By Ben PAugust 19, 2011
The Mormon Scholars Foundation Summer Seminar, founded by Richard Bushman and recently co-directed with Terryl Givens, has a tradition of gathering the brightest young Mormon scholars for six weeks to research, engage, and present on specific themes or periods. This year’s group was no exception. A dozen participants ranging from an undergraduate majoring in engineering to an Assistant Professor in Religious Studies (our own SC Taysom!) gathered together to explore the theme, “The Cultural History of the Gold Plates.” I had the great privilege to attend their presentations today, and what follows is my brief recap, broken into two parts.
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By JoelAugust 17, 2011
Neilson, Reid L. Early Mormon Missionary Activities in Japan, 1901-1924. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2010
Dr. Reid L. Neilson, managing director of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ history department, has written a fascinating account of the Mormon Japanese Mission at the turn of the 20th century. Neilson argues that the 19th century LDS missionary experience in the United States and Europe had calcified Mormon evangelizing strategies to a degree that ultimately determined their failure in the rapidly modernizing Japanese nation. While Neilson’s trajectory often wades a little shallow and missionary-centric, his transnational gaze at Mormon mission policy and practice, while situating his study in a comparative Christian missionary framework, offers important inroads for scholars of Mormon history who have too often found themselves mired in the nineteenth century American origins story of a 21st century global church.
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By ChristopherAugust 16, 2011
III Brazilian Mormon Studies Conference
Annual Conference of the Associação Brasileira de Estudos Mórmons (Brazilian Mormon Studies Association—ABEM)
January 28, 2012
São Paulo, Brazil
Call for papers
“Mormonism and its relationship with other denominations”
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By ChristopherAugust 15, 2011
(cross-posted at Religion in American History)
The latest issue of Religion and American Culture arrived in my mailbox last week, and I was excited to see the first article dealt with a topic sure to interest JI readers: “‘Until This Curse of Polygamy Is Wiped Out’: Black Methodists, White Mormons, and Constructions of Racial Identity in the Late Nineteenth Century,” written by James B. Bennett, associate professor of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University.
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By August 12, 2011
Call For Papers: 2012 Mormon History Association Conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on June 28-July1, 2012
“Mormonism in its Expanding Global Context: Invitations to New Interpretations and Understandings.”
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By ChristopherAugust 9, 2011
A couple of days ago, I received via email a link to an early draft of the lineup for the American Society of Church History’s Winter Meeting (held in conjunction with AHA’s annual meeting, Jan. 5-8, 2012 in Chicago). The program draft can be viewed in its entirety here, but I thought I’d highlight a few papers and sessions that might be of interest to JI’s readers (relevant papers and sessions in blue), followed by my own brief commentary on each:
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By ChristopherJuly 25, 2011
This past Sunday, several of the prayers to open and close meetings in my ward included mention of United States soldiers. This, of course, was not something new. I?ve heard such particular mentions of the military in every ward I?ve ever attended, and it is especially common here in Virginia, where several members of the local congregation (and many, many more throughout the Newport News Stake) serve(d) in the armed forces. I don?t know why my mind focused on this otherwise routine supplication during yesterday?s service; perhaps it was the juxtaposition of one brother mentioning the armed forces as part of a longer list of individuals needing either God?s blessing or our thanks (they were mentioned right after the missionaries and right before the Pioneers), or perhaps I was struck by the particular language used (?please bless those fighting for our country?). Regardless, it got me thinking about the origin of the practice.
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By Ben PJuly 11, 2011
And the CHL’s empire expands….
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Job Title: Web Content Strategy Manager
Job Description: The Web Content Strategy Manager will hold a leadership position responsible for developing, planning and delivering all aspects of the written and visual content for the Church History Department website (history.lds.org). The website is a central hub for the various divisions of the Church History Department, including Collections, Preservation, Historic Sites, Publications, the Church History Library, and the Church History Museum. The Church History Department is seeking to aggressively expand its Internet presence through the development of new and unique historical content that will serve Church members and interested outsiders, including researchers and academics. The successful applicant will be deeply versed in Latter-day Saint Church history as well as website strategy and development, and also possess strong writing and analytical skills.
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By Steve FlemingJuly 7, 2011
In both my MHA and Bushman papers given recently, I cited Quinn’s point about JS’s Moroni visitation coming on the equinox. [1] After my Bushman presentation, an audience member cornered me to let me know that the date was Rosh Hashanah and asked me if I knew that (I did because another guy told me that after my MHA presentation).
My question is, why is Rosh Hashanah good and the equinox somehow bad? Why do we (by we I mean a common perception among church members) only want to have JS be influenced by the ancient world? Why is the ancient world good, but the nineteenth century is bad?
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By ChristopherJune 20, 2011
(Cross-posted at Religion in American History)
When the news feed on my facebook began to be flooded with links to the same page last week, I excitedly clicked over the the Washington Post On Faith Op-Ed by John Mark Reynolds, professor of Philosophy at Biola University. Reading the title, “Amos and Andy and the Book of Mormon,” I hopefully (but mistakenly) assumed that the article was evidence of Jared Farmer’s critique—that lurking beneath the portrayal of religion in the Book of Mormon musical was not-so-subtle racism in the show’s portrayal of Africans—starting to gain traction.
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