CHRISTOPHER JAMES BLYTHE Research Associate, Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship Co-Editor, Journal of Mormon History 137 Candlewood Place | Provo, Utah 84604 (801)793-4966 christopherjblythe@gmail.com EDUCATION 2015 Ph.D. Religion, Florida State University Concentration: American Religious History, Islam in the U.S. 2010 M.A., History, Utah State University Concentration: Nineteenth Century, American Religious History 2009 B.A., Religious Studies, Utah State University (Honors, Summa Cum Laude) 2004 B.A., Anthropology, Texas A&M University ACADEMIC POSITIONS 2018- Research Associate, Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University 2019- Coeditor, Journal of Mormon History 2019 Adjunct Professor, Religion Department, Brigham Young University 2017-2020 Associate Editor, Journal of Mormon History 2015–2018 Historian/Documentary Editor, Joseph Smith Papers, Salt Lake City, Utah 2017-2018 Adjunct Professor, History Department, Brigham Young University (Salt Lake) 2015-2017 Adjunct Professor, Humanities Department, Salt Lake Community College 2014-2015 Predoctoral Teaching Fellow, Religious Studies Program, Utah State University 2012 Adjunct Professor, Humanities Department, Tallahassee Community College 2010-2015 Instructor, Religion Department, Florida State University PUBLICATIONS Books Forthcoming Terrible Revolution: Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse, under contract with Oxford University Press. To be published in July 2020. Contracted Latter-day Saints in the United States, under contract with Columbia University Press. With Philip Barlow and Jan Shipps. In Process Lerona’s War: The Story of Lerona Abigail Wilson Edited Books 2018 Joseph Smith Papers, Documents Volume 7, September 1839-January 1841 (Church Historian’s Press). With Matthew Godfrey, Spencer McBride, and Alex Smith. 2019 Joseph Smith Papers, Documents Volume 9, December 1841-April 1842 (Church Historian’s Press, Forthcoming, 2019). With Alex Smith and Christian Heimburger. Under Review Open Canon: Scriptures of the Latter Day Saint Diaspora, under review at University of Utah Press. With Jay Burton and Christine Elyse Blythe. Forthcoming Joseph Smith Papers, Documents Volume 12, March 1843–July 1843 (Church Historian’s Press, Scheduled for 2020). With David Grua and Brent Rogers. Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters (Selected) Invited “Mormonism and Secrecy,” Handbook on Religion and Secrecy, ed. Hugh Urban (Routledge, forthcoming). Forthcoming “A Married Mormon Jesus,” “Yet To Be Revealed”: Exploring Mormonism’s Open Theological Topics, edited by Eric Eliason and Terryl Givens (Religious Studies Center). Forthcoming “The Gifts of Tongues and Translation,” Creating Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects and the Making of Mormonism, edited by Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Brian M. Hauglid (University of Utah Press). 2019 “From the Book of Mormon to the Circle Seven Koran: Scriptures of American New Religions,” Religion Compass 13, no. 8 (August 2019). 2019 “Brigham Young’s Newly Located February 1874 Revelation,” BYU Studies 58, no. 2 (2019): 173-177. 2018 “The Exorcism of Isaac Russell: Diabolism and Nineteenth Century Mormon Identity Formation,” Journal of Religion 98, no. 3 (July 2018): 305-326. 2017 “Prophetess of Endor: Reception of 1 Samuel 28 in Nineteenth Century Mormon History,” Journal of the Bible and Its Reception 4, no. 1 (April 2017): 43-70. 2017 “Ann Booth’s Vision and Early Conceptions of the Spirit World among Latter-day Saints,” Brigham Young University Studies Quarterly 56, no. 2 (2017):105-122. 2017 “The Church and the Kingdom of God: Ecclesiastical Interpretations of the Council of Fifty,” Journal of Mormon History 43, no. 2 (2017): 100-130. 2017 “‘A Very Fine Azteck Manuscript’: Latter-day Saint Readings of Codex Boturini,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 26 (2017): 185-217. 2016 “Emma’s Willow: Anxiety and Pilgrimage in Mormon Nauvoo,” Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief 12, no. 4 (December 2016): 405-432. Reissued in 2017 by Taylor and Francis Online as part of open access collection, “Mormon Material Culture.” 2015 “The One Mighty and Strong(s): Messianism and the Rise of Mormon Fundamentalism” in The Persistence of Polygamy: Fundamentalist Mormon Polygamy from 1890 to the Present, edited by Newell Bringhurst and Craig Foster. (John Whitmer Books, 2015): 112-143. 