book notes

Historian Richard Bushman says he was reluctant to go along with it when Jerry Bradford, former Maxwell Institute executive director, suggested a festschrift in his honor. But when Spencer Fluhman, Kathleen Flake, and Jed Woodworth started planning one anyway, he began to see the possibilities. This would be an opportunity to gather scholars—Latter-day Saints as well as people from other backgrounds—to talk about the intersection of faith and intellect, church and academy, discipleship and scholarship. Their presentations would be edited and compiled into a book published in Bushman's honor.'Consecration'—the idea of laying one's gifts on the altar for God—is a longstanding point of interest for Mormons. It was a prominent theme in many sermons delivered by the Institute's namesake, Elder Neal A. Maxwell. Speaking to scholars, Elder Maxwell once observed:'Whatever our particular fields of scholarship, the real test is individual discipleship, not scholarship. But how good it is when these two can company together, blending meekness with brightness and articulateness with righteousness. Such outcomes only occur, however, when there is commitment bordering on consecration.'What might it mean for Mormon scholars to consecrate their time and academic talents? This became one of the guiding questions that led to the new book, To Be Learned Is Good: Essays on Faith and Scholarship in Honor of Richard Lyman Bushman. The volume is both a product of and a tribute to a collaborative community of scholars who take religion and the academy seriously. As Bushman observes in his contribution to the volume (which you can read in full here), reconciling discipleship and scholarship in our times isn't always easy. But we aren't alone in the undertaking:'I think we all feel some tension between our religious convictions and the secular times in which we live. In one way or another, modernism invades and unsettles our thinking, perhaps our thinking about our fields, perhaps our personal beliefs. What I hope we all realize is that this tension is not to be suppressed or regretted. Unanswerable as some questions are, we need not lament the discomfort they bring. The strain of believing in unbelieving times is not a handicap or a burden. It is a stimulus and a prod. It is precisely out of such strains that creative work issues forth. And we can take satisfaction in knowing that we are in this together.'See Richard Lyman Bushman, 'Finding the Right Words: Speaking Faith In Secular Times,' here.To Be Learned Is Good: Essays on Faith and Scholarship in Honor of Richard Lyman Bushman is available now.

If you’re a fan of the Deseret Bookshelf you can now add a bunch of Maxwell Institute titles to your collection. From our latest Living Faith book, One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly, to classics like John W. Welch’s The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon, twenty-five titles are now available among Deseret Bookshelf’s 3,000-plus books. If you sign up now for Deseret Bookshelf they’ll give you eight free ebooks, including Neal A. Maxwell’s classic All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience.Here’s a list of available Maxwell Institute titles. You might notice Adam Miller’s Letters to a Young Mormon isn’t listed. There’s a good and exciting reason for that—an announcement is forthcoming… Living Faith series Samuel M. Brown, First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the TempleSteven L. Peck, Evolving Faith: Wanderings of a Mormon BiologistThomas F. Rogers, Let Your Hearts and Minds Expand: Reflections on Faith, Reason, Charity, and BeautyPatrick Q. Mason, Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of DoubtAshley Mae Hoiland, One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly Scriptures Made Harder series James E. Faulconer, The Old Testament Made Harder: Scripture Study QuestionsThe New Testament Made Harder: Scripture Study QuestionsThe Book of Mormon Made Harder: Scripture Study QuestionsThe Doctrine and Covenants Made Harder: Scripture Study Questions Proceedings of the Mormon Theology Seminar Adam S. Miller, ed., An Experiment on the Word: Reading Alma 32Joseph M. Spencer and Jenny Webb, eds., Reading Nephi Reading Isaiah: 2 Nephi 26-27Julie M. Smith, ed., Apocalypse: Reading Revelation 21-22 Groundwork: Studies in Theory and Scripture Joseph M. Spencer, An Other Testament: On TypologyJad Hatem, Postponing Heaven FARMS and other titles James E. Faulconer, Scripture Study: Tools and SuggestionsThe Life of Holiness: Notes and Reflections on Romans 1, 5-8Faith, Philosophy, ScriptureGerald E. Smith, Schooling the Prophet: How the Book of Mormon Influenced Joseph Smith and the Early RestorationStephen D. Ricks and Daniel C. Peterson, Offenders for a Word: How Anti-Mormons Play Word Games to Attack the Latter-day SaintsDonald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book of MormonJohn W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks, King Benjamin’s Speech Made SimpleJohn W. Welch, The Legal Cases in the Book of MormonNoel B. Reynolds, ed., Early Christians in DisarrayRobert L. Millet and Noel B. Reynolds, Latter-day Christianity: 10 Basic IssuesDaniel C. Peterson, ed., The Book of Mormon and DNA ResearchJohn L. Sorenson, Mormon’s MapJohn W. Welch, Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount (P. S.— Maxwell Institute books are also available on Kindle, Nook, Apple devices, and other e-readers.)

