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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.
Q&A with David B. Ostler, author of Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question April 05 2022
We catch up with David B. Ostler on the occasion of the newly-released second edition of his book Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question. Our first Q&A with David can be found here.
Q: It's been nearly three years since Bridges first hit shelves—three very eventful years that have seen new divides form between people. Has your understanding of how best to minister to those experiencing a faith crisis changed in that time?
A: Over the last three years, I have come to believe even more in the principles I outline in Bridges. I think they are universal in our ability to maintain strong relationships with people who think, believe and experience life differently. We need to listen to them, try and understand, show respect for them even when we disagree with them, and show love. In those three years, many leaders have reached out to me with their own recognition of challenges in their ward or stake, wanting to find ways to respond to these newly understood needs. It’s encouraging to see so many wanting to find ways to help people feel they can trust the Church and its leaders, to let all participants feel they can belong, and to provide a deeper and broader dialogue around issues that are meaningful to our members. I have also talked with members who identify as having experienced a faith crisis thanking me for telling their story, with hope that leaders and family members can better understand their sincere efforts to find faith and meaning in their lives. Sadly, I continue to see people vilify, wrongly judge, blame and attack those who have honest and sincere concerns about their place in the Church.
Since publishing Bridges, I've found that leaders often wouldn’t know what specific steps they should take. So, I created a Leaders Guide that focuses on the key issues with possible questions they can use in their presidency or council meetings. They can choose questions they think are most important to address based on their own member needs and then discuss these issues with other leaders to help them receive inspiration. One can find a download link on www.bridgeslds.com
Q: The expanded edition includes a new chapter on mixed-faith marriages and families. How did you come to decide this topic needed its own chapter? How do you hope it will help readers navigate the unique challenges that come with these relationships?
A: After the original publication, I had a number of people ask about how faith crisis and religious disaffiliation affect marriages and families. I realized I had missed a very important part, perhaps the most important part of the story. Everyone who has a faith crisis and everyone who disaffiliates belong to a family. They are a son or daughter, or perhaps they are married and have a believing spouse. As difficult as these issues are in a ward or branch, they are far more intense and consequential in a family. It took me time, but it was an essential addition to the original book. Through the research I did, I realized that almost every family in the Church faces the challenge of having different beliefs about God, spirituality, and the Church. For many, a mixed-faith family is full of pain and challenge, particularly when it is precipitated with a sudden faith crisis and transition. Marriages are broken up, parent-child relationships fracture, and there is a lot of suffering and wondering about how to maintain strong and loving relationships. I hope this chapter will ease the pain of so many and provide thoughts and suggestions to find love and connection in mixed-faith families.
Q: What responses have readers had to the book?
A: I received feedback from two groups of people. First, leaders and parents looking for ways to change how we respond when people have questions, share concerns, or even disaffiliate. They are sincere and humble and many realize that they have made many mistakes. This is very encouraging for me. Second, I heard back from individuals that felt heard by what I wrote. Some have left, some stay and have found a way to make it work, and some are still working to reconstruct their faith and how they want to participate. But they felt they weren’t alone, that someone had seen their situation, and that using the book could help their family or leaders better understand them and their situation.
Q: Can you describe the resources you offer at www.bridgeslds.com and how they build off the book?
A: The book focused on how to navigate difference in faith. But we have lots of differences in our world and we often fail at understanding and relating to those who are different. It’s clear that over the last 10 years, we have become a more divided people. The pandemic and our current American political divides highlight how divided we are. Some want to escape these divisions, but they are there in our families and communities. Others want to fight through the divisions and prove that their side is right. But neither of those ways work. We need to develop the skills to navigate our differences and to engage on the essential questions in our families, faith and communities in a way that creates respect and understanding. Not that we will agree with each other, but that we will understand where people are coming from and maintain connection.
My website, www.bridgeslds.com presently highlights an approach to talking about important topics in a structured way that develops curiosity and our listening skills. It respects difference. I call these Circles. I, and others, have held hundreds of Circles to talk about issues of faith and community. I have found new skills in listening and understanding and know other participants have as well. My website will change from time to time as I find new ways to create settings for understanding and develop the skills that we need so we can talk and listen with others, even when they believe or live differently.
Q&A with Richard L. Saunders, author of The 1920 Edition of the Book of Mormon February 22 2022
Q: Can you give us a brief background to this project? How did it begin?