2015 “Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde’s 1837 Vision of the Infernal World,” Eye of Faith: Essays in Honor of Richard Cowan (Religious Studies Center, 2015): 187-201. 2014 “Would to God I Could Tell You Who I Am”: Nineteenth Century Mormonisms and the Apotheosis of Joseph Smith,” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religion 18, no. 2 (November 2014): 5-27. Winner of Article of Excellence Award by Mormon History Association. Winner of 1st Prize, Thomas Robbins Award for Excellence in the Study of New Religious Movements 2014 “The Coronation of James J. Strang and the Making of Beaver Island Mormonism,” Communal Societies: Journal of the Communal Studies Association 34, no. 1 (2014): 1-27. Winner of Best Graduate Paper by Communal Studies Association. 2014 “The Upper Room Work: Esotericism in the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite), 1853-1912,” Journal of Mormon History 40, no. 3 (Summer 2014): 43-92. 2013 “Nearly All of the Factions: Polygamous Passages of William Smith, Lyman Wight, and Alpheus Cutler” in The Persistence of Polygamy: From Joseph Smith’s Martyrdom to the First Manifesto, edited by Newell Bringhurst and Craig Foster (John Whitmer Books, 2013):168-201. 2013 “Plural Marriage, the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite), and the Construction of Memory.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Volume 46, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 1-39. 2010 “Sophisticated Dissent: Charles B. Thompson’s Inspired Enoch, A Case Study in Scriptural Rivalry and Narrative Theology in Nineteenth-century Mormon Sects.” Restoration Studies Journal, Volume 11 (2010): 12-40. 2009 “The Church in the Days of Alpheus Cutler: New Insights into Nineteenth-century Cutlerite Ecclesiology.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, Volume 29 (2009):73-93. Winner of Best Article Award by John Whitmer Historical Association. Book Reviews Forthcoming Review of Megan S. Jones, Contemporary Mormon Pageantry: Seeking after the Dead (University of Michigan Press, 2018), Journal of Religion, forthcoming. Forthcoming Review of Stephen L. Prince, Hosea Stout: Lawman, Legislator, Mormon Defender (Logan: Utah State University, 2016), Utah Historical Quarterly, forthcoming. Forthcoming Review of April DeConick, (ed.), Religion: Secret Religion (Cengage Gale Publications, 2018), Reading Religion, forthcoming. In Press Review of Daniel P. Stone, William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet (Signature Books, 2018), Mormon Studies Review 7 (2020): 138-142. 2019 Review of Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen, and Sharalyn F. Howcroft, Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 88, no. 3 (September 2019): 872-873. 2019 Review of Devery S. Anderson, ed., Salt Lake School of the Prophets, 1867-1883 (Signature Books, 2018), Journal of Mormon History 45, no. 4 (October 2019): 138-139. 2018 Review of Daniel P. Stone, William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet (Signature Books, 2018), Juvenile Instructor, October 15, 2018, online. 2018 Review of Matthew L. Rasmussen, Mormonism and the Making of a British Zion (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2016), Mormon Historical Studies 19, no. 2 (2018), 117-119. 2017 Review of Per Faxneld and Jesper Aagaard Petersen, (eds.) The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity (Oxford, 2012), Nova Religio 20, no. 3 (2017): 144-145. 2017 Review of Thomas W. Simpson, American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016), Reading Religion, online, published February 3, 2017. 2016 Review of W. Paul Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), American Studies, 55, no. 2 (2016): 100-101. 2016 Review of Sean McCloud, American Possessions: Fighting Demons in the Contemporary United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 49th Parallel: An Interdisciplinary Journal of North American Studies 38 (2016): 53-54. 2015 Review of Jennie Chapman, Plotting Apocalypse: Reading, Agency, and Identity in the Left Behind Series (University Press of Mississippi, 2013), Journal of Popular Culture 48:1 (February 2015): 211-212. 2013 Review of W. Scott Poole, Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting (Baylor University Press, 2011), Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 25:1 (Spring, 2013): 163-164. 2013 Review of Miguel De La Torre and Albert Hernandez, The Quest for the Historical Satan (Fortress Press, 2011), Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 2:1 (Winter, 2013): 96-99. 