Happy Independence Day. Here’s a discourse given by George A. Smith on the fourth in 1854. Remember that at this time the Saints are struggling with the federal government over the right to self government. Notice how Smith negotiates in his narration his commitment to both an American identity and a Mormon identity.

George A. Smith, “Celebration of the Fourth of July,” July 4, 1854, Journal of Discourses, 6: 364-67.

Gentlemen and Ladies-Fellow-Citizens,-I arise here to address you a few moments upon a subject which has, perhaps, been worn threadbare by orators, statesmen, and divines, for the last seventy years, in the minds of a great portion of (more…)

This is, quite simply, the single most extensive canvass of American religious life ever achieved. (more…)

Literary scholar Lawrence Buell, in his excellent New England Literary Culture, explored one of the most important ideas related to the antebellum Romantic thinkers–an idea that he defines as “literary scripturism.” (more…)

In It Does Not Die, Maitreyi Devi wrote a “she said” to Mircea Elidae’s Bengal Nights, the “he said” semi-autobiographical account of his time in 1930s Calcutta and his relationship with Devi.[1] Unsurprisingly, Devi offered a very different version of events in her narrative. Academia (and even Oprah thanks to James Frey) has long debated the definition of memoir and its highly subjective nature. A comparison of It Does Not Die and Bengal Nights provides many aspects for analysis of events personally subjective and emotive while grounded in history. Can scholarship ever overcome personal opinion or reaction in highly emotionally charged historical events? (more…)

Bruce Jorgensen is looking for submissions for this year’s Mormon Letters session at RMMLA–a great opportunity to present at a conference, especially for anyone doing stuff in Mormon literature or film. I’ve posted Jorgensen’s CFP and submission details below: 

For about three decades, since shortly after its organization, AML has had a “conjoint” or (now) “affiliated” session at the annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association. This year, as of the program deadline for the RMMLA Convention, no program for the AML session had been filed. With permission from the RMMLA Secretariat, I’m attempting a rescue mission with this rather belated call for papers.

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We at the JI are honored to host the esteemable Janiece Johnson for the next couple of weeks.

In her own words, Janiece’s biography relevant to this blog can be measured out in “BYU, BYU, Vandy, the U,” corresponding roughly to “poli-sci, history, theology, history.”   She’s currently PhD’ing in the University of Utah’s history department and writing a dissertation that will resolve everybody’s questions about the Mountain Meadows Massacre in a satisfying and logical way.  If we are all particularly lucky, perhaps she will have something further to say about that.

Welcome, Janiece!

Please welcome out latest grad student acquisition, Edje, who after two weeks of guestblogging is now joining us permanently. See here for his bio. (more…)

Thank goodness for laptops and wireless internet. For this post I had to dress my young, whippersnapping self as a black stew-pot and climb onto a very high horse. Balancing a desktop would have been nigh impossible, especially with all the kettles watching. This pot is stewing a rant (with a soupçon of rave) on some basic number sense (more…)

  Tradition has it that Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, co-founder of the well-known Theosophical Society, had wanted to travel to Nauvoo to see the Mormons but was unable to do so due to their expulsion from the state of Illinois shortly before she arrived in the U.S. [1]. Though such a visit unfortunately never materialized (it could have been an encounter to rival Joseph Smith’s interview with the prophet Matthias in its historical delectability), tradition also has it that she did pass through Salt Lake City in the early 1850s, (more…)

No time for a real post dealing with the martyrdom today, but here’s ERS’s memorial of Joseph Smith’s death. (more…)

Introduction
Last year, Ronan posted a bit called “Making Adjustments” at By Common Consent (here, with useful comments all the way to the end) that hashed out some of the issues with and hermeneutical strategies for bringing together revealed and scholarly understandings. (See also: Joel’s post from Friday.) The Gold Plates’ putative chemical composition provides an example of revealed-subsequently canonized-language “adjusting.” [1] Joseph Smith-History 1:34, quotes Moroni, an angel, as saying “there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent.” Does “gold” mean “100% pure, elemental gold,” a gold-based alloy, or a color? [2] How much could such plates plausibly weigh?

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(Continued from here) 

In 1890 there were only four documented “persons of Japanese ancestry” in the entire territory of Utah. [1]  Contrasted with the Chinese, Utahns had no contact whatsoever with a significant Japanese population.  Subsequently, the Japanese were easily romanticized, especially in light of the glowing reports from National newspapers about Japan’s westernization and generous trade agreements.  (more…)