By June 1, 2009
(Note: If you couldn’t from Ryan T’s last comment and this brief post, three of us JIers are currently taking part in an intense seminar on the Pratt brothers’ writings. Therefore, you may see quite a bit on good ol’ Parley and Orson; be advised.)
By May 29, 2009
As one whose ?to-read? pile lends a large shadow over both my desk and nightstand, devotional history books put out by publishers like Deseret Book or Covenant Press don?t usually make the list. However, a couple weeks I decided to download the audio version of a recent ?popular? devotional/historical work.[1] While this post is formatted like a standard book review, I hope that it will serve as a ?springboard? of sorts to discuss the practice of writing history for the faithful masses.
By May 11, 2009
Patriarchal blessings have always been an important aspect of Mormonism, and serve as a great window through which to interpret early Mormon thought. One key to understanding Joseph Smith Sr.?s role as the first patriarch is to recognize that the bestowal of ?patriarchal blessings? was a crucial step for Latter-day Saints to connect themselves with the authority of the past. Jan Shipps noted that early Mormonism was a ?movement in which leader and followers were together living through?recapitulating?the stories of Israel and early Christianity?[1]?the implementation of patriarchal blessings was an important way to do this.
By April 26, 2009
To begin his preface to A Discourse of the Baconian Philosophy, conservative Calvinist Samuel Tyler quoted approvingly Francis Bacon’s famous statement that had by then became the mantra for American religious discourse: “It ought to be eternally resolved and settled, that the understanding cannot be decide[d] otherwise, than by Induction, and by a legitimate form of it.”[1]
By March 22, 2009
?The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.? ?John Keats
[This is not so much a scholarly post as it is a personal averment of one of my cherished aspects of Mormon thought. It may be too literature-heavy for many of JI?s readers, but that?s where my background is, and also a framework which I believe helps our understanding of the intellectual context of early Mormon thought.]
By February 24, 2009
In case you haven?t noticed by the majority of my posts (excluding the recent series on Wilford Woodruff), I am mostly interested in intellectual history?that is, the history of human thought. When I study history, I want to know what people were thinking, how they formulated their ideas, and how they presented their mind. Perhaps I am just an Emersonian at heart, but I believe all actions begin with the mind. I can stay up all night reading the great works of great thinkers, whether it be John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Ellery Channing, Max Muller, or many others.[1] Beyond learning what happened in history, I want to know why and what thoughts led them to that action. I also hope to see the breaking down of the artificial boundaries between religious and cultural thought, a new direction finally coming to fruition in our generation.
By February 6, 2009
(I am taking a break from Woodruff for a moment, and thought I would post something related to Unitarianism in honor of Ryan T’s guest-blogging.)
The quick success of early Mormonism came as a shock to many contemporaries. This left religious thinkers scrambling to find a way to account for this “heretical” movement’s growth, attempting to explain why so many people were finding the Mormon message so persuasive.
By January 16, 2009
Inspired by Edje, I dug this out of the archives. Originally posted in slightly different form here.
By 1910, 55 out of every 100 American Protestant missionaries – a group numbering in the tens of thousands whose reach extended from the cities of the United States to Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America – were women.[1] Furthermore, the congregational associations who supported these missionaries were also dominated by women. Though it could be argued this merely reflects the historic gender gap within Christian congregations, such a boring sociological explanation was not how these missionaries explained themselves to themselves, or how their leaders lauded them.
By November 17, 2008
“You go live in Utah.”
– Point guard Derek Harper to reporters, explaining why he refused to report to the Utah Jazz after being traded to the Salt Lake team
I’ve been alarmed to note that a particularly symbolic cultural recalibration that the Monson administration has wrought has gone largely overlooked.[1] We used to have a church president who visited the locker rooms of the BYU football team in order to instruct the players not to “muff it.” Today, however, the team that reaps the undoubtedly vast rewards of prophetic beneficence is the Utah Jazz. [2]
Now, granted, Thomas Monson may be indifferent to the larger circles of meaning rotating around his choice of entertainment, and nothing more than a pro basketball fan. These are not unusual creatures along the Wasatch Front However, as will be further explored below, the cultural significance of their presence there is often missed. So it behooves us to think a bit more deeply about the sport and its particular manifestations in the geographical and cultural landscapes of Mormondom.
By November 3, 2008
(very) Loosely continuing on the same theme from parts I and II.
The Nauvoo era became a big turning point for the Mormons in many instances. Not the least of these was their new desire to publish their beliefs to the public. While they had been active in printing while in Kirtland and Missouri with newspapers and published revelations, these were always designed for members or other interested persons. However, once settled in Illinois they began to place their attention on using print to reach the masses. Part of the reason for this was the revelatory injunction to publish all the facts regarding the ?sufferings and abuses put upon them by the people of? Missouri (D&C 123:1).
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