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Book Review: The Council of Fifty: What the Records Reveal about Mormon History

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Publisher: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University
Editors: Matthew J. Grow & R. Eric Smith
Date Available: September 4, 2017
Number of Pages: 201
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1-9443-9421-9
Price: $21.99

On October 3, 2016, the Joseph Smith Papers Project published a volume called Administrative Records: Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844-January 1846 (reviewed and explained here). It is a massive tome of around 800 pages containing information that had never before been published or studied. It contains many insights that help fill in gaps in Mormon history during this period. The Council of Fifty: What the Records Reveal about Mormon History is an introduction to some of those insights, or it can also serve as a summary of them for those that would rather not peruse the vast source material.

This book contains 15 chapters, each of which is a separate paper written by historians (many of which have worked on the Joseph Smith Project) such as Richard Bushman, Richard Turley, Patrick Mason, Gerrit Dirkmaat, Matthew Grow, Matthew Godfrey, Richard Bennett, Jedediah Rogers, and Paul Reeve. Like a sacrament meeting where each speaker is given the same topic, there is some overlap among many of the papers, yet each writer brings their own perspective and expertise. [Read more…] about Book Review: The Council of Fifty: What the Records Reveal about Mormon History

Book Review: The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents Volume 5: October 1835 – January 1838

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Publisher: The Church Historian’s Press
Date Available: May 15, 2017
Number of Pages: 768
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1629723129
Price: $54.95

(Page numbers are from an Advance Review Copy, and may be different in the published version.)

This volume covers an interesting period of Joseph Smith’s life that includes the finishing and dedication of the Kirtland Temple and the associated visions, work on the Book of Abraham, the Kirtland Safety Society, and persecution and apostasy. Some of the documents included are from Joseph Smith’s journals, and so have already been published in Journals, Volume 1:1832-1839. Others are from Minute Book 1, archival collections, periodicals, other peoples’ diaries, legal records, etc. There are no journals available covering April 1836 to January 1838, so some of the best contemporary sources were chosen to try to fill things in.

The book starts with the usual material for this series, including a timeline of Joseph Smith’s life, maps, an explanation of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, a volume introduction, and an explanation of the editorial method. The book is then divided into seven parts, based on time periods. There is an appendix with blessings to Don Carlos Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Frederick G. Williams, and Sidney Rigdon. And then there is the usual reference material with source notes, a chronology, geographical directory and maps, pedigree chart, biographical directory, organizational charts, essay on sources, works cited, a cross-reference with the Doctrine and Covenants, index, etc. At the very back is a note about resources available on the Joseph Smith Papers website that relate to the series as well as this particular book.

Most of the first and second chapters of the Book of Abraham are included as “Book of Abraham Manuscript, circa Early June – circa November 1835-A [Abraham 1:4-2:6].” There is a historical introduction that explains how the papyri were obtained and what is known about the translation, as well as the publication in Times and Seasons. A footnote points out that “Though a notice printed in the 1 February 1843 issue of the Times and Seasons suggested that JS would publish ‘further extracts’ from the Book of Abraham, there is no documentary evidence that other extracts were produced. All extant manuscripts generated by JS and his associates during their study of the Egyptian papyri, dated circa 1835 to circa 1842, are available at the Joseph Smith Papers website, josephsmithpapers.org.” (page 77) [Read more…] about Book Review: The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents Volume 5: October 1835 – January 1838

Book Review: What You Don’t Know About the 100 Most Important Events in Church History

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Authors: Casey Paul Griffiths, Susan Easton Black, Mary Jane Woodger
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Nonfiction
Year Published: 2017
Number of Pages: 336
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1629722467
Price: $22.99

I really don’t like the title of this book. It is the sort of title that is often referred to as “clickbait,” to get people to read an online article. It is also an insult to the reader’s intelligence for an author to assume what they don’t know. The preface indicates that the authors are at least somewhat aware of this, and begins almost with an apology, admitting that “such lists present an excuse for sensationalized writing and shallow analysis.” However, it goes on to explain that the book was inspired by another book called “The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History,” and that such lists “can impel a person to think critically about events, stories, and people.” Casey Griffiths decided to create a list for the history of the Latter-day Saints, enlisting the help of Mary Jane Woodger and Susan Easton Black. They also received assistance from their colleagues at BYU and used resources such as the Joseph Smith Papers.

The book is a large format paperback, printed on fairly cheap-feeling paper. There are small photographs accompanying each of the 100 short (mostly 2 to 3 pages) chapters, but they are all black and white and sadly most are not very high quality, possibly due to the paper used. This might have made a good coffee table book in a different format, but I suppose it’s more likely to be read in this form.

