Category: Features
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What Conditions Might Generate a Social Preference for Polygamy?
Guest post by Paul Burnham Introduction During the occasional discussions of polygyny in Church literature and on the Bloggernacle, I see two competing narratives—a religious narrative and a romantic narrative. In the religious narrative, God’s will must always prevail and on occasion His will has been that polygyny be practiced. In the romantic narrative,…
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Wakara’s America: A Book Review
In the grand narrative of the Latter-day Saint settlement of the West, certain figures loom large: Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and the thousands of Mormon pioneers who made the desert blossom as a rose. Native figures in this story often appear as either obstacles to be overcome or as Lamanite brethren waiting for redemption.…
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CFM 11/10-11/16(D&C 129-132): Poetry for “I Have Seen Your Sacrifices in Obedience”
This lesson can be both difficult and exulting. Our LDS understanding of the next life both inspires because of the idea that our relations have an eternal permanence, and troubles many of us because of what we don’t understand about polygamy and the details of how the multiple relationships we begin on earth translate into…
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The Three Nephites
I love studying folklore and stories, particularly among Latter-day Saints. One reason for doing so is that they reveal information about the core beliefs, cultural values, and lived religious experiences of the communities that share them. Perhaps no folklore cycle illustrates this better than the persistent legends of The Three Nephites, and a fantastic new…
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Of Hurdles and Covenants: A Review of Joshua M. Sears’s A Modern Guide to an Old Testament
For many Latter-day Saints, the annual Come, Follow Me journey through the Old Testament can feel like a daunting pilgrimage. It is a vast and often alien landscape, filled with archaic language, bewildering poetry, and troubling cultural norms that can create a significant chasm between the modern reader and the ancient text. While numerous commentaries…
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Chief Wakara in Utah History
A recent interview with historian Max Perry Mueller over at the Latter-day Saint history blog, From the Desk, does the hard work of re-centering a figure many of us know only by name, if at all: the Ute war leader Wakara. Mueller argues compellingly that Wakara was not just a side character in the pioneer…
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CFM 11/3-11/9(D&C 125-128): Poetry for “A Voice of Gladness for the Living and the Dead”
Baptism for the Dead is one of the beliefs that make the LDS Church distinctive among religions today. Frequently discussions with non-Mormons focus on what Paul meant in 1 Cor. 15:29 while ignoring the broader question that our doctrine addresses with proxy ordinances: If baptism is required for everyone, then what about those who passed…
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Three Generations of Kimballs
How do we measure the full legacy of a figure like Heber C. Kimball? We often focus on the man himself—his loyalty to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, his mission to England, or his role as First Counselor. But a fascinating new interview at From the Desk with biographer Andrew Kimball argues for a much…
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The Handcart Tragedy
The 1856 handcart tragedy remains a defining, painful moment in Latter-day Saint history, and the question of “who is responsible?” has echoed for generations. We often settle for simple answers or familiar myths. However, a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog, From the Desk, with Don H. Smith and Mark C. Austin, authors…
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CFM 10/27-11/2(D&C 124): Poetry for “A House unto My Name”
The phrase “A House unto My Name” is easy to connect to the Temple. But section 124 isn’t just about building a temple — in 1841 the Kirtland Temple is far away from the bulk of Church members and the Nauvoo Temple has only recently had its groundbreaking. Instead, we might think of house in…
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Review of Turner’s biography Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet
A Book Review for Times and Seasons of the First Major Biography of Joseph Smith in Twenty Years, Wherein I Demonstrate My Own Longwindedness in Contrast to the Author’s Skillful and Admirable Concision
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Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship, a Review
Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship, by Jonathan A. Stapley, is a rich exploration of the history, symbolism, and function of Latter-day Saint temples. The book traces temple development from the earliest Kirtland and Nauvoo structures to present-day edifices. Each chapter addresses both the physical details—materials, floor plans, artwork—and the spiritual purposes, including…
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CFM 10/20-10/26 (D&C 121-123): Poetry for “O God, Where Art Thou?”