2012 Review of Hugh Urban, Church of Scientology: History of a New Religion (Oxford University Press, 2011), 49th Parallel: An Interdisciplinary Journal of North American Studies 30 (Winter, 2012), online. 2012 Review of Stephen C. Taysom, Dimensions of Faith: A Mormon Studies Reader (Signature Books, 2011), The Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School 7 (Spring, 2012), online. 2012 Review of Darryl V. Caterine, Haunted Ground: Journeys through a Paranormal America (Praegar, 2011), Journal of Popular Culture 45:4 (August, 2012): 910-912. 2012 Review of Samuel M. Brown, In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death (Oxford University Press, 2011), Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, 3:2 (2012): 260-261. 2012 Review of Cardell K. Jacobson with Lara Burton, Modern Polygamy in the United States: Historical, Cultural, and Legal Issues (Oxford University Press, 2011), Communal Societies 32:1 (2012): 86-88. 2012 Review of Leigh Eric Schmidt, Heaven’s Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr, and Madwoman (Basic Books, 2010), Journal of Religion, Identity, and Politics, online. 2012 Review of Melvin C. Johnson, Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight’s Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845 to 1858 (Utah State University Press, 2006), Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies, 4:1 (Spring, 2012): 124-126. 2011 Review of W. Paul Reeve and Michael Scott Van Wagenen, Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore (Utah State University Press, 2011), Culture and Tradition, Volume 31/32 (2010-2011): 165-166. 2011 Review of James R. Lewis, Sacred Schisms: How Religions Divide (Cambridge University Press, 2009), John Whitmer Historical Association 31:2 (Fall/Winter, 2011): 156-158. Encyclopedia Entries “Shakers” in Social History of American Families, Marilyn J. Coleman and Lawrence J. Ganong, eds. (Sage Publications, 2014). “Aryan Nations,” “Amana Colonies,” and “Jehovah Witnesses” in Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia, Carlos E. Cortes, ed. (Sage Publications, 2013). “Brigham Young,” “Proposition 8,” and “Wilford Woodruff” in Encyclopedia of Politics in the American West, Steven L. Danver, ed. (CQ Press, 2013). “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and “Seventh Day Adventists” in Encyclopedia of Religion and Politics in America, Philip C. Dimare, ed. (ABC-CLIO, 2012). Honors and Awards (Selected) Research Grant, Brigham Young University, October, 2018. Fellow, Seminar on Religious Art and Race led by Edward J. Blum, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Summer 2016. 1st Prize, Thomas Robbins Award for Excellence in the Study of New Religious Movements, Nova Religio, 2015. Article of Excellence Award, Mormon History Association, 2015. Dissertation Grant, Brigham Young University, 2013-2014 ($10,000). Best Graduate Student Paper Award, Mormon History Association, 2014. Best Graduate Student Paper Award, Communal Studies Institute, 2013. Dialogue New Voices: Award for New Writers, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 2013. Lester E. Bush Best Master’s Thesis Award, Mormon History Association, 2012. Wildermuth Scholarly Paper Award, John Whitmer Historical Association, 2011. Hugh B. Nibley Fellowship, 2010-2011, Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Studies, Brigham Young University. Research Fellowship, Joseph Smith Historic Sites Foundation, Nauvoo, Illinois, 2011. Best Article Award, John Whitmer Historical Association, 2010. Article entitled: “The Church in the Days of Alpheus Cutler: New Insights into Nineteenth-century Cutlerite Ecclesiology.” Kelley Award. Awarded by John Whitmer Historical Association, 2008; 2010. Fellowship, Neal A. Maxwell Institute. “Theology of Orson and Parley P. Pratt” Seminar led by Terryl Givens, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, Summer 2009. Research Fellowship, Utah Humanities Council, Awarded April 2009. Leonard J. Arrington Writing Award 1st place, Leonard J. Arrington Lecture and Archive Foundation, 2007. Professional Appointments and Service Editing 2019- Co-editor, Journal of Mormon History 2017-2019 Associate Editor, Journal of Mormon History 2016-2019 Book Review Editor, Journal of Mormon History 2008-2012 Editor, Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies Conference Planning 2018 Program Committee, Joseph Smith Papers Annual Conference 2015 Program