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Q&A with the editors of The Life and Adventures of Eli Wiggill April 17 2024
We recently spoke with Fred E. Woods, Jay H. Buckley, and Hunter T. Hallows, the editors of our latest title The Life and Adventures of Eli Wiggill: South African 1820 Settler, Wesleyan Missionary, and Latter-day Saint.
Q: What were the driving factors behind Eli Wiggill and his family’s decision to leave England and settle in South Africa, and again to later migrate to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory?
A: Parliament recruited British emigrants to establish a South African colonyto ease unemployment and social unrest while strengthening Britain’s foothold in South Africa’s Cape Province. Isaac and Elizabeth Grimes Wiggill and their eight children, from Painswick, Gloucestershire, England, were one of the fortunate five percent of families chosen to participate. On January 10, 1820, the Wiggills embarked from Bristol, joining the Samuel Bradshaw Company of 64 emigrants aboard the Kennersley Castle, arriving in Cape Town, South Africa, on March 5, 1820, after a four -month voyage from England. Eli and Susannah Wiggill joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1858. They moved to Port Elizabeth, where Wiggill served as LDS conference president. His friend Henry Talbot served as president of the branch, which consisted of thirty to forty members. Church officials directed Saints around the world to gather to Zion as soon as possible. In February 1861 the congregation boarded the Race Horse and sailed to Boston, arriving on April 19,1861. They traveled to New York, joined with other LDS emigrants, journeyed by rail to Chicago, and thence to the wagon outfitting station at Florence, Nebraska. The Homer Duncan Company departed June 25, arriving in Salt Lake City on September 13, 1861.
Q: How did Eli Wiggill's experiences as a Wesleyan Methodist assistant minister contribute to his eventual conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
A: Eli Wiggill accompanied Reverend John Edwards as a minister to the “Bechuana” country beyond the Orange River. Although Wiggill had not formal ministerial training, he had a good understanding of the Bible. Wiggill labored in the Wesleyan Methodist Church ministry at the Thaba Nchu Wesleyan mission station. After his release on May 1, 1842, he traveled with his wife and two children to Winterberg and built a farm and went into business making wagons before moving to Queenstown. Wiggill remained active in his Wesleyan faith and occasionally preached at the Kat River mission station as well as at Fort Beaufort. Wiggill heard that Latter-day Saint missionaries had arrived at Fort Beaufort. The missionary trio of Jesse Haven, William Walker, and Leonard Smith initially arrived in South Africa on April 19, 1853, and preached and published tracts in Cape Town in both English and Dutch. They met with great opposition throughout their labors and were mobbed, having bricks and stones and rotten eggs thrown at them. Elder William Walker converted Eli’s brother George. Eli wrote, “When I heard Walker explain things in the manner he did I could not help [but] believe the truth of it.” In February 1858, Wiggill traveled to Winterberg to see George. Together they traveled to the Kat River settlement, where LDS Elder John Green, a former Wesleyan, baptized Eli, Susannah, and daughters Sarah Ann and Margaret on March 1, 1858. That same day, Wiggill was ordained a priest, which authorized him to perform baptisms as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Q: What challenges did Eli and Susannah Wiggill face as early converts to Mormonism in South Africa, and how did they overcome them?
A: Wiggill’s study of the Gospel of Jesus Christ filled his mind with light and knowledge. This awoke the missionary spirit in him so much so that he “had a great many arguments with religious people with whom I was surrounded and especially with my Wesleyan Brethren.” Unfortunately, his zeal towards a peculiar and foreign religion brought harsh criticism, censure, and opprobrium from their acquaintances. Susannah asked him to stop investigating further. Eli complied with Susannah’s wishes for a time and stopped investigating the Church. Local preachers told their congregations to shun and spurn the missionaries. Angry mobs harassed LDS missionaries and dispersed LDS gatherings. The backlash against the Latter-day Saints kept the Church from gaining converts very quickly and sparked fear of reprisal for the few who did join. Missionaries did not find willing converts for months due to the intense persecution. Although not yet a member, Wiggill overcame his social fear of conversion and became somewhat of a missionary. He related how his own preaching changed because of the additional light and knowledge he found in the Latter-day Saint religious tradition, as well as a greater outpouring of the holy spirit. After about a year of unofficial dedication to the church, Elder John Green baptized the Wiggills on March 1, 1858.
Q: Can you elaborate on the process of gathering the South African Saints to Zion in the mid-nineteenth century, as documented in Eli Wiggill's autobiography?
A: Eli Wiggill's autobiography describes how early missionaries spread the message of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how early converts lived their new faith in fledgling branches and left their homes and homelands to gather to Zion. During the nineteenth century, Church leaders instructed LDS members to gather to a central place in the United States.First it was Ohio, then Missouri, then Illinois. After the Latter-day Saints were driven from Nauvoo, Illinois, they trekked west to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847. For the next fifty years, converts from all over the world were instructed to gather to Zion. Between 1855 and 1865, at least 270 Saints emigrated to the United States from the Port Elizabeth seaport, the most populous city in the Eastern Cape Province. Most of these early converts were of British descent and many came from the 1820 British Settler groups since the early missionaries did not speak Afrikaans, Dutch, Xhosa, or Zulu. The first South African Saints sailed from Port Elizabeth in 1855. In the 1890s, Church leaders no longer asked Saints to cross oceans or continents to gather to Zion but to build up The Church of Jesus Christ in their local stakes of Zion.
Q: What role did Eli Wiggill play in the establishment and leadership of Latter-day Saint congregations both in South Africa and in Utah Territory?
A: Eli and Susannah Bentley Wiggill joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1858 and became stalwart members following their conversion. Their faithful dedication affected the lives of dozens of South African Saints. Following their conversion to the restored gospel, their missionary labors, their leadership role in congregation formation, and their efforts to gather to Zion whilst building up and strengthening communities of South African Saints reverberated during the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. Their great faith and missionary efforts after their conversion provide insights into early church organization and the formation of branches. Finally, Wiggill’s autobiography documents how Eli and Susannah’s experiences represent one of the most well-documented accounts of South African Saints answering the call to immigrate to Zion.
Q: How did Eli Wiggill's missionary efforts in South Africa contribute to the growth and development of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in that region?
A: One of the downsides of having converts continually gathering to Zion was that the Church struggled for continuity in countries around the world during the nineteenth century. The same is true for South Africa. Opened as mission in 1852, the South African Mission closed on April 12, 1865. The South African Mission was reopened until July 25, 1903. The historical setting surrounding Eli and Susannah Bentley Wiggill and their nine children reveals a story of faith, courage, and devotion as one of the first South African families to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Wiggill’s autobiography is worthy of a careful read to appreciate and comprehend his astonishing transnational adventures in Africa and Utah. The Life and Adventures of Eli Wigg ill is more than a little-known Latter-day Saint conversion narrative, more than a missionary memoir, and more than an account of emigration and pioneer settlement (though it is all the above). It offers readers insight into a variety of subjects, including British colonialism in South Africa, religious rivalry in the Atlantic world, slavery and emancipation in the British empire, and family life in the nineteenth century.
Preview Healing Our Divides: Answering the Savior’s Call to Be Peacemakers April 10 2024
Healing Our Divides:
Answering the Savior’s Call to Be Peacemakers
"No book has focused so clearly on how to face religious and ideological rivalry between people who earnestly believe they have the truth while the other does not."
— C. Randall Paul, President, Foundation for Religious Diplomacy
"Healing Our Divides is the perfect book for our current moment. . . . Ostler teaches correct principles and then offers concrete tools and examples that will empower readers not just to believe in peace but to embody and practice it as well."
