By May 4, 2009
I?ve been surprised that the following recent events and statements have not received more attention from the bloggernacle. I thought I?d briefly announce and discuss them here, as I think they are relevant both to scholars interested in Mormonism and race/ethnicity and to Latter-day Saints whose lives these events affect in very real ways.
By April 22, 2009
I came across this a few months ago, and have been waiting until Earth Day to post it. Since last year’s Earth Day post at the JI looked at a quote from 19th century Mormonism on the environment, I thought it would be appropriate to do something from the 20th century this year. In July 1991, the New Era included a brief article entitled “Planet Pleasing” in the “FYI: For Your Information” section of the teenage-oriented periodical. In addition to the sound and practical advice of the article, I’m intrigued by the author’s effort to connect with her teenage audience. Such lines as “It’s cool to save fuel” and “Gee … Try a Tree” (such profound poetry) suggest a conscious effort to make environmentalism sound cool to young readers (and check out the name of the fictional letter writer within the article … how clever).
By April 16, 2009
Over the past few years I have gone through a few large Mormon history research collections, including the Kenney Collection at BYU, the Stanley Ivins Collection at the Utah State Historical Society, and the D. Michael Quinn Collection at Yale. All of these collections have yielded immense amounts of information that I probably would not have come across elsewhere. The Kenney Collection contains boxes of notes from the First Presidency Papers, General Auxiliary Organization Board Minutes, and other materials that are restricted at the Church Archives. While the Ivins Collection does not contain as much information from restricted collections at the Church Archives, it is an important collection of notes from diaries and books written by people who visited Utah during the nineteenth century, many of which are obscure. And the Quinn Papers contain what is perhaps the gold mine of information from restricted Mormon archival materials, with notes from General Authority diaries, Quorum of the Twelve and Seventies Minutes, and notes from a vast number of other important Mormon sources.
By April 14, 2009
I came across the following article while looking for something else in Samuel Brannan’s The Prophet yesterday. It was authored by Parley P. Pratt and published in May 1845. I had never heard of it or come across it anywhere else [1], and thought readers might find it useful (or at least entertaining).
By April 12, 2009
?That idea has not yet been resolved within your heart and is tormenting it.? [1]
One of my inaugural posts for JI was a spiritual autobiographical account of entering the world of the academic study of religion. And I feel as though a continuation of that autobiography is important and necessary, if only for my own sake.
By April 6, 2009
Before I start this post, I just want to apologize to all my fellow JIers for my unproductive participation in the blog as of late. Because my primary area of research falls outside of the Mormon History paradigm, I often have to wait for the spirit to move me towards some sort of meaningful post. I still want to put together some concluding thoughts on Mormonism and ethnicity one of these days, but it seems like my dissertation research has kept me pretty busy the last little while. I am hoping to attend at least some of the Mormon History Conference in May since Springfield is quite close to Champaign. Several posts on the Bloggernacle of late (not particularly on JI but as a blog devoted to Mormon history I think this is a good forum for addressing the issue) have made me think about the reality and role of bias in the production of historical scholarship.
By April 4, 2009
View Elder Andersen’s biography here.
Last October’s General Conference featured a talk by Elder Andersen entitled “You Know Enough”. Never was there a more appropriate talk for review by our readers. 🙂
Elder Andersen has not authored any books that I am aware of. It will be interesting to see if that changes in the coming years.
By March 30, 2009
I was unable to attend this conference, but Trevor Holyoak did attend and has been kind enough to share some notes from the sessions he attended. He notes at the end a website where past years booklets have been posted. These booklets are well worth a look as they are loaded with great information and are very well designed. Hopefully the program directors will publish this year’s booklet soon. When it is, we’ll link to it on our sidebar. Thanks Trevor!
By March 30, 2009
I’ve probably been one of the more positive and hopeful through this undying one-upmanship of Joseph Smith photo-finding that we’ve experienced in the last year. With this latest edition to the fold of false Josephs, I just may be losing hope, and Ardis may just be proving prophetic yet again.
Check out this crank on Ebay.
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