The Juvenile Instructor takes its name from the 19th-century Mormon periodical, founded and edited by Mormon Apostle George Q. Cannon in 1866 in Utah Territory. Cannon, although not a professionally trained historian, sought to incorporate history into his editorials. The name was unanimously chosen by the bloggers for four primary reasons:
1. It seems to be trendy to name Mormon blogs after defunct church periodicals, and many others were already taken.
2. Perhaps serendipitously, the motto of the original Juvenile Instructor is also appropriate to this blog’s aims – “With all thy getting get understanding.”
3. All bloggers are relatively “juvenile” (some in age, some in maturity, most in both).
4. We liked the masthead of the original Juvenile Instructor.
At The Juvenile Instructor, we seek to situate the study of Mormonism within wider frameworks, including American religious history, western history, gender history, and, on occasion, the history of the Republic of South Africa.
Direct questions or comments about the site to the administrator at juvenileinstructor AT gmail DOT com.
Recent Comments
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “Interesting, Jack. But just to reiterate, I think JS saw the SUPPRESSION of Platonic ideas as creating the loss of truth and not the addition.…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “Thanks for your insights--you've really got me thinking. I can't get away from the notion that the formation of the Great and Abominable church was an…”
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “In the intro to DC 76 in JS's 1838 history, JS said, "From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “"I’ve argued that God’s corporality isn’t that clear in the NT, so it seems to me that asserting that claims of God’s immateriality happened AFTER…”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”