CONSTRUCTING JOSEPH SMITH’S LIFE AND TIMES: A CONVERSATION This presentation compares and contrasts two important works on Joseph Smith published within the past three months: Richard L. Bushman’s Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling and H. Michael Marquardt’s The Rise of Mormonism, 1816-1844. The latter work, while not a biography, focuses on Smith and the controversies …
Event: Arizona Symposium 2006
ARE MORMONS POLYTHEISTS?
ARE MORMONS POLYTHEISTS? A common feature of academic scholarship written on Mormonism has been to highlight its unique theology in which God the Father not only possesses a physical body but we, as his children, have the potential to progress and become as he is: Gods and Goddesses. Some of these scholars have used this …
A PORTER OF PAIN AND PROGRESS
A PORTER OF PAIN AND PROGRESS This study examines the interplay between fantasy and revelation as interpretive practices in the most influential American fantasia in recent memory, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Very little Angels scholarship has focused on religion and, in particular, the play’s engagement with revelation in a Mormon context. This presentation seeks …
WHEN CULTURES COLLIDE: MORMONISM IN CONTEXT OF ONGOING DISCUSSIONS OF COLONIALISM, CONVERSION, AND GLOBALIZED RELIGION
WHEN CULTURES COLLIDE: MORMONISM IN CONTEXT OF ONGOING DISCUSSIONS OF COLONIALISM, CONVERSION, AND GLOBALIZED RELIGION Mormonism is famous for its missionary zeal, driven by its self-understanding as being the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the desire to fulfill the biblical prophecy of Christ’s gospel being taken to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Informed …
EXCAVATING THE SACRED FEMININE
EXCAVATING THE SACRED FEMININE In many religions, the sacred feminine is suppressed, disguised, or diminished in a variety of ways. Yet the feminine is present and integral to the formation of a religion and its culture. Panelists will discuss how their work, professional or personal, excavates the feminine from obscurity in religious contexts where it …
MORMONISM IN THE ACADEMY
MORMONISM IN THE ACADEMY Courses and programs in Mormon studies are being established across the country. Panel members will discuss the challenges, tensions, and rewards of teaching Mormon history, literature, and culture to both member and non-member students in the same classroom. Panelists will also discuss the current place of Mormon studies in the academy …
MIND OVER MATTER, SPIRIT VERSUS FLESH: THE PROBLEM OF EMBODIMENT, THE DIVINE FEMININE, AND THE POSITION OF LDS WOMEN
MIND OVER MATTER, SPIRIT VERSUS FLESH: THE PROBLEM OF EMBODIMENT, THE DIVINE FEMININE, AND THE POSITION OF LDS WOMEN When I have argued over the years for the importance of the Heavenly Mother in LDS theology, I am often met with the response, “Why think of God as gendered at all? Isn’t that somewhat literalistic …
FROM ENIGMA TO MADNESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH VALEEN TIPPETTS AVERY
FROM ENIGMA TO MADNESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH VALEEN TIPPETTS AVERY Northern Arizona University professor VALEEN TIPPETTS AVERY is well-known to students of Mormon history for two groundbreaking and highly celebrated books: Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith (1984),which she co-authored with Linda King Newell, and From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet (1998) …
‘THERE WERE NO CONTENTIONS AND DISPUTATIONS’: OVERCOMING INSTITUTIONAL RACISM TOWARD INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
‘THERE WERE NO CONTENTIONS AND DISPUTATIONS’: OVERCOMING INSTITUTIONAL RACISM TOWARD INDIGENOUS PEOPLES Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere and Mormons are inextricably connected by the Book of Mormon and western American History. In many attitudes and cultural representations, however, Mormons tend to replicate patterns of paternalism and racism from general American society. Conquering racism, even …
HISTORY’S APPRENTICE: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON B. H. ROBERTS
HISTORY’S APPRENTICE: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON B. H. ROBERTS Though he has been dead for more than seventy years, B. H. Roberts remains a significant Mormon historian and theologian, and he’s considered one of the Church’s premier intellectuals. This presentation draws on my experience as the editor of his journals covering the period from 1880–1898, a …