Juvenile Instructor

Book Review: Terryl Givens, The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction

By Ben PSeptember 4, 2009

Terryl L. Givens, The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford?s Very Short Introduction Series (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 125 pp + appendixes and index.

If you are looking for a book that focuses on the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, what it tells us about antebellum religious culture, or even how it shaped (or was shaped by) Joseph Smith?s mind, then this is not the book for you.

Perspectives of Parley Pratt’s Autobiography: Joseph Spencer on Pratt’s Poetry

By Ben PAugust 10, 2009

[Yet another post in the Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography series. Joe recently received a MLS degree from San Jose State University, but has decided to turn from the practical back to the abstract and will be applying to PhD programs in philosophy this fall. He is active in the Society of Mormon Philosophy and Theology, Mormon Scholars in the Humanities, and the Mormon Theology Seminar, and is well-known in the bloggernacle for his Priesthood/RS lesson posts over at Feast Upon the Word blog. Joe is married with a handful of kids, and his only flaw is his belief that continental philosophy can solve all the world’s problems.]

Parley P. Pratt is still well known for his poetry, didactic and pedestrian as it often enough is.

The Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography: BiV on “Conjugal Relations of Parley P. Pratt as Portrayed in his Autobiography”

By Ben PAugust 6, 2009

[This is another installment of the Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography series. BiV is a legend around the ‘nacle, blogging at Hieing to Kolob and Mormon Matters, and a common contributor to JI.]

Searching the Parley P. Pratt autobiography for clues about his love and marital experiences is a fascinating enterprise, both because of what he includes, and what he purposely leaves out.

Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography: Adriane Rodrigues on Pratt’s use of Literary Voice

By Ben PAugust 3, 2009

[This is the fourth post in the Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography series. Adriane Rodrigues Coelho was baptized nearly 23 years ago. She is married to Ricardo Choairy Coelho and they have four children. She received her B.A. degree in English Language and Literature from Faculdade de Letras, of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, in 2000. After working for 15 years as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language for primary students in her country, she dedicated herself to her graduate program. In 2006 she received her M.A. degree from the same University. Her thesis Ordinary Accounts of Extraordinary Value: Mormon Pioneer Women?s Life Writings was a pioneering effort on Mormon Studies in Brazil. During the Summer Seminar on the Pratts, she wrote “Parley Pratt’s Ready Pen and Satire.” Her future projects include further research in the field.]

Parley Pratt?s high command of the English Language as well of the use of some of his notable literary skills are even expanded in chapters 33 and 34 when he describes his runaway from prison in Missouri.

Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography: Matt Grow on “Writing the Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt”

By Ben PJuly 30, 2009

[This is third post in the Perspectives of Parley Pratt’s Autobiography series. Matt Grow has a PhD in History from Notre Dame University, where he studied under George Marsden. His first book, a biography on Thomas L. Kane, was published with Yale University Press. He is currently co-authoring a biography of Pratt, tentatively titled Parley Parker Pratt: The Saint Paul of Mormonism, to be published with with Oxford University Press. Matt is an assistant professor of history and director of the Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana.]

In late 1853, Orson Pratt, then in Washington, D.C., excitedly wrote to his brother Parley about an effort to publish genealogical information on the descendants of their ancestor William Pratt, a Puritan who migrated from England to Connecticut in the 1630s.

Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography: Writing as Restoration and Redemption

By Ben PJuly 23, 2009

[This is the first post of the “Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography” Series]

The details behind the writing (compilation?) of the Autobiography will be detailed in Matt Grow’s post next week. This post, however, focuses on Parley’s motivation behind the book. I argue that the text was written for two central reasons, beyond the obvious reason of providing the Saints with a first-hand account of the Church’s early history.

Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography: Introduction

By Ben PJuly 20, 2009

Warning: If you have grown sick with the number of Parley Pratt posts coming from me lately, it’s about to get worse; much, much worse.

Parley Pratt and the Cultivation of Human Affections

By Ben PJuly 9, 2009

[What follows is an extract from a section of my paper presented at the 2009 Pratt Summer Seminar, titled “‘Here Was an End to Mysticism’: Divine Embodiment, Human Corporality, and Parley Pratt.”]

2009 Summer Seminar Symposium: Schedule

By Ben PJune 25, 2009

Parley and Orson Pratt and Nineteenth-Century Mormon Thought

Public Symposium at Brigham Young University

Sponsored by the Mormon Scholars Foundation

July 2, 2009

B092 of the Joseph F. Smith Building at BYU

In the tradition of Richard Bushman?s summer seminars on Joseph Smith and early Mormonism, eight graduate students, under the direction of Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow, have studied the writings of Orson and Parley Pratt and will be presenting their research at this symposium. The seminar has been hosted by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

10:00 Terryl Givens, University of Richmond, Introduction

10:10 Ryan Tobler, University of Chicago, ?Parley Pratt and Evolving Views of the American Republic in Early

The Pratt Brothers, the Holy Spirit, and Navigating Materialist Theology

By Ben PJune 16, 2009

For early Mormon writers, their growing materialist theology brought several theological problems for their rationalistic minds to solve. Placing God within a physical body that takes up physical place perceivably posed threats to God?s omnipotence, omniscience, and, especially, omnipresence. Thus, many were left to determine how a godhead composed of three personages could be everywhere at the same time and have power over everything in the universe. The answer, at least for the Pratt brothers, was a redefinition of the Holy Ghost.

Newer Posts | Older Posts

Articles by

Ben P