— Patrick Mason, co-author of Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict
Download a preview here or view below.
Healing Our Divides: Answering the Savior’s Call to Be Peacemakers is a timely and essential guide for navigating the increasingly polarized and contentious landscape of modern society. Drawing inspiration from powerful and prophetic messages from Latter-day Saint leaders on unity and peace, author David B. Ostler explores the skills and approaches necessary to eliminate contention and become peacemakers. Through extensive research and personal reflection, Ostler offers concrete and practical strategies for reducing contention, understanding others, and fostering meaningful conversations amid differences in beliefs and ideologies.
Rooted in principles of religious discipleship and moral integrity, Healing Our Divides addresses the urgent need to confront societal division and hostility with love and understanding. Ostler delves into four major themes, including understanding today's divisions, learning practical approaches to reduce contention, recognizing peacemaking as a vital aspect of religious discipleship, and mastering the art of deep and meaningful discussion. With insightful thought boxes prompting self-reflection and engagement, as well as questions for group study, he invites readers to join in the communal effort of healing divides and fostering unity. This book serves as a poignant reminder of our collective responsibility to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and work towards creating a more peaceful and harmonious world, one interaction at a time.
Q&A with authors of Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan April 03 2024
We recently spoke with Shinji Takagi, Conan Grames, and Meagan Rainock to discuss their recently released title Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan.
Q: What inspired you to undertake a comprehensive study on the practices of Japanese Latter-day Saints, particularly within the context of a minority religion in Japan?
A: This book grew out of the work we prepared for a volume of essays edited by Melissa
Inouye and Laurie Maffly-Kipp, who had asked us to write a chapter on how Japanese Latter-day Saints practice their religion. In order to conduct an objective, data-driven analysis, we decided to administer an anonymous survey to practicing Latter-day Saints. As we were preparing the survey, it became obvious that doing justice to the data would require not a chapter but a book. We also recognized that, realistically, we had only one chance to administer a survey, given its time- and labor-intensive nature. Hence our decision to make the survey much more comprehensive than was necessary to complete our assigned task, even though this carried a risk of deterring potential survey takers. This book is an outcome of that decision. Melissa’s and Laurie’s book has not yet been released. We hope it will be soon.
Q: Could you elaborate on the challenges and opportunities faced by Japanese Latter-day Saints within a society undergoing profound demographic and cultural changes?
A: Our thesis is that, while Latter-day Saints in Japan, as practitioners of a minority religion, face situations of identity conflict, societal changes, predominantly triggered by the adverse demographic trend, are increasing Japanese society’s tolerance for diversity. This obviously presents opportunities for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints if some accommodation is made for institutional acculturation (e.g., if a source of pervasive conflict, such as green tea drinking, is properly addressed).
Q: The survey data you collected offer insights into the experiences and perspectives of active Latter-day Saints in Japan. What were some of the most surprising or significant findings that emerged from your analysis?
A: We were most surprised to learn how representative the Latter-day Saint population is of the larger Japanese society—in terms of social and political views. Indeed, they may be unique in their beliefs but certainly not different from the rest of Japanese society.
Q: The book mentions that despite being a minority religion in Japan, Latter-day Saints have found a niche for their particular lifestyle by establishing long-term relationships and making conflict-avoiding career choices. Can you delve deeper into the specific strategies or practices employed by Japanese Latter-day Saints to integrate their religious identity into their daily lives, especially in contexts where it may diverge from mainstream cultural norms?
A: The most important aspect of individual acculturation is that Japanese Latter-day Saints choose professions that allow them to attend church on Sundays. Sabbath-day worship is a cultural practice uncharacteristic of Japanese customs. This prioritization of their lives is made easier because Latter-day Saints typically join the Church in their teens or twenties before they are established in their careers. Another major adjustment that Latter-day Saints in Japan must make is in the observance of the Word of Wisdom as they refrain from tea, coffee, sake, etc., which are so universally accepted cultural customs. The survey revealed that this has been less of a problem than one might expect, as LDS members feel generally accepted by peers at work and in the culture generally even as they decline to participate in these customs.
Q: What are the key takeaways from your book for various stakeholders, including scholars, missionaries, Latter-day Saint leaders, Japanese members, and the general public?
A: We have provided key takeaways for scholars, for members, and for other stakeholders in the final chapter of the book. We hope that these targeted summaries provide useful insights into the experiences of Japanese Latter-day Saints.
Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan is now available in paperback and ebook.
Preview The Life and Adventures of Eli Wiggill March 21 2024
The Life and Adventures of Eli Wiggill:
South African 1820 Settler, Wesleyan Missionary, and Latter-day Saint
"Provides a fascinating view into British, African, and American history and demonstrates how the Latter-day Saint experience brings them all together."
— Jeffrey G. Cannon, Laura F. Willes Research Associate at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
"Offers readers insight into a variety of subjects, including British colonialism in South Africa, religious rivalry in the Atlantic world, slavery and emancipation in the British empire, and family life in the nineteenth century."
— Christopher Cannon Jones, co-editor of Missionary Interests: Protestant and Mormon Missions in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Download a preview here or view below.
The autobiography of Eli Wiggill offers a captivating narrative of one family’s journey from Gloucester, England, to South Africa, and eventually to Salt Lake City during the mid-nineteenth century. Eli and Susannah Wiggill’s conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa serves as a focal point in their remarkable story. Eli’s retelling vividly portrays their steadfast faith, missionary efforts, and the challenges they faced as pioneers in establishing communities of South African Saints. From their immigration to South Africa to their eventual migration to Zion, the Wiggills' experiences offer valuable insights into the early history of the Church and the global gathering of its members.
With meticulous attention to detail, The Life and Adventures of Eli Wiggill: South African 1820 Settler, Wesleyan Missionary, and Latter-day Saint presents Wiggill’s original manuscript, enriched with extensive footnotes providing context and clarity. This publication aims to rectify previous shortcomings by preserving the integrity of Wiggill’s narrative while enhancing accessibility for contemporary readers. It not only chronicles a remarkable transnational journey but also sheds light on themes of faith, perseverance, and the pioneering spirit, making it a compelling read for historians, scholars, and anyone interested in the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the global migration of its members.
Preview Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan March 07 2024
Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan
"Unique But Not Different is a must read for all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who love the Japanese people, have served a mission in Japan, spent time in Japan, or just want to understand the Japanese people and culture better."
—W. Steve Albrecht, president of the Japan Tokyo Mission (2009–12)
Download a preview here or view below.
Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan offers an insightful exploration into the experiences of Japanese members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shedding light on their integration of religious identity within a predominantly non-Christian society. Through comprehensive survey data collected from active practitioners, authors Shinji Takagi, Conan Grames, and Meagan Rainock delve into the challenges and opportunities these Latter-day Saints face. In doing so, they examine the diverse social, political, and ideological backgrounds of Japanese Latter-day Saints, providing valuable insights for scholars, missionaries, Church leaders, and members alike.
With meticulous analysis, the authors navigate topics ranging from personal conversion experiences to religious beliefs and adherence to cultural practices. They examine how Japanese Latter-day Saints successfully negotiate identity conflicts and contribute to the broader societal landscape amidst Japan's evolving cultural institutions. Offering statistical profiles and key findings tailored to various stakeholders, Unique But Not Different serves as an indispensable resource for understanding the complex dynamics of religious identity and acculturation in Japan, while also providing valuable insights applicable to minority religious practices worldwide.
