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BYU Studies Journal, volume 47, no. 4 (complete journal)
John W. Welch
This issue covers LDS history, philosophy, media studies, eleven book
reviews, one music review, one film review, three poems, and an essay.
Much has been written about the assassination of Joseph and
Hyrum Smith, but little attention has been paid to the crime scene in
Carthage Jail. In this issue of BYU Studies,
authors Joseph Lyon and David Lyon examine eyewitness accounts of the
assault, the layout of the crime scene, the physical evidence left in
the jail, and the types of weapons used and the wounds they inflicted
on the Smith brothers, John Taylor, and Willard Richards.
The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and the Prophet
Joseph Smith both radically critiqued nineteenth-century Christian
culture and called for drastic change in contemporary Christianity.
David Paulsen examines the views of both men and shows them to be
mutually reinforcing and illuminating.
Sherry Pack Baker explores the emerging discipline of Mormon media studies and introduces the Mormon Media History Timeline, available online here.
Baker says that major societal changes take place not only with the
power of the message, but with the medium through which that message is
relayed.
Andrew Jenson (1850-1941), mission president and
assistant LDS Church historian, kept a detailed record of his trip to
Iceland in 1911. He traveled to Iceland as president of the
Danish-Norwegian mission to give public lectures, visit the two LDS
missionaries there, and do a little sightseeing. Along with his journal
entries he included several interesting photographs of the trip. The
journal entries and five photographs of that 1911 trip are presented
here, introduced by Fred Woods.
Steven Harper examines original manuscripts of Doctrine and
Covenants 104 to clarify the connection between D&C 104:18 and Luke
16:23. This scriptural detail was brought to light through research
associated with the publication of the Joseph Smith Papers.
Among the many reviews in this issue, several landmark books
are reviewed: Neal Kramer and Claudia Bushman each write a review of
People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture by Terryl L. Givens.
“Despite the recent boom in Mormon studies,” writes Kramer, “there has
continued to be a gap. . . . Relatively little work has been done in
the humanistic disciplines. A refreshing and intelligent exception is
the work of Professor Givens,” who has written a major work in cultural
history and criticism.
Jennifer Lane and Douglas Davies each
review Mormonism in Dialogue with Contemporary Christianity. This work,
edited by Donald W. Musser and David L. Paulsen, is the first book of
its kind—a dense and academic dialogue of contemporary theology between
Mormon and Christian scholars, published by a Christian university.
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