LDS and non-LDS scholars agree that the Americas were peopled by Asians crossing the Bering Strait land bridge more than 11,000 years ago. A growing number of LDS scholars posit that the Jaredites were just a colony in their midst some 4200 years ago, and the same for the immigrant Israelites some 1600 years later. …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2004
THE MYTHICAL BOOK OF MORMON, PART II
I will continue developing the thesis that the Book of Mormon is not literal, but symbolic, archetypal history brought forth by the visionary Joseph Smith, in shamanic fashion, as a grand symbolic, spiritual ethic to rebalance the culture into which it came. Calling on the work of Carl Jung and John Weir Perry, I will …
A FOOL’S ERRAND? MORMON FICTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
There is an elephant in the room whenever one ventures to discuss the state of LDS writing, namely: do LDS people actually read LDS literature? Or more to the point, do they buy it? In this presentation, I explore the notion that LDS writers may have to reach beyond the LDS audience in order to …
FROM BUNKERVILLE TO BABYLON: JUANITA BROOKS AND PHYLLIS BARBER TELL THE STORY OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY MORMON WOMEN’S SEXUAL TRAINING
Juanita Brooks (Quicksand and Cactus: A Memoir of the Southern Mormon Frontier), and Phyllis Barber (How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir) reconstruct Mormon women’s sexual training during the mid- to late-twentieth century by narrating the story of their lives growing up in Nevada. Each autobiography illustrates the strained position of many Mormon women as …
WHAT DO WE MAKE OF THE NEWS OUT OF COLORADO CITY?
For more than a year, news accounts have portrayed the Fundamentalist Mormon community at Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, as a cesspool of sexual molestation, open rebellion against the law, welfare thievery, and potentially another Waco or Jonestown. These characterizations have been made by embittered former members, politicians, muckraking journalists, and a writer of …
CHURCH LEADERSHIP AND MORMON ECOTHEOLOGY
As an LDS Church member, just how should I feel about the earth? In this session, I explore that question from the perspective of ecotheology, studies that address the extent to which Church doctrine influences members’ perception and practices relative to the earth and its creatures. I suggest that LDS leaders provide limited guidance concerning …
THE LAST SMITH PROPHET: WALLACE B. SMITH AND THE END OF THE RLDS CHURCH AS A SECT
Wallace B. Smith, great-grandson of Joseph the martyr, was president of the RLDS Church from 1978 until 1996. During Smith’s eighteen-year tenure, the RLDS Church trans-formed from a sect to a denomination. This shift can be seen in five innovations that occurred through his leadership. Best known is the ordination of women, which began 17 …
A RETURN TO LOGIC: BLAKE T. OSTLER AMONG MORMON THEOLOGIANS
For the past several years, I’ve noticed a trend among theologians and philosophers of religion away from the first-person and autobiography-driven work that is part and parcel of the postmodern shift and toward a more conscious placing of their arguments once again in a logical framework. I think this is an important step if philosophers …
MORMON INTELLECTUALISM: COMMUNITY OR MOVEMENT?
The way something is classified carries significant consequences for how it’s perceived. Such is the case with the rise of Mormon intellectualism and the desire among some to have it be seen as a “community” rather than a “movement.” In this presentation, I argue that debates over such things are now pointless: those who would/do …
THE ‘PHENOMENON OF THE CLOSET DOUBTER’ REVISITED
Mormons have historically been expected to gain a “testimony” of the unique religious tenets of the Church. This expectation has been so prevalent that those not able to testify to having such “knowledge” typically feel marginalized, unworthy, and suspect in the eyes of believers. One peculiar response to this expectation has been the (unwitting) creation …