The developmental history of the Church shows most conspicuously, perhaps, not in purposes and theology but in details. A twentieth-century visitor to the nineteenth-century might be most struck not by the pioneer conditions as by…
In his landmark organizational study, Max Weber outlined three forms of authority: traditional, charismatic, and legal. Originally charismatic under Joseph Smith and to some extent under Brigham Young, by the late nineteenth century, leadership in…
By 1900, the general leadership of the Relief Society, the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, and the Primary Association had together made plans for a woman’s building for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day…
Institutional vitality has characterized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints from its organization with six members in 1830 to over five million by 1982. Its capacity to govern and manage an ever-enlarging…
I was a sophomore at BYU in 1953 when my parents called one Sunday from Calgary to tell me what we had already anticipated: that a new stake had been formed there. My father had…
He was tall, thin, and taciturn; but he had a clear head and a big heart. He played many roles in the First Presidency and played them all dependably, admirably.
Probably few people derive their religious beliefs or lack of them from the philosophy of religion. However, when viewed historically, it becomes clear that the philosophy of religion has greatly influenced religion in general and…
Born in 1807 in Burlington, New York, Parley P. Pratt was baptized by Oliver Cowdery in Seneca Lake on 1 September 1830, less than five months after the Church’s founding. Among the first to be…
Despite the marked decline in the number of students seeking advanced degrees, which is sending shock waves throughout American academia, interest in Mormon-related programs remains remarkably high. This trend becomes considerably more understandable when we…
In the afternoon of 1 July 1895, Emmeline Wells and thirteen other Mormon literary lights and friends met in the parlor of Julia C. Howe’s home in memory of a deceased colleague, poet Hannah King.…