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44 Institutions"A Mother There": A Survey Of Historical Teachings About Mother In Heaven,David L. Paulsen, Martin Pulido
Brigham Young University
Since the 1840s, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have taught that in addition to a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. This cherished doctrine has been an important, although relatively obscure, part of the Latter-day Saint understanding of the premortal origins and divine nature of humankind. The authors, a professor and a student of philosophy at Brigham Young University, present historical statements by Mormon leaders about Mother in Heaven. Contrary to criticism in some quarters, Church leaders have not relegated this deity to a confined role. Statements from the late 1840s …
Was Jesus Married?,Christopher James BlytheBrigham Young University
While the belief that Jesus was married during his lifetime has been popular among Church leaders and lay members since the nineteenth century, it has never been an essential of Latter-day Saint theology. Rather, belief in a married Christ prospered in the early decades of the Church with little controversy among members, until leaders in the early twentieth century discouraged its public discussion while never disparaging the concept. A century later, as FAIR, an independent apologetic think tank, states on its website, “Some [Latter-day Saints] believe that He was married; others believe He wasn’t. Most members are open to believe …
The Living Earth: A Nineteenth-Century Latter-Day Saint Perspective,J. Michael HunterBrigham Young University - Provo
By studying the worldview of Mormons living in the nineteenth century, we can better understand their interpretation of nature and their relationship to it. For Mormons of that era, the earth was alive and deeply affected by the attitudes and actions of the humans living upon it. Nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints spoke frequently of the earth, its nature, and its relationship to humanity. They referred to the earth in anthropomorphic terms. It was a living orb endowed with intelligence and feelings. The earth’s life paralleled that of the humans who lived on it. So entwined were the lives of the earth …
In The Thirty And Fourth Year: A Geologist's View Of The Great Destruction In 3 Nephi,Bart J. KowallisBrigham Young University
Geological studies and eyewitness accounts of volcanic activity show the likelihood that the massive destruction reported in 3 Nephi was caused by an explosive volcanic eruption.
Microlending: Toward A Poverty-Free World,Muhammad YunusBrigham Young University
By trusting small, impoverished borrowers, Professor of Economics Muhammad Yunus found a way to bridge the gap between economic theory and human reality.
"General Conference Talk": Style Variation And The Styling Of Identity In Latter-Day Saint General Conference Oratory,Stephen Thomas BettsBrigham Young University
Despite its exceptional importance as a cultural performance event in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, General Conference has received little attention in Mormon studies, to say nothing of sociolinguistics. Situated within the larger question of how the public language of Mormon authorities has changed over time, this thesis seeks to discover style features of what impressionistically appears to be a unitary General Conference style since 1960 (the era of church "Correlation"). Statistical analysis is then used to determine which of five sociolinguistic factors and three pairwise interactions between four of the five sociolinguistic factors most saliently conditions …
The Psalm 22:16 Controversy: New Evidence From The Dead Sea Scrolls,Shon HopkinBrigham Young University
Few verses in the Bible have produced as much debate and commentary as Psalm 22:16: “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.” The discussions center on the last character (reading right to left) of the Hebrew כארו (“pierced/dug”), assumed to be the word from which the Septuagint Greek ὤρυξαν (“they have pierced”) was translated—assumed because the original Hebrew texts from which the Septuagint was translated are no longer extant. If the last character of the Hebrew word was awaw (ו), as the Greek seems to indicate, …
Mormonism In The Methodist Marketplace: James Covel And The Historical Background Of Doctrine And Covenants 39–40,Christopher C. JonesBrigham Young University
Joseph Smith received two revelations in January 1831 (Doctrine and Covenants 39 and 40) directed to one "James Covill." Joseph and his scribes noted that Covill "had been a Baptist minister for about forty years." Historians discovered nothing about a Baptist minister named James Covill, but documents unearthed by the Joseph Smith Papers Project revealed that he was actually a Methodist minister. This sliver of information opened the door to information about a very well-known Methodist minister in upstate New York by the name of James Covel.
Christopher Jones mines this Methodist vein productively and pieces together a short biography …
Cosmos, Earth, And Man,David H. Bailey, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Lewis, Gregory L. Smith, Michael R. StarkBrigham Young University
I’ve long resisted the claim, typically (as in C. S. Lewis’s allegorical exchange between the pilgrim John and Mr. Enlightenment) assumed rather than explicitly argued, that no well-educated person, and certainly nobody with a solid grounding in modern science, can rationally choose to be a religious believer.2 So I was delighted with the proposal that The Interpreter Foundation organize and sponsor a conference on the relationship between science and Mormonism. When Dr. David Bailey called me regarding the possibility of such a conference, I jumped at the opportunity.