A: Ebay. This all got started ten years ago in an online discussion with a seller over a book I wanted to return. The seller charged me a high price for a book that they asserted was one book but turned out wasn't what they claimed. As someone who works in book history, I get frustrated when people make claims about things they are trying to sell based on factors they don't understand. For instance, it is frustrating that many sellers fail to understand that a copyright date is not a publication date, or that an error in the book is only rare if it isn't in every copy printed. Initially I wanted to nail down publicly the evidence about the entire edition that would put those points to rest. I did that, and then it sort of grew and got more complicated from there, as projects do. Plus it was lots of fun, a puzzle with a large number of unknown pieces, some of which are still missing. My mom was stunned that so much could be said about merely one book. I have to say, I agree.
Q: Apart from its recent centennial anniversary, what drew you to the Book of Mormon's 1920 edition specifically? What makes it an important moment in the book history of this scripture?
A: Oh—where to start? On one level, this edition is significant because it is the one with which the Church began reclaiming publication of its central work of scripture. Up to this point mission presidents often ordered a printing without approval of any sort. For a couple of decades before this edition appeared, about the only copies of the Book of Mormon actually printed in Utah were vest-pocket editions sold by the Deseret News. Virtually all other copies of the book were produced in the Midwest or the East and shipped to the Great Basin (actually, the 1920 edition was too, until about 1927). The ones for the British Mission were printed there independently in England. Regaining ecclesiastical control of the text, printing, and creating a standard edition (in English, at least) were two reasons this edition is important. It's also important because it was the first edition to carry a fully developed study apparatus—notes and cross references. Orson Pratt's edition in the late 1870s was much less substantive. The 1920 edition was intended as a study edition.
On another level, I was fascinated because the edition is the product of an obsolete and nearly extinct group of technologies. Books themselves are so common in our world that they are virtually transparent—we take their existence for granted without noticing that they represent an enormously intensive series of creative processes. The production processes which made the 1920 Book of Mormon have virtually disappeared, except for the work of a few purists. Like railroad and automobile enthusiasts, a fascination with traditional letterpress printing is just emotional. Hot-metal type and letterpress printing exist in another time, but they are the manifestation of mechanical genius. One cannot appreciate hot-metal typesetting until you get some time to just watch a Linotype machine work, or watch print instantly appear as a press platen kisses the sheet. I've called the Linotype the most elegant mechanical device ever built. A Rolex watch just doesn't hold a candle to the poetry of engineering that is a Linotype machine.
Q: Can you briefly introduce book history as an overall discipline to readers who might not be familiar with it? What do book historians focus on and what methods do they use?
A: Book history works backwards: with a book in hand, it looks at how how they are made, working back to understand the processes that bring things to that point. In a large sense, it's a branch of history that looks at objects to infer activity in the world that produced them. Book history in the US exists as sort of an ignored step-child among scholars of the recent past, but it is very significant to early modern European history. For instance, I recently listened to a fascinating three-part presentation tracking physical details in the sheets of paper bound into late-medieval manuscripts. The scholar explained how physical details help generate a clearer picture of the scope of paper production and trade relations for paper distribution through Europe before printing.
Book history of the twentieth century tends to focus on the business of publishing or the sociology of reading. That's a bit different than what I've done in this book. Rather than look at the way the Book of Mormon is used or understood, I've tried to figure out how the copies were made. Once the contexts of production and distribution are better understood, they become a basis for understanding how print fit into missionary work and the emerging global church. Remember that most social organizations like churches rely on printed material not only to teach doctrine, but also to encourage social cohesion, especially among people living beyond core populations. Both those points were reason for publication of the Millennial Star early in the British Mission history, and for virtually every other mission publication up until the consolidation of church magazines in 1972. Print matters.
Q: Where does your new book fit into the existing landscape of Latter-day Saint book history?
A: There really isn't a Latter-day Saint book history—yet. There are good examples but coherence and conversation has yet to emerge. Most present scholarly attention is either theological or historical, and popular writing leans heavily toward either study or inspiration. There are checklists like A Mormon Bibliography, 1830-1930; and there are marvelous historical studies, like Dale Morgan's historical bibliographies from the 1940s, and the three magisterial volumes of Peter Crawley's Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. Hugh Stocks' dissertation on the Book of Mormon and David Whittaker's work on pamphleteering are probably the first real studies qualifying as book history.
Q: Were there any misconceptions you came into this project looking to correct?