This guest post is from Julie M. Smith, editor of Apocalypse: Reading Revelation 21–22. The book is now available in print and digital formats. Digital subscribers to the Maxwell Institute can access the entire book online here. In what would become the standard explanation of how parables work, biblical scholar C. H. Dodd proclaimed that the parable “arrest the hearer by its vividness of strangeness, and leave the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.” ((C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom (New York: Scribner, 1961), 16.)) What is true of parables is doubly, if not triply, true of the book of Revelation. Two millennia have apparently not been enough for a consensus to emerge regarding the interpretation of this enigmatic text. Why is that?The book itself gives us two clues in its very first verse, where John describes the text and how it came to be. First, he calls it an apokalypsis (see Revelation 1:1). We recognize the English cognate apocalypse and think, perhaps, of big-budget disaster movies, but the Greek word has a different nuance: it means “uncovering.” The author thus describes his task in writing as one of uncovering truth for the reader, but what truths does he intend to uncover, and how are they to be uncovered?These questions bring us to our second clue: as the Revelator describes the process by which the revelation was transmitted, he explains that it was “signified” by an angel (Revelation 1:1). From a Greek word meaning “to give a sign” (sēmainō), this word implies that the revelation was conveyed through signs or symbols. Putting this clue together with the other, we can say that the author will be uncovering truths by using symbols. This is no surprise. As even the most casual student of the book of Revelation knows, it is chock-full of symbols, many of which strike modern readers as more disturbing than inspiring (what are we to make of seven-headed beasts or death riding a horse?).How do such symbols work? What do they symbolize? If we uncover them, what will we find? How can we know if we are interpreting a symbol correctly? Faced as much with these rich interpretive opportunities as with the attendant perplexing questions, it is no wonder that Revelation has inspired artists, stumped scholars, fueled cranks, and terrified children.Into this wonderland tumbled six LDS scholars interested in gleaning meaning from the final two chapters of Revelation. ((To ease the difficulty of jumping into a conversation that has been going on for nearly twenty centuries, Eric D. Huntsman—one of this project’s contributors—provided participants with a summary of the major ways the book of Revelation is being interpreted. This essay, titled “Interpretive Approaches to Revelation,” can be accessed here.)) The unique format of the Mormon Theology Seminar gave us the space to engage this most mysterious of texts. This volume gathers the papers that resulted from our collaborative study.It is our hope that these essays will open new lines of theological inquiry into the book of Revelation among Latter-day Saints. As the only book-length apocalypse in the standard works, as the final book in the New Testament, and as one of the few biblical texts referenced in the Book of Mormon, the book of Revelation holds a special place in the LDS canon. It demands more of its readers than most scriptural books, but it also offers them more. If we make some small contribution to expanding the circumference of Mormon thought concerning the book of Revelation, we will be greatly rewarded for our efforts.Apocalypse: Reading Revelation 21–22 is available here.Maxwell Institute digital pass subscribers can access the entire book free of charge here.

Some people geek out about history so much that they end up studying the history of history—who are the historians who write history? what methods and assumptions do they use? what motivates them? how have people’s understanding of historical situations changed over time? Given that the LDS Church places so much importance on its own past, it’s no surprise that Mormon historiography—the study of how Mormonism has been studied, written, and read about—has been the focus of a number of articles and books over the past several decades. ((The best book on the subject to date is Mormon History, by Ronald W. Walker, David B. Whittaker, James B. Allen.)) Conversations With Mormon Historians is an engaging collection of interviews with sixteen distinguished LDS historians (three women, thirteen men) reflecting on memories of childhood, military service, missionary work, academic training, research, the nature of writing history, and other matters.