For Japanese readers, the volume also includes a Japanese Afterword and translations of the summary, findings, tables, and figures.
New Years Book of Mormon Ebook Flash Sale December 27 2023
As we welcome 2024 and this years Come Follow Me Book of Mormon study, we are pleased to offer discounted prices on all of our Book of Mormon titles available on ebook. This sale runs from January 1st through the 5th and is available for Kindle, Apple, Google, and Kobo ebooks.
Sale ends Friday, January 5.
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Q&A with Brant A. Gardner, author of Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper and The Plates of Mormon November 29 2023
We recently spoke with Brant Gardner to discuss his two recent titles, Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper and The Plates of Mormon.
Q: With The Plates of Mormon and Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper you have now published ten volumes on the Book of Mormon. What started you on your own path in Book of Mormon studies, and is there a particular approach to the text that you like to focus on?
A: The most definable beginning point was when I was asked to do a weekly online article on the Book of Mormon. I decided to do an in-depth commentary that used Mesoamerica (my academic emphasis) as a plausible background. That project became Second Witness some twelve years later.
I take the Book of Mormon’s claims about itself seriously. For me, that means I can ask why a particular author wrote what he did in the order he did and apply human logic and understanding to the process. Too often believers in the text assume that we have the text because God wanted it that way. That isn’t the way the Bible was created, and that isn’t the process described in the Book of Mormon. That doesn’t preclude inspiration—but that inspiration always came to and through human hands.
Q: What is the relationship between Plates and Engraven? Did you begin one before the other, or were they conceived and worked on simultaneously?
A: That is a hard and complicated question. I worked on many of the ideas that resulted in the way Plates is formatted prior to beginning that project. However, after it's first iteration, the manuscript sat on my hard drive for at least a year. Engraven was started after that, but I worked on a revision of my original work on Plates about the same time.
Q: How does The Plates of Mormon differ from other study editions of the Book of Mormon?
A: Most study editions begin with either the most recent version under Church copyright or the public domain 1920 edition, and they are generally focused on devotional study with interpretive commentary for that purpose. Royal Skousen’s The Earliest Text is the closest to what I am doing with Plates, but there are still differences. Skousen’s book attempts to get back to the dictation and presents the text as “sense-lines” void of punctuation and formatting.
This edition differs from all others in that it has sought to present the text as its primary author and editor, Mormon, conceived of his book. As many are aware, when the Printer's Manuscript was handed over to Grandin Print Shop for publication, it was a flowing text that lacked not only punctuation and uniform capitalization but also any clear distinction between book titles, headers, and paragraphs. Those were all added by Grandin's compositor John Gilbert and have largely remained as they were since that first 1830 edition. Plates seeks to revise Gilbert's work by taking the raw text of the Book of Mormon and modifying both its sentence construction and presentation based on literary and textual structures within the text. For example, there are also some textual markers that I believe were inherited from the original Nephite text that were remnants of a culture in transition from an oral to a literature culture. “And it came to pass” has come to have a much more important meaning for me, and I wish we would restore those few times that the phrase has been removed. In general, I find I like the manuscript version of the Book of Mormon better than the modern edition which has made a few slight changes.
Furthermore, it seems rather clear that Mormon was not anticipating Martin Harris's unfortunate loss of the so-called lost 116 pages and the subsequent use of the small plates of Nephi to replace the missing text. Thus, this edition has moved the small plates' text to the back as Mormon himself intended (similar to appendices in modern books), with his Words to introduce the "great things written upon them." I believe reading the small plates in this context highlights the unique and different role Nephi and others had for their writings that we might otherwise miss by reading them as an intentional beginning to the Book of Mormon.
Q: Is there anything in particular about the Book of Mormon that stuck out to you while you were working on these books that you hadn’t fully recognized before?
A: Almost every time I approach the Book of Mormon, I am learning things I hadn’t seen before. I had previously understood the narrative function of “and it came to pass,” but working on Plates brought out the companion phrase “and now” which works in conjunction with “and it came to pass” to move the action of the text through time, or to show events happening during the same time.
Engraven is pretty much all things I have learned about the text, though some of the ideas have been cooking for a long time and some have seen light in different ways.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced while punctuating and formatting the Printer’s Manuscript for The Plates of Mormon?
A: Staying awake? What a generally boring task! It was fascinating to learn that after however many times I have read the Book of Mormon and how many times I have tried to read it closely—there were new things that I had never seen before. Sometimes it was incomplete sentences. In one case, it was an unfortunate punctuation that created the strange statement that Christ had never shown himself on earth. That one is still in the current text! I note it in the Introduction to Plates, so maybe we can get people to read at least the introduction to find out which verse.
Q: In Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper you lean in heavily on Mormon, Nephi, and others being very real persons working very real records. Are there any implications of this approach that previous scholars of the Book of Mormon haven’t fully considered?
A: I think the question pertains more to a believing audience than an academic one. The non-believing academics can read as though there were real writers, but it is a convenient fiction. For believers, I think the difference is that many accept that there were real people, but have them sacralized almost to the point where they are sacred symbols more than human writers. By accepting Mormon, Nephi, and others as real writers, we can look at how they accomplished their work without assuming that that they were merely puppets controlled by the divine hand.
Q: What from these books do you hope that those who do not believe in the ancient historicity of the Book of Mormon can nevertheless find valuable and insightful to their understanding of that book of scripture?
A: Plates of Mormon allows the easier answer. That book can be used as a tool to understand the text of the Book of Mormon as it was presented in 1829.
Because Engraven divides the text into creative layers. The modern translation layer is where most nonbelieving academics spend their time. However, the whole text is essentially descriptive without declaring that those descriptions prove historicity. I assume it in the way I categorize the elements examined, but those elements can be examined and understood quite apart from the boxes in which I have placed them.
Both Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper and The Plates of Mormon are now available in paperback and ebook.
Black Friday 2023 Sales: 40% - 60% off Select Book of Mormon Resources! November 17 2023
6 AM on Thanksgiving Day through Monday 11/27*
Enhance your loved one's (or your own) 2023 Come Follow Me study of the Book of Mormon with these highly-acclaimed Book of Mormon resources.
*Offers valid for U.S. domestic customers only. Limited to available supply.
Preview The Plates of Mormon October 24 2023
The Plates of Mormon:
A Book of Mormon Study Edition Based on Textual and Narrative Structures in the English Translation
"Readers will engage anew with the text of the Book of Mormon in this logically and creatively reformatted presentation, supported by highly insightful footnotes. There is much to be gained from this innovative contribution to Book of Mormon studies."
— Kerry Hull, co-editor, A Hundredth Part: Exploring the History and Teachings of the Book of Mormon
Download a preview here or view below.
For nearly two centuries, Latter-day Saints have been reading the Book of Mormon through multiple changes in its punctuation, formatting, and versification. The Plates of Mormon: A Book of Mormon Study Edition Based on Textual and Narrative Structures in the English Translation offers a new perspective on this book of scripture by seeking to align its English translation with the inaccessible golden plates from which that translation was made. Originally punctuated and formatted by the 1830 first edition’s compositor, John H. Gilbert, who had to add punctuation and paragraphs to the text to make it more reader-friendly, this study edition meticulously returns to this issue by reexamining punctuation and paragraphs to enhance readability while maintaining faithfulness to the source material. Utilizing insights explored in his companion volume, Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon, editor Brant A. Gardner also addresses issues of spelling, grammar, alterations, deletions, and paratextual information, providing readers with a deeper understanding of the Book of Mormon's composition and the principles guiding this edition's editorial decisions.
