By June 24, 2024
Beginning in 1835, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began spreading information about their doctrine and practices through pamphlets. Through this medium, members proselytized, shaped public opinion, proved doctrine, made the case for the Church in society, and shaped Latter-day Saint thought—in short, pamphlets gave Latter-day Saints a voice.
By June 15, 2024
Congrats to all this year’s winners! If you’re going to buy, support university presses and independent bookstores! Personally, I’m a big fan of Benchmark Books.
BEST BOOK AWARD
Stephen C. Taysom, Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2023).
By May 21, 2024
APPLY HERE (see info beginning in next paragraph)
By April 23, 2024
From friend-of-JI Valeska Griswold:
Registrations close May 1st due to requirements from the venue as the venues are government buildings and we have to submit a list of participants to them and this will also remove any entrance fees at those locations.
The tours will meet at 5:30 am and return around 9 pm on May 26th. The meeting location is TBD. Those who signed up for the tour on the registration form will get meeting details emailed directly to them in the next week or so.
By April 18, 2024
LINK TO AD HERE
MUST HAVE GENEALOGICAL CREDENTIAL
Assistant Director, Center for Family History and Genealogy (CFHG)
The Center for Family History and Genealogy (CFHG) provides both free quality online research and resources for public use as well as extraordinary mentored-learning experiences for students learning the science and methods of family history research. We are now seeking an enthusiastic and dedicated Assistant Director to collaborate with the Center director and play a vital role in student mentoring, center projects, and community outreach. Your commitment to the Center’s mission and your ability to foster excellence will contribute greatly to the experience of our students and make a difference in the important area of family history.
What you’ll do in this position:
By April 17, 2024
We welcome this guest post from Jenny Champoux, Director of the Book of Mormon Art Catalog. You can see much of the work discussed here at https://meganknoblochgeilman.com/about.
A recent insightful article highlighted Megan Knobloch Geilman’s artwork as epitomizing a movement the author labeled “Weird Mormon Art.”[1] Geilman, while fully embracing the strangeness of her art, prefers the term “theological realism.” Her phrase nicely evokes the literary and art style of magical realism, which places fantastical objects or events in a real-world setting. Yet, an important distinction must be made because although Geilman’s work relies on meticulously arranged quotidian objects to create theologically rich scenes, there is nothing fantastic about it. While much of “Weird Mormon Art” is characterized by a kind of tongue-in-cheek playfulness, Geilman’s art is gravely serious. Her work is not peculiar simply for the sake of quirkiness or for anti-status-quo positioning, but instead strives for something more.
Geilman tackles the most fundamental human questions head-on. Her art is informed, questioning, and thoughtful—and always deeply devotional. In this vein, her Symbola Salvatoris series considers the relationship between human beings and God. Each of the eight pieces not only includes a symbol of the Savior but also asks viewers to consider how they can come to know God through their own experiences and devotional practice.
By April 8, 2024
The Latter-day Saint tradition maintains a finite conception of God that challenges key tenets of classical Christian theism. God is understood to have a literal body of flesh and bone (D&C 130:22) and to relate to human beings in exceptionally passable and interactive ways (Jacob 5:7 & Moses 7:29). God is said to have created human beings in the divine likeness such that it is possible for humanity to become divine (Moses 1:39). God’s design for humanity is to create the conditions for spiritual growth and to labor with them toward the glorification of both (Jacob 5:72). This conference will explore divine finitude in the Latter-day Saint tradition and seeks to examine and build on the theological writings of thinkers such as B. H. Roberts, David Paulsen, Truman Madsen, Eugene England, Lowell Bennion, Sterling McMurrin, Margaret Toscano, and Fiona & Terryl Givens, among others.
By April 2, 2024
I had an experience on my mission of feeling like one of our biblical proof texts got called into question, praying about it, and then feeling like I came to a larger understanding of that particular concept. I can’t remember the exact details, but I did find my take away orienting. What was wrong, I felt, was my more limited understanding of a certain point. The concept still worked with a greater more complex understanding, and I needed to be open to that larger view.
I tried to apply that procedure in my decades of historical study: be open to what the data suggests and then make adjustments to my believing framework based on what I’d learned. I tried to avoid holding doggedly to preconceived notions and insist the data fit those.
Over time, made quite a few adjustments to my beliefs, and though some confusion at times, always felt like I would come around to the believer’s position.
By April 1, 2024
The Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
invites applications for grants to conduct research in its archival, art, and artifact
collections in Salt Lake City, Utah. These grants are intended to offset travel and
research expenses for performing research at the Church History Library and/or
Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. We hope the grants will stimulate the examination of
underrepresented groups and topics in Latter-day Saint history, such as women, youth,
children, individuals outside the United States, immigrant groups, the globalization of
the Church, and twentieth and twenty-first century history. We encourage all scholars
who are interested in Latter-day Saint history, Latter-day Saint art history, or Latter-day
Saint studies to apply, regardless of their affiliation with the Church or previous
experience in researching Latter-day Saint history.
By March 27, 2024
History grad students learn about Leopold von Ranke, the 19th century German considered the father of the modern discipline of history, famous for stating the objective of discovering “what actually happened.” History grad students will learn that statement is much criticized, as grad students also learn the incompleteness, problems with records, and problem of the humans making the judgements.
But others note that despite all those limitations, historians really do want to try to understand the past like Ranke said, and that good methodology helps historians make the best historical judgments. Mark Ashurst McGee’s “Moroni: Angel or Treasure Guardian?” gives a nice overview: earlier and closest the subject is best. But based on that criteria, the 1832 First Vision account would be given primacy over the 1838 account for being earlier.
Differences in First Visions accounts long noted and debated, but in the differences between those accounts, church members tend to pick the later 1838 over the 1832 account. 1832 famously mentions “the Lord” not “two personages” one of which is the other’s “beloved son,” but there are other differences as well. My adviser liked to point out that in the 1832 accounts JS come to the conclusion that “mankind had apostatized” on his own, but in the 1838 account God tells JS that. Again “earliest is best” would give primacy to the 1832 account in such conflict between sources.
© 2025 – Juvenile Instructor
Recent Comments
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “Large civilizations leave behind evidence of their existence. For instance, I just read that scholars estimate the kingdom of Judah to have been around 110,000…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “I have always understood the key to issues with Nephite archeology to be language. Besides the fact that there is vastly more to Mesoamerican…”
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