The book lists the events in chronological order. Many should be quite well known, in which case they have tried to include lesser known information. For instance, for the First Vision (event number 1), they include details from multiple accounts from Joseph Smith and his contemporaries, concluding by noting that “the details are less significant than the central message of the reality of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and of the Savior’s infinite atonement. President Henry B. Eyring said that the First Vision ‘represents that moment when Joseph learned there was a way for the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to be unlocked fully. Because of what Joseph saw and what began at this moment, the Savior was able, through this great and valiant servant and through others that He sent, to restore power and privilege. That power and privilege allows us, and all who will live, to have the benefits of Jesus Christ’s Atonement work in our lives’” (page 3). [Read more…] about Book Review: What You Don’t Know About the 100 Most Important Events in Church History

Finding Christ in Jewish Holy Days

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Gale Boyd is a convert to the LDS Church. In 1983, she and her husband decided to move their family to Israel to explore their Jewish heritage.

She was unprepared for the culture shock she experienced as an American Jewish Mormon living in Jewish Zion. Not only was there the language barrier but also the differences in money, weights and measures, Sabbath observance, and even the year was counted differently.

As she became immersed in Israeli culture, she learned about Jewish Holy Days and their symbolism.

Her experiences led her to write Days of Awe with the purpose of sharing with Latter-day Saints the Christian symbolism found in the celebration of Jewish Holy Days.

The book contains a history of Old Testament feasts, their ancient and current patterns of observance, their prophetic symbolism, and their relevance to each of us as Latter-day Saints today.

She also clears up some misconceptions about the Jewish people, their scripture, the complexity of their religion, and their history.

Join Laura Harris Hales of LDS Perspectives Podcast and Gale Boyd as they discuss Judaism, Holy Days, and the religious past, present, and future.

To access your free copy of Days of Awe, check out the links to resources at LDS Perspectives Podcast.

Book Review: Joseph Smith’s Revelations: A Doctrine and Covenants Study Companion from the Joseph Smith Papers

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This book is part of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, but it’s different than the other volumes that have been produced. It combines the previously published canonized revelations and their accompanying contextual material and puts them in the same order as the current LDS edition of the Doctrine & Covenants, also adding verse numbers for ease of reading. The result provides a very interesting way to read this book of scripture.

I have to admit I was initially disappointed to find that this is only available as an e-book. But it turns out there is a reason for this. It currently only contains content up through 1835 (and one thing from 1838) at this point. But as work on the Joseph Smith Papers Project progresses, updates to the e-book are promised. My guess is that they also realized this would be a great resource for this year’s Sunday School curriculum and were able to put it together quickly as an e-book. And they took advantage of the ability to link to the JSP website to provide access to higher resolution charts and further information in many places.

As with all the JSP books, the introductory material includes lists of illustrations and maps, an introduction and statement of editorial procedures, and a timeline of Joseph Smith’s life. It also includes a chronology of texts in today’s edition of the D&C and a correspondence chart to the JSP volumes. The introduction from Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books is included as an appendix, as is the introduction to Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations.
[Read more…] about Book Review: Joseph Smith’s Revelations: A Doctrine and Covenants Study Companion from the Joseph Smith Papers

The Witnesses of the Book of Mormon

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By June 1829 Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer had verbalized a desire to be the special three witnesses alluded to in the Book of Mormon.

D&C 17 records a revelation affirming their roles as witnesses and was given to Joseph Smith through a seer stone he apparently found while digging a well in 1822.

As witnesses, the three were very different. Martin Harris was zealous, impetuous, and even a bit eccentric. Oliver Cowdery was an intellectual. And David Whitmer was regarded as clear-thinking, down-to-earth, and honest.

David Whitmer was, perhaps, the strongest witness because he lived so long, never wavered in his testimony of the vision, and gave several newspaper interviews that give us additional details regarding the experience. David reported seeing several plates, the sword of Laban, the Liahona, and the Urim and Thummim.

Joseph Smith was understandably relieved to have others to testify of the existence of the plates. Larry Morris concludes that the experience of the Three Witnesses was both an empirical and spiritual experience.

Join Nick Galieti of LDS Perspectives as he interviews Larry Morris as part of the Revelations in Context podcast series.

A Closer Look at Mormon Studies

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Historian, author, and educator Patrick Mason tells his students that Mormon studies is just a really fun place to play. It gets to the heart of the questions we have in 21st century society.

By studying Mormonism, we can learn more about the world we live in as it touches on the following:

  • Minority/majority relations;
  • How we can organize a democratic society;
  • The role of religion in the public sphere;
  • Gender issues;
  • Marriage; and
  • Family.

Mormonism, Mormon history, Mormon theology usually has something to say about these foundational issues.

Host Russell Stevenson of LDS Perspectives Podcast interviews Patrick about how the way historians do their business has changed over the last 100 years. In the 19th century, history tended to be bipolar with anti-Mormons on one end and church leaders, members, and historians offering their version from a faith-promoting perspective that acknowledged God’s involvement in affairs.

By the late 20th century, historians began to weigh truth claims in a more dispassionate manner. Their goals were less polemic and more directed toward enhancing understanding–wherever that may lead.

