To commemorate the upcoming completion of the Revelations and Translations series, which includes the breadth of Joseph Smith’s revelation and translation projects, the Joseph Smith Papers Project will host the fifth annual Joseph Smith Papers Conference on September 10, 2021. The conference will be broadcast digitally to allow for both local and global participation from presenters and audience members. (This was also the format of the 2020 conference.) The theme for this year’s conference is “Joseph Smith and Sacred Text in Nineteenth-Century America.”
Over the course of his life, Joseph Smith engaged in several translation projects, including the Book of Mormon, the Book of Abraham, and the Bible revision, and he dictated numerous revelations that were published in church newspapers and print volumes. Scribes, clerks, and editors worked with Smith in these projects. Through these endeavors, he introduced his followers to new sacred texts, sought to restore and clarify doctrine, modified biblical scripture, and voiced authoritative direction from God, shaping the Latter-day Saints’ understanding of their past, present, and future. To the Saints, Joseph Smith’s translations and revelations testified of his unique prophetic role.
George Handley, Kristen Blair, and Anna Thurston are guest editing a special issue of Religions! See the information below for more on possible topics and how to submit. Flyer HERE.
This successful applicant will work with the full-time staff of the Historic Sites Division of the Church History Department to research and write interpretive guides and historical reports regarding the sacred places of the restoration. The Intern will also assist with other projects, as needed. This is an exciting and unique opportunity for someone interested in Church history and for those pursuing a career in the history field. We are looking for a motivated and hardworking self-started to join our team!
This is a paid internship, which is anticipated to last one year (12 months). This position is a part-time (approximately 28 hours per week) hourly, nonexempt position. The candidate must be currently enrolled in, or recently graduated from (within the last 12 months), an undergraduate or graduate degree program.
Because Repicturing the Restoration is primarily aimed at Latter-day Saint students, this review shades towards devotional uses rather than academic purposes. If that’s not your cup of postem, this may not be the review for you.
2021 looks to be a bumper year for Mormon history and Mormon studies! Start your budgeting now.
Church Historian’s Press
David W. Grua, Brent M. Rogers, Matthew C. Godfrey, Robin Scott Jensen, Christopher James Blythe, and Jessica M. Nelson, Documents, Volume 12: March–July 1843(Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2021).
Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 5: Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2021).
Thanks to friend-of-JI Katherine Pollock for sending this to us!
Call for Submissions: Restoration Studies Journal
Restoration Studies is now an annual publication combined with the Fall/Winter John Whitmer Historical AssociationJournal. The journal publishes individual theological reflections, the religious thought of historical figures and movements, exegesis, and other works of cultural studies about the Latter Day Saint Movement.
Submissions for the 2021 Issue are open now until May 1, 2021.
Questions or Submissions: Editor, Katherine Hill – kggardner@centurylink.net
Brasich, Adam. “Saints at the Crossroads: Richard Price, Edgar Bundy, and Ecumenism in Cold War America.” JWHA Journal 37, no 2 (2017): 147-174.
Adam Brasich demonstrates how Richard Price incorporated Edgar Bundy’s accusations of communist influence in the ecumenicist movement into his attacks on the RLDS church and his founding of the Restorationist movement.
Bryant, Seth. “Justice, Peace, and God’s Nature.” JWHA Journal 36, no 2 (2016): 149-155.
Seth Bryant uses his marine chaplain experience to abjure violence and destruction in war and in societal relationships.
What a year for scholarship on Mormonism! I don’t envy folks on the Mormon History Association Book Award committees.
If this post inspires you to buy a book, please buy local where you can. Purchase from presses or from Benchmark Books or other independent bookstores. Support the places that support Mormon history.
Mormonism in Broader American (Religious) History
Benjamin E. Park, Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier (New York: Liveright/Norton, 2020).
Taylor G. Petrey, Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020).
Sara M. Patterson, Pioneers in the Attic: Place and Memory along the Mormon Trail (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
Each of these books are signal contributions to American history and American religious studies. Park’s book presents a highly readable, deeply-research narrative that helps historians see how Mormon history acted as a microcosm of tensions over American democracy in antebellum America. Petrey’s explores how definitions and practices surrounding race, gender, and sexuality changed in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the end of World War II to the present day. Sara Patterson’s analyzes collective memory and sensory religion, shedding new light on a favorite Mormon history topic (Mormon settlers moving west).
Joseph Smith’s Prophetic Career
Ronald O. Barney, Joseph Smith: History, Methods, and Memory (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2020).
William L. Davis, Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020).
Samuel Morris Brown, Joseph Smith’s Translation: The Word and Worlds of Early Mormonism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
Michael Hubbard McKay, Prophetic Authority: Democratic Hierarchy and the Mormon Priesthood (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020).
Michael Hubbard McKay and William G. Hartley, eds, The Rise of the Latter-day Saints: The Journals and Histories of Newel Knight (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2020).
Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Brian M. Hauglid, Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
2020 is the year of Michael Hubbard MacKay! Each of his books provide insight into Joseph Smith’s religious worlds and ideas. Ronald Barney’s is useful for those interested in learning about memory studies; if anyone would like to write a dual book review with Steve Harper’s book on memory and the First Vision, please send me a note!
Sam Brown’s book is as much theology as it is history, which may scare off some readers. It shouldn’t. Its brilliance, and placing Joseph Smith’s translation conversations with broader ideas about sacred texts, secularism, and what Orsi calls “presence” is a must-read.
