Another week, another edition of the Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup!

There were significant new developments at church headquarters. First, it has been reported that the church’s Seminaries and Institutes department was revising its curriculum, in part to incorporate insights from the Joseph Smith Papers Project and the revamped Gospel Topics page on lds.org. The first installment in this revised curriculum was released this week, with an updated Church History and Doctrine and Covenants manual. The folks at FAIR Mormon are pleased with the results. Second, the Young Women organization announced a new board that will include substantial representation from women outside the United States. The Relief Society and Primary organizations are expected to form similar boards to better meet the needs of the international church. Additionally, training sessions for these organizations, which have traditionally been held only in Salt Lake City, will be made available via the internet. The Research Information Division at church headquarters is looking for a full-time researcher with graduate training in the social sciences. 

Earlier this week, Brit Tom Phillips, a former stake president turned disaffected Mormon, filed a lawsuit against Thomas S. Monson, alleging that the president of the LDS Church knowingly defrauded church members by teaching, among other things, that the Book of Mormon is an ancient text and that humans are descended from Adam and Eve. Although most legal experts do not expect either the British or American legal systems to allow the case to proceed to trial, the media attention surrounding the charges has spiked traffic to Phillips’ website, MormonThink.com.