A: If there was a misconception that needed to be resolved, it is that the Book of Mormon is divine dictation in the sense claimed by Muslims about the Qur'an, that is, that the text is inherently pure and that not a single character can be changed. The Book of Mormon has never been a single, unchangeable text. In fact, in the introduction I remind readers that I am looking at the Book of Mormon—the mortal embodiment of the book's “spirit” or text. In this book history of the Book of Mormon, I look at remarkably small details—the way printed paper is marked and folded, for instance—to understand how the Book of Mormon was produced, and then what that production implies about the books' distribution among the Latter-day Saints in the US.
Q: How is the book organized?
A: The book divides rather neatly into three parts. The first part is a straightforward exploration of Latter-day Saint publishing practice leading up to the twentieth century, and why there was a new edition commissioned in the first place. Then it walks through the editorial and book-production processes leading up to release of the new edition. I used to work in publishing myself, so readers get the benefit of an insider's knowledge of what is involved in making a book. A late chapter in this part carries the book through reprints and what that tells us about the changing nature of Church's business organization.
The second part is mostly definitions and illustrations needed to describe physical elements of the books themselves. It provides context to understand the details explored minutely in the third part, but if one doesn't understand the terms, the second half of the book won't make sense.
The third part is a simplified form of traditional descriptive bibliography, a catalogue of details describing one book from another. Each identifiable printing between 1920 and 1948 is described in terms of its paper, printing, collation (folding), binding, ornamentation, and errors and flaws. I catalogue differences and similarities, including as much of the known and inferred story about that particular printing or binding of the book as I can muster. Sometimes we have a pretty good idea of what was going on with a book, but sometimes the best we can do is infer what may have happened based on changes we can identify. It is pretty technically specialized, but I've written it for people who really want to get into the weeds. Collectors will find the details essential, while casual readers will be interested mostly in the notes. I don't expect very many people will read every word, and that's fine.
Q: The first part uses the 1920 edition's creation, production, and replication as a case study that shows how the LDS Church operated as an organization during the early twentieth century. What's something that surprised you when researching this process?
A: That “the Church” was so informal in producing printed work through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century in the first place. Publishing was largely in the hands of private individuals like mission presidents, and the auxiliary organizations. In my opinion this mostly reflects the nature of communication and transportation well before things were instantaneous. Only when Heber Grant became president did the Church (at his instruction) begin to pull things together and evolve a modern corporate structure for the sake of efficiency. Publishing was only a small sliver of that process, but it was an important one. The Church's global printing and distribution operation really effectively began only with Grant and Talmage in 1919. Coordination was the initial step, taken well before correlation.
Q: Do you have any favorite details to point out about this edition of the Book of Mormon?
A: Yes, certainly. I have three of them, and we know only half the story of the first one. In July 1920, James Talmage put together a list of 99 textual changes he felt needed to be made in the first half of the book. Unfortunately the list for the second half doesn't survive though we know there was one. None of Talmage's recommendations involve doctrine; in fact, most of them reflect little more than shifts in English grammar. Even so, the six apostles of the Book of Mormon committee did not make changes on their own initiative, even when acting unitedly as a council. The combined Quorum of Twelve Apostles and First Presidency discussed every one individually. They were serious about the text as a text without being obsessively literal about its state as a historical document.
My other favorite is the missed hyphen in 1 Nephi 10:18. As I note, despite two other typographic errors being corrected, this one was carried carefully through the entire edition, then through two more editions of the Book of Mormon, though probably no one knew why. It was not corrected until the 2012 edition—ninety years after being made. I like the story of that particular error because first, it reminds me that no human enterprise is entirely flawless—even in the Restoration. That point relates closely to the second reason: it reminds me that God uses flawed people to do marvelous things. It was an error in scripture, but even then for two more generations an error in scripture was evidently not significant enough that God took any notice. He just let it sit there and worked with what people could offer.
The third point is that the entire edition—from first concept to bound book—took merely nine months. That's just remarkable.
Q: What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
A: How much effort and how many fascinating stories there are in everyday things. There are few human creations more intentional than a book (though maybe architecture or airplanes would qualify). Scriptural texts do not merely appear in multiple copies. I find that investment and intentionality wonderful to contemplate and hope other folks begin see that book history as a rewarding puzzle.
Preview Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration February 18 2022
Method Infinite:
Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration
Download a preview here or view below.