Or, thoughts on a new publication from CPART director Kristian Heal Lexicography is both the practical business writing of dictionaries as well as the art and science behind it. Samuel Johnson’s famous English dictionary (1755) may be a high point in lexicography as art, but since his day the science has come far. Each language presents its own unique challenges to lexicographers and requires critical study. CPART’s Kristian Heal and Alison G. Salveson (Oxford University) are the editors of a new volume that is the latest in a series devoted to Syriac lexicography. Congratulations to both the editors and the contributors.

The Crucible of Doubt: Reflection on the Quest for Faith is one of the most provocative books Deseret Book has published in years. It appears at a time when most members of the church know someone who struggles with questions about LDS history, teaching, or practice. Many apologetic works counter particular criticisms (there are horses in the Book of Mormon, but not in Ancient America) with detailed rebuttals (this could be a translation problem, or, the archaeological record is yet inconclusive, etc.). By contrast, Terryl and Fiona Givens challenge several underlying assumptions held by many church members in order to invite readers to better grapple with whatever particular issues may arise.While the book covers a number of relevant issues, I'll expand on only three of them here.I. Humility and SearchingOne danger of 'criticism/defense' apologetic approach I mentioned above is that they can all-too-easily give the impression that, if we had enough time, we could definitively answer for any criticism or doubt that reasonable people might conjure. The Givens's repeatedly and refreshingly affirm that in their experience, the Church cannot answer all your questions now or solve all of your problems, including some of the most pressing ones: 'To the would-be believer, not everything makes sense. Not all loose ends are tied up; not every question finds its answer. Latter-day Saint history can be perplexing, some parts of its theology leave even the devout wondering, and not all prayers find answers' (36). ((Elsewhere: “We feel unmoored if our religion fails to answer all our questions, if it does not resolve our anxious fears, if it does not tie up all loose ends. We want a script, and we find we stand before a blank canvas. We expect a road map, and we find we have only a compass” (31), which brings to mind Adam Miller's discussion of reading the gospel map in comparison to the rough terrain of real life in his book Letters to a Young Mormon.)) If this is a disconcerting thought, the authors also confront 'a particularly pernicious myth that has had tragic influence on Mormon thinking. This is the notion that Mormonism has a monopoly on the truth, that other churches and traditions have nothing of value to contribute' (87). They enjoin Latter-day Saints to join 'the larger, transhistorical church' that includes seekers after God in all ages and cultures (99). Two particular chapter provide scriptural and theological justification for drinking from the wells of non-Latter-day Saints and the book as a whole draws on a number of non-LDS lights—Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Julian of Norwich, Virginia Woolf—women and men as model for emulation. (Here at the Maxwell Institute we've been trying to do our part in this outreaching project in our scholarship on ancient and medieval Islamic, Christian, and Jewish texts.)You won't necessarily find answers to all your problems and questions out there, either, but the Givens's believe you will find a communion of saints whose values will make you proud to be a part of it regardless of assured ultimate truths.Anyway, many truths, they argue, can't be articulated by the canons of science or by the prophets alone: 'A Mozart or a Milton, like a Moses or the Psalmist, approximates a reality we sense is true, though prophets and artists alike struggle to capture in language just what it is that has been unfolded to their vision' (13). ((See Joseph M. Spencer's remarks about the poetic nature of some prophecy and the prophetic nature of some poetry during a recent roundtable affirming the relevance of scripture here and here.)) 'Wells may be replenished as we drink liberally from the words of poets, writers, theologians, and essayists representing a host of cultures and traditions” (100).II. The Problem of SufferingNot all faith struggles are the result of unsettling historical events. The book also deals with matters of human pain and suffering of the kind that lead to questioning the whole plan. While the gospel offers many people solace in the face of suffering, the authors warn against committing the 'sacrilege of glib consolation' (111) and assert that some evils in the world are enough to make even the stoutest doubt God’s existence, or at least his love: 'But perhaps raging against the universe—even against God—is not the sin some people think it to be. … Surely God is not so fragile, so lacking in empathy, that He would take offense at our incredulity or our anger in the face of the world’s wounds' (114-115). They also speak of the “Fellowship of the desolate,” those who just