Summer School on The Great Awakening

I know some people don’t think there was one, but here’s the scoop anyway.

Yale Divinity School announces a summer school:

The Great Awakening: Context and Text

Check out ADE’s webpage.

Have a look at ADE’s webpage. Notice one of the volumes pictured there? JSPP hits the big time. Ok, but it is cool. Congrats guys.

http://documentaryediting.org/

Joseph Smith and the Polyglot

Joseph Smith had a polyglot New Testament, probably Elias Hutter’s 1602 imprint. Here’s an excerpt that figures in one of Joseph’s sermons:

The Latin and German panels for opening verses of Matt. 4.

Joseph Smith, Sermons, and Lived Religion

From the late colonial period to the time of Joseph Smith, important forces were at work that changed the nature of preaching. Most sermons in the late colonial period were read. Whether from small briefs carried into a pulpit, scribbled notes on a quarter sheet of foolscap, or carefully fleshed out thoughts in tempered script, preachers expanded from their notes or read word for word, but in general followed a written pre-planned text. There is a paper trail there.[1]

Adoption and Authority

Sitting here, post Sunday morning session and thinking about the meaning of ordination, it occurred to me that there is an interesting connection between our practice of “line of authority” and the adoption practices of Latter-day Saints prior to 1894. That angelic connection between the here and now and Deity is powerful. There is a wonderful attraction in it. I see this as another aspect of our Mormon heritage. The immediacy of it all.

Relief Society, Relief Societies, and the Future

Benevolence movements in antebellum America were a way for Protestant women to shape culture in a nonconfrontational, indirect way. These organizations began from a variety of personal and group motivations. Of course there was genuine care and concern for the needy. But there was also a certain anxiety about living in increasingly urban environments that contained ever larger numbers of the poor. Add to that the community minded who saw the lower edges of society as a drag on the economy and public culture. It’s not clear how the Nauvoo Female Relief Society fit this framework but one has to assume that different members saw it in different terms. The obvious difference was the quasi-priesthood aspects of Relief Society.

The Once and Future Book: Steven L. Peck’s “A Short Stay in Hell” returns!

Fellow blogger, applied mathematician and BYU faculty member Steven L. Peck’s stunning little book “A Short Stay in Hell” is now on sale.  Go thou and buy it.  What is eternity?  Shiver. 

BoAP.org Stats

I thought some of you might be interested in some recent stats for BoAP.org (no not this blog). Here’s what happened so far this month: March 1-18, 2012.

Lorenzo Dow. Methodist Itinerant Extraordinaire.

Lorenzo Dow was legendary in late 18th century — early 19th century America among believers and preachers alike. He was judged harshly by many of his colleagues for his flamboyant manner and sharp tongue. Dow’s popularity is evidenced by the number of male children named after him during period. Just looking through the narrow lens of Mormonism, we find people like Lorenzo Snow, Lorenzo Dow Young and Lorenzo Dow Barnes. These and others prove the point. He was a revered and despised guy, fitting the Moroni Profile. But just to prove that Dow was not all show, here is an excerpt from one his many imprints:

Announcing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing

News from ADE:

Scholarly Editing Internships (March 1 Deadline)

If you are thinking of pursuing a career in the field of documentary editing, you may find the following opportunities of interest:

Summer Institute for Editing Historical Documents, August 5-9.

Attention: Members of ADE and other interested parties:

Institute for Editing Historical Documents

The 2012 Summer Institute for Editing Historical Documents will be held 5–9 August at the Omni Hotel in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Institute will be funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission through a grant to the Association for Documentary Editing.

Joseph Smith Papers Journals vol. 2

Trek on over and see J. Stapley’s review. It’s excellent.

Happy Christmas and New Year to All

May the holidays be pleasant and meaningful and the Christ find place in your homes and hearts. See you in January.

Those Ad Men

Lately I’ve been reading the Deseret News and that has reminded me again of the fun advertisements you find in old newsprint. One of my favorites is from the Exponent around 1890 or so. The ad proposes the benefits of “taking” a spoonful of sodium hypochlorite at bed time. You get a cleansed palate and sweet stomach. No morning breath there! Sodium hypochlorite goes by a different name in your pantry now. Bleach. Yum.

This next is not an ad, but it appears with the DNews ads in 1857:

——–
DIED
In this city, of influenza, October 2, TAMSON VILATE, daughter of Phillip and Elizabeth Margetts, aged 10 days.

“Dearest sister, thou hast left us,
Here thy loss we deeply feel;
But ’tis God that has bereft us,
He can all our sorrows heal.”
——–

The Providence of God is a view many Latter-day Saints share without much examination. The sisterhood thing is also very interesting.[1]

A lot of the early DNews “ads” were lost and found stuff but here’s an interesting one that is not:

NOTICE.
JOHN H. PICKNELL is always on hand at C. Taylor’s slaughter house to kill beeves for $1 per head, and will pay a good price for hides.
N.B. Tripe and cow heels always on hand.

A possible Christmas gift guys! Cow heels for your sweetheart.
————
[1] The words are frequently quoted in Protestant death notices in the 19th century. They come from a hymn by L. Mason usually under the title “Death of a Schoolmate.”