While no one thing can entirely explain the rise of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the historical influence of Freemasonry on this religious tradition cannot be refuted. Those who study Mormonism have been aware of the impact that Freemasonry had on the founding prophet Joseph Smith during the Nauvoo period, but his involvement in Freemasonry was arguably earlier and broader than many modern historians have admitted. The fact that the most obvious vestiges of Freemasonry are evident only in the more esoteric aspects of the Mormon faith has made it difficult to recognize, let alone fully grasp, the relevant issues. Even those with both Mormon and Masonic experience may not be versed in the nineteenth-century versions of Masonry's rituals, legends, and practices. Without this specialized background, it is easy to miss the Masonic significance of numerous early Mormon ordinances, scripture, and doctrines. Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration offers a fresh perspective on the Masonic thread present in Mormonism from its earliest days. Smith's firsthand knowledge of and experience with both Masonry and anti-Masonic currents contributed to the theology, structure, culture, tradition, history, literature, and ritual of the religion he founded.
New Year's Ebook Flash Sale December 27 2021
As we welcome 2022, we are pleased to offer discounted prices on select ebooks on scripture and doctrine. This sale runs from January 1–7 and is available for Kindle and Apple ebooks.
Sale ends Friday, Jan 7.
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2021 Holiday Gift Guide November 19 2021
This holiday season, we are focusing on themes of scripture and doctrine. Below is a holiday buyer's guide highlighting a few of our most popular titles.
To see our Black Friday Sales, click here.
Scripture
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With the Old Testament being the focus of Latter-day Saint scripture study in 2022, there is no better place that volume of scripture than than the beginning. Authoring the Old Testament launched our Contemporary Studies in Scripture series, which utilizes the best tools of biblical scholarship to speak to a Latter-day Saint audience. Authoring the Old Testament introduces Latter-day Saint readers to the documentary hypothesis and offers a faith-affirming approach to Hebrew Bible authorship in line with contemporary scholarship. |
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Continuing with the Old Testament, there is perhaps no book of scripture that has been misunderstood more than Job. In Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem, author Michael Austin shows how most readers have largely misunderstood this important work of scripture and provides insights that enable us to re-read Job in a drastically new way. In doing so, he shows that the story of Job is far more than that simple story of faith, trials, and blessings that we have all come to know, but is instead a subversive and complex work of scripture meant to inspire readers to rethink all that they thought they knew about God. |
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One of our most popular titles! The Lost 116 Pages does more than tell the history behind the missing manuscript pages from the early translation of the Book of Mormon, it also uses the best scholarly tools available to analyze internal and external evidence and piece together what may have been in the lost pages. The result tells us as much about the existing Book of Mormon as it does the lost pages. Perfect for those who enjoy taking deep dives into scripture and history! |
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The Second Witness series by Brant Gardner is lauded as the most comprehensive Book of Mormon commentary in existence. Brant uses his extensive knoweledge and backgroud into Mesoamerican anthropology and intertextual studies to bring the Book of Mormon to life for modern readers. Second Witness can be purchased as a set or individual volumes. A must have for the serious student of the Book of Mormon. The entire series is 60% for Black Friday. |
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Continuing with the Contemporary Studies in Scripture series, The Vision of All by Joseph Spencer has been a consistent top seller. The Vision of All analyzes Nephi's use of Isaiah writings in the Book of Mormon, offering a reader-friendly explanation of these challenging prophetic passages. Perfect for readers who want to understand more about Isaiah's writings as well as Nephi's inclusion of them in the Book of Mormon. |
Doctrine
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Important to studying the Old Testament is to learn from those who brought us this volume of scripture. The Learning of the Jews turns to the wisdom of Jews and Judaism to inform, inspire, and enhance the lived religious experience of Latter-day Saints. By bring together fifteen scholars, seven Jewish and eight Latter-day Saint, readers will not only learn a great deal about Judaism and the Jewish experience but also use what they learn to enhance their own cultural and religious experience. |
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Considered a classic examination of Latter-day Saint doctrine by many, This is My Doctrine by Charles R. Harrell looks closely at the development of key Latter-day Saint teachings and the ongoing conversation between ancient belief and modern-day revelation. This book challenges its readers to see God's hand at work in the evolving nature of doctrine. The perfect book for those who enjoy studying Latter-day Saint doctrine and belief. |
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Blake T. Ostler's Exploring Mormon Thought series is the first series ever published by Greg Kofford Books and is still considerd the standard by which faith-affirming Latter-day Saint philosophy is measured. For readers interested in deep philosophical questions regarding the nature of God, human agency, mankind's divine potential, and the problem of evil and suffering in the world, this is the series to get! |