Committee, Communal Studies Association 2011 Director, Red Brick Store Lecture Series 2011 Program Committee, Religious Studies Symposium, Florida State University 2010 Program Committee, John Whitmer Historical Association Peer Reviews Books: Oxford University Press, University of Utah Press, Religious Studies Center Articles: Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies, Journal of Mormon History, Nova Religio, Religious Educator. Religious Studies Program, Utah State University Hiring Committee, Jewish Studies Position (2015) Curriculum Committee (2014-2015) Assessment Committee (2014-2015) John Whitmer Historical Association Awards Committee Member (2014-2015) Board of Directors (2011-2014) Awards Committee Chair (2013-2014) Membership Committee Chair (2012-2013) Member of the Nominating Committee (2011) Religious Studies Club at Utah State University Graduate Student Advisor – September 2009 – May 2010 Public Presentations (Selected) “The Nephilim and the Folkloresque,” Keynote Presentation at the Folklore Society of Utah, November 15, 2019. “Lerona Wilson and Latter-day Saint Science Fiction,” Neal A. Maxwell Institute, Brownbag, October, 2019. “Book of Mormon Geography in the Decades after the Martyrdom,” Religious Education Faculty Seminar, Brigham Young University, February 2019. “Apocalypticism in Latter-day Saint Thought,” Neal A. Maxwell Institute, Brownbag, September 2018. “Joseph Smith and the British Mission,” Education Week, Brigham Young, August, 2018. “Religious Studies Methodology,” Faculty Panel, Religious Studies Department, Utah State University, February, 2015. “The Bewitching of Elizabeth Knapp,” Phi Alpha Theta Lecture, Utah State University, October 30, 2014. “Witchcraft in American History,” Religion Club, Florida State University, November 13, 2012. Presentation on Supernatural Folklore in American History, Leon County High School, Honors Program, September, 2012. [3 Presentations] “Nineteenth-century Mormon Succession Crisis.” Red Brick Store Lecture Series in Latter Day Saint History, Nauvoo, Illinois, July 25, 2011 “Mormon Demonology: Demonic Encounters, Possessions, and Exorcisms,” Religious Studies Club, Utah State University, October 14, 2009. “Mormon Fundamentalism.” Presentation for “Saturday at the Museum,” Museum of Anthropology, Logan, Utah, May 9, 2009. Academic Conference Papers (Selected) “Sidney Rigdon and the Book of Mormon,” Book of Mormon Studies Association, Logan, Utah, October 2019. “The Development of Baptism in Nauvoo,” Joseph Smith Papers Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, October 2019. “Genealogical Visions and Familial Revelations,” Mormon History Association, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 2019. “Zelph of Zarahemla: Visual Culture and the Heartland Model,” Book of Mormon Studies Conference, Logan, Utah, October 2018. “Moses Chase, Strangite Visionary, and the Civil War Prophecy,” John Whitmer Historical Association, Independence, Missouri, September 2018. “Moroni-Lore and Mormon Nationalism,” American Academy of Religion, (Rocky Mountain), Provo, Utah, March 2018. “The Book of Mormon and Constructing Place in the American West,” Book of Mormon Studies Conference, Logan, Utah, October 14, 2017. “Cast Out of My Holy City”: Defiled Sacred Space in Nauvoo, Illinois,” Mormon History Association, St. Louis, Missouri, June 2, 2017. “The Apocalyptic World of Mormon Fundamentalism,” Communal Studies Association, Salt Lake City, Utah, October 7, 2016. “The Prophetess and Seer of Endor: Nineteenth-century Mormon Interpretations of 1 Samuel 28,” Mormon Scholars in the Humanities, Orem, Utah, April 9, 2016. “The Endurance of Charismata among Mormon Women in the Lion House,” Church History Symposium, Provo, Utah, March 4, 2016. “Vernacular Mormonism,” Folklore Society of Utah Conference, West Valley, Utah, November 14, 2015. “Martyrdom Canes and Vernacular Mormonism,” Mormon History Association, Provo, Utah, June 6, 2015. “Facing East from Mormon Country: A Study of Nineteenth-century Folk Prophecy,” Mormon History Association, Layton, Utah, June 8, 2013. “Emma’s Willow: LDS Memory of the “Elect Lady” in 21st Century Nauvoo,” John Whitmer Historical Association, Independence, Missouri, September 22, 2012. “Inspired Enoch: Scripture as Protest Literature in Post-martyrdom Mormonism,” John Whitmer Historical Association, Independence, Missouri, September 21, 2012. “Imagining Utopia, Performing Politics: The Emergence of an Antebellum Mormon Civil Religion,” Southeast