Call for Questions: Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow, Parley Parker Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism

This past week, the long-overdue biography of Parley P. Pratt was finally delivered. And boy was it delivered. Authored by two of the top stars in Mormon history, Terryl Givens (personal website here) and Matthew Grow (bio found on this page), Parley Parker Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism (New York: Oxford University Press) weighs in at 500 pages—and it could not have been one page less. In their introduction, Givens and Grow write that “the narrative of [Pratt’s] life could have formed the basis of a page-turning novel. By 1853, he had already become, after Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the most influential figure in shaping early Mormon history, culture, and theology. Pratt exerted that influence across an astounding spectrum, excelling as a missionary, explorer, hymnist, pamphleteer, autobiographer, historian, and theologian” (3-4). It would be difficult to keep a narrative of such a life to any page count!

Givens and Grow give three reasons for calling Pratt the “Apostle Paul of Mormonism.” First is the fact that Pratt’s writings “served the same function in early Mormonism” as Paul’s (or the author of Paul’s) did in early Christianity: it helped systematize and popularize the movement’s ideas (5). Second is Pratt’s Paul-like missionary career, travelling all across America, the Atlantic, and even South America. And third, “like Paul, Pratt reveled in opposition and Persecution, and in his own eyes and the beliefs of the Latter-day Saints, met a martyr’s death” (8). In total, it is a phenomenal volume, and should not only garner much praise but encourage even more dialogue. (Personally, I found chapter 12, Parley and Mrs. Pratt(s), and examination of Pratt’s family dynamics, to be one of the most compelling chapters of recent Mormon historiography.)

We’ll eventually have a full review of the book. In the meantime, we are pleased to announce that both of the book’s authors have agreed to do a Q&A post with Juvenile Instructor. Thus, we solicit your help: please provide below the questions you would like Givens and Grow to answer about their newly-released biography.

Ask away!

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The Egyptian Papyri

So I decided to read Robert Ritner’s ?The Breathing of Hor among the Joseph Smith Papyri,” [1] for reasons I’ll discuss below. Wow. Where do I begin? As I’ve mentioned several times, I’m working on late Neoplatonic influence on early Mormonism and the primary innovations that the late Neoplatonists made to Neoplatonism was theurgy. To learn theurgy, Iamblichus spent considerable time studying in Egypt; Egyptians ritual played a significant role in Imablichus’s ritual theology. In fact, Iamblichus wrote his De Mysteriis (the principal exposition on theurgy) as “Master Abamon,” an Egyptian priest.[2]

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Joseph F. Smith: Prophet, Seer, Sleuth

From The Archives:

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BH Roberts’s Documentary History of the Church, 1903-2011: R.I.P.

There was once time when historians of LDS history were forced to rely on BH Roberts’s Documentary History of the Church—commonly known today as History of the Church (hereafter referred to as HC). Put crudely, the HC is a heavily-edited and problematic documentary history of a heavily-edited and problematic documentary history. This 7-volume series—the first volume printed in 1903—has been very significant. They are probably amongst the most read and referenced history texts read by Latter-day Saints, they are largely influential in Church curriculum (just note their presence in D&C section headers), and they have even been foundational for many scholarly monographs. This was especially the case before the Church opened up it’s numerous archival sources, as even Fawn Brodie based much of her Joseph Smith narrative on these books.

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17th Annual Arrington Lecture-Richard V. Francaviglia on “Orientalism and the Mormon Experience, 1820-1970?

From the event announcement at USU.

Richard V. Francaviglia, a former university professor and administrator, now an independent consultant and researcher, has been selected to present the 17th annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture.

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Conference Etiquette at Mormon Symposia

The scholar/blogger Historiann (if you are a young Mormon scholar interested in academia, you should really read her blog) has a new post on the ethics of conference participating. Partly because I am lazy, and partly because I think we can generate a good discussion, I’d like to bring part of that debate over here.

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2011 David P. Gardner Lecture–Richard Bushman on “Mormonism and the Public Good,” University of Utah

The Tanner Humanities Center is proud to present
the 2011 David P. Gardner Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts

Please join us for a lecture by 

Richard Bushman

Guest Post: Stephenie Meyer, Twilight , and the Visionary Culture of Early LDS Women

We are thrilled that Susanna Morrill, assistant professor of religious studies at Lewis and Clark College, has been kind enough to share her insights on the visionary culture of early LDS women here at the JI. Susanna’s article ?Relief Society Birth and Death Rituals: Women at the Gates of Mortality,? Journal of Mormon History, 36 (Spring 2010), 128?59 as well as her book, White Roses on the Floor of Heaven: Nature and Flower Imagery in Latter-day Saints Women’s Literature, 1880-1920 have garnered wide praise. Let’s give Susanna a warm welcome.

In 2003, faithful LDS member Stephenie Meyer dreamed of a girl and a beautiful, sparkly vampire boy, in love and having an intense conversation in a meadow. Meyer could not get the dream out of her head. Whenever she could get a chance, she wrote a story inspired by the dream. It became the first book in the Twilight series. Meyer described this experience: ?To be honest, I felt like I was guided through the process.?[i]

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?The Cultural History of the Gold Plates?: Notes from the 2011 Bushman/Givens Seminar, Part II

Continued from Part I.

Sarah Reed, “Fantasy, Fraud, and Freud: The Uncanny Gold Plates in 19th Century Newspaper Accounts.” Sarah, a graduate student in German studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had the honor of bringing Freud to the party. Specifically, she explored the debates surrounding the Gold Plates through the lens of Freud’s “uncanny,” the idea that a thing or concept can be both familiar and foreign at the same time. Sarah examined how newspaper accounts presented Joseph Smith’s narrative—which in itself possessed many home-grown or native elements—in a way that repressed the familiar and emphasized the exotic. Attackers often contrasted JS’s message with Enlightenment ideals, thereby creating a safe distance between the Mormons and the audience. Fun stuff.

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Plato on Deification and Eternal Marriage

Clement of Alexandria asserted that Plato was an important precursor to the coming of Christ. [1] The quotes I post from Plato here suggest that Mormons could sympathize with Clement’s point of view. The first is Plato’s statement on deification from the Theaetetus.

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