Matthew C. Godfrey, Brenden W. Rensink, Alex D. Smith, Max H Parkin, and Alexander L. Baugh, eds., Documents, Volume 4: April 1834–September 1835, vol. 4 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Ronald K. Esplin and…
TL;DR As Joseph Smith was laying the foundations of Zion, his efforts to prophetically render ancient texts continued unabated. By 1831 Smith was revealing esoteric words that he said were from the prelapsarian language that Adam and Eve taught their…
My friends Laura and Brian Hales join me for an informed, candid interview about the practice of early Mormon polygamy. A catalyst for our discussion is their recently published Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding—a distillation of Brian’s three-volume…
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A prolific interpreter of Mormonism, Dan Vogel is an engaging guest and a decades’ long friend. In this interview we discuss his most recent publication, an annotated edition of Eber Dudley Howe’s 1834 Mormonism Unvailed: Or, a Faithful Account of That…
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Martin Harris’s visit with Charles Anthon is iconic,[1] almost on par with Mormon foundational events such as the First Vision or the angel’s visitation on the eve of the 1823 autumnal equinox. Anthon played an unwitting actor along with Harris…
Joseph Smith’s divine encounter known as the First Vision occurred within a cultural matrix where others also reported having seen deity in redemptive visions. For instance, Billy Hibbard, a native of Norwich, CT, who became a Methodist preacher, recalled: I…
Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis–Deuteronomy is the first in a three-volume series by David Bokovoy on the composition of the Tanakh, which he suggests can inform and clarify our understanding of Joseph Smith’s translations. A gracious podcast guest, David shares…
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In her newly published revision of Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide to the Gospels, Julie M. Smith invites readers to engage the gospels devotionally by asking questions critically. In our podcast, Julie elaborates on the benefits she sees in this…
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In the coming weeks and months, a few podcasts will examine the Gospel Topic “Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham.” To give listeners a glimpse of emerging trends in BoAbr research, see my essay “The Curious Textual History…
My friends over on the Rational Faiths blog were kind enough to interview me about the Mormon Studies podcast. (More Mormon Studies podcasts and supplemental content are on the way!)
Jan Shipps is the perfect inaugural interview for the Mormon Studies podcast. She has become the matron saint of Mormon studies (that’s a promotion from her previous role as the den mother of Mormon studies). She is professor emeritus of history at…
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Thank you for joining me on this new adventure in podcasting. An exhilarating, collaborative journey awaits us—so don’t hesitate to share your perspectives on directions our exploratory paths will take. Please excuse the bumps that we’ll undoubtedly encounter as this website emerges as…
