Today’s the day here at JI when, in keeping with our theme this month, we compile a listing of scholarship on the history of Mormon practice. This is intended to be a collaboration, so we hope you’ll jump in and contribute. The list below ought to get us going, but many studies have surely been overlooked, and the categories are arbitrary, so additions and reconfigurations are more than welcome. What works and categories are we missing? What glaring lacunae do you see in the field? What piques your interest? What trends can you identify? How much praise can we heap upon the superstars here? Share your thoughts and insights as we build a comprehensive bibliography.

Adoption Ritual

Samuel M. Brown and Jonathan A. Stapley, “Mormonism’s Adoption Theology: An Introductory Statement,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 3 (2011): 1-2.

Samuel M. Brown, “Early Mormon Adoption Theology and the Mechanics of Salvation,” Journal of Mormon History 37:3 (Summer 2011): 3-52.

Jonathan A. Stapley, “Adoptive Sealing Ritual in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 3 (2011): 53-118.

Baptism

D. Michael Quinn, “The Practice of Rebaptism at Nauvoo,” BYU Studies 18, no. 2 (February 1978): 226-232.

Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “They Shall Be Made Whole”: A History of Baptism for Health,” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 4 (October 2008): 69-112

Ryan G. Tobler, “‘Saviors on Mount Zion’: Mormon Sacramentalism, Mortality, and The Baptism for the Dead,” Journal of Mormon History 39, no. 4 (Fall 2013): 182-238.

Death

Samuel Morris Brown, In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

Samuel M. Brown, “The ‘Beautiful Death’ in the Smith Family,” Brigham Young University Studies 45, no. (2006): 121-150.

Susanna Morrill, “Relief Society Birth and Death Rituals: Women at the Gates of Eternity,” Journal of Mormon History 36, no. 2 (2010): 128-159.

Jonathan A. Stapley, “Last Rites and the Dynamics of Mormon Liturgy,” BYU Studies 50, no. 2 (April 2011): 97-128.

Kylie Nielson Turley, “Rhetoric and Ritual: A Decade of ‘Woman’s Exponent’ Death Poetry,” Journal of Mormon History 32, no. 3 (June 2006): 54-81.

Healing

Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “The Forms and the Power: The Development of Mormon Healing Ritual to 1847,” Journal of Mormon History 35, no. 3 (2009): 42-87.

Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 1 (2011): 1-85.

Jonathan A. Stapley, “‘Pouring in Oil’: The Development of the Modern Mormon Healing Ritual,” Daniel Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013), 283-216

Historical Practices

Davis Bitton, “The Ritualization of Mormon History,” Utah Historical Quarterly 43, no. 1 (January 1975): 67-85. Also in Davis Bitton, The Ritualization of Mormon History, and Other Essays (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).

Kathleen Flake, “Re-Placing Memory: Latter-Day Saint Use of Historical Monuments and Narrative in the Early Twentieth Century,” Religion & American Culture 13, no. 1 (2003): 69-109.

Megan Sanborn Jones, “Performing Mormon History,” Journal of Mormon History 35, no. 3 (2009): 204-208.

Temple

Devery S. Anderson, The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2011).

Richard E. Bennett, “‘Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept”: Reflections on the 1877 Commencement of Endowments and Sealings for the Dead,” BYU Studies 44, no. 3 (July 2005): 38-77.

Gary James Bergera, “The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35, no. 3 (September 2002): 41-66.

Lisle G. Brown, “‘Temple Pro Tempore’: The Salt Lake City Endowment House,” Journal of Mormon History 34 (Fall 2008): 1-68.

Samuel M. Brown, “A Sacred Code: Mormon Temple Dedication Prayers, 1836-2000,” Journal of Mormon History 32, no. 2 (April 2006): 173-196.

David John Buerger, “The Development of the Mormon Temple Ceremony,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 34, no. 1 (March 2001): 75-122.

David John Buerger, The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2002).

Kathleen Flake, “‘Not to Be Riten’: The Nature and Effects of the Mormon Temple Rite as Oral Canon,” Journal of Ritual Studies 9, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 1-21.

Michael W. Homer, “‘Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry”: The Relationship Between Freemasonry and Mormonism,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27, no. 3 (1994): 1-113.

Michael W. Homer, Joseph’s Temples: The Dynamic Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism (Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, forthcoming).

Edward L. Kimball, “The History of LDS Temple Admission Standards,” Journal of Mormon History 24, no. 1 (1998): 135-176.