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Perhaps of all questions asked about Latter-day Saint doctrine and history, the historic practice of plural marriage is the most divisive. Brian C. Hales's Joseph Smith's Polygamy series is the most in-depth source of research avaiable on the origins of polygamy. Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding, condenses this research into a reader-friendly format. This is essential reading for those who want to better understand the topic of plural marriage while affirming their belief in Joseph Smith's prophetic calling. |
Q&A with Joseph M. Spencer, author of The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology November 14 2021
Joseph M. Spencer, November 2021
Preview The 1920 Edition of the Book of Mormon: A Centennial Adventure in Latter-day Saint Book History November 03 2021
The 1920 Edition of the Book of Mormon:
A Centennial Adventure in Latter-day Saint Book History
Download a preview here or view below.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tend to see the Book of Mormon through the lens of personal use, as a single textual and scriptural monolith—the Book of Mormon. That is somewhat natural, since we tend to have at hand and in-use, only the copy or version in our language needed to study it for inspiration. In the process, the point tends to get overlooked that while we may accept the text as inspired, the physical embodiment of that text—the Book of Mormon—is a mortal reality. The Book of Mormon, while it has a “spirit,” also has a mortal “body” (or rather, bodies) existing in space and time. As such, it has a history—and because it comes to us in the form of a book, it also has a book history.
This study is divided into three parts. The first part is a straightforward history of the edition’s editing, production, and manufacturing processes. It examines key points in the reprint history of the book, following important factors in the subsequent impressions of the work across nearly thirty years of re-impressions, corrections, transfers, and one new format. The narrative crowded into chapters one through four together leave Part II to catalogue the bibliographic minutia that is the beating heart of analytic book history and which provides entertainment for true-blooded bibliophiles. The details contained in the production and manufacturing contracts and coupled to the typographical evidence explained in Part III, together resolve once and for all the question of what constitutes the 1920 edition and what does not.
Preview The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology, Volume Two November 03 2021
The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology,
Volume Two
Download a preview here or view below.
Few scholars of the Book of Mormon have read this volume of scripture as closely and rigorously as Joseph M. Spencer. And of those, none have devoted as much time and effort as he to a theological reading of that sacred text—that is, as Spencer writes, “how it might shape responsible thinking about questions pertaining to the life of religious commitment” (p. 1:173.)
The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology divides into two volumes exploring and thinking about these pertinent questions. Whereas the first volume principally contains essays that deal with relatively traditional theological questions and concerns, the essays in this volume ask about what new worlds might be discovered in doing theological work on the Book of Mormon, focusing on what Spencer calls “microscopic” and “macroscopic” theological readings of the text. Essays in the first set examine no more than a verse of the Book of Mormon—more often just a single phrase or two—to see what theological implications lie within the details of the text. The second set of essays ask questions about the shape and intentions of the whole of the Book of Mormon, as this can be discerned through the ways it deploys biblical texts—and especially the writings of Isaiah. A third set of essays follows the two on microscopic and macroscopic styles of theology and are invitations to blur the boundaries that separate different styles of Book of Mormon scholarship. These final essays call on Book of Mormon scholars to move closer to theology and calls on theologians to move closer to the Book of Mormon.
Preview The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology, Volume One October 19 2021
The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology,
Volume One
Download a preview here or view below.
Few scholars of the Book of Mormon have read this volume of scripture as closely and rigorously as Joseph M. Spencer. And of those, none have devoted as much time and effort as he to a theological reading of that sacred text—that is, as Spencer writes, “how it might shape responsible thinking about questions pertaining to the life of religious commitment” (p. 1:173.)
The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology divides into two volumes exploring and thinking about these pertinent questions. Each concerns a different part of the defense of the claim that theology is and ought to be particularly important for Book of Mormon studies. In this first volume, Spencer gathers early essays in which he gestures toward theological interpretation without knowing how to defend it; essays about why theology is important to Book of Mormon scholarship and how to ensure that it does not overstep its boundaries; and essays that do theological work on the Book of Mormon in relatively obvious ways or with relatively traditional topics. The last category of essays divides into two subcategories: essays specifically on the central theological question of Jesus Christ’s atonement, as the Book of Mormon understands it; and essays on a variety of traditional theological topics, again as the Book of Mormon understands them.
Q&A with Trevan G. Hatch, co-editor of "The Learning of the Jews": What Latter-day Saints Can Learn from Jewish Religious Experience August 03 2021
Q: Can you provide a little background about the editors and your decision to do this project together?
