By AmandaAugust 18, 2012
A few days ago, Christopher Jones posted a link on the backchannel for Juvenile Instructor, linking to a post by a New Zealand Mormon. The post explored the effects that correlation and the homogenization of the Mormon Church has had on Mormon communities outside of the United States. The conversation that ensued that was so interesting that we decided to post an edited version here:
Christopher Jones: Amanda, David, Max, others: thought you’d be interested in this. It’s written by a New Zealander, but touches on issues that relate to each of your respective research interests in some way or another. Really fascinating stuff.
Unlatching from the Amerimormon Cultural Teat
http://kiwimormon.com/2012/08/07/unlatching-from-the-amerimormon-cultural-teat/
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By GuestAugust 17, 2012
By Pete Wosnik
Last fall I took a class from Dr. Philip Barlow at USU called Religion, Evil, and Human Suffering. This was really big class, not in terms of the amount of students who took it, but rather in its subject matter as well as its breadth. Mormonism was only allotted a few precious class hours, but the class gave me an added appreciation for Mormon theological contributions to the larger world. Something I quickly learned in the course was that all religious traditions have grappled with the problems of pain, suffering, and evil; indeed, most religions are born in such conditions.
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By Nate R.August 16, 2012
Continued from this previous post.
As I began perusing Joseph F. Smith?s other mission journals?he served ten ?missions? during his lifetime, and kept extensive records of a number of them[1]?I stumbled across what appeared to be an account of the Dream of Manhood, found in Joseph F.?s record of his first British mission (1860 to 1863). After Joseph F. went to bed on the night of 12 January 1862, he ?had a most glorious dream?:
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By Tona HAugust 15, 2012
My new calling as ward choir director came with the keys, so to speak, to the closet of old music. I cleaned it out, took it all home, and spread it all over the floor of our library to organize. I didn?t intend for this to be an archival research moment, but as I sorted and tossed I became drawn into the experience and starting reading slower and slower? it was, in a sense, a historical archive dating back at least to the late 1970s.
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By Ben PAugust 14, 2012
The Juvenile Instructor’s empire expands.
We are pleased to add three phenomenal historians to our ranks: Janiece Johnson, Jenny Reeder, and Rachael Givens. All are rising stars in the field of Mormon history, and each brings a unique contribution to our team. This is how they introduce themselves:
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By Ben PAugust 14, 2012
I recently listened to Joanna Brooks’s fascinating interview on Mormon Stories (which I recommend, especially as a supplementary activity to reading her marvellous memoir), and was struck by one point of the conversation. John Dehlin asked Joanna if the type of identity she exemplifies—that of “unorthodox”—was something new, something that couldn’t have happened long ago. Joanna rightly pointed out her long intellectual genealogy within the LDS tradition, noting that her position is not so much new but exemplary of what many Latter-day Saints had done before her.
The idea of unorthodox figures in LDS history is an important point that deserves further consideration. It also relates to a recent focus of study of mine, Edward Tullidge, who was the topic of my MHA paper this last year. To demonstrate that this isn’t a new phenomenon, I’d like to give a bit of background to Tullidge, mostly plagiarizing my paper, and then touch on his relevance. In today’s age, when the concept of an “Unorthodox Mormon” seems to be heralded as a modern idea, it is important to note the heterogeneous history that is Mormonism.
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By RachaelAugust 13, 2012
In 1843, a woman named Ann Essam willed the sum of her estate ?for and towards the printing and publishing and propagation of the sacred writings of the late Joanna Southcott.?[1] The plebian Southcott claimed to receive revelations and prophecies from God, and heightened the intrigue when an inner voice told her to seal some of the writings until a time of great danger and global distress.[2]
Essam wasn?t the only one to donate funds to cryptic projects.
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By Nate R.August 12, 2012
In September 2005, President Gordon B. Hinckley visited the Brigham Young University campus to dedicate the new Joseph F. Smith building, which houses the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. During his talk prior to the dedicatory prayer, President Hinckley retold a story that has been shared numerous times in talks, articles, and biographies of Joseph F. Smith; and has come to be known as Joseph F. Smith?s ?Dream of Manhood.?[i] According to Joseph F. Smith, he had a dream while on his first mission to the Hawaiian Islands, a dream that he later affirmed ?made me what I am….[and] helped me out in every trial and through every difficulty.?[ii]
As Joseph F. Smith recalled, his mission was not going well. ?I was almost naked and entirely friendless…. I felt as if I was so debased in my condition of poverty, lack of intelligence and knowledge, just a boy, that I hardly dared look a white man in the face.? In these conditions, he was blessed with a glorious dream that makes little sense, but apparently offered him a great deal of comfort.
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By Ben PAugust 11, 2012
We’ve advertised this before, but it’s important enough to advertise it again since the dates are approaching. Besides be co-organized by one of our own JIers (Matt B), we’ll have several contributors in attendance who will provide updates and recaps.
Note there are two events, although closely related.
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By August 11, 2012
Here’s Nate’s bio:
I began a serious study of church history first because I was paid ten bucks an hour to do so. After finishing a BA in History Teaching at BYU in 2004, I was hired at the Education in Zion Exhibit as a researcher/writer. Up until that point in time, my research interests had been limited to the Spanish Armada and antebellum U.S. slavery. But C. Terry Warner, then the exhibit director, explained to me that I would be doing a lot of research on not just LDS educational efforts, but on church history in general. So I had to brush up on all things Mormon. My assignments included early morning seminaries, religion classes, territorial schools, education in Polynesia, and the life of Joseph F. Smith (the exhibit is permanently housedin the JFSB at BYU). I found out that I loved church history, and vowed to keep it?as a hobby?throughout my life.
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Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “Interesting, Jack. But just to reiterate, I think JS saw the SUPPRESSION of Platonic ideas as creating the loss of truth and not the addition.…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “Thanks for your insights--you've really got me thinking. I can't get away from the notion that the formation of the Great and Abominable church was an…”
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “In the intro to DC 76 in JS's 1838 history, JS said, "From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “"I’ve argued that God’s corporality isn’t that clear in the NT, so it seems to me that asserting that claims of God’s immateriality happened AFTER…”
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…”
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