Additionally, this edition examines narrative and literary structures in its translation to best represent how Mormon’s ancient writings were recorded on his golden plates. It does so not only by removing modern summaries and versification formatting, but also by returning the text to its original chapters and relocating the small plates section outside of Mormon’s intended record. It also highlights the logic behind punctuation, paragraphing, chapters, and headers, helping readers gain a more profound appreciation for the text's nuances. If you're interested in the Book of Mormon's origins, textual structure, and the thoughtful decisions made in presenting it, this edition provides valuable insights and a fresh perspective on this sacred text. It is a must-read for those seeking to explore the Book of Mormon anew.
Preview Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper October 23 2023
Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper:
Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon
"This expansive study immediately rises to top of must-read resources relative to the Book of Mormon."
— Kerry Hull, co-editor, A Hundredth Part: Exploring the History and Teachings of the Book of Mormon
"No one person has made a more thorough attempt to account for all the historical dimensions of the Book of Mormon."
— Joseph M. Spencer, author, The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology
Download a preview here or view below.
In Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon, author Brant A Gardner delves into the intriguing layers of composition and historical context of the Book of Mormon. While taking seriously the implications for what it means for this book of scripture to be a translation of an ancient record written by historical persons, Gardner explores the translation process of the Book of Mormon, analyzing three compositional layers: the nineteenth-century text, the Nephite Book of Mormon, and the Nephite writers and their sources. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of the origins and compositional history of the Book of Mormon, without aiming to serve as an apologetic defense.
We Love Memoirs Day Sale! 8/31-9/04 August 29 2023
To celebrate National We Love Memoirs Day, we are pleased to offer discounted prices on these selected memoirs. This sale runs from August 31–September 4 and is available in print through our website and also in Ebook for Kindle, Apple, and Google.
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Book discussion and signing events for And There Was No Poor Among Them May 15 2023
May 16: Book discussion and signing for And There Was No Poor Among Them @ Windsor Manor, Rexburg, ID
May 18: Book discussion and signing for And There Was No Poor Among Them @ Pioneer Book, Provo
May 19: Book signing for And There Was No Poor Among Them @ Benchmark Books, SLC
Preview Life and Death on the Mormon Frontier May 11 2023
Life and Death on the Mormon Frontier:
The Murders of Frank LeSueur and Gus Gibbons by the Wild Bunch
“Stephen LeSueur takes the reader on a ride into the dark, murderous world of the Wild Bunch in the Mormon settlements of the Utah-Arizona frontier. A compelling, deeply researched, and well-written study that will grab the attention of Old West historians.” — Daniel Buck, co-author of The End of the Road: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Bolivia
Download a preview here or view below.
On March 27, 1900, Frank LeSueur and Gus Gibbons joined a sheriff’s posse to track and arrest five suspected outlaws. The next day, LeSueur and Gibbons, who had become separated from other posse members, were found brutally murdered. The outlaws belonged to Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch gang. Frank LeSueur was the great uncle of the book’s author, Stephen C. LeSueur.
In writing about the Wild Bunch, historians have played up the outlaws’ daring heists and violent confrontations. Their victims serve primarily as extras in the gang’s stories, bit players and forgotten names whose lives merit little attention. Drawing upon journals, reminiscences, newspaper articles, and other source materials, LeSueur examines this episode from the victims’ perspective. Popular culture often portrays outlaws as misunderstood and even honorable men—Robin Hood figures—but as this history makes clear, they were stone-cold killers who preferred ambush over direct confrontation. They had no qualms about shooting people in the back.
The LeSueur and Gibbons families that settled St. Johns, Arizona, served as part of a colonizing vanguard for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, popularly known as Mormons. They contended with hostile neighbors, an unforgiving environment, and outlaw bands that took advantage of the large mountain expanses to hide and escape justice. Deprivation and death were no strangers to the St. Johns colonizers, but the LeSueur-Gibbons murders shook the entire community, the act being so vicious and unnecessary, the young men so full of promise.
By focusing the historian’s lens on this incident and its aftermath, this exciting Western history offers fresh insights into the Wild Bunch gang, while also shedding new light on the Mormon colonizing experience in a gripping tale of life and death on the Arizona frontier.
Q&A with Ryan Ward, author of And There Was No Poor Among Them May 03 2023
We recently spoke with Ryan D. Ward, author of And There Was No Poor Among Them: Liberation, Salvation, and the Meaning of the Restoration, available May 16, 2023.
For those who have never heard of liberation theology, how would you define it?
Liberation theology, in brief, is a branch of Christian theology that considers the liberation of the oppressed. It deals specifically with how the good news of the gospel can be realized in situations of oppression, poverty, and marginalization. As such, in liberation theology, God’s dealings with humanity and Jesus’s life and ministry are viewed through the lens of the hope of the oppressed for liberation, and liberation theologians view God’s work in the world as being preferentially relevant to liberating the poor. This theology has been worked out in real-world situations of political oppression. It began in Latin America during the 60s and 70s as a response to the brutal dictatorships of this period and has been adapted to many other contexts of oppression.
How were you first introduced to liberation theology, and is there anything in particular that sparked your interest in it?
Several years ago I felt impressed to study Jesus’s Atonement. I read everything I could find about it both within Latter-day Saint scholarship and broader Christian perspectives. This study eventually led me to reading extensively about the life and ministry of Jesus in its historical context. One of the books I read referenced Gustavo Gutierrez, who many consider the father of liberation theology, and I read his book A Theology of Liberation. It absolutely blew my mind, and I read dozens of liberation theology books over the next couple years. For me, it felt like much of what I had been struggling to understand suddenly made sense, and liberation theology has given me a powerful new lens through which to view my faith and discipleship. So I didn’t seek it out, I guess you could say it found me. I would also say I think I was led to it.
In Chapter 3 you explore how during the period between (what Latter-day Saints generally refer to as) the Great Apostasy and the Restoration, the general Christian understanding of salvation transformed from a primarily social and communal effort into something almost entirely concerned with individuals and the afterlife. What are some key aspects of the Restoration that you see as returning Saints to a more communal understanding of salvation that focuses on the here and now?
I think the baptismal covenant in Mosiah 18:8-10 indicates that there is something very fundamental about this mortal human existence. The covenant to mourn, bear burdens, and offer comfort focuses discipleship on entering into a community of shared suffering with one another. For me, the fact that this is the first covenant we make as Latter-day Saints is a powerful witness that God’s purposes for this life have much more to do than proving our worth to return to live with God. Second, the idea of sealing the entire human family together via temple ordinances provides a beautiful symbol of the kind of community we should be striving to establish here on earth. Third, the idea of Zion as the ideal toward which we strive is that of a covenant community set apart by virtue of its economic and spiritual structure. The defining feature of Zion is that the people are of one heart and one mind and that there is no poor among them. This is not a description of the afterlife, it is a temporal, mortal reality. Finally, there is doctrinal support for the idea that this earth will become the Celestial Kingdom. What has not been worked out is how that is to happen. I suggest that reference to different degrees of glory indicates different degrees of living in covenant relationship with one another. The highest degree of such relationship is a Zion existence. Eternal life is defined officially by the Church as “the quality of life that our Eternal Father lives.” There is nothing in this definition that locates this type of existence exclusively, or even primarily, in the afterlife.
Why might some Latter-day Saints be hesitant to consider or embrace this understanding of salvation? What would you say to them to alleviate that hesitation?
