Gender and Consecrated Oil

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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Pure Sources

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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Announcement: BYU Department of Church History & Doctrine Breakfast at MHA

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.

Book Review: David Holland, Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America

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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The Claremont Journal of Mormon Studies: Inaugural Issue Hot off the Press (sort of)

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!

Is Mormonism Protestant?: Some Reflections on Rohrer’s Wandering Souls

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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Mormon History Odds and Ends

The end of the semester typically means a dearth of posts here at JI, as many of us are busy with exams, term papers, and other end-of-the-year activities. However, there is, as usual, no dearth of Mormon studies news, so consider this a catch-all of recent updates that deserve attention. And please feel free to add more in the comments.

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Another Job Opening at the CHL: Edit Joseph Smith’s Papers!

Historian/Documentary Editor, Joseph Smith Papers

Job Description
The Joseph Smith Papers seeks a full-time historian/documentary editor with the appropriate
academic training, research and writing skills to edit Joseph Smith?s papers. The Joseph
Smith Papers is producing a comprehensive edition of Smith?s documents featuring complete
and accurate transcripts with both textual and contextual annotation. The scope of the project
includes Smith?s correspondence, revelations, journals, historical writings, sermons, legal papers,
and other documents. Besides providing the most comprehensive record of early Latter-day
Saint history they will also provide insight into the broader religious landscape of the early
American republic.

Duties will include document analysis (research regarding textual and documentary intention,
production, transmission, and reception); composition of source notes and historical
introductions; writing of annotation to provide appropriate context and to clarify or explain
passages that are unclear or challenging; regular participation in team meetings and project
committees; and professional development.

Qualifications
PhD or doctoral candidate in history, religious studies, or related discipline. Experience in
one or more of the following areas is desirable: documentary editing, archival management,
antebellum American history, American religious history, early Mormon history. Demonstration
of excellent writing and research skills required. As the highest professional standards of
documentary editing are expected of the position, including a rigorous production schedule,
the applicant must exhibit attention to detail, efficiency, flexibility, good interpersonal
communications, and the ability to work in an academic environment that requires personal
initiative and collaborative competence. Competitive salary based on experience.

Please send letter of application, vita, writing sample, and three letters of recommendation to
Joseph Smith Papers Search, c/o Viola Knecht, Church History Library, 15 E. North Temple St.,
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-1600. Applicants must also complete on-line application found at
www.ldschurch.jobs, posting 61884. Applications due by May 20.

New Job Opening at the CHL: Full Time Position in Women’s History

Historian/Writer, Church History Department

Purpose and Responsibilities

The Church History Department announces an opening for a historian/writer with an emphasis on women?s history within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Duties will include researching and writing, in collaboration with others, documentary and narrative histories on the experience of Latter-day Saint women.

Qualifications

PhD (or doctoral candidate) in history, religious studies, or related discipline, with demonstrated competence in women?s history. Excellent writing skills and the ability to work in an academic environment that requires personal initiative and collaborative competence. Professional and personal integrity required to maintain the trust and confidence of professional colleagues, department supervisors, and archivists working in other public and private repositories. Must be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, currently temple worthy.

Please send letter of application, vita, writing sample, and three letters of recommendation to Women?s History Search, c/o Viola Knecht, Church History Library, 15 E. North Temple St., Salt Lake City, UT 84150-1600. Applicants must also complete on-line application found at www.ldschurch.jobs, posting 61660. Applications due by May 20.

Creation ex Nihilo, Proclus, and the Apostasy

Adolf von Harnock asserted the famous paradigm that early Christianity was corrupted by Greek philosophy. He pointed to the Gnostics as the extreme form of that corruption but asserted that Christianity as a whole was tainted. The way he described the effects of Plato on Christianity would have been (and indeed was) appealing to Mormons.

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