Regional History Graduate Student Conference, Florida State University, March, 24, 2012. “Twelve have swallowed Thirty-Eight”: Alternative Views of the Council of Fifty,” John Whitmer Historical Association, Nauvoo, Illinois, September 23, 2011. “The Exorcism of Isaac Russell: A Study of Nineteenth-century Mormon Diabolism,” Mormon History Association, St. George, Utah, May 29, 2011. “Joseph Being Dead Yet Speaketh”: Legitimacy, Grief, and Apparitions of Deceased Prophetic Figures,” Southeastern Conference of American Academy of Religion, Louisville, Kentucky, March 6, 2011. “Building an Organization: Mormon Fundamentalism and the Creation of New Sects.” Graduate Student Symposium, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, February, 2011. "Protecting Sect Boundaries: Ritual, Prophecy, and Charismata in the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)" Communal Studies Association Annual Meeting, October 1, 2010. “Studying Apparitions of Joseph Smith,” John Whitmer Historical Association, Amboy, Illinois, September 24, 2010. “The Twelve have swallowed the fifty”: Minority Views of Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo Theocracy.” Mormon History Association, Independence, Missouri, May, 2010. “Ross Wesley LeBaron and the Mormon Fundamentalist Search for Authority,” Restoration Studies Symposium, Independence, Missouri, April, 2010. “Joseph Being Dead Yet Speaketh”: The Ascension of a Martyred Prophet in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism.” American Society of Church History, San Diego, California, January 7, 2010. “The Shift from Tongues to Dreams: A Study of Charismatic Gifts in a Nineteenth-Century Mormon Sect.” Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Denver, Colorado, October 25, 2009. "The Upper Room Work”: Joseph Smith’s Endowment Theology in the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite). John Whitmer Historical Association, Independence, Missouri, September 22, 2009. “Spiritual Gifts and Mormon Identity in the Nineteenth Century.” Parley and Orson Pratt and Nineteenth-century Mormon Theology Conference, Provo, Utah, July 2, 2009. “Building an Organization: Mormon Fundamentalism and the Creation of New Mormon Sects.” Center for the Study on New Religions [CESNUR] International Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 13, 2009. “Forging a Royal Government: Mormon Attempts at Government and the Coronation of Prophetic Figures.” Intermountain Graduate Research Symposium, Utah State University, April 1, 2009. “Joseph Being Dead, Yet Speaketh”: The Ascension of a Martyred Prophet in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism.” Phi Alpha Theta, Brigham Young University, March 21, 2009. “Satan’s Stronghold in Preston, England: An Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Latter-day Saint Demonology.” Intermountain Regional Conference of the American Academy of Religion, Regis University, Denver, Colorado, March 5, 2009. “An Actual Being from the Unseen World: Case Studies in Latter-day Saint Demonology.” Folklore Society of Utah, Logan, Utah, November 3, 2008. “The Church in the Days of Alpheus Cutler: New Light on Cutlerite Ecclesiology” John Whitmer Historical Association, Burlington, Wisconsin, September 26, 2008. TEACHING Brigham Young University-Salt Lake (2017-2018) History 201: World Civilizations [Ancient] (2 Sections) Salt Lake Community College (2015-2017) Humanities 110: Introduction to the Humanities (5 Sections) Utah State University (2014-2015) Religious Studies/History 3050: Introduction to Christianity Religious Studies 4910: Mormon Scripture: Text and Reception Religious Studies/History 4910: Religion and Witchcraft in Colonial America Religious Studies 3990: Method and Theory in the Study of Religion Brigham Young University-Provo (Summer 2013; Summer 2014) Religion 325: Doctrine and Covenants (4 Sections) Tallahassee Community College (Spring 2012) Humanities 2010: World Religions Florida State University (2011-2014) Religion 2121: History of U.S. Religions Religion 4990: Religion, Law, and Politics in United States History (4 Sections) Religion 4910: Witchcraft in Colonial America Religion 1300: World Religions-Online (5 Sections) Utah State University (2009-2010) Religious Studies/ History 4910: New Religion in American History Religious Studies 4520: Editing Internship Church Education System (Logan Institute, 2009) History of the Church (1830-1844) PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 5