With the Seventies offering a unified course for quorum meetings in 1901 and the rest of the priesthood following suit latter that decade, the Relief Society held off until 1914 to unify and centralize their curriculum. The Relief Society Magazine, at that time called the Relief Society Bulletin, was instated for the very purpose of distributing materials to the disperse societies. (more…)

I recently returned from a research opportunity in Israel. It happens that the focus of most of my research relates to terrorism and the opportunity to travel to Israel and work with the Israelis was a chance I could not miss. There were many things this research helped me to realize. Beyond the considerable data I accumulated towards my own personal research, I left with an appreciation for the state and people of Israel. (more…)

Mark Ashurst-McGee (2000) A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet. Masters Thesis, Utah States University.

If Mark wrote this in 1980 and had been the first to dig up and cite all the primary sources that have now been collected into volumes by others, he would assuredly be exalted into the pantheon of New Mormon Historians rivaling only Andrew Ehat for most impactful thesis. (more…)