I haven’t gotten to William Davis’s book (dissertations! Argh!), but every person I’ve spoken to that has read it has recommended it.
Joseph Smith Papers Project
Elizabeth A. Kuehn, Matthew C. Godfrey, Jordan T. Watkins, and Mason K. Allred, eds., The Joseph Smith Papers Documents, Volume 10: May-August 1842 (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2020).
Spencer W. McBride, Jeffrey D. Mahas, Brett D. Dowdle, and Tyson Reeder, eds., The Joseph Smith Papers Documents, Volume 11: September 1842-February 1843 (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2020).
JSPP gonna JSPP. Which is to say, they produce outstanding scholarship that is invaluable to researchers and non-specialists alike. Their website makes teaching early Mormonism so simple and their high-resolution photos make documents come alive. I can’t imagine teaching without it.
Biography
Matthew L. Harris, Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2020).
Elisa Eastwood Pulido, The Spiritual Evolution of Margarito Bautista: Mexican Mormon Evangelizer, Polygamist Dissident, and Utopian Founder, 1878-1961 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
I’m reviewing Harris’s book for Utah Historical Quarterly soon, so check out my full thoughts later in the year. Suffice it to say that I highly enjoyed the book.
Elisa Pulido’s book has the possibility of changing how Mormon studies scholars study polygamy, politics, and write their biographies. For those without very healthy book budgets, Interlibrary Loan and public library purchase requests are your friends!
Interdisciplinary Studies
Christopher James Blythe, Terrible Revolution: Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
Joanna Brooks, Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
Carol Edison, Erica A. Eliason, Lynne S. McNeill, This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2020).
Blythe’s volume presents a fresh take on “vernacular religion” and helped contextualize Latter-day Saint views of the end times from their Church’s creation to the present day. Joanna Brooks’ book received a lot of attention, and her argument about “racial innocence” is very important. Whether you have read the book or not, you should grapple with the reviews by James C. Jones, Paul Reeve, and LaShawn Williams. Edison, Eliason, and McNeil deserve an award for best book title—I look forward to reading the book once my dissertation is in to my committee.
Latter-day Saints and the State
Kenneth L. Alford, Saints at War: The Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2020).
Derek R. Sainsbury, Storming the Nation: The Unknown Contributions of Joseph Smith’s Political Missionaries (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2020).
Alford’s new volume continues the useful and fascinating series on Latter-day Saints serving in the military in the Middle East. Derek Sainsbury’s is a very interesting study on the political missionaries who worked on behalf of Joseph Smith’s run for President of the United States in 1844.
Brief Theological Introductions to the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2020)
1st Nephi: Joseph M. Spencer
2nd Nephi: Terryl Givens
Jacob: Deidre Nicole Green
Enos, Jarom, Omni: Sharon J. Harris
Mosiah: James E. Faulconer
Alma 1-29: Kylie Nielson Turley
Alma 30-63: Mark Wrathall
Helaman: Kimberly Matheson Berkey
3rd/4th Nephi: Daniel Becerra
Mormon: Adam S. Miller
Ether: Rosalynde Frandsen Welch
Moroni: David F. Holland
Someday I will write more, but this series is a major contribution to Latter-day Saint intellectual history. They’re devotional, but those who do not subscribe to Mormonism’s truth claims will be better able to read the Book of Mormon with the help of the twelve author’s insights.
2020 has been an awful year on about seventy-five different fronts, but Mormon history and Mormon studies scholarship is not one of those sources of dismay. The field is growing, disciplinarily, in who writes the histories, and novel approaches to familiar topics.
While there’s no way to include every single publication, these are the articles I think best represent the state and future directions of the field. Articles are listed in alphabetical order, by the author’s last name.
Eligibility The Tanner Humanities Center will award a graduate fellowship in Mormon Studies for the 2021-2022 academic year. The fellowship encourages, in all facets, the scholarly explorations of any religious tradition which traces its roots to Joseph Smith Jr., its people, values, history, culture, and institutions. This fellowship is designed to enable doctoral students of unusual ability and achievement to engage in research and writing full time. Projects should focus on topics related to the history and/or culture of Mormonism. Eligible disciplines include: Communication, English, History, Languages, Law, Philosophy, and Political Science, among others.
Graduate students will have successfully passed their Ph.D. or qualifying exams, and completed all course work by the beginning of the fellowship period (August 2021).
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. …”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “Large civilizations leave behind evidence of their existence. For instance, I just read that scholars estimate the kingdom of Judah to have been around 110,000…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “I have always understood the key to issues with Nephite archeology to be language. Besides the fact that there is vastly more to Mesoamerican…”
Steven Borup on In Memoriam: James B.: “Bro Allen was the lead coordinator in 1980 for the BYU Washington, DC Seminar and added valuable insights into American history as we also toured…”
David G. on In Memoriam: James B.: “Jim was a legend who impacted so many through his scholarship and kind mentoring. He'll be missed.”
Recent Comments
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. …”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “Large civilizations leave behind evidence of their existence. For instance, I just read that scholars estimate the kingdom of Judah to have been around 110,000…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “I have always understood the key to issues with Nephite archeology to be language. Besides the fact that there is vastly more to Mesoamerican…”
Steven Borup on In Memoriam: James B.: “Bro Allen was the lead coordinator in 1980 for the BYU Washington, DC Seminar and added valuable insights into American history as we also toured…”
David G. on In Memoriam: James B.: “Jim was a legend who impacted so many through his scholarship and kind mentoring. He'll be missed.”