Ordained as an apostle in 1906, David O. McKay served as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1951 until his death in 1970. Under his leadership, the church experienced unparalleled growth—nearly tripling in total membership—and becoming a significant presence throughout the world.The first book to draw upon the David O. McKay Papers at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah, in addition to some two hundred interviews conducted by the...

Is the Book of Mormon the Great American Novel? Decades before Melville and Twain composed their great works, a farmhand and child seer named Joseph Smith unearthed a long-buried book from a haunted hill in western New York State that told of an epic history of ancient America, a story about a family that fled biblical Jerusalem and took a boat to the New World. Using his prophetic gift, Joseph translated the mysterious book into English and published it under the title The Bo...

We all know that actions speak louder than words. We may say "I love you," but do our actions back up that claim? Elder Lynn G. Robbins teaches us that love is more than a feeling—it is a commitment, a promise to be responsible, respectful, and responsive to the needs and experiences of other. And like any other action we undertake, perfecting the act of love requires a lifetime of practice and good choices.As Elder Robbins teaches, the daily choices we make in our marriages and fa...

Too often readers approach the Book of Mormon simply as a collection of quotations, an inspired anthology to be scanned quickly and routinely recited. In Beholding the Tree of Life Bradley J. Kramer encourages his readers to slow down, to step back, and to contemplate the literary qualities of the Book of Mormon using interpretive techniques developed by Talmudic and post-Talmudic rabbis. Specifically, Kramer shows how to read the Book of Mormon closely, in levels, paying attentio...

In this second book of the Prophecy Trilogy, you will discover the language of catastrophe as written by Old Testament prophets. You will see through their eyes the effect of great cosmic upheavals and learn the implications of such past events for those who await the Second Coming. Understand — perhaps for the first time — why most modern men and women cannot fathom the meaning of ancient records that describe past catastrophes of the planets. You will learn why modern science teaches us ...

Doing theology is like building a comically circuitous Rube Goldberg machine: you spend your time tinkering together an unnecessarily complicated, impractical, and ingenious apparatus for doing things that are, in themselves, simple. But there is a kind of joy in theology’s gratuity, there is a pleasure in its comedic machination, and ultimately—if the balloon pops, the hamster spins, the chain pulls, the bucket empties, the pulley lifts, and (voila!) the book’s page is turned—some measura...

Nels L. Nelson wrote this book while overseeing the teaching of English at then Brigham Young Academy and while serving as Principal of the Brigham Young High School. Within it, Nelson sought to write a "new kind of “Mormonism Exposed,”—written from the point of view that Mormonism is good, and true, and beautiful..." and to discuss Mormonism from its "philosophic aspect, and attempt to show what answer Mormonism gives to the questions, “Whence came man?”, “Why is he here?”, “Whither does ...

Between 1901 and 1907, a broad coalition of Protestant churches sought to expel newly elected Reed Smoot from the Senate, arguing that as an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smoot was a lawbreaker and therefore unfit to be a lawmaker. The resulting Senate investigative hearing featured testimony on every peculiarity of Mormonism, especially its polygamous family structure. The Smoot hearing ultimately mediated a compromise between Progressive Era Protestantism an...

Latter-day Lore gathers nearly thirty seminal works in Mormon folklore scholarship from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the present in order to highlight the depth, breadth, and richness of that scholarship. This examination of LDS folklore studies reveals theoretical, methodological, and topical shifts that also reflect shifts in the field at large. Areas for future research are also suggested.The thorough introduction by the volume editors elucidates the...

When James Work took a teaching job at the College of Southern Utah in the mid-1960s, he knew little about teaching and even less about the customs of his Mormon neighbors. For starters, he did not know he was a “Gentile,” the Mormon term for anyone not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But just as he learned to be a religious diplomat and a black-market bourbon runner, he also discovered that his master’s degree in literature apparently qualified him to teach jo...

It has taken modern science more than 3,500 years, and the genius of such men as Einstein to catch up with what Abraham and Moses knew so long ago. We can only ponder how many more wonders of God may be hidden in the astounding translations of Joseph Smith.In Joseph Smith and Modern Astronomy,Dr. Richard Ingebretsen, former science editor for the Ensign, a medical doctor, and a PhD scientist, confirms the truth of the writings and translations of Joseph Smith using advances...