A: I participated with Leonard Greenspoon in several Jewish Studies seminars in Chicago from 2012 to 2018. In 2016 I approached him about getting Jewish scholars and LDS scholars together for this writing project. As a prolific scholar in Bible and Jewish Studies for forty years, Leonard has participated in these types of interfaith interactions many times, but never with Latter-day Saints. Leonard and I then contacted several scholars to participate. Many of the Jewish scholars were excited to write essays due to the unique nature of the project.
Q: What makes this book unique among interfaith dialogues?
A: Traditional interfaith dialogues are very common. So why do I call this project “unique”? Customarily, the purpose of interfaith dialogue is for two groups to come together and discuss commonalities. The “Kumbaya” nature of these interfaith dialogues serve to foster understanding and empathy. This project is unique because we did NOT want to follow the typical style of each group learning from each other. In other words, we did not want to tell Jews that Latter-day Saints want to learn from them, but that they must learn from Latter-day Saints as well. Christians have forced Jews for 1,500 years to learn about Christianity (or even convert to Christianity). In this volume, we sought to give Jews “the microphone” so-to-speak and let them talk about their own experience without imposing an agenda on them. Our intent was to discuss and examine Judaism on Jewish terms (as best we can) and subsequently wrestle with how Latter-day Saints might benefit from 3,000 years of the Jewish experience. Our purpose is not to suggest that Latter-day Saints must adopt various Jewish practices and beliefs. Rather, we hoped that the discussions in this volume may assist readers in adopting strategies, mentalities, and approaches to religious and cultural living as exemplified by Jews and Judaism. The chapters are meant to serve as catalysts for further introspection and learning, not as the end-all-be-all for how Latter-day Saints might learn from Jewish religious experience.
Q: How is this book organized?
A: This volume brings together fifteen scholars, seven Jewish and eight Latter-day Saint, with a combined academic experience of over four hundred years. We have structured the volume around seven major topics, two chapters on each topic. A Jewish scholar first discusses the topic broadly vis-à-vis Judaism, followed by a response from a Latter-day Saint scholar. These Latter-day Saint scholars are trained in various fields of study and disciplines including history, sociology, family studies, religious studies, biblical studies, and literature. This wide array of experience and training illustrates the various approaches and perspectives of learning from another group. With the primary purpose of this volume being for Latter-day Saints to learn from Jewish religious perspectives and experiences, the essays are generally different from what you might expect in an interreligious dialogue. For the most part, the Jewish essays were not written with Latter-day Saints in mind but are simply broad overviews that could be helpful for any non-Jewish readership. Likewise, the Latter-day Saint responses are not trying to find commonalities as the primary goal; rather, their purpose is to explore any strategies, mentalities, motives, etc., of Jews that might serve as a catalyst for Latter-day Saints to look introspectively and enhance their own lived religious experience.
Q: Can you highlight some of the main topics discussed in the book?
A: The seven topics include scripture, authority, prayer, women and modernity, remembrance, particularity, and humor. Most of these topics are salient in Jewish discourse today. It so happens that Latter-day Saints focus on several of these topics with a great amount of zeal, especially scripture, authority, prayer, and women & modernity.
Q: What are you hoping that readers will take away from this book?
A: We hope that the reader will not only learn a great deal about Judaism and the Jewish experience while reading this volume, but also use what they learn to enhance their own cultural and religious experience.
Trevan Hatch, August 2021
Preview Under a Leafless Tree: The Story of Helga Meyer, a Mormon Girl from East Prussia June 28 2021
Under a Leafless Tree:
The Story of Helga Meyer, a Mormon Girl from East Prussia
Download a preview here or view below.
Helga's story is featured in the forthcoming Saints, Vol. 3, Boldy, Nobly, and Independent, 1893-1955
Imagine if the world you grew up in ceased to exist. In her own words, Helga Meyer tells of the disintegration of her hometown in Tilsit, East Prussia. From an idyllic childhood to persecutions for her curious, new faith, to the challenge of saluting Nazi troops while quietly befriending Jews, and suffering wounds in one of many, daily bombing raids, Helga reveals intimate details about coming of age in a world that is quickly falling apart.
Too soon, Helga’s teenaged friends, brothers and cousin are facing death in the bitter fields of France and Russia. Amidst fellow refugees, Helga finds her natural optimism challenged by increasing and very personal heartbreak. Alone in a foreign land, Helga struggles to find refuge and braver still, a chance at romance. Led by a prophetic dream, she devises a means of escape in order to begin a new life in America.