Judas In The New Testament, The Restoration, And The Gospel Of Judas,Frank F. Judd-Jr.Brigham Young University
This article discusses the Gospel of Judas, an Early Christian text found in Egypt about 1978 and published in 2006 with much media attention. The text of the Gospel of Judas can be evaluated by comparing New Testament scriptures. The author examines canonical references to Judas and concludes that Latter-day Saints may benefit from studying the Gospel of Judas to better understand the nature of the apostasy that occurred after the death of Christ's apostles. However, the author reaffirms that Latter-day Saints should not scour this and other noncanonical books looking for the plain and precious truths believed to be …
“Every Mother A Missionary”?: The Vlogs Of Mormon Mothers,Celia Golden2025
University of Mary Washington
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) places high expectations on mothers because their role in the church is to rear children into godly adults. When their lives are made public through social media, Mormon mothers online avoid religious expectations by withholding information about their Mormon faith and scarcely showing their husbands on-camera. Mormon husbands are expected to be the providers for the family, but as demonstrated through mothers’ vlogs on Instagram, husbands’ erasure allows for mothers to market their expertise to others as a paid product to earn their own revenue. Through descriptive coding, this study …
Direct And Mediating Relationships Between Divine Grace, Legalism, And Mental Health,Branwyn H. McCormick2025
Liberty University
Positive psychology has popularized the integration of religious ideas into psychological treatment. According to the literature, the experience of divine grace is correlated with favorable mental health outcomes, whereas legalistic attitudes are correlated with adverse mental health outcomes. It has also been found that the experience of divine grace is a mediator between legalism and mental health. However, the constructs of divine grace and legalism have both been relatively unexplored aside from a few studies using Latter-day Saints (LDS) populations. The current study seeks to analyze relationships between divine grace, legalism, and mental health using a conservative evangelical Christian population. …
Full Issue,2025
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young Unfiltered His Life, Conversion, And Faith In His Own Words,LaJean Purcell Carruth2025Brigham Young University
On October 6, 1867, the Saints met in the new Salt Lake Tabernacle for the first time. Brigham Young rose, made some remarks about the still unfinished state of the organ, and then dedicated the tabernacle to the Lord. This dedicatory prayer was completely unknown until I found the original shorthand record of it several years ago and transcribed it; prior to that time, the earliest known dedication of the tabernacle was 1875. He prayed, “O God our Heavenly Father who dwells in the heavens, in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ we come before thee at this time …
Front Matter,2025Brigham Young University
Artist’S Note On This Is . . .,Eli Peterson2025Brigham Young University
The First Vision has always been an inspiration to me—the opening of heaven, the burst of such a powerful presence that our Father in Heaven and Savior brought to the earth after nearly two thousand years.
“Not Only Men But Women Also” An Argument For Alma’S Intentional Inclusion Of Women,Cassidy Nichole Pyper2025Brigham Young University
In an interestingly specific inclusion of women, Alma taught the Zoramites that “[God] imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only men but women also” (Alma 32:23). This phrase suggests that Alma had an awareness of women and their ability to receive revelation despite how little the Book of Mormon explicitly includes women in its narrative.1 The Book of Mormon mentions women at drastically lower rates than even the Bible.2 Some students of the Book of Mormon are concerned not only that women are rarely spoken of in the text but also that women may have been ignored …
This Branch Of The Church The Early Development Of Local Administration In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Part 1, The Emergent Church, 1830–1845,Brandon Plewe2025Brigham Young University
It is easy for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to read the Doctrine and Covenants, or most basic histories of the Church, and assume that the Church has always operated like it operates today, if a bit simpler. By the mid-1830s, most significant local and general offices and titles of Church leadership that we recognize today were in place, and it is possible to interpret historical texts through a modern understanding. Occasional inconsistencies can be easily dismissed as the vagaries of frontier language.
The Wonder Is Scripture,Jared Halverson2025Brigham Young University
It’s an honor to be associated in any way with this institute, as it’s my second-favorite thing named after Elder Neal A. Maxwell. The first is my eldest son, whose middle name was an obvious choice, largely because my wife loves Elder Maxwell even more than she loves me, which might be a problem were it not for the fact that I agree with her. I once spent so much time in this library creating a compilation of Elder Maxwell’s talks that by the time I was finished, my wife had called the police to report a missing person. When …
The Seven Seals, The Age Of The Earth, And Ongoing Revelation,Nicholas J. Frederick2025Brigham Young University
One of the more intriguing elements of the book of Revelation is its mention of a book sealed with seven seals (Rev. 5:1). As John’s vision progresses over the next two chapters, each of the seven seals is broken. These have been interpreted by scholars in a variety of ways. One interpretation, typically known as the “historicist” view, saw the seals as representing periods of time in the earth’s history, whether the entirety of the earth’s history from Adam on or just parts, such as early Christian history.1
What Are We To Make Of The Gold Plates?,Richard Lyman Bushman2025Brigham Young University
During the winter of 2020–2021, I worked on the manuscript that was eventually published as Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (Oxford University Press, 2023). The book was an attempt to describe the many ways the plates had been imagined from the time they were first described as a “Golden Bible” in the June 1829 Wayne Sentinel1 down to the Sunday School and missionary lessons today. I marveled at the enduring interest in the plates over time, not only among Latter-day Saints but also among other American writers. In my lifetime, the plates had appeared in the Book of …
James Walks Home From Nain,Robbie Taggart2025Brigham Young University
A pleasant place, he thinks as they descend the steep hill where sparrows dance, making their way among the tombs that line their narrow path. He imagines the lives and dreams of the inhabitants of these stone rooms. The way their voices have flown like leaves, the way they abide like trees.
