I’ve posted before on Worlds Without End about some examples of “stylistic drift” that occurred during Book of Mormon dictation. As I then explained, Joseph Smith didn’t restart his dictation from the beginning of the Book of Mormon after Martin … Continue reading
I’d like to offer congratulations to J. Spencer Fluhman on his appointment as editor of the Mormon Studies Review, and to the rest of the editorial advisory board that has been selected to oversee the journal. How excited I am … Continue reading
Speaking of her Mormon community, the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has said, “We revere our sisters but don’t understand them.”[1] She has also astutely noted, “The past is a foreign country.”[2] In both statements, she has summed up well how … Continue reading
Introduction Valerie M. Hudson [1] has co-authored a new article in the April 2013 Ensign arguing for her usual egalitarian take on Mormon patriarchy. I have mixed feelings on Hudson. I think her heart is in the right place in … Continue reading
While my next post (I promise!) will explore the story of Abraham, Pharaoh, and Egyptus in the Book of Abraham as it relates to perpetuation of Priesthood, I will first be exploring an intermediate group found narratively in between the … Continue reading
RealClearPolicy editor Joseph Lawler had the following to say about this past weekend’s holiday: Each year, the days leading up to March 17th remind us of another alarming reality that wasn’t obvious before social media: apparently at least half of Americans … Continue reading
The church recently announced a new edition of the scriptures noting that “more than 99 percent of the adjustments are in the study aids.” I spent some time looking at one of those aids — the Bible Dictionary (BD) and … Continue reading
One of the Book of Mormon’s most distinctive features is its presentation of the “pride cycle” as a type of meta-narrative that describes how societies rise to prosperity through humility and righteousness, become convinced that this prosperity is the result … Continue reading
An unusual aspect of early Relief Society history is that the precise date on which Eliza R. Snow became its second General President is ambiguous. Some accounts have her presiding from 1866 until her death in 1887.[1] Others give a … Continue reading
In a book published in 2003 by Brigham Young University’s Religious Studies Center, LDS author Mark Elbert Eastmond presented a fascinating exploration on the doctrinal reasons for Christ’s atoning sacrifice. I’m really quite fond of Eastmond’s article. Since its original … Continue reading