By ChristopherMay 16, 2011
Behold here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man: Because, that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light.
-Revelation to Joseph Smith, May 6, 1833 (Doctrine & Covenants 93:31)
“Agency” is a buzzword prominent in both of the worlds that I, and other Mormon historians, inhabit on a day-to-day basis. Within the world of Mormonism, the word signifies a central tenet of Latter-day Saint theology, one that receives regular and sustained attention from church leaders and in Sunday School curriculum. In the historical profession, meanwhile, “agency” has been labeled “the master trope of the New Social History”—signifying the collective efforts of social historians to rescue from the dustbins of history the lives and stories of marginalized figures, including especially African American and Indian slaves, women from all walks of life, and others who left behind few written records and lived otherwise unremarkable lives.[1]
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By Steve FlemingMay 14, 2011
D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, Revised and Enlarged Edition. Salt Lake City: Signature, 1998.
In reassessing Quinn’s classic study, I’ll simply say that Stephen Ricks’s and Daniel Peterson’s review of the first edition still applies to the second. The book “reflects deep erudition” and “offers considerable evidence indicating that Joseph Smith, members of his family, and some of his early associates were involved in the use of seer stones, divining rods, amulets, and parchments, as well as in the search for buried treasure.” In other words, Quinn effectively argues his chief assertions.
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By Jared TMay 12, 2011
I confess to having been slightly confused about exactly what has been published in the JSP and I may be the only one, but just in case I’m not, I thought I’d put up this short summary of what we have to date. With the very recent addition of two volumes, the fine scholars at the JSP continue their excellent work.
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By Jared TMay 11, 2011
Dear MHA Members,
For the past three years Patricia Lyn Scott has served the Mormon History Association, first as Co-Executive Director and then as Executive Director, just the most visible period of her decades of dedicated service to the organization as a member of councils, boards, and committees. As Pat concludes her three-year service as Executive Editor, we, her current Board colleagues, express our heartfelt appreciation for Pat’s significant contribution to the advancement and perpetuation of the Association. Her term as Executive Director will end later in the summer on July 31, 2011, consistent with her original appointment, after directing the work for the imminent St. George Conference. Along with her notable work on the earlier Sacramento, Springfield, and Independence conferences, as well as the 2012 Calgary conference, her kindly manner and friendly cheer have helped MHA in equally important ways. We wish Pat well in her current and future scholarly projects, which are several.
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By KrisMay 10, 2011
On December 11, 1917, William Smart recorded in his diary, ?Wife and I are fasting today. I bathed and thoroughly then anointed myself from head to foot with consecrated oil after praying to the Father and presenting this for purpose of further cleansing and as a token to present myself clean before him.? The many entries in Smart?s diary as well as those of hundreds of others Latter-day Saints illustrate how ritual objects can be a primary form of evidence for understanding religion as lived experience and sheds light on what believers do with material things.
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By Steve FlemingMay 6, 2011
In a previous post, I mentioned a sort of revelation I had while reading Brooke’s Refiner’s Fire. ?Wait, Steve,? the Spirit said, ?don?t write this book off. You have to understand a few things. What Brooke is talking about here are ?temple? or esoteric truths that are by nature difficult to verbalize. Such ideas have been passed through the ages from original pure sources and had thus become somewhat corrupted. These factors make what Brooke is talking about not so easily recognizable or understood. Furthermore, don?t pretend that you understand what the temple is about. So read the book with an open mind. You?re going to spend the rest of your life trying to figure this stuff out.? Or something like that.
Since working on that issues the last ten years, I’ve wondered what those “pure sources” were: “primitive Christianity,” Moses, Abraham, Enoch?
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By ChristopherMay 6, 2011
Steven Harper passed along the following note and requested we post it at JI:
The Department of Church History & Doctrine at BYU is hosting a breakfast on Friday 27 May at 7 AM, before Professor Reeve?s talk at MHA. Join us at the Hilton Garden Inn, adjacent to the Dixie Center where the MHA meetings will convene.
We wish to cast a broad invitation to all who may be interested in joining the Dept. faculty and would like to ask questions, learn about dissertation grant and adjunct teaching opportunities, etc. There are no obligations. We hope that if you?re interested and able that you?ll join us.
By ChristopherMay 4, 2011
David F. Holland. Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. 275pp. + index.
We spend a lot of time at this blog considering how Mormonism fits within larger frameworks in American religious history and what it uniquely reveals about the shape and contours of that past. Among the most obvious answers to the latter consideration is Mormonism’s prophetic tradition, with its adherence to a belief in continuing revelation and an expanded (and expanding) canon of scripture. In trying to tackle the complicated question of whether Mormonism can be accurately described as “Protestant” in any meaningful sense on a recent post, among the most significant reasons for those who answered “no” was Mormonism’s claims to revelation and scripture beyond the bounds of the Old and New Testaments.
But just how unique is Mormonism in this regard? What precedents are there in the American past for such beliefs and how do Mormon prophets and scriptures fit within the larger history of the
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By Ben PApril 28, 2011
Since we announced the journal’s first CFP, we are happy to broadcast their first issue. (Plus, the issue includes JI’s own Jordan W.!)
The Claremont Journal of Mormon Studies, the latest of the myriad of solid Mormon journals, has posted the first three articles in what will hopefully be a long and productive periodical and outlet for quality graduate work. Headed by qualified editors Dave Golding and Loyd Ericson, the journal describes itself as “a student-run online reviewed academic journal committed to the advancement of the field of Mormon studies and produced by the Claremont Mormon Studies Student Association in Claremont, California…The purpose of this journal is to establish a proficient and easily accessible forum for ongoing research in Mormon studies by qualified graduate students, exemplifying new research being done in various fields.” The first issue demonstrates their sophisticated, interdisciplinary, and intriguing potential.
Articles in the issue are:
- “The Inspired Fictionalization of the 1835 United Firm Revelations” by Christopher C. Smith
- “The Great God, the Divine Mind, and the Ideal Absolute: Orson Pratt’s Intelligent-Matter Theory and the Gods of Emerson and James” by Jordan Watkins
- “Prolegomena to Any Future Study of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon” by Joseph M. Spencer
The entire issue can be downloaded here.
The future is bright in Mormon studies!
By ChristopherApril 27, 2011
I recently finished reading S. Scott Rohrer’s Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630-1865, a useful and readable overview of several different religious communities whose migrations to and within colonial British North America and the United States shaped American history in ways often ignored by historians of immigration.
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