The main reason is that the concept of salvation as pertaining strictly to the afterlife is deeply ingrained in our Christian tradition. Another reason is that our religious tradition claims exclusive authority to administer what we term the “ordinances of salvation” in temples. They are believed to be prerequisites that enable progression in the next life. Our kindred dead are waiting for these and cannot progress without them. These ideas make it very difficult to consider salvation as pertaining to the here and now. There is, however, a lot of scriptural evidence, in the Bible as well as within Restoration scripture, that salvation pertains to this life as well. I hope my book presents some of this evidence in a way that allows people to feel comfortable with beginning to expand their view of salvation to also include lifting the poor, oppressed, and marginalized in this life. In fact, a main argument in the book is that we have a covenant obligation to do so. I think that if we truly view others as sisters and brothers and fellow children of God, we cannot help but reach out to those around us who are less fortunate. For me, turning outward is a manifestation of an inward conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What other aspects of liberation theology would you like to see explored through a Restoration lens?
I think this is really exciting and there are so many possibilities. I’ll briefly mention two. Paul’s metaphor of the saints as the “body of Christ” is one that has not been extensively explored within the context of Restoration thought. I think it provides a profound area of potential exploration. How are we the body of Christ? What does that mean in terms of our individual and collective action to alleviate suffering in the world? How is the mission and mandate of the Church related to the way it acts as the body of Christ in the world? Relatedly, what do our ordinances and covenants, particularly the law of consecration as received in the temple endowment, teach us about our covenant obligations to humanity? How can these ordinances and covenants bind us to one another and to God, and how can this give us access to power needed to manifest God’s salvation to the world? These questions are only the beginning of an exploration of liberation theology through a Restoration lens. I think our unique tradition can make some significant contributions to liberation theology, and I hope that Latter-day Saints embrace this way of thinking more expansively about our faith.
Preview And There Was No Poor Among Them: Liberation, Salvation, and the Meaning of the Restoration April 10 2023
And There Was No Poor Among Them:
Liberation, Salvation, and the Meaning of the Restoration
“This a profound and profoundly important book, one of the most compelling in the history of modern Mormonism. . . . If I had the power, I would make And There Was No Poor Among Them required reading of every local, regional, and general leader of the Church.” — Robert A. Rees, Co-founder and Vice-President of the Bountiful Children's Foundation
Download a preview here or view below.
While The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has expanded many fundamental Christian doctrines, salvation is still understood as pertaining exclusively to the next life. How should we understand salvation and what does the timing of the Restoration reveal about God’s vision of salvation for a suffering world?
To answer these questions, author Ryan Ward traces the theological evolution of salvation from the liberation of Israel from oppression to the Western Christian development of salvation as an individualistic, transactional atonement. This evolution corresponded with the shift of Christianity from a covenant community to an official state religion aligned with imperial power structures. Ward also explores the economic and social movements in the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, which solidified the power of propertied elites at the expense of the poor, plundered entire continents, and killed millions.
Synthesizing these theological and historical threads, And There Was No Poor Among Them: Liberation, Salvation, and the Meaning of the Restoration asserts that the Restoration is God's explicit rejection of social and economic systems and ideologies that have led to the globalization of misery. Instead, Ward shows how the Restoration and the gospel of Christ is an invitation to a participatory salvation realized in Zion communities where “there are no poor among us.”
Q&A with the authors of Method Infinite January 13 2023
We spoke with Cheryl Bruno and Nick Literski, authors of Method Infinite Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration, now available from Greg Kofford Books.
Typically, discussion about Mormonism and Freemasonry centers on the Latter-day Saint temple endowment. How does your book change the focus of the discussion?
One of the biggest mistakes that is made in studying Mormonism and Masonry is to focus solely on the endowment. In order to understand why traces of Freemasonry can be seen in Mormon temple ritual, one must begin at Joseph Smith’s birth and look at how Masonry affected him throughout his life. This book gives a panoramic view of the subject and really does change the focus of the discussion.
Freemasonry was ideologically and symbolically everywhere in eighteenth and nineteenth-century America. Is it reasonable to assume it would also be present in the early elements of the Restoration?
Freemasonry was ubiquitous in nineteenth-century America. Though hard to believe today, the Craft was part of the cultural landscape, and virtually everyone had some understanding of its general principles and structure. Still, it is interesting to see how some of the early historical accounts about the first vision and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon put them into a Masonic framework.
Where does the title of the book come from?
Edward Tullidge ascribes the following quote to Eliza R. Snow: “There is method in Mormonism—method infinite. Mormonism is Masonic.”
What Masonic elements that were used to help usher in the restoration are still present in the Church today? Do they still hold the same importance?
Many elements of Mormonism that church members think are unique to Joseph Smith in fact have roots in Masonry. These include the concept of restoration, plates of gold that were hidden up and then found, the Grand Council of Heaven, the eternity of matter, the chain of belonging, dispensation heads, and oath-bound rituals to impart greater light and knowledge to those seeking to progress through degrees. Latter-day Saints may be aware of Masonic handclasps and symbols, including aprons, squares, and compasses, but do not always realize that Masonry also includes three distinct knocks, five points of fellowship, endowments, and many similarities of wording found in the temple. Method Infinite gives insight on these similarities and why they were of interest to Joseph Smith. Modern Mormonism has lost the significance of many of these elements, and therefore, they have declined in importance and many have been removed from our ritual.
What do you want readers to take away from your book?
We hope that the book will teach readers that Freemasonry had an effect on Mormonism from the very beginning, and is not just limited to a few resemblances in the temple. But more than that, we hope to ease the anxiety many have felt over Masonic influence in the founding years of the Church.
New Year's Ebook Flash Sale January 02 2023
As we welcome 2023, we are pleased to offer discounted prices on select ebooks related to the New Testament. This sale runs from January 2–7 and is available for Kindle, Apple, and Google ebooks.
Sale ends Saturday, January 7.
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Q&A with Thomas Wayment, translator of The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints November 04 2022
We talked with Thomas A. Wayment, professor of classics at Brigham Young University, about the revised edition of The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints, out November 9 from Greg Kofford Books.
Q: How has the reception to this project been since you published the first edition, four years ago? Have any reactions to the translation surprised you?
A: I would say the reception of the first edition has been overwhelmingly positive. I had a sense, based on decades in the classroom, that interest in the Bible and understanding it had atrophied over time. This led me to question whether there would be any reception at all for such a project, but the response indicates that there is still a broad market in the scriptural text.
Over time, I had come to appreciate how difficult the KJV’s prose is to understand, particularly for those who have learned English as a second language. I wanted to lessen the barrier, so to speak, for accessing the New Testament. I have been overwhelmed by the number of responses indicating that this new translation has done precisely that, namely made the word of scripture more accessible to a modern audience.
Q: What do English-speaking Latter-day Saints gain from reading a translation that's been prepared with them in mind, particularly compared to either the King James Version we're used to or other Modern English translations?
A: There are a number of excellent English translation already in circulation, and I think most students would benefit from reading a modern translation. The challenge with every translation is that it is couched in the context of a faith community, an academic context, or another such setting. The notes and other reader aids are printed for a certain type of reader. To date, the only effort to write notes specifically addressing topics of Latter-day Saint interest has been the church’s effort to write footnotes starting with the 1979 edition. Those notes are meant to be affirmative of church positions, and so for many readers those notes can be disappointing when a difficult question arises. Faith-affirming notes tend to avoid grappling with thorny issues, and this is where my notes differ. I attempt to offer a perspective on a number of difficult issues, and to give the LDS reader a careful discussion of the Greek text that they won’t find elsewhere.