cannot find God no matter what, and who ache at the evil they see in the world (118). Some people, they acknowledge, will have a harder time believing than others, but such people can add diversity and richness to an otherwise monochromatic religious tradition: 'We have all known our share of broken hearts and silent skies. We pass through our deserts, and we often labor to recall the sweet waters we have tasted along the way. Perhaps, when our faith or our desire to believe is at its lowest ebb, we might consider the meaning of those words, 'blessed is he that believeth…without being brought to know…or even compelled to know, before they will believe.' Perhaps these words are telling us there is a type of flower that can bloom only in the desert of doubt.' (144).III. Faith as Choice, Faith as QuestOne critic of the book (who hasn't read it yet) noted: 'What appears to be missing in the Givens's narrative is an answer to highly pertinent question 'who cares?' Meaning, why should anyone care at all about trying to hold out hope for the truthfulness of the traditional LDS church narrative at all? Why should anyone worry if they have doubts about it?' ((See the comment in response to Julie Smith's review at Times & Seasons.))Of course, the Givens's do provide answers to this question. At the outset they establish the idea that we all have beliefs, values, etc. which, even if not openly articulated, are embodied in the day-to-day actions we all perform, and that this normal way of living can be understood as the “religion” of an atheist, Mormon, or whatever else, and that this religion is always fraught with uncertainties: 'We cannot escape the burden of faith, within or outside the parameters of religious conviction' (137). They explain various aspects of Mormonism they find to be persuasive and worthy of belief and adhering action. ((Chapter three especially lays out what they believe is distinctive and worthy of adherence within the LDS view. The underlying idea is that “Saints are nothing without a community of memory…To be a communion of saints makes saints possible” (39, quoting from another author). But chapter 11 is where they really lay out, very briefly, five main “foundational assertions” of Mormon perspective to which their hopes are tuned.)) As Terryl Givens has articulated before, what we choose to believe and how we choose to live are freely made expressions of what we each value. (('What we choose to embrace, to be responsive to, is the purest reflection of who we are and what we love. That is why faith, the choice to believe, is, in the final analysis, an action that is positively laden with moral significance,' Terryl L. Givens, ''Lightning Out of Heaven': Joseph Smith and the Forging of Community', BYU Speeches of the Year, 29 November 2005. See p. 32 of Crucible for the same idea. Rosalynde Welch has offered an alternative to this view of faith here.))While the Givens's strive hard to avoid blaming doubters (doubt itself, after all, is held by them to be a potentially fruitful catalyst to greater light and knowledge and thus not something worthy of blame), they also invite struggling doubters to look for kinship even with those who express hostility toward them: 'It is important to recognize...that hostility shown toward our doubts is often a sign of fear rather than intolerance' (106).Candidly speaking, the Givens's make some proposals that I don’t find persuasive in the least, a few that I’m undecided about, and some others that I agree with—either because I’d already arrived at them myself or because they articulated something new that struck me in the right way. And to me, this combination is what qualifies something as being one of the 'best books' Latter-day Saints are enjoined to read (D&C 88:118).Moreover, they don’t need to solve my problems for me because they're exhibiting a way of investigation, a wrestling that I can emulate in my own ongoing quest. They expressly declare that maybe the Church doesn’t have all the answers, that Mormon history has been whitewashed (though they offer some interesting context to help alleviate the resentment this has caused, pp. 80-81) but is improving, that we are all likely to feel God’s absence at some point (and for some people, they’ll always feel that absence) but that we might be able to choose to carry on regardless, that we can each find a watering place from other sources because the restoration of God's truths has always transcended the Church, that prophets and scripture aren't perfect, and that the Church offers us something we cannot find elsewhere.In short: Crucible models fruitful engagement as much as it exhibits specific fruits of Terryl and Fiona's particular engagement. Some readers will feel the authors didn't 'indict' the institutional Church enough for its shortcomings while others may feel uncomfortable with some constructive, if candid, criticism they include.For me, it's simply encouraging to see such stimulating work being published by Deseret Book. There's no doubt I'd like to see more, please. Terryl and Fiona Givens, The Crucible of Doubt: Reflection on the Quest for Faith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014), 168 pp. Available now on Amazon.

