Mormon Passage of George D. Watt


Book Description

A biography of Mormon convert George D. Watt, whose contributions to Mormon literature include the creation of the Deseret Alphabet and his efficient note taking that allowed him to take down the sermons of Young and other church leaders and publish them in the "Journal of Discourses," an indispensable historical record. Despite his accomplishments, because of his potential, George Watt's story is at heart a tragedy. His breach with Brigham Young resulted in social isolation, poverty, and rejection by friends and associates.




The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt


Book Description

A biography of Mormon convert George D. Watt, whose contributions to Mormon literature include the creation of the Deseret Alphabet and his efficient note taking that allowed him to take down the sermons of Young and other church leaders and publish them in the "Journal of Discourses," an indispensible historical record. Despite his accomplishments, because of his potential, George Watt's story is at heart a tragedy. His breach with Brigham Young resulted in social isolation, poverty, and rejection by friends and associates




Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon


Book Description

As the sacred text of a modern religious movement of global reach, The Book of Mormon has undeniable historical significance. That significance, this volume shows, is inextricable from the intricacy of its literary form and the audacity of its historical vision. This landmark collection brings together a diverse range of scholars in American literary studies and related fields to definitively establish The Book of Mormon as an indispensable object of Americanist inquiry not least because it is, among other things, a form of Americanist inquiry in its own right--a creative, critical reading of "America." Drawing on formalist criticism, literary and cultural theory, book history, religious studies, and even anthropological field work, Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon captures as never before the full dimensions and resonances of this "American Bible."




Mormon Passage


Book Description

This work is the first to present detailed, first-person accounts of the Mormon missionary experience. Armed with little more than youthful vigor and firmly held religious convictions, twins Gary and Gordon Shepherd left their home in Salt Lake City in 1964 for two years as missionaries in Mexico. Mormon Passage is one result of that experience, a combination of diaries and field notes kept by the two during their mission and sociological analyses of their experiences. The brothers' goal is to help readers understand the consequences of the missionary experience for the vitality of Mormon religious life. "Seldom has excellent research been woven so tightly with personal experience. . . . Very well written, a compelling narrative and an absorbing analysis." -- Lavina Fielding Anderson, coeditor of Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective




Liverpool to Great Salt Lake


Book Description

LaJean Purcell Carruth and Ronald G. Watt’s transcribed and edited edition of George Watt’s journal, written in Pitman shorthand, describing his 1851 migration from Liverpool to Salt Lake City, provides a literary contribution to Latter-day Saints’ historiography, detailing the multivarious challenges of migrating to Utah.




Journal of Discourses


Book Description




Joseph Smith's Translation


Book Description

In Joseph Smith's Translation, Samuel Morris Brown argues that, rather than constituting literal translations of extant documents, Smith's religious translations express the mystical power of language and scripture to interconnect people across chasms of space and time.




Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days


Book Description

In 1820, a young farm boy in search of truth has a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Three years later, an angel guides him to an ancient record buried in a hill near his home. With God’s help, he translates the record and organizes the Savior’s church in the latter days. Soon others join him, accepting the invitation to become Saints through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. But opposition and violence follow those who defy old traditions to embrace restored truths. The women and men who join the church must choose whether or not they will stay true to their covenants, establish Zion, and proclaim the gospel to a troubled world. The Standard of Truth is the first book in Saints, a new, four-volume narrative history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fast-paced, meticulously researched, Saints recounts true stories of Latter-day Saints across the globe and answers the Lord’s call to write history “for the good of the church, and for the rising generations” (Doctrine and Covenants 69:8).




Lectures on Faith


Book Description

This special edition of the Lectures on Faith from Zion’s Camp Books is formatted for convenience on an eReader, with more than 100 internal links to scriptures and citations. We hope it will give you a great reading experience! The Lectures on Faith were originally prepared as materials for the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio in 1834 and were included in the Doctrine and Covenants from 1835 to 1921. Although the Lectures on Faith have never been accepted as revelation by the body of the church (and so were removed from the Doctrine and Covenants in 1921), they contain important doctrinal insights that can help anyone seeking to learn more about faith and come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. President Joseph Fielding Smith noted, “I suppose that the rising generation knows little about the Lectures on Faith. . . . In my own judgment, these Lectures are of great value and should be studied. . . . I consider them to be of extreme value in the study of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Seek Ye Earnestly. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1970.) Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has stated the lectures contain “some of the best lesson material ever prepared on the Godhead; on the character, perfections, and attributes of God; on faith, miracles, and sacrifice. They can be studied with great profit by all gospel scholars.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966.)




Foundational Texts of Mormonism


Book Description

Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally wrote, dictated, or commissioned thousands of documents. Among these are several highly significant sources that scholars have used over and over again in their attempts to reconstruct the founding era of Mormonism, usually by focusing solely on content, without a deep appreciation for how and why a document was produced. This book offers case studies of the sources most often used by historians of the early Mormon experience. Each chapter takes a particular document as its primary subject, considering the production of a document as an historical event in itself, with its own background, purpose, circumstances, and consequences. The documents are examined not merely as sources of information but as artifacts that reflect aspects of the general culture and particular circumstances in which they were created. This book will help historians working in the founding era of Mormonism gain a more solid grounding in the period's documentary record by supplying important information on major primary sources.