Adversity is rooted in the problem of evil—if God is good, then why does he allow evil to exist? Or if “man is that he might have joy,” why is there so much suffering in life? And worse, it often seems like for some the suffering is “but a moment”, while for others the suffering…
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CFM 10/13-10/19 (D&C 115-120): Poetry for “His Sacrifice Shall Be More Sacred unto Me Than His Increase”
Sacrifice is a key gospel concept, and as such is also a key concept for life. Whether the it involves one person giving up something to help others or simply the individual giving up something for his own benefit, sacrifice is always about making decisions that balance one benefit or good against another. So we…
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The Nauvoo Bell That Wasn’t
Several months ago, I put out a post on the disappearance of the bell that has been on Temple Square for decades during the recent renovations. I shared the story of the bell, which has been called the Nauvoo Bell, but which is actually the Hummer Bell from a Presbyterian church in Iowa City. At…
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CFM 10/06-10/12 (D&C 111-114): Poetry for “I Will Order All Things for Your Good”
If things have been ordered for our good, do the things look like they have been ordered or arranged? This week’s Come Follow Me lesson title implies that what happens in our lives is meant to help us both now and in the hereafter. The statement “I will order all things for your good” is…
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Jonathan Stapley on Temple Worship
For those of us who have long been fascinated by the historical development of Latter-day Saint temple worship, Jonathan Stapley’s recent work, Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship, and his insightful interview on the subject at the Latter-day Saint history site From the Desk offer a significant contribution to the conversation. The interview offers…
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Book Review: Elias—An Epic of the Ages: A Critical Edition, by Orson F. Whitney, edited by Reid L. Neilson
Elias—An Epic of the Ages: A Critical Edition, edited by Reid L. Neilson and published by Greg Kofford Books, is an important effort to preserve and present a landmark text in the literary history of Latter-day Saints. Orson F. Whitney, a Church leader and gifted writer at the turn of the twentieth century, sought to…
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CFM 9/29-10/05 (D&C 109-110): Poetry for “It Is Thy House, a Place of Thy Holiness”
I like this photo of the Bangkok Thailand Temple. I know many people will see in it an island of good among a sea of chaos and evil. I can’t disagree more with that view—most of humanity doesn’t live in the stereotypical suburban pastoral nowhere favored by the world, and where they do live is…
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Book Review: Ports to Posts: Latter-day Saint Gathering in the Nineteenth Century
Fred E. Woods’s Ports to Posts: Latter-day Saint Gathering in the Nineteenth Century offers a richly detailed and engaging exploration of the emigration process that carried thousands of Latter-day Saint converts from their homelands to the American frontier. Rather than focusing narrowly on one facet of the story, Woods takes a broad and careful approach,…
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Richard Bushman Reflects on Rough Stone Rolling
Twenty years ago, Richard Lyman Bushman’s biography of Joseph Smith the Prophet was published. The book has had a huge impact on English-speaking Latter-day Saints. He recently reflected on Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling in an interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog From the Desk. What follows here is a copost to the full interview.
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CFM 9/22-9/28 (D&C 106-108): Poetry for “The Order of the Son of God”
Like it or not, our lives are built of structures. We organize our days according to everything from natural events, like the rising and setting of the sun and our own biological rhythms, to the hours of the clock that our society has assigned to the day, to the needs we have to coordinate with…
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Book Review: The D&C and Church History ARTbook, volume one
The D&C and Church History ARTbook, volume one, curated by Esther Hi’ilani Candari and published by By Common Consent Press, is a fantastic resource for gospel artwork. It is chock-full of beautiful and thought-provoking pieces on gospel themes that complement the Doctrine and Covenants “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. One of the strengths of the book…
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A Global Mormonism Collection
I was very excited that earlier this week, we were able to publish a page on From the Desk about Global Mormonism: Latter-day Saints Around the World. This is the culmination of years of effort to identify published histories about communities in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints outside of the historically prevalent…
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CFM 9/15-9/21 (D&C 102-105): Poetry for “After Much Tribulation … Cometh the Blessing”
I noticed this time through the Doctrine and Covenants how the idea of trials is a major theme of this book of scripture. And the sections in this week’s lesson are during one of the most challenging periods of trials in early church history, the first round of persecution in Missouri and the subsequent travel…
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Do you forsake Mormon celebrities?
Do you forsake Mormon celebrities? Yea, I forsake. Do you forsake vicarious satisfaction in their professional success? Yea, I forsake. Do you forsake their works and fandom that you served in former times? Yea, I forsake.
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Book Review: Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration, by Robert A. Rees
Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration, by Robert A. Rees, offers a moving and thoughtful vision of what a progressive-yet-faithful Latter-day Saint discipleship can look like. Rees—a poet, scholar, and former editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought—draws on a lifetime of devotion and intellectual engagement to explore themes such as Heavenly Mother, the recovery…
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Book Review: The Blood in Their Veins: The Kimballs, Polygamy, and the Shaping of Mormonism, by Andrew Kimball (Signature Books)
Andrew Kimball’s The Blood in Their Veins offers a compelling and deeply textured exploration of the Kimball family, one of the most prominent lineages in Latter-day Saint history. Centering on the children and descendants of Heber C. Kimball—who himself had forty-three wives and sixty-five children—the book navigates a vast narrative landscape. In doing so, it…
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CFM 9/1-9/7: Poetry for “For the Salvation of Zion” (D&C 94-97)
We focus on the temple, and we have from the beginning of the Church. The temple plays a crucial role in our theology, but also a role that demonstrates tensions between principles. While the ordinances of the temple are done individually, those ordinances are often performed in groups, and the purpose of these ordinances generally…
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Nazis and Latter-day Saints
I’ve seen that the Church sometimes gets a bad reputation for how it navigated Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. One thing that tends to get overlooked, however, was the amount of pressure the Church felt from the Nazi regime. In a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog, Stephen O. Smoot discussed…