By May 12, 2011
By May 11, 2011
For the past three years Patricia Lyn Scott has served the Mormon History Association, first as Co-Executive Director and then as Executive Director, just the most visible period of her decades of dedicated service to the organization as a member of councils, boards, and committees. As Pat concludes her three-year service as Executive Editor, we, her current Board colleagues, express our heartfelt appreciation for Pat’s significant contribution to the advancement and perpetuation of the Association. Her term as Executive Director will end later in the summer on July 31, 2011, consistent with her original appointment, after directing the work for the imminent St. George Conference. Along with her notable work on the earlier Sacramento, Springfield, and Independence conferences, as well as the 2012 Calgary conference, her kindly manner and friendly cheer have helped MHA in equally important ways. We wish Pat well in her current and future scholarly projects, which are several.
By May 10, 2011
On December 11, 1917, William Smart recorded in his diary, ?Wife and I are fasting today. I bathed and thoroughly then anointed myself from head to foot with consecrated oil after praying to the Father and presenting this for purpose of further cleansing and as a token to present myself clean before him.? The many entries in Smart?s diary as well as those of hundreds of others Latter-day Saints illustrate how ritual objects can be a primary form of evidence for understanding religion as lived experience and sheds light on what believers do with material things.
By May 6, 2011
In a previous post, I mentioned a sort of revelation I had while reading Brooke’s Refiner’s Fire. ?Wait, Steve,? the Spirit said, ?don?t write this book off. You have to understand a few things. What Brooke is talking about here are ?temple? or esoteric truths that are by nature difficult to verbalize. Such ideas have been passed through the ages from original pure sources and had thus become somewhat corrupted. These factors make what Brooke is talking about not so easily recognizable or understood. Furthermore, don?t pretend that you understand what the temple is about. So read the book with an open mind. You?re going to spend the rest of your life trying to figure this stuff out.? Or something like that.
Since working on that issues the last ten years, I’ve wondered what those “pure sources” were: “primitive Christianity,” Moses, Abraham, Enoch?
By April 22, 2011
The end of the semester typically means a dearth of posts here at JI, as many of us are busy with exams, term papers, and other end-of-the-year activities. However, there is, as usual, no dearth of Mormon studies news, so consider this a catch-all of recent updates that deserve attention. And please feel free to add more in the comments.
By April 19, 2011
Historian/Documentary Editor, Joseph Smith Papers
Job Description
The Joseph Smith Papers seeks a full-time historian/documentary editor with the appropriate
academic training, research and writing skills to edit Joseph Smith?s papers. The Joseph
Smith Papers is producing a comprehensive edition of Smith?s documents featuring complete
and accurate transcripts with both textual and contextual annotation. The scope of the project
includes Smith?s correspondence, revelations, journals, historical writings, sermons, legal papers,
and other documents. Besides providing the most comprehensive record of early Latter-day
Saint history they will also provide insight into the broader religious landscape of the early
American republic.
Duties will include document analysis (research regarding textual and documentary intention,
production, transmission, and reception); composition of source notes and historical
introductions; writing of annotation to provide appropriate context and to clarify or explain
passages that are unclear or challenging; regular participation in team meetings and project
committees; and professional development.
Qualifications
PhD or doctoral candidate in history, religious studies, or related discipline. Experience in
one or more of the following areas is desirable: documentary editing, archival management,
antebellum American history, American religious history, early Mormon history. Demonstration
of excellent writing and research skills required. As the highest professional standards of
documentary editing are expected of the position, including a rigorous production schedule,
the applicant must exhibit attention to detail, efficiency, flexibility, good interpersonal
communications, and the ability to work in an academic environment that requires personal
initiative and collaborative competence. Competitive salary based on experience.
Please send letter of application, vita, writing sample, and three letters of recommendation to
Joseph Smith Papers Search, c/o Viola Knecht, Church History Library, 15 E. North Temple St.,
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-1600. Applicants must also complete on-line application found at
www.ldschurch.jobs, posting 61884. Applications due by May 20.
By April 16, 2011
Historian/Writer, Church History Department
Purpose and Responsibilities
The Church History Department announces an opening for a historian/writer with an emphasis on women?s history within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Duties will include researching and writing, in collaboration with others, documentary and narrative histories on the experience of Latter-day Saint women.
Qualifications
PhD (or doctoral candidate) in history, religious studies, or related discipline, with demonstrated competence in women?s history. Excellent writing skills and the ability to work in an academic environment that requires personal initiative and collaborative competence. Professional and personal integrity required to maintain the trust and confidence of professional colleagues, department supervisors, and archivists working in other public and private repositories. Must be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, currently temple worthy.
Please send letter of application, vita, writing sample, and three letters of recommendation to Women?s History Search, c/o Viola Knecht, Church History Library, 15 E. North Temple St., Salt Lake City, UT 84150-1600. Applicants must also complete on-line application found at www.ldschurch.jobs, posting 61660. Applications due by May 20.
By April 1, 2011
Publications Internship-Church History Department
The Church History Department announces an opening for an internship during summer 2011 in the Publications Division. This will be a full time temporary position beginning in May.
Duties will involve research in nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint history and assisting the director of publications.
Qualifications:
Bachelor?s degree in history, religious studies, or related discipline, with preference given to master?s or doctoral students. In addition, the candidate should possess excellent writing and research skills as well as the ability to work in an academic environment that requires personal initiative and collaborative competence. Please attach your vita and a writing sample with your application.
To apply:
Click on this link, go to ?browse jobs,? sign in with your LDS Account number, and fill out the on-line application.
By March 30, 2011
Cynthia has a Ph.D. in Computer Science (2009). She currently works as an independent researcher on projects in Computer Science pedagogy, and occasionally teaches undergraduate courses. She blogs about Mormon life and its intersections with pop culture and feminist issues at ByCommonConsent.
By March 26, 2011
So after researching Proclus’s influence on Christianity these last few months and some conversations with my adviser, Ann wanted me to write up a new proposal. Ann really stresses that dissertations/books ought to have one clear thesis and thus we thought it best to go with the Neoplatonic one over the medieval Catholic one. I do still plan on arguing that Mormonism was a rejection of Protestantism, that crypto-Catholic ideas and practices persisted in folk practices that JS drew on, and thus Mormonism looks more Catholic than Protestant. But I’m arguing that Christian Platonism informs the direction of JS’s religiosity. Anyway, here’s my latest write up.
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