Terryl L. Givens explores the foundations of Mormon thought in one of the most ambitious studies on the topic ever published. ((Most histories of the LDS Church spend time discussing religious belief, but sustained attention to Mormon thought, or theology, as the main subject of a book is rare. Early books by Parley Pratt qualify, as does B.H. Roberts’s The Way, the Truth, and the Life, published posthumously. More recent books include Sterling McMurrin’s Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion and Blake Ostler’s Exploring Mormon Thought series. A comparison of approaches in these various titles including Givens’s would be fascinating.)) Volume one of Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought situates early Mormon theological views on “Cosmos, God, and Humanity” within its nineteenth-century environment as well as on a trajectory spanning back from ancient religion, through Greek thought and the later Reformation, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, on to the present time. The book is partly an outgrowth of a number of Mormon Scholars Foundation graduate seminars Givens hosted over the past several years here at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. (I was lucky to participate in the 2010 seminar.)

Neylan McBaine's new book Women at Church appears at a tense moment for LDS church members with regard to gender issues. Some members have advocated for ordaining women to the priesthood while others have asserted that manifesting dissatisfaction with the status quo is inappropriate. McBaine herself loves being a Mormon woman. But she also believes 'there is much more we can do to see, hear, and include women at church' (xiii). Situated between these two poles without disrespect to either, her book has two main goals: First, to identify and acknowledge the real pain felt by some LDS women, and second, to offer solutions to provide a more fulfilling church experience for them—solutions that fit within the Church's current administrative framework.McBaine says the first goal is important because some church members are comfortable with the status quo, believing that their personal satisfaction suggests everyone should be similarly satisfied. She includes personal accounts of a number of LDS women from various backgrounds to convince readers that there are real issues to grapple with and that simply dismissing concerns isn't an appropriate or effective response. 'How can we dismiss others' pain simply because we do not feel it ourselves?' she asks (23). If you've ever found yourself thinking 'I don't see any problems' or 'my wife doesn't see any problems,' the first half of the book (the negativity of which McBaine feels compelled to apologize for in her intro) is required reading.The second goal reflects McBaine's pragmatic and reverent attitude toward the church itself. She doesn't really enter the debate about women's ordination and she doesn't offer scripture-grounded theological defenses of current practices. After a cursory overview of some of the developments in the church with regard to women's roles, she encourages members to become familiar with the church's current policies in order to identify ways to broaden the roles of women in the church without overstepping current boundaries. She includes a number specific strategies already happening in local wards and branches throughout the church in order to prompt more local reflection and innovation. She calls for expanded roles for women in ward councils, more teaching and pastoral opportunities for women, and greater inclusion of women's voices in church talks and lessons. A companion website includes resources members can use to find teachings by LDS women. Practicing what she's preaching, each chapter of McBaine's book includes an epigraph by LDS leaders past and present—all women.Above all, she calls upon members to recognize strides the church has made in the past few years while still hoping for greater alignment between the church's egalitarian ideals and its feet-on-the-ground practices.Women at Church is more devotional and practical than many of Kofford Books's other titles. It isn't an academic book; it's a pastoral book intended to encourage greater compassion and cooperation among practicing church members—especially between women and men, but also between women and other women who, McBaine says, can sometimes pose the largest obstacle to women's fulfillment in the church. McBaine's prose is fluid and familiar. But instead of oversimplifying things (as such accessible writing is apt to do), her style more often makes problems seem more pressing even as McBaine makes practical solutions seem within reach. Bishops and Stake Presidents will begin to better understand and recognize the disconnect many women feel, making McBaine's suggested solutions all the more welcome. Women who read the book will learn how to initiate fruitful conversations with fellow church members and leaders in order to make their church service more fulfilling. I think all readers will walk away with an increased desire to improve gender relations in church culture regardless of where they stand on questions about women's ordination. All readers will likely also find something or other to bristle at, but if read with charity, this book lays out an impressive span of common ground.Women at Church engenders true empathy and inspires faithful action—a powerful combination for those who wish to enrich the experiences of LDS women at church. Neylan McBaine, Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women's Local Impact (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2014), xxi+189 pp.

