For intellectually inclined, scripture-studying Mormons of a particular age, the path of Book of Mormon scholarship has been fairly straightforward. In the second half of the twentieth century, there was the work of Hugh Nibley,…
This collection of essays is the fourth volume in the Book of Mormon Academy Series from the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University. Earlier volumes focused on Abinadi, Ether and the Jaredite records, and…
Picking up Tales of the Chelm First Ward is rather like picking up a chunky, beaded necklace that you might find at an esoteric gift shop that smells of incense and sells various crystals, tarot…
American Trinity: And Other Stories from the Mormon Corridor is a collection of short stories that grapples with the inescapable loneliness of disillusionment, while offering a glimmer of hope in a conviction that “transcends both…
Kerry Spencer Pray and Jenn Lee Smith have given an invaluable gift to the Latter-day Saint community in gathering and editing this impressive collection of stories by and about LGBTQ+ Mormons. These stories open closets…
Cristina Rosetti’s Joseph White Musser: A Mormon Fundamentalist provides a comprehensive and analytically rich examination of Musser’s life and theology, delving into his influential role in one of the more schismatic periods of Mormon history.…
The question of whether or not Joseph Smith participated in the translation of the Book of Mormon as an actual translator, or merely as a transcriber, remains a point of debate in Mormon studies. Did Joseph receive spiritual impressions and visionary experiences by means of a translation device (seer stone, interpreters, and/or Urim and Thummim) and then articulate them into English by tapping into his own mental storehouse of English vocabulary, phraseology, and conceptualizations (the theory of “loose control”)? Or did Joseph simply read the words of a preexisting translation that appeared to him on the surface of the translation device, without any significant contributions of his own (the theory of “tight control”)? As Richard Bushman aptly observes, “Latter-day Saints themselves cannot agree on how the writings engraved on the gold surfaces relate to Joseph Smith’s oral dictation to his secretaries.”
“No Hard Feelings” is an inspiring folk ballad about finding peace in dying. The Avett Brothers ask: “When my body won’t hold me anymore. And it finally lets me free. Will I be ready?” and…
Recall, in your mind’s eye, this sight: two white-shirted figures
exploring the October hills above Nagasaki. enjoying the freedom
to talk unencumbered. “Sometimes,” you said,
“I think nature has a way of playing Bach to itself.”
I was fasting that day when we went out into the farmlands
around Nagasaki, looking up referrals. After hours of walking,
we found ourselves on a ridge looking down on rice fields
and a tiny village