“Struck With Wonder And Amazement” On Reading The Book Of Mosiah,Joseph M. Spencer2025Brigham Young University
The Wonder of Scripture”: that’s the title of this lecture series.1 Book of Mormon scholar that I am, that title draws my mind to a passage in our keystone scripture. It’s a passage where the word “wonder” is used in connection with people’s responses to sacred records—to scripture. Tucked away somewhere most of us wouldn’t think to look, the Book of Mormon stages a remarkable scene that’s precisely about the wonder of scripture. I can’t help seeing that as just a little too appropriate, so I’d like to examine that scene. I’m going to argue that Mormon, serving simultaneously in …
Seam Allowance,Sarah Hafen d’Evegnée2025Brigham Young University
The shirts hang like a battalion of cotton soldiers on the large metal rack sticking out of the wall. I remove them from the hangers one by one, letting my fingers linger over the stripes, checks, and plaids. Some of them still feel new. The laundry room mingles the freshness of laundry soap with the odor of aging linoleum and tangy, rusty overtones— the same way it has for the past twenty-five years. My children’s younger faces, their grins all gaps and crowded teeth, peer out at me from an assortment of paper flowers glued to a frame on the …
Royal Skousen’S Book Of Mormon Critical Text Project,Roger Terry2025Brigham Young University
Between 1984 and 1986, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) published a critical text of the Book of Mormon. While this early publication was useful in certain ways, it was also woefully inadequate. It was, for instance, based on a computerized text of the 1830 printed edition of the Book of Mormon rather than on the remnants of the two handwritten manuscripts.1 Recognizing its inadequacies, Brigham Young University linguistics professor Royal Skousen began in 1988 what would become a thirty-seven- year endeavor and his life’s work: a fully professional critical text of the Book of Mormon.2
The Creation Of Our Universe: How Science And Our Religious Beliefs Align,Dan Broadbent2024Brigham Young University
This presentation describes the author's opinions about how the creation of our universe may align with theories of the multiverse and the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
On The Varieties Of Religious Experience In Latter-Day Saint Temples, 1836–1940,Jared Gage Bennett2024
Utah State University
From 1836 to the present, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have constructed and undertaken rituals in buildings called temples. In the first temple in Kirtland, Ohio, its 1836 dedication was the scene of visions and speaking in tongues, much like those the apostles had at Pentecost in Acts 2. The second temple in Nauvoo, however, had none of these, and the third set of temples built in Utah, with the first completed in 1877, again saw a number of religious experiences but of a radically different form: mainly the appearance of the spirits of …
A Man Born When He Is Old,Gabriel González Núñez2024
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
No abstract provided.
Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions,J'aiLa C. Price2024
University of New Orleans
Game console: Oculus Quest
World: American Theater Institutions
Player: Minority
Place: United States
Level: “Ain’t no way.”
This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance ofBlood at the Root, which is …
“Guard Your Virtue With Your Life”: Purity Expectations And Dynamics Of Purity And Gender-Based Violence For Latter-Day Saint (Lds) Girls And Women,Reilly H. Brady2024
Washington University in St. Louis
This study investigates purity expectations directed towards girls and women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), approaching a largely underresearched topic and establishing findings such as the mutual embeddedness of purity and gender-based violence for girls and women in the LDS Church. Through a discourse analysis, this study creates a historical timeline of over 100 years of documents, including church-produced media as well as separate writings by LDS women, focusing on how purity has changed and has been politicized over time within various historical moments. While most survey participants in this study described never having heard …
John HiltonBrigham Young University - Provo
J. Michael HunterBrigham Young University - Provo
Noel ReynoldsBrigham Young University - Provo
Dana PikeBrigham Young University
Stephen BettsBrigham Young University
Fred WoodsBrigham Young University - Provo
A. BirchBrigham Young University - Provo
Brent BarlowBrigham Young University - Provo
Dan BelnapBrigham Young University
Kenneth AlfordBrigham Young University - Utah
