Michael W. Homer

LDS Prospects in Italy for the Twenty-first Century

When Apostle Lorenzo Snow was called in 1849 to “establish a mission in Italy and wherever the spirit should direct,”[1] he was initially optimistic that the Waldensians, a Protestant group in the Kingdom of Sardinia…

The Judiciary and the Common Law in Utah Territory, 1850-61

In August 1851, David Adams, a physician residing in Wayne County, Illinois, wrote a letter to Brigham Young in which he expressed his dismay at the persecutions the Mormons had suffered in Missouri and Illinois…

Latter-day Saints, Lawyers, and the Legal Process | Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900

The attitude of nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints toward lawyers and the legal process is well documented and has been widely discussed ever since Joseph Smith studied law hoping to be admitted to the bar. What has…

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Spiritualism and “New Religions”

It has been observed that “many who look to Sherlock Holmes as the supreme literary spokesman for rationalism feel dismay and bewilderment about his creator having become a leading champion of a doctrine that seems…

The Building of Mormon History in Italy | Massimo Introvigne, Le nuove religioni; Massimo Introvigne, Le sette cristiane: Dai Testimoni di Geova al Reverendo Moon; Massimo Introvigne, “Il canone aperto: rivelazione e nuove rivelazioni nella teologia e nella storia dei Mormoni”; and Michele Straniero, I Mormoni. Leggenda e storia, liturgia e teologia dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni

Since 1844 numerous books have been published in Italy containing the observations of travelers who have visited Nauvoo or Salt Lake City. While some of these travel accounts have been remark ably objective, most have been…

The Survival of New Religious Movements | Timothy Miller, ed., When Prophets Die: The Post Charismatic Fate of New Religious Movements

The unifying thesis of the twelve essays contained in When Prophets Die: The Post Charismatic Fate of New Religious Movements is that most new religious movements, though heavily dependent on a single dominant personality, usually…

Anti-Christian Fundamentalism | R. A. Gilbert, Casting the First Stone: The Hypocrisy of Religious Fundamentalism and Its Threat to Society

R. A. Gilbert’s book, Casting the First Stone, is one of an increasing number of written responses to uninformed attacks by Fundamentalists against new religious movements and any other religious group which does not fit…

Spiritualism and Mormonism: Some Thoughts on the Similarities and Differences

“Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry”: The Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism

The Open Canon and Innovation | Gary JAmes Bergera, Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith

Gary James Bergera’s book, Conflict in the Quorum, is a well written and fascinating account of Orson Pratt, one of Joseph Smith’s original Twelve Apostles, that highlights some of his disagreements with Church leaders (including…

A National Conspiracy? | Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister, Junius & Joseph: presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet

Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister selected the title Junius & Joseph to emphasize their thesis that Joseph Smith’s death was a political assassination. The authors point out that the Junius tracts were “issued…