Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Cheap approach to Mormon Studies

Kaimi Wenger at Times and Seasons posted an interesting article asking if someone had only $100 and wanted to get into Mormon studies, what books/ journals/ conferences/ resources would one recommend. He sought specific suggestions from several seasoned Mormon scholars. Others threw in their suggestions and I decided to (subjectively) tally up the results.

Armand Mauss captured the potency of such an undertaking saying "spend at least 20 hours a week in this enterprise, and in a year you will be more knowledgeable about LDS history and culture than 90% of the Saints and their leaders."

Under each Category, the number of recommendations is listed, followed by the recommended item.

Journal Recommenatons:
10 Dialogue
7 Sunstone
6 BYU Studies
5 Journal of Mormon History
2 Society of Mormon Philosophy and Theology
1 Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
1 John Whitmer Historical Association Journal
1 FARMS Review
1 Courage
1 International Journal of Mormon Studies

Specific Journal Article recommendations:
1 Sunstone: William A. Wilson: On Being Human: The Folklore of Mormon Missionaries
1 Sunstone: Thomas Alexander: The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine
1 Sunstone: Stan Roberts: Pastoring the Far Side: Making a Place for Believing Homosexuals
1 Sunstone: J. Bonner Ritchie: The Institutional Church and the Individual
1 Sunstone: Eugene England: Why the Church is as True as the Gospel
1 Sunstone: Arthur R. Bassett: Knowing, Doing, and Being: Vital Dimensions in the Mormon Religious Experience
1 BYU Studies: The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844 by D. Michael Quinn
1 BYU Studies: The King Follet Sermon: A Newly Amalgamated Text by Stan Larson
1 Dialogue: Ostler, "The Book of Mormon as a Modern Expansion of an Ancient Source"

Compilations
2 New Mormon Studies CD
2 Gospelink.com & CD
1 LDS Library CD

Conferences
3 Mormon History Association Conference (& mp3s)
3 Sunstone Symposium (& mp3s)
1 Claremont Mormon Studies Conferences
1 FAIR Conference
1 John Whitmer Historical Association Conference
1 Miller Eccles Study Group
1 UVU Mormon Studies Conference

Books
3 Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman
2 David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory A Prince and Wm Robert Wright
2 Mormon Sisters: Women In Early Utah by Claudia Bushman
2 The Prophet Puzzle: Interpretive Essays on Joseph Smith (Essays on Mormonism Series) by Bryan Waterman
2 Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930 by Thomas G. Alexander
2 Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters by John Sillito and Susan Staker
1 A Believing People
1 A Widow's Tale: The 1884-1896 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney
1 Added Upon: A Story
1 American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon
1 Angel and the Beehive
1 By the Hand of Mormon
1 Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America

1 Dialogues with Myself

1 Differing Visions
1 Early Mormonism and the Magic Word View
1 The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power

1 The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions
1 Emma Smith
1 Excavating Mormon Pasts: The New Historiography of the Last Half Century
1 Faithful History
1 Great Basin Kingdom
1 Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon
1 Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball
1 Massacre at Mountain Meadows
1 Maxwell Institute Apolegetic Materials
1 Mormon Enigma
1 Mormon History
1 Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Sessions
1 Mormon Polygamy
1 Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition
1 Multiply and Replenish: Mormon Essays on Sex and Family
1 Nauvoo Polygamy
1 Neither Black nor White
1 New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past
1 No Man Knows My History
1 People of Paradox
1 Saints Without Halos
1 Sister Saints
1 Story of the Latter-day Saints
1 Tending the Garden: Essays on Mormon Literature
1 The Democratization of American Christianity
1 The Diaries of Charles Ora Card
1 The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints
1 The Mountain Meadows Massacre
1 Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine
1 Utahs Black Hawk War
1 Women and Authority

2 comments:

Jon Spell said...

Kaimi's a he, not a she. =)

I know, surprised me too. Darn Hawaiians and their non-gender-specific names!

Clair Barrus said...

Thanks Jon. I've had the same thing happen to me too.

I've gender-adjusted the reference to Kaimi.


-Clair