October 12, 11 AM, Education in Zion Auditorium (JFSB B192)
Co-sponsored with BYU History Department
Honor the last two volumes of the Joseph Smith Paper's project by attending the Joseph Smith Papers Symposium, where historians from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will discuss the career field and the importance of the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Lunch will be served afterwards. RSVP by September 30 here.
Documentary Editing and the Historian’s Craft
Presenter: Jessica M. Nelson
While part of the work of historians is to write narratives and analysis of change over time, that is just one aspect of academic publishing. Historians also prepare document transcriptions and supplemental reference material so that primary sources can be used by researchers in diverse locations. This presentation will provide information about how historians engage in documentary editing and how the Joseph Smith Papers, as a documentary editing project, has expanded access to primary source material related to the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Jessica M. Nelson completed a BA in American studies at Brigham Young University and an MS in history at Utah State University, where she held the Milner/Butler editorial fellowship at the Western Historical Quarterly. She joined the Joseph Smith Papers in 2018 as a historian and documentary editor. Her current work includes editing a collection of Eliza R. Snow’s discourses.
The Joseph Smith Papers and Christian Discipleship
Presenter: Spencer W. McBride
How can a scholarly project on the history of Joseph Smith build faith? Spencer McBride will explore how working with the Joseph Smith Papers can increase understanding of the history of the church and prepare women and men to more effectively grapple with ambiguity in the past and present. He will share how a more complicated understanding of Joseph Smith and church history can contribute to a stronger testimony of the restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Spencer W. McBride is associate managing historian of the Joseph Smith Papers and the creator, writer, and host of the project's five critically acclaimed podcast series. McBride has published multiple books on the history of religion and American political culture, including Pulpit and Nation (University of Virginia Press, 2016), Contingent Citizens (Cornell University Press, 2020), Joseph Smith for President (Oxford University Press, 2021) and New York's Burned-over District (Cornell University Press, 2023).
“When You Feel Pure Intelligence Flowing”: What the Joseph Smith Papers Have Taught Us about Joseph Smith’s Experience with Revelation
Presenter: J. Chase Kirkham
What have we learned from the Joseph Smith Papers that can benefit the Latter-day Saints? This paper will explore two lessons. The first concerns Joseph Smith’s experience with revelation: how he received it and responded to it. Often, discussions about Joseph’s revelatory experiences focus on the dramatic--for example, visitations from God and angels or his translation of lost scripture. What gets lost in this discussion is Joseph’s encounter with the Holy Ghost, an experience more subtle than an open vision but, for Joseph, just as profound. A second lesson concerns insights into what the Papers reveal about God’s response to the experience of spiritual disillusionment, defined as moments where Joseph and the Saints’ reality seemed to fall short of the blessings promised in the revelations.
J. Chase Kirkham is a historian with the Church History Department. He holds a PhD in religious studies from Claremont Graduate University. Kirkham contributed to volumes 13 and 15 of the Documents series of the Joseph Smith Papers and is currently working on an edited collection of John Taylor’s “lost” sermons.”