In my estimation, Standing Apart is the most important Mormon studies book since Bushman’s Rough Stone Rolling. In terms of genre, the books could hardly be further apart—Bushman’s is a narrative biography while Wilcox and Young’s is a collection of independently written papers once delivered at an academic conference. But in terms of cultural work, the biography and the collection of papers both use scholarly tools to reconfigure modern Mormon understandings of crucial elements of their religious history. Standing Apart has the potential to do for Mormon narratives of the “Great Apostasy” what Rough Stone Rolling did for Mormon understandings of the prophet Joseph Smith—complicate, nuance, and strengthen. Brigham Young University should be proud of its efforts to encourage and facilitate the production of this book. ((The book carries the typical disclaimer that it represents the views of its writers and not that of BYU or the LDS Church (ix). But the editors benefited from an Eliza R. Snow Faculty Grant from BYU, and the symposium itself, “Mormon Conceptions of the Apostasy,” was held at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library in March, 2012. Co-editor Miranda Wilcox is associate professor of English at BYU, three other contributors are professors at BYU, and one other is a professor at BYU-Idaho. Wilcox reflects on the creation of this book at By Common Consent.))Without objecting to or affirming all of the many, many specific claims these landmark books make, it’s enough here to recognize what these books themselves signal: the increasing acceptability and even desire to bring careful scholarly work to bear on Mormon history and thought. ((This open attitude to academic studies is also manifest in the impressive Gospel Topics essays periodically being added to LDS.org and in the Church’s own Joseph Smith Papers project (to be reviewed by Mark A. Mastromarino in the forthcoming issue of the Mormon Studies Review).)) This is a complicated way of saying something simple: When Mormons make claims about historical events, it becomes them to be as accurate as possible. The tools of scholarship can be used to assess and help refine LDS claims about history—in this particular case, about the “Great Apostasy”:

Latter-day Saints have always had a complicated relationship with the Bible. Joseph Smith signaled his deep reliance on the holy text even while challenging its authority. While he accepted many of his era’s common assumptions about the Bible, he also emphasized that it was only true insofar as it was “translated correctly.” ((See Articles of Faith 1:8. As with all blog posts, this book note represents the views of its author and not necessarily that of the Maxwell Institute or Brigham Young University.)) He made revisions through prophetic inspiration but also labored to learn Hebrew in order to wrestle with the most ancient form of the text available. Joseph employed spirit and mind in his scriptural study. He translated the Book of Mormon and issued many of his own new revelations, but the Bible remained his most-referenced sermon source.

BYU scholars of the Bible and religion in antiquity are often, perhaps even distinctively, drawn to the fundamental work of their disciplines such as archaeology and textual editing. These are certainly high-value activities that result in primary contributions to research. It is unfortunate that their specialist character may render them less known to nonspecialist readers, even though their importance to research is easy to describe and appreciate.

While the Church continues to report general growth, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf recently called attention to the tragic losses the Church sustains whenever someone walks away. He not only expressed love for people who leave the Church and affirmed their agency and good faith; he also directly appealed to those who wonder if they should go: “If you are tempted to give up: Stay yet a little longer. There is room for you here.” This plea resonates with the central message of Why I Stay: The Challenges of Discipleship for Contemporary Mormons, a collection of personal essays published by Signature Books. The twenty contributors—9 women and 11 men, an assortment of PhDs, JDs, MBAs, etc.—answer the title’s question in their own way in hopes that their experiences might help others carry on. Despite the tally of academic credentials, most of the essays are apologetic and personal in tone; testimonies.

Common Ground, Different Opinions is a collection of essays written by a variety of Latter-day Saint authors on controversial issues like environmentalism, stem cell research, gay marriage, feminism, and war. James E. Faulconer, BYU professor of philosophy and the volume’s co-editor, emphasizes such a book is needed because members of the Church in various countries “are confronted with one issue after another that demands their thought and decision” while the Church, through its constituted authorities, has made no official pronouncement on many of them. Not all of the issues call for pro and con pieces (who would write against Margaret Blair Young’s appeal to eschew racism?). Faulconer emphasizes that the essays are less about providing arguments that readers ought to accept and more about modeling different ways faithful Mormons approach difficult topics:

“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

Studies of American folklore have been going on for more than a century now and few groups have received more attention than Mormons. What are folklore studies? Why has the field focused so often on Mormonism? What can folklore studies contribute to our understanding of Mormons? What does the future hold for such studies? The editors of an impressive new anthology of 'Mormon Folklore Studies' have addressed these questions by compiling landmark articles from the 1940s to the present. Thus, Eric A. Eliason and Tom Mould's landmark Latter-day Lore is both culmination and catalyst.

Volume 2 of the Mormon Studies Review is shaping up to be another great issue. Inexpensive digital subscriptions should be available in time for its release more information to come. In the meantime, we continue to occasionally post 'Book Notes' highlighting Mormon studies titles we may not have space to cover in the Review. Like this one. Enjoy!

Michael Austin wants to introduce Latter-day Saints to a Job they've probably never met, regardless of how many times they've read the Old Testament book.