Please join us for this interesting discussion.

The Mormon Trail

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Artists Josh Clare, John Burton, and Bryan Mark Taylor worked for years on a project called Saints at Devil’s Gate. It consists of landscapes capturing the Mormon Trail, the 1,300-mile route from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Salt Lake City, Utah, that mid-19th century pioneers traveled on their migration west.

The artists’ intention was to pair their paintings with excerpts from historical trail journals by Mormon immigrants, which would allow them to construct a singular persona that could stand for the whole of the pioneer experience.

The paintings record the mundane trail that accompanied the pioneers’ daily wanderings. Practical activities are detailed such as washing clothes, picking wildflowers, and playing music and dancing together in the evenings.

Beyond picturesque beauty, the paintings also explore a sense of the sublime and also sometimes the horrific.

LDS Church History Museum Curator Laura Allred Hurtado discusses with Laura Harris Hales how researching the history for the book that accompanies the exhibit expanded her understanding of the experience of those who traveled the Mormon trail. For many, it was a rite of passage and the experience of a lifetime.

Join us as we provide a more nuanced glimpse into what the Mormon trail meant to those who traversed it and discuss what we can learn from reading their experiences.

185 Years of Women’s Discourse in the LDS Church

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Editors Jenny Reeder and Kate Holbrook, respectively 19th- and 20th-century women’s historians, discuss their multi-year project to bring LDS women’s speeches together in At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women.

This is the second book to come out of the Church Historian’s Press in as many years with the goal of making LDS women’s experiences, history, and discourses available to the mainstream membership.

Before the reader even opens the book, the nostalgic cover art of At the Pulpit brings to mind its two opposing themes: change and familiarity. One glance at the over-sized corsage adorning Belle Spafford’s tailored dress may spawn a flood of memories. When was it that they stopped having women wear corsages at conference anyway? The scene is as familiar and comforting as it is foreign.

Because women didn’t typically speak in conference settings before the mid-20th century, the definition of “discourse” is stretched a bit for this anthology. To Reeder and Holbrook’s credit, this makes the book seem less like a collection of discourses than treasured glimpses into the relationship LDS women have had to their God over the last 185 years.

It is less a collection of talks than a creative medium for teaching about how attitudes toward the roles of women at home and in the LDS Church have changed and in some ways remained the same.

Many may find the introductions to each discourse the most enjoyable portions of the book. In these brief overviews, readers not only receive context for the discourse but also context for the time in which it is given.

Overall this is a welcome addition to the fine work coming out of the LDS Church History Department and to the library of anyone wishing to entertain a more nuanced view on the amplitude of women’s voices in LDS discourse over the years. Listen in to the LDS Perspectives Podcast interview with the editors to get additional insight into this exciting project. 

George Watt and the Journal of Discourses

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In LDS Perspectives Podcast’s first doubleheader, they present an episode covering the discrepancies between the shorthand versions of speeches of early Church leaders in Utah and their published versions. First, Russell Stevenson interviews Gerrit Dirkmaat about the research he and LaJean Carruth did comparing the shorthand notes of George Watt to some of the speeches in the Journal of Discourses.

The authors examined hundreds of sermons and sometimes they varied by hundreds of words. Dirkmaat points out that when one is talking about doctrine, words matter. While the essence of these speeches are similar in the shorthand and published versions, the words used vary greatly.

The Journal of Discourses have historical and religious value, but Dirkmaat urges members to be careful quoting specific passages and to realize that in most cases, there is know way to know the specific words used.

LaJean Purcell Carruth has an unusual skill: she can read the shorthand of George Watt, the transcriber of the speeches contained in the Journal of Discourses, his private printing venture. Over the past thirty years, she has learned his distinctive style–the unique upturns and curves he made in his notations. As she transcribed his notes, she noticed that they varied–sometimes greatly–from the printed versions of the same speeches. She wrote a poem about what she noticed:

There was a man named George Watt,

Who could improve Brigham Young, so he thought.

So he took out words here,

And he added words there,

And his accuracy was not what it ought.

LaJean Purcell Carruth©

LaJean expounds on what she has learned about the speaking styles of early religious leaders. They spoke extemporaneously and without notes and were more prone to engage in speculative theology than current leaders.

She emphasizes that Brigham Young was a powerful speaker. He cared about the people, and they knew that he cared about them. When George Watt changed Brigham Young’s words, he changed what Brigham Young said about himself. She feels the real Brigham Young has been lost to us as we view him through his discourses printed in the Journal of Discourses.

In her research, she discovered that the “one drop” phrase attributed to Brigham Young by Wilford Woodruff did not exist in the original shorthand transcription of George Watt and other issues relating to the priesthood and temple ban.

LaJean shares with Laura Harris Hales what she has learned about Brigham Young from the words left out of the Journal of Discourses and other important speeches.

Be sure and check out LDS Perspectives Podcast for the materials referenced in this episode.