In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) made changes to fit into White Evangelical American society in the twentieth... more
In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) made changes to fit into White Evangelical American society in the twentieth century, a process that Mauss described as assimilation. 1 In parallel to the LDS story but unanalyzed by Mauss, the leadership of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church/Community of Christ) invested in a similar "assimilative" process, but drew closer to mainline Protestant norms, including ideas about expanding women's roles in the church and in society. These competing trajectories pushed the two Restoration churches farther apart in belief and practice. 2 By the end of the twentieth century, the most obvious marker of this distance was the passage of a resolution at the 1984 RLDS World Conference that permitted the ordination of women.
Nominated for Best Article in Theological Studies by the John Whitmer Historical Association. This essay compares Joseph Smith's production of the Book of Mormon with Andrew Jackson Davis' production of The Principles of Nature. The... more
Nominated for Best Article in Theological Studies by the John Whitmer Historical Association. This essay compares Joseph Smith's production of the Book of Mormon with Andrew Jackson Davis' production of The Principles of Nature. The paper also explores the problematic efforts of trying to prove that the Book of Mormon is divine by using selective, idiosyncratic criteria in an effort to isolate a predetermined outcome.
[Note: the original published version cut off the citation for Figure 2 (on page 99), but the citation is now restored.]
‘A 1920s Harvard Psychedelic Circle with Mormon Connections’, concerns the use of Peyote by students and tutors at Harvard in the 1920s, amongst who were individuals who went on to be important composers, poets and writers, including a... more
‘A 1920s Harvard Psychedelic Circle with Mormon Connections’, concerns the use of Peyote by students and tutors at Harvard in the 1920s, amongst who were individuals who went on to be important composers, poets and writers, including a William Blake scholar who reported on the similarity of Blake’s art to Peyote visions and Virgil Thomson who scored music for a Gertrude Stein opera. The original source of their Peyote was Frederick Madison Smith (1874 –1946), the third Prophet-President of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and grandson of Joseph Smith founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, otherwise known as the Mormons. Frederick M Smith had participated in the Peyote rite several times with Native Americans and did not believe that Peyote was, technically, a drug, but a natural substance, an ancient means to tap into one’s inner powers and was ‘neither injurious nor habit-forming’.
[For the Corrected Text, see above] Note: the published version cut off the citation for Figure 2 (on page 99). The text for the complex chiasm is found in The Principles of Nature (1847), pages 404-405. The publisher graciously... more
[For the Corrected Text, see above] Note: the published version cut off the citation for Figure 2 (on page 99). The text for the complex chiasm is found in The Principles of Nature (1847), pages 404-405. The publisher graciously corrected the mistake for the online/pdf version. I have posted the corrected essay here, as well.
This essay compares Joseph Smith's production of the Book of Mormon with Andrew Jackson Davis' production of The Principles of Nature. The paper also explores the problematic efforts of trying to prove that the Book of Mormon is divine by using selective, idiosyncratic criteria in an effort to isolate a predetermined outcome.
Professors Elizabeth Fenton, Brian Hauglid, and Michael Austin participate in a Book Review Roundtable for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, one of the premiere academic journals in Mormon Studies. The author, William L. Davis,... more
Professors Elizabeth Fenton, Brian Hauglid, and Michael Austin participate in a Book Review Roundtable for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, one of the premiere academic journals in Mormon Studies. The author, William L. Davis, responds to the favorable reviews and offers brief suggestions for future studies.
A list of members from the Minute Book of the Nauvoo Relief Society linked with profiles found on the Church Historians Press book The First Fifty Years of Relief: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History. Members identified... more
A list of members from the Minute Book of the Nauvoo Relief Society linked with profiles found on the Church Historians Press book The First Fifty Years of Relief: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History.
Members identified have obituaries in RLDS publications The True Latter Day
Saints Herald or Saints’ Herald or are found in Susan Easton Black’s Early
Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
A 2017 Project for the Joseph Smith Historic Site.
From professing to be the "one true church" to being affirming and welcoming to the Queer/LGBTQIA2S+ Community, Community of Christ has experienced a great deal of change over the years. This paper outlines my research and findings... more
From professing to be the "one true church" to being affirming and welcoming to the Queer/LGBTQIA2S+ Community, Community of Christ has experienced a great deal of change over the years. This paper outlines my research and findings surrounding what exactly may have led the denomination to become affirming and welcoming in some nations around the world.
