Thesis (M.A.)-- Brigham Young University. Dept. of Humanities, Classics and Comparative Literature. / Bibliography: leaves 128-139.

This dissertation examines a late fifteenth-century conflict between Otto von Sonnenberg, bishop of Constance, and the City Council of Bern over attempts to temporarily reanimate dead infants in order to baptize them. Thousands of people were bringing their dead, unbaptized infants to the chapel of Oberbüren, heating them up over hot coals until they detected signs of life, and then baptizing them before they again died. Once baptized, the tiny corpses were buried in the consecrated ground surrounding the church, and the people celebrated the miracle by which another soul was saved from eternal damnation. But to the bishop, the heating did not work and the bodies did not return to life, which meant the people were baptizing corpses (which was ineffective) and violating consecrated ground by burying people still stained by original sin. While the bishop condemned this set of practices as a “superstition,” the City Council of Bern claimed that the resuscitations were legitimate miracles and should be promoted. Such reanimation practices were not new at this time or at this place, but conflicts over them were unusual. By situating this conflict in a long history of (temporary) infant reanimation across Central Europe and the baptismal imperative of the medieval Christian Church, this dissertation turns to the changing contexts of the natural world, with magic, medicine and witchcraft, to help explain why the reanimation practices would be causing such a stir at this particular juncture. “Alive Enough” shows how different epistemologies—a religious one based in affect, ritual, and faith and a naturalistic one based on human intention, material manipulation, and the test of reason—could be combined (and contested) to produce new understandings of life itself. It also calls into question the secular/ecclesiastical divide in determining religious belief, showing—in the decades before the Reformation—the important role of secular authorities in determining even these very exceptional moments of divine intervention in the world, moments that should be the example par excellence of ecclesiastical prerogative.

The aim of this study, therefore, is to trace briefly the historical origins and development of the LDS temple baptismal font and to investigate the various iconographic meanings which may pertain to it and its role as a potential vital symbol in the Mormon Church.

This paper analyzes the concept of immortality as expressed in Stephenie Meyer’s vampire romance novel Midnight Sun (2021). By way of a comparison with the authors Mormon faith, I intend to highlight how the main characters portray key parts of LDS soteriology. Using Synne Myreböe’s notion of actualization (aktualisering) the paper considers Mormonism as a lens rather than as an institutionalized religion.  Although Midnight Sun makes use of numerous religious themes, it is in my opinion not to be regarded as a theological text. After all, Meyer is a novelist. Her religiosity motivates the questions posed by the study, but the connection between her writing and explicit Mormon theology is established by me. By making the Mormon concept of immortality a lens through which I view the material, I intend to highlight aspects of the narrative which otherwise would be less apparent.  Midnight Sun is a paraphrase of Meyer’s earlier work Twilight (2006). The latter tells the story of Bella, a student who falls in love with an ancient vampire called Edward. In Midnight Sun the story is inverted, making Edward the main narrator. Due to Midnight Sun’s disposition, my work relies on a resource not available to prior studies on Twilight, namely Edward’s voice. In this paper, I examine how the character relates to his father figure, thus paraphrasing the Mormon concept of priesthood.