Q: What have you added to this revised edition? How will they help readers as they study the New Testament?
A: This new edition has a number of new features. First of all, it is corrected in a number of places. Some of the corrections are due to errors I made in the first edition, and others were made for stylistic reasons and to make the text more readable Second, I received some feedback that I had not been transparent in my usage of the Joseph Smith Translation in the first edition. I have added a short introduction on the topic and clarified my approach. Third, I have restored the language of quotation to the footnotes so that I account for the numerous ways that restoration scriptures use the Bible. I use standard categories of intertextuality such as quotation, allusion, and echo. In the first edition there was some concern that by stating the Book of Mormon quotes the New Testament I might be making a claim about the authorship of the Book of Mormon. I’ve restored those footnotes so the reader can see places where New Testament phraseology rises to the point in the Book of Mormon where it can be considered a quotation. I have been cautious using this category, and the reader can determine for herself why the Book of Mormon has shared language with the New Testament.
Q: Walk us through your method for translating a passage from the New Testament. How much of the text do you focus on at a time? How do you know you've got a rendering you're happy with? How do you approach particularly ambiguous passages where translators and even the sources we have start to disagree?
A: My process over the course of about seven years was to translate one book of scripture at a time, starting linearly and moving from Matthew towards Revelation. I had initially thought that I would never translate Revelation, mostly for personal reasons and because its Greek isn’t what one would consider good or even readable in some places. As the project progressed and somewhere around Luke, I shifted to translating a chapter per day. I liked what I was seeing, and so I put more energy into the project. When I finished an entire book, I would then retranslate the entire thing using my first draft. I compiled the notes at this stage as well. I tried to wrestle with alternate translation possibilities and nuances that could be expressed in notes. I was, of course, terrified that I would miss a passage of text or verse because I hadn’t built a check into the system to make sure I avoided such mistakes.
When I had a nearly complete manuscript I read it out loud and had a student do so. That was the point at which I felt that I was happy with the text. It seemed to me to be quite readable, distantly related to the KJV and the NRSV, but not dependent upon them. I felt that my tone had to have some resemblance to the KJV because of my target audience. On a personal note, I would have like to completely abandon that text because its elegance doesn’t really show through in the New Testament, except for maybe the Gospel of John. I think when people speak of the elegance of the KJV they are thinking about the prophetic texts and Genesis. The translations of Acts, the letters of Paul, and Revelation are fairly pedestrian in the KJV.
When I came to difficult passages in the text, I tried to signal to the reader the possibilities that exist for translation. I would have liked to add much more in this regard, but at some point the notes needed to remain notes and not become commentary. I hoped to address the thorniest issues of the text, but that is a subjective measure.
Q: What kind of information do you find most helpful in understanding the New Testament and how did you incorporate that kind of info into your footnotes?
A: I think that our generation obsesses about the New Testament as history. We want to reconstruct the “trial of Jesus” or understand the exact manner of crucifixion. We go on pilgrimages to sacred sites, and we bring our New Testament along and read from the passages that took place at those sacred sites as an effort at reenactment. Translating the New Testament reminds me that the New Testament is literature and the moment any author tells the story of another person in narrative form they’ve begun to shape the story intentionally or unintentionally. I’ve attempted to help the reader see this through the addition of a synopsis at the end of the book, so that the reader can determine that Matthew, Mark, and Luke told the story of Jesus in drastically different order and frequently quoting his words differently. I also placed subheadings in the text so that a reader can immediately see parallel passages and locate the differences in the accounts. The modern historian is often bothered by these differences, but as literature, the text preserves both things that Jesus said and did and how the gospel authors understood those events. Their understanding and contextualization were not unanimous or uniform, and we can learn by their varieties of belief and perception.
Q: What have you learned about the New Testament from working on this translation project? Has your perspective on any books or figures in these scriptures changed?
A: In some ways I would like to go back and retranslate the text again because no translation captures the richness of the story in a single attempt. I have been surprised that David Bentley Hart’s translation has been so popular among the LDS community. I think that is in part because his translation captures a disruptive Jesus, and it emphasizes the commonality of his speech. I originally thought this would be off-putting to many, but I can now see that for many the idea that Jesus destabilized religious norms creates a type of modern hero that is appealing to some.
I also came to see the visceral nature of Paul’s writing. He feels so angry on occasion (Galatians), while being reflective at other times (Romans). I don’t ever seem to have the capacity as a translator to capture these highs and lows. I’m currently working through the Gospel of John with a class, and I’m reminded how wordy that gospel is. I wonder if John felt that heavy and repetitive prose were intentionally didactic. At any rate, the New Testament is a text that continually offers new perspectives and insights and so I my greatest takeaway is a sense of confusion that anyone would remain committed to a four hundred year old translation from a bygone era when so many better options abound.
Q: Do you have a favorite book from the New Testament?
A: I don’t have a favorite book, but I have a favorite character: Paul. He expresses mood better than any other person in the New Testament, and although his biographer (Luke) often suppresses Paul’s expression of emotion, Paul preserved his own feelings in a small corpus of letters.
Q&A with Malcolm Adcock and Fred E. Woods, authors of The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind October 13 2022
We talked with Malcolm Adcock and Fred E. Woods about their recent book The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind, which explores the multifaceted perspectives of British people outside of the Latter-day Saint faith tradition and how these perceptions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members have generally improved over time.
Q: What motivated you to collaborate on this book? What space in the historical record did you want to fill?
A: Fred and Malcolm first met in 2017, and the idea of collaborating on the book was soon born. They realized that they could each bring a unique perspective, with Malcolm’s background in journalism and Fred’s religious and historical scholarship. It is this combination of skills and approach that makes the book work.
The publication brings the reader up to date. It is especially strong in its new, eyewitness accounts from the 1950s to the 2020s. The book shows how present-day British Latter-day Saints interact and contribute to the modern world. Its special contribution is the unique approach in interviewing those not of the Latter-day Saint faith—from MPs and members of the House of Lords to leading members of the Church of England and prominent thinkers within the interfaith community. We want the book, with its rich new source material, to stimulate discussion within academic forums, and to be widely read by anyone who has a British connection.
Q: What is the earliest British depiction of Latter-day Saints? Do we have any surviving reactions from members of the Church?
A: As early as 1831, a caricature of "the Mormons" traveled quickly across the Atlantic—six years before the first missionaries arrived in Liverpool. British newspaper the Morning Advertiser reprinted an article from Illinois dubbing members of the faith as "unfortunate lunatics." That same year, Joseph Smith described how "many false reports, lies, and fo[o]lish stories, were published in the newspapers . . ."
Q: How did British Saints break through the negative stereotypes and biases to become active participants in British society?
A: Stereotypes are being broken because of the decline in religious tribalism between faith groups and – to some degree – due to the increased secularization of society. But the increased visibility of Latter-day Saints “doing good” is also a significant factor. The Church is increasingly known for its positive contributions, and individual Church members often “do good” in the public square.
Q: What was the most surprising piece of misinformation you found had been spread about the Church while researching this book?
A: Some people, even during the second half of the twentieth century, believed there was a tunnel under the River Mersey (North West England) within which “Mormon” brides were whisked away to Utah.
Q: Who are some of the people you interviewed for this book? What did they add to your understanding of the Latter-day Saint image in the British Mind?