Revealing previously unknown details of women’s experiences during World War II and the lives of early Latter-day Saints in East Prussia and East Germany, this engaging account promises to be a valuable addition to the growing collection of World War II memoirs. A richly-layered story, weaving together both personal and historically significant events, Under a Leafless Tree is an unforgettable, true story that stays with the reader.
Preview “The Learning of the Jews”: What Latter-day Saints Can Learn from Jewish Religious Experience June 28 2021
“The Learning of the Jews”:
What Latter-day Saints Can Learn from Jewish Religious Experience
Download a preview here or view below.
This volume is about Latter-day Saints learning from Jews and the Jewish experience. This book is unique. It is not a traditional interfaith dialogue where the goal is to learn from each other. Rather, Latter-day Saints seek to give Jews the microphone, so to speak, and let them talk about themselves on their own terms. Only then do Latter-day Saint respond, and not with the goal of establishing areas of agreement or disagreement but as an opportunity to learn from Jews. This book turns to the wisdom of Jews and Judaism to inform, inspire, and enhance the lived religious experience of Latter-day Saints.
“The Learning of the Jews” brings together fifteen scholars, seven Jewish and eight Latter-day Saint, with a combined academic experience of over four hundred years. The volume is structured around seven major topics, two chapters on each topic. A Jewish scholar first discusses the topic broadly vis-à-vis Judaism, followed by a response from a Latter-day Saint scholar. The seven topics include scripture, authority, prayer, women and modernity, remembrance, particularity, and humor. The intention is that the reader will not only learn a great deal about Judaism and the Jewish experience while reading this volume but also use what they learn to enhance their own cultural and religious experience.Women's History Month Sale March 02 2021
During Women's History Month, we are pleased to offer 30% off select titles on Latter-day Saint women's history, social topics, and personal essays!
Sale ends Wednesday, 3/31/2021*
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*For international print orders, email order@koffordbooks.com. Subject to available supply.
New Year's Ebook Flash Sale December 29 2020
As we welcome 2021, we are pleased to offer discounted prices on select ebooks on scripture, doctrine, and community. This sale runs from January 1–4 and is available for both Kindle and Apple ebooks.
Sale ends Monday, Jan 4.
Doctrine| Scripture | ||
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$17.99 |
$27.99 |
$22.99 |
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$18.99 |
$22.99 |
$23.99 |
| Doctrine | ||
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$30.99 |
$17.99 |
$9.99 |
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$26.99 |
$16.99 |
$18.99 |
| Community | ||
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$18.99 |
$14.99 |
$18.99 |
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$23.99 |
$18.99 |
$9.99 |
2020 Holiday Gift Guide November 11 2020
This holiday season, we are focusing on themes of scripture, doctrine, and community. Below is a holiday buyer's guide highlighting a few of our most popular titles.
To see our Black Friday Sales, click here.
Scripture
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With the Doctrine & Covenants being the 2021 focus for Come Follow Me, Mark Lyman Staker's award-winning history, Hearken, O Ye People, is the perfect gift for those interested in the historical context behind the revelations Joseph Smith received in Ohio. A perfect compliment to your Come Follow Me study. |
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One of our most popular titles! The Lost 116 Pages does more than tell the history behind the missing manuscript pages from the early translation of the Book of Mormon, it also uses the best scholarly tools available to analyze internal and external evidence and piece together what may have been in the lost pages. The result tells us as much about the existing Book of Mormon as it does the lost pages. Perfect for those who enjoy taking deep dives into scripture and history! |
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Award-winning Book of Mormon scholar, Brant Gardner, looks at Joseph Smith's translation process of the Book of Mormon. The Gift and Power analyzes not only the mechanics of the translation process, but also asks how closely Joseph Smith followed the original Nephite writings. This is the perfect book for those interested in how the Book of Mormon was produced, affirming that it is an ancient text miraculously brought forth by the gift and power of God. |
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The Second Witness series by Brant Gardner is lauded as the most comprehensive Book of Mormon commentary in existence. Brant uses his extensive knoweledge and backgroud into Mesoamerican anthropology and intertextual studies to bring the Book of Mormon to life for modern readers. Second Witness can be purchased as a set or individual volumes. A must have for the serious student of the Book of Mormon. |
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Authoring the Old Testament launched our Contemporary Studies in Scripture series, which utilizes the best tools of biblical scholarship to speak to a Latter-day Saint audience. Authoring the Old Testament introduces Latter-day Saint readers to the documentary hypothesis and offers a faith-affirming approach to Hebrew Bible authorship in line with contemporary scholarship. |
