C 3) and concluding with the historic church conference where the high priesthood (that is, the office of high priest) was restored.[1] This was a foundational period in Mormon history, tracking the translation of the Book of Mormon, the recording of the first revelations, the organization of the church, the mission to the “Lamanites,” the beginning of Joseph Smith’s revisions of the Bible, and the beginnings of the first two gathering places of the church–Kirtland and Independence. The editors–Mike Mackay, Gerrit Dirkmaat, Grant Underwood, Bob Woodford, and Bill Hartley, along with other smart people at the JSPP who also contributed–contextualized these issues in commendable fashion. Although images and transcriptions of these documents have been available on the JSPP website for some time, the “value added” of the JSPP editors’ introductions and annotations is well worth paying for the print volume. 

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Mormon Jesus at the Jersey Shore: Some Thoughts on LDS Images of Christ in Non-Mormon Venues

As a sort of follow-up to my post a couple of weeks ago on early Mormonism on the Jersey Shore and as my own contribution to the blog’s emphasis on material culture this month, I thought I’d offer some brief thoughts on Mormon images of Christ and their appropriation and use by non-Mormons.

Earlier this summer, a family member handed me a handful of pamphlets she’d picked up during a recent trip to the Jersey Shore. Knowing of my own interests in Methodist history, she thought I’d appreciate the literature she’d picked up at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Methodism has a long and rich history in New Jersey—Asbury Park, a seaside community made famous by Bruce Springsteen, was named after the father of American Methodism, Francis Asbury, and the town of Ocean Grove traces its own roots to the efforts of two Methodist ministers in the mid-19th century to establish a permanent camp meeting site to host summer retreats and worship services. While I found the content of the pamphlets interesting, I was struck most by the image adorning the tri-fold pamphlet advertising a series of lectures entitled “Our God Present During Difficulty.”

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Scholarly Inquiry: A Q&A with John Fea

We’re thrilled to present the following Q&A with historian John Fea. Dr. Fea is Associate Professor of History and  Chair of the History Department at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. He is the author and editor of several books, including The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011), and Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian’s Vocation (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), which he co-edited with Jay Green and Eric Miller. His latest book, Why Study History? Reflecting on the Importance of the Past (Baker Academic, 2013) is scheduled to be released in two weeks. Dr. Fea is currently at work on two book projects—a religious history of the American Revolution and one on history and memory in the town of Greenwich, NJ. In addition to his scholarly output, John is a prodigious blogger, a tireless traveler and dynamic speaker (check out that list—chances are he’ll be in your general neck of the woods at some point), Bruce Springsteen devotee, avid sports fan, and 2010 inductee to the Montville High School (NJ) Hall of Fame. By nearly all accounts, he is also an incredibly nice guy.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Fea!

Series Introduction: Material Culture

Though there’s a tendency in many religious circles to think of materialism, of owning objects, as something less-than-good, an attachment to the world perhaps, or a clear failure to follow Jesus’ directives in Luke 18:22,[1] objects aid religiosity in singularly effective ways. Being religious encompasses much more than scripture mastery, Sunday school lessons learned and internalized, the ability to recite a certain creed or, in a Mormon context, to be able to affirm the Articles of Faith or pass a temple recommend interview. And while material culture has a societal function in general,[2] material culture that expresses religion has its own special signifiers. Material culture of all kinds helps people learn the specific discourse and narratives of their religious communities, as new generations relearn symbolic systems through seeing, touching, and doing. If we look at specific Christian images, we see how they can help shape religion: a Catholic might hang a crucifix, while a Protestant sets more stock in a lavish family Bible, and a Mormon has the “Proclamation on the Family” displayed. Whatever the object, it is used to construct and reinforce meaning. The process of constructing meaning is a ecumenical one and crosses faith lines quite easily, yet the meaning encoded into the object is highly specific. This explains why a Catholic First Communion at seven years old is at the same time similar to a Mormon baptism at age eight (the white clothes, the age at which the ritual happens, the solemnity and preparation) and yet so very different for the participants themselves.

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Jared Farmer’s Mormon Image Collections

Jared Farmer has made available, for free download, two self-published digital collections of Mormon-related images. This is not really a review—it’s an endorsement.  

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