A: Michael Otterson, who pioneered the establishment of the Church’s “Public Communications” during the 1970s, discusses how sensational stories in the tabloid press eventually led to a large upswing in interest about the Church. Baroness Emma Nicholson describes how she introduced an Apostle to her colleagues in Parliament. Relationships of trust and respect established over the years with interfaith communities and members of government have led Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, now Speaker of the House of Commons, to describe Latter-day Saints as "normal, everyday guys."
Q: Tell us more about the documentary you made alongside the book. What does it add to the reading experience?
A: The documentary highlights some of the individual and community outreach that has helped shift opinions of the general British population towards the Church as they have interacted personally with its members. Some of these events include the 1955 UK performances of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, called the "Mormon Tabernacle Choir" back then. The film also refers to concerts in London’s Hyde Park Chapel and the arrival of The Osmonds in the 1970s which gave countless fans the opportunity to appreciate the contributions of Church members to the greater community.
Q: What does the relationship between the Church and the British public look like now? Is there any further progress to be made?
A: The religion was once persecuted, even feared. Hateful epithets are now virtually non-existent. The religion may still face a skeptical public, even hostility in the media. But here is a church, once at the margins, that is increasingly seen as part of the fabric of British society.
Preview The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints, Revised Edition October 04 2022
The New Testament:
A Translation for Latter-day Saints,
Revised Edition
Download a preview here or view below.
The language of the King James Bible will always be part of the Latter-day Saint cultural fabric in English. It is woven into our hymns, our ordinances, and our scriptural canon, and it has been one of the primary vehicles through which we encounter the word of God. However, when the language of translation becomes too foreign, too distant from the present age, it is time to consider the possibility of another translation. The four-hundred-year-old King James Bible in use by English speaking Latter-day Saints is an artifact of the seventeenth century and is no longer a living and breathing text. The New Testament was written by the marginalized and impoverished; its language is that of common people and not the educated elites.
The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints is an invitation to engage again the meaning of the text for a new and more diverse English readership by rendering the New Testament into modern language in a way that will help a reader more fully understand the teachings of Jesus, his disciples, and his followers.
This new revised edition is an effort to correct the first edition—in nearly two hundred instances—both in the notes and less frequently in the text. In addition, the introductory material has been expanded to include discussions of the Joseph Smith Translation and on reading scripture, and appendices have been added detailing the many instances in which the language of the New Testament appears in other Latter-day Saint scripture.
Preview The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind August 24 2022
The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind
Download a preview here or view below.
Since the coming forth of the Book of Mormon in 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has added millions of people to its global membership. Crucial to its initial growth were converts from Great Britain who emigrated to join with other Latter-day Saints in the United States. Many, however, also stayed in the United Kingdom in order to establish a presence of the Church there.
In The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind, authors Malcolm Adcock and Fred E. Woods explore the multifaceted perspectives of British people outside of the Latter-day Saint faith tradition and how these people’s perceptions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members generally have improved over time. In doing so, they present historical accounts, particularly through literature, film, and media reviews depicting Latter-day Saints and their faith. In addition, they utilize over a hundred face-to-face interviews and surveys of over a thousand Brits to determine how citizens of the United Kingdom perceive the Church in the twenty-first century.
Q&A with Anne-Marie Wright Lampropoulos, author of A Vision Splendid: The Discourses of David O. McKay June 14 2022
We talked with Anne-Marie Wright Lampropoulos, author of our latest release A Vision Splendid: The Discourses of David O. McKay, about how studying the transcripts of McKay's discourses that her aunt kept while working as his private secretary gave her an appreciation for how the twentieth century prophet wove poetry and prose quotations into his speeches.
Q: The records your aunt, Clare Middlemiss, kept while working as secretary to President McKay are one of the great treasures of recent Mormon history. When did you decide to use them for a book and what directed you towards the topic of McKay's discourses?
A: I have been fascinated by my Aunt Clare’s work since childhood because of the way my family talked about her and her 35-year service with President McKay, and as the only woman to ever hold the position of private secretary to an LDS Church president. She gave my dad the vast collection of records she kept in her spare time, copious records consisting of thousands of pages of speeches, diaries, and scrapbooks. Her collection resided in a closet next to my bedroom after she passed away. My dad, Bob Wright, and his friend Greg Prince wrote an award-winning biography from Aunt Clare’s collection, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. As comprehensive as their book was, there was still so much more inside these records. As I read through McKay’s speeches, I noticed how much he relied on beautiful literature and poetry to relay his messages. Gleaning from this treasure trove of material, I have tried to capture the essence of McKay’s inspiration and the remarkable vision he had for the world and the Church he led. Much has been written about McKay’s life and tenure as a Church leader and prophet, but little has been written about his love of literature and his abundant use of beautiful poetry and prose in every address he gave. Study of his speeches provides interesting insight into how he spent his precious free time, the books and journals he read, and the sources he sought for inspiration and understanding.
Q: How did you decide what categories of McKay's discourses should be covered in A Vision Splendid?
A: As I read through the massive collection of McKay’s speeches, I immediately recognized distinct categories. Some of the speeches were official Church discourses, some of which had been published in various Church publications or covered in the media. But there were so many more that had never been heard or covered except by the people who were in attendance. These speeches were given in various settings, including Rotary Clubs, commencement exercises, building dedications, and my favorite, funeral services. Each category contained universal themes, but each category also contained different tones and messages as well, depending on the setting and the audience. It seemed logical to divide McKay’s speeches into four categories: Church Discourses, Dedications, Civic Addresses, and Funeral Sermons. These categories helped to organize and analyze McKay’s vast discourses and messages to audiences worldwide.
Q: What criteria did you use to select the three or four representative addresses published in full for each type of discourse?
A: From the tens of thousands of pages of material, I tried to select representative addresses for each genre that would give readers a genuine sense of McKay’s style and tone as well as the characteristic poetry and prose he used. No two speeches were ever the same, or even close, which is surprising given the immense numbers of speeches he gave. The discourses I chose to highlight portray good examples of the messages McKay thought were important and the unique way in which he chose to impart them to Church audiences, communities surrounding new temples and church buildings, civic groups, and mourners. Selected speeches were addressed to believers and non-believers, rural folks and city dwellers, Americans and world citizens.
Q: How do McKay's discourses help us understand his place in LDS history? What about his addresses was different from previous church presidents?
A: During his tenure as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, David O. McKay addressed hundreds of audiences as he presided over unprecedented growth of Church membership worldwide. McKay’s discourses were not typical for an LDS prophet. Many of the words McKay used were not his own – he gathered them from poets and authors, scientists and saints, patriots, and politicians whose words not only add interest and dimension to his discourses, but demonstrate his astoundingly broad interests, his keen intellect, and his desire and ability to glean wisdom from many sources. It is apparent that he read, studied, and memorized from a vast private library and then recited, shared, and extolled his treasures publicly. Pertinent literary passages helped him make sense of the world and helped his followers discover beauty and truth. McKay was much more likely to quote great literature than scripture in his addresses, which is in stark contrast to the speeches we hear from Church leaders today. His scriptural prowess was masterful, of course, but he seemed to favor the scholarly knowledge he gathered from poets, authors, orators, and statesmen when communicating from the pulpit. His messages are more spiritual than scriptural, more universal than Church-centric, making his appeal more broad and widespread. McKay’s sermons are more lofty and literary than both his predecessors and his successors, and it was his unique way of understanding and relating to people that formed the foundation from which he was able to build the burgeoning, worldwide church we have today.
Q: A Vision Splendid comes out almost exactly twenty years after your first book with Greg Kofford Books, A Bundle of Choices, which interviewed LDS women about how they balanced their options and priorities. Do you see any connections between your two books?
