Mormonism’s origins have been variously located in Christian primitivism, the bible, and esoterica. integrating these influences, Jan Shipps has proposed that Mormonism formed in successive layers: Christian primitivist, then Hebraic, and finally esoteric. Shipps’ model is informed, useful, and—I will argue—mistaken. Mormonism’s Judaic character is intrinsic, not acquired. The object of this paper is to …
Event: Southwest Symposium 2010
SW10005: Radically Revelatory: Bridging the Gap Between Extra-textual Revelation and Written Scripture
Scholars of religious traditions have often presumed that a tension exists between oral “revelation” and written “scripture.” the fluidity of extra-textual revelation, according to such scholars, is halted in its tracks by the textualization of that revelation. Thus, the “living word” of revelation and the “dead letter” of sacred scripture constitute two poles that stand …
SW10006: Glenn Beck: Latter-day Saint or Latter-day Joe McCarthy?
Glenn Beck is the most famous—and infamous—Mormon in America, better known than President Monson or Steve Young and more popular than Harry Reid or Mitt Romney. His daily radio program has 6.5 million listeners his Fox television program has 3 million viewers and his website, glennbeck.com, reaches more than one million monthly visitors. to the …
SW10007: Us-Them Tribalism and Early Mormonism
For a half century, both LDS and non-LDS writers have referred in passing to “tribal” characteristics of Mormonism. This presentation will examine academic concepts of tribalism as they apply to the Restoration movement, emphasizing the Joseph Smith period. D. Michael Quinn
SW10008: Sober and Quick to Observe: Would Today’s Latter-day Saints and Bible-based Christians Recognize the Prophet Mormon?
At an early age, Mormon was sober of mind and “quick to observe” (Mormon 1:2). Among book of Mormon personalities, he appears to have been extremely faithful to Christ. But to what degree would contemporary Bible-based Christians recognize Mormon as a prophetic figure? And would today’s Latter-day Saints recognize Mormon as a prophetic leader when …
SW10009: Author Meets Critics: Mormon Convert, Mormon Defector: A Scottish Immigrant in the American West, 1848-1861
Peter McAuslan, an 1848 Mormon convert, emigrated from Scotland in 1854. after arriving in Utah, the Mormons had experienced a series of natural disasters, a reformation, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the arrival of the U. S. army. These events and the insistence on absolute obedience to one’s file leaders tore at McAuslan’s faith. Now …
SW10010: American Indian Delegations to Joseph Smith at Nauvoo/Joseph Smith as a Spiritual Egalitarian
“The Great Spirit Has Told Us That You Are the Man”: American Indian Delegations to Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, Christopher C. Smith Joseph Smith as a Spiritual Egalitarian, Bryan Cottle Smith: In 1843 and 1844, several anti-American, formerly British-allied Indian groups dispatched delegations to Joseph Smith at Nauvoo. They apparently came to Smith because the …
SW10011: Book Preview: Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo
According to Michael Reed’s research, the cross taboo was a rather late development in Mormon history, manifesting itself at a grassroots level around the turn of the twentieth century, later being institutionalized as protocol in the 1950s by President David O. McKay. Before then, many Saints had used and promoted the symbol in its visual …
SW10012: Cinema and Spirituality: Beyond Mormon Movies
From Star Wars and E.T. to The Passion of the Christ and Avatar, movies with spiritual themes have consistently broken box office records–yet such films continue to be more exception than norm. Are these films indicative of a spiritual renaissance in society, or are they in part an outgrowth of the spiritual lives and values …
SW10013: The Mormon Feminist Community of Exponent II: Its History, Its Legacy, Its Future
This panel will discuss what Exponent II has meant to Mormon women over the years, what it has achieved, and how it has evolved and changed since it published its first issue in the early 1970s. Panelists will also discuss their vision of the organization’s future as it reaches out to a new generation of …