Worship

Davis Bitton, “‘Strange Ramblings’: The Ideal and Practice of Sermons in Early Mormonism,” BYU Studies 41, no. 1 (February 2002): 4-28.

Justin R. Bray, “Excessive Formalities in the Mormon Sacrament, 1928- 1940,” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 4 no. 1 (2012): 61-75.

Lee Copeland, “Speaking of Tongues in the Restoration Churches,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 24, no. 1 (1991): 13-33.

Joseph F. Darowski, “Seeking After the Ancient Order: Conferences and Councils in Early Church Governance, 1830-1834,” Mormon Historical Studies 11, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 27-39.

Michael Hicks, “What Hymns Early Mormon Sang and How They Sang Them,” BYU Studies 47, no. 1 (January 2008): 95-118.

Michael Hicks, Mormonism and Music: A History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003).

Christopher C. Jones, chapter 4: “‘Only We Have Advanced Further’: The Methodist Context for Early Mormon Organization and Worship,” in ‘We Latter-day Saints are Methodists’: The Influence of Methodism on Early Mormon Religiosity, BYU MA Thesis, 2009.

Dan Vogel and Scott C. Dunn, “‘The Tongue of Angels’: Glossolalia Among Mormonism’s Founders,” Journal of Mormon History 19, no. 2 (April 1993): 1-34.

Kris Wright, “To Bless and Sanctify: Three Meditations on the Sacrament,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 44, no. 3 (2011): 203-216.

Wright, Kristine, “‘We baked a lot of bread’: Reconceptualizing Mormon Women and Ritual Objects,” Mormon Women in Historic and Contemporary Perspectives. eds. Matthew Bowman and Kate Holbrook (Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, forthcoming).

Other Rituals

Daniel L. Belnap, “Those Who Receive You Not’: The Rite of Wiping Dust Off the Feet,” in Daniel Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013), 209-260.

Jacob W. Olmstead, “From Pentecost to Administration: A Reappraisal of the History of the Hosanna Shout,” Mormon Historical Studies 2, no. 2 (Fall 2001): 7-37.

Benjamin Park, “‘Thou Wast Willing to Lay Down thy Life for Thy Brethren’: Zion’s Blessings in the Early Church,” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 29: 27-37.

D. Michael Quinn, “Latter-Day Saint Prayer Circles,” BYU Studies 19, no. 1 (October 1978): 79-105.

Aaron Reeves, “Embodied Authority: Priesthood Ordination and the Laws of the Mortal Body” in Daniel Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013), 261-282.

Gary Shepherd and Gordon Shepherd, Binding Earth and Heaven: Patriarchal Blessings in the Prophetic Development of Early Mormonism (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012).

Gordon Shepherd, Gary Shepherd, and Natalie Shepherd, “Gender Differences in the Early Patriarchal Blessings of the LDS Church, 1834-1845, John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 30 (October 2010): 39-65.

Samuel R. Weber, “‘Shake Off the Dust of Thy Feet’: The Rise and Fall of Mormon Ritual Cursing,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 46, no. 1 (2013): 108-139.

Other Practices

Donald Q. Cannon, “Licensing in the Early Church,” BYU Studies 22 (Winter 1982): 96-105.

Jessie L. Embry, “Without Purse or Scrip,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 29, no. 3 (Fall 1996): 77-93.

Megan Sanborn Jones, “Imaging a Global Religion, American Style: Mormon Pageantry as a Ritual of Community Formation,” Daniel Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013), 317-348.

Edward L. Kimball, “Confession in LDS Doctrine and Practice,” BYU Studies 36, no. 2 (1996-97): 7-73.

Jennifer Brinkerhoff Platt, “Sisters in Transition: Moving from the Buna Coffee Ritual to Relief Society,” in Daniel Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013), 369-400.

David W. Scott and Daniel A. Stout, “Communicating Jesus: The Encoding and Decoding Practices of Re-Presenting Jesus for LDS (Mormon) Audiences at a BYU Art Museum,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 46, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 55-82.

General

Daniel Belnap, “Introduction: Latter-day Saints and the Perception of Ritual,” By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013).

John P. Hoffman, “Culture, Cohesion, and Conceptualizing the Sacred,” in Daniel Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013), 37-68.

Robert L. Millett, Sacramental Living: Reflections on Latter-day Saint Ritual,” Daniel Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013). 401-417.

Walter E. A. van Beek, “Meaning and Authority in Mormon Ritual,” International Journal of Mormon Studies 3 (Spring 2010): 17-40.

Walter E. A. van Beek, “Ritual and the Quest for Meaning,” in Daniel Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-Day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013). 15-36.