A: I believe women will always question or doubt their choices at times. With so many options available to them, the ability to choose is liberating, yet difficult. My two books are related in the sense that I see my Aunt Clare Middlemiss as a fascinating study of a strong, career-oriented woman who was a pioneer. As the only woman to ever hold the position of private secretary to an LDS Church president, I would have loved to interview her about the choices and sacrifices she made to be able to contribute to Church history like she did. I know she would have liked to marry and have children, but without her diligent record-keeping and dedication, we would not know nearly as much as we do about how President McKay made the decisions he did, what pressures he felt, and how the inner workings of the Church operated during a time of tremendous growth. These details and Middlemiss’s work reveal details that may be uncomfortable to some, but shed light on the reality of the time, documented and recorded for us to analyze and learn from. She dedicated her life to supporting President McKay and wanted the world to know of his ‘vision splendid’ for the world and the lasting legacy he made on the Church and the world.
Q: Do you have a favorite poem or quote that McKay's addresses introduced to you?
A: My favorite quote of McKay’s inspired the title of this book “A Vision Splendid.” In some of his discourses, McKay quoted a passage describing John Keats that could easily have been used to describe himself:
So long had his inner eye been fixed upon beauty; so long had he loved that ‘vision splendid,’ so long had he lived with it, that not only did his soul take on the loveliness of what he contemplated, but the very lines of the poet’s face were chiseled into beauty by those sculptors called ‘thoughts’ and ‘ideals.’
To me, this passage embodies McKay as a person, his sense of the world, his optimism for humanity, and his love of beauty and inspiring words and ideals. As he presided over tremendous growth of the Church, he imparted his love of loveliness everywhere he went to every audience he addressed. His vision splendid made a lasting impact on the Church and the world.
Preview A Vision Splendid: The Discourses of David O. McKay May 16 2022
A Vision Splendid:
The Discourses of David O. McKay
Download a preview here or view below.
During his forty-five years as a Latter-day Saint apostle and nineteen years as the prophet, David O. McKay gave thousands of speeches, including hundreds of temple and chapel dedications, civic addresses, funeral sermons, and General Conference and other Church-related talks. Many of these speeches contain some of the same prose and poetry, but no two speeches are the same. All of these discourses were written by McKay himself, and virtually all of them were typed, organized, and kept in large, legal-sized leather binders by Clare Middlemiss, his long-time personal secretary. His choice of prose reveals his favorite authors and literature, a glimpse into his personal library. It also conveys his ideals and his fervent belief in their truth.
Never before, and not since, has The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a prophet so well versed in secular as well as scriptural prose. McKay’s intellectual and spiritual worlds meshed as he recited with ease the poetry of Edgar A. Guest, John Oxenham, and Joaquin Miller, as well as the patriotic pronouncements of George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Benjamin Franklin. In one speech he seemed to have studied Scottish lore, and in another he effortlessly extolled current US statistics on crime or divorce. He was at times romantic and wistful, and at other times firm and warning.
In A Vision Splendid: The Discourses of David O. McKay, Anne-Marie Wright Lampropoulos culls from the vast records of McKay's discourses that Middlemiss kept and groups certain categories of speeches together: dedications, civic addresses, Church discourses, and funeral sermons. Each chapter broadly analyzes a category and then includes samples of illustrative full speeches. This analysis and compilation illustrates how McKay looked to poignant prose for a sense of his own personal identity and inspiration, as well as the larger identity and inspiration of Church members.
Q&A with Lark Evans Galli, co-author of Under a Leafless Tree: The Story of Helga Meyer, a Mormon Girl from East Prussia April 20 2022
Under a Leafless Tree tells the story of Helga Meyer, a Latter-day Saint who lived in World War II Germany. Helga's memories recently helped reconstruct that era for the newest volume of the official LDS Church history Saints. But before that, Helga had to be convinced by the neighbor she was visiting teaching that her stories from those years would be valuable to anyone. Lark Evans Galli talks about co-authoring Under a Leafless Tree with Helga and what her story means for the present.
How did you first meet Helga?
I remember meeting Helga and her older daughters when they moved into our neighborhood when I was a young girl. Our parents hired her daughter Heidy to do some ironing for our family and to teach us German over the dinner table. That arrangement didn’t last long, but our love for that family grew, even if our German didn’t.
When did you decide that you needed to record her story?
After decades apart, life brought Helga and me back together again in the year 2000, when I began to realize the breadth and importance of her stories. I frequently urged her to record them, but she was caught up in the business of her life and couldn’t imagine who would find them valuable. When she was called to minister to me as my visiting teacher, we pinned a microphone to her blouse, and fished for stories. I soon realized that she also held the memory of a family and community. She remembered it in vivid detail, with rare photos to match. Nine years later, we had her book!
Can you give a brief overview of Helga's life story and some of the main events covered in the book?
The book begins as Helga is born to a Latter-day Saint family in a small town along the Baltic Sea on the eastern border of Germany in 1920. Her daily childhood adventures intermingle with her country’s march from the aftermath of World War I to the rise of Hitler, sweeping Helga and everyone she knows into the heat of the next war. Before long, that conflict has upended her hometown and killed and displaced loved ones. But Helga continues drawing hope and beauty into her life despite the surrounding calamity. Finally, armed with her faith, she fashions a new life, miraculously realizing her dream of escaping East Germany with her family for America.
The book is filled with a remarkable number of photographs from Helga's life in East Prussia. How were these preserved through time and war?
From Helga’s earliest years, her young uncle “Heini” loved following the family around and snapping photos with a camera similar to the cheap “Brownie” cameras available at the time. Branch activities were sometimes photographed by American missionaries, who often had cameras and a little more time than current missionaries do. Teenaged Helga had a cheap “idiot box” camera that she loved taking along on outings. During the War she prioritized preserving her photos by carrying them in and out of cellars and bunkers during every air raid. After the war, she inherited the photo albums of her aunts Gretel and Lusche, rounding out her collection. Photos of her town of Tilsit were generously shared by the Tilsit City Organization. Helga’s collection of original and rare photos is astonishing.
How did Helga's faith support her during the global and personal crises she lived through?
By the time World War II arrived, Helga had found joy in her faith and fellowship with those in her small branch. She had learned to lean on her Father in Heaven in times of persecution, and already recognized a family gift of inspired dreams. She had been taught the gospel by her convert mother, grandmother, and aunts, as well as by her branch president and other church leaders. She seemed to gain faith as hers was challenged, as disheartening as those times were. During the war, she observed examples of kindness and strength in the lives around her; in particular, her Aunt Lusche, whose faith and compassion inspired many in and out of the church. Helga saw the Lord’s hand in situations as awful as the deaths of her dearest loved ones. Even then she recognized some small miracle.
The world faces multiple refugee crises, including a new one in Eastern Europe as a consequence of Russia's war on Ukraine. How can Helga's story from the past help us better understand similar trials in our own time?
When I think about Helga’s life, I remember that though the world may be in turmoil, we can continue serving, caring, and praying as she did. Helga saw miracles even when her most fervent prayers were unanswered. It is easy in hard times to assume that our lives have been ruined because they have been greatly changed. Life seems to have taken a horrible detour. Like millions from Ukraine today, war forever separated Helga from her home, her family, and her friends. And yet she saw beauty in life, even when she was injured in a bombing. She believed that God was with her because she had proved Him over and over. She trusted His promises, and up to the end of her life continued finding meaning in her prayers, her scripture studies, and her connections with fellow saints.
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