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Continuing with the Contemporary Studies in Scripture series, The Vision of All by Joseph Spencer has been a consistent top seller. The Vision of All analyzis Nephi's use of Isaiah writings in the Book of Mormon, offering a reader-friendly explanation of these challenging prophetic passages. Perfect for readers who want to understand more about Isaiah's writings as well as Nephi's inclusion of them in the Book of Mormon. |
Doctrine
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Blake T. Ostler's Exploring Mormon Thought series is the first series ever published by Greg Kofford Books and is still considerd the standard by which faith-affirming Latter-day Saint philosophy is measured. For readers interested in deep philosophical questions regarding the nature of God, human agency, mankind's divine potential, and the problem of evil and suffering in the world, this is the series to get! |
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Perhaps of all questions asked about Latter-day Saint doctrine and history, the historic practice of plural marriage is the most divisive. Brian C. Hales's Joseph Smith's Polygamy series is the most in-depth source of research avaiable on the origins of polygamy. Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding, condenses this research into a reader-friendly format. This is essential reading for those who want to better understand the topic of plural marriage while affirming their belief in Joseph Smith's prophetic calling. |
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In For Zion, Joseph M. Spencer, assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, picks up where Hugh Nibley's Approaching Zion left off. In this approachable and inspiring text, Joseph expands the concept of consecration beyond the material and economic into one of transformation of the human heart. An excellent book for those who enjoy Latter-day Saint teachings about the promise of Zion and the writings of High Nibley. |
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Considered a classic examination of Latter-day Saint doctrine by many, This is My Doctrine by Charles R. Harrell looks closely at the development of key Latter-day Saint teachings and the ongoing conversation between ancient belief and modern-day revelation. This book challenges its readers to see God's hand at work in the evolving nature of doctrine. The perfect book for those who enjoy studying Latter-day Saint doctrine and belief. |
Community
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One of our most popular titles, Bridges by David B. Ostler, speaks to faithful members about the topic of faith crisis. The book takes an empathetic approach, teaching its readers how to build bridges of compassion and understanding with those whose faith has been challenged by historical or social issues within the Church. Read widely by teachers of Church Seminaries and Institutes, Bridges is a must-have for anyone who knows of family members, friends, or ward members who struggle with faith. |
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Miracles Among the Rubble by Carol R. Gray is one of the most loved books by reviewers. In heart-wrenching and inspiring chapters, written with her poetically unique style of expression, Carol shares her experiences of organizing and transporting relief aid for victims of the Balkan War during the early 1990s. Her stories are a testament to the extraordinary achievements of an ordinary mother, who was able to do remarkable things with nothing more than unwavering faith, the help and guidance of the Holy Ghost, and her relationship with the Savior. |
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A best-seller, Women at Church by Neylan McBaine has been passed along to numerous local ward and stake leaders who seek ways to more fully include women at the local level. This eye-opening book is perfect for anyone who would like to better understand why many Latter-day Saint women feel marginalized in church settings and what can be done to improve women's visibility and voices in wards and stakes without challenging current doctrine or policies. |
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Whom Say Ye That I Am? by James and Judith McConkie utilyzes up-to-date historical scholarship to explore Jesus in the context of first-century Palestine and Jewish culture. This book helps Latter-day Saint readers better understand the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, and how he responded to social institutions and issues in his day, all of which is still relevant to a modern audience. Perfect for readers who enjoy historical Jesus scholarship. |
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Although united in faith, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are diverse in their cultural, social, and political perspectives. Common Ground—Different Opinions offers a collection of essays on varying topics from same-sex attraction, femisim, and race, to political partisanship, war, human evolution, and more. This is the perfect book for readers who like to carefully consider arguments from both sides of complex social issues in a ways that maintain civility, respect towards faith, and commitment to the Church. |
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The Garden of Enid Vols. 1 and 2 collect Scott Hales's much-loved coming-of-age comic series about fictional teenager, Enid Gardner, as she explores her faith and questions in light of personal and cultural challenges. Funny, charming, sincere, and moving, The Garden of Enid is perfect for teens or anyone who remembers what it was like to be an akward teenager wondering where they fit into the world and the Gospel. |