As early as 1831, critics attacked Joseph Smith by comparing him to Muhammad. Over time, the comparison deepened as critics and scholars observed doctrinal and political similarities between Mormonism and Islam. Later, scholars compared Joseph Smith to Muhammad because both had generated a new religion and there seemed to be several similarities in the lives of Joseph Smith and Muhammad. These and other comparisons between the two men and their religions have been made from 1831 to the present, yet there have been few thorough, non-polemic examinations of Joseph Smith and Muhammad in the typology of prophethood. While notable similarities exist in the lives of many prophets, the unique similarities shared by these two has warranted further inquiry. I argue the comparison, though initially the result of anti-Mormonism, is justifiable and enlightening. It reveals unique commonalities that occur in the lives of restoration prophets as a result of the role they are divinely called to fulfill. While modern scholarship strongly tends to ignore the possibility of divine influence, I argue that prophetic similarities between Muhammad and Joseph Smith are best explained by divine influence acting in similar circumstances. While I approach the topic in the language of a scholar, this work is intended to contribute in the context of Mormon studies. For Latter-day Saint scholars, a better understanding of Muhammad's mission and role as a prophetic figure could allow us to see him in a different light, not as founder of a false tradition, but as a revelator to his people in his own right, providing the portion of God's knowledge that he was granted, even if incomplete from a Latter-day Saint perspective.

This work traces the development of the global educational system of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After a long period of providing schools for its membership in the Intermountain West of the United States, the Latter-day Saints ultimately settled on a system of supplementary religious education, designed to work in concert with public education systems. During the 1950s as the Church began to gain an international following, Church leaders moved to establish an international system of schools to meet their needs. These schools were largely supervised and directed by Americans personnel. Under the leadership of Church president David O. McKay, large school systems were constructed throughout the Pacific, Mexico, and Chile. As the costs and complexities of these systems multiplied, Church leaders began to take a more structured and systematic approach towards their educational system. Under the direction of Harold B. Lee and other leaders, the Church chose once again to emphasize religious education among its membership, and a large system of supplemental programs were launched across the globe. These new programs were staffed primarily by indigenous personnel, providing strong local leadership. Eventually the majority of the international schools closed in favor of these supplemental programs. By 1980 the basic policies governing the Church Educational System were in place and for the most part these policies continue to govern the system today.

During the winter of 2011–2012, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and Office of Public Archaeology (OPA) at Brigham Young University (BYU) conducted archaeological explorations in urban Provo, Utah. The purpose of the research was to uncover and document the extant remains of the Original or Old Provo Tabernacle (OPT; 42UT1844). The data recovered from that excavation was the impetus for the current study. Through a combination of documentary and archaeological evidence, and using Mormon theology as a lens through which to interpret the actions of nineteenth century Latter-day Saints, this thesis demonstrates the important role played by the OPT in the project of Mormon Zion in the American West. The OPT was the first proposed and eighth completed tabernacle in the LDS Church. In the OPT, Brigham Young initiated a dynamic new building form which was intended to accommodate both the political and economic needs of LDS settlements at a distance from Salt Lake City and the central hierarchy of the Church while simultaneously providing space for Mormon worship and ritual practice. These buildings sought to prepare the Saints of early Utah for the eventual construction of temples throughout the region and, like the Tabernacle of the Congregation anciently, served to build strong communal ties in outlying Mormon settlements.

This thesis uses content analysis to compare two conservative Christian feminist publications: Daughters of Sarah, produced by neo-evangelical feminists, and Exponent II, produced by Mormon feminists. Findings are based on insights from three main theories: Debra Minkoff's organization-environment perspective, Nancy Folbre's model of collective action based on structures of constraint, and the church-sect typology from the sociology of religion literature. Although both organizations similarly endeavor to integrate feminist and religious identities, the loose boundaries of evangelicalism allow Daughters of Sarah to explore a more liberal feminist agenda and interact with broader feminist sources while still remaining within the broad domain of evangelicalism. In contrast, the strict organizational boundaries of Mormonism tightly constrain Exponent II's feminist discourse and agenda. While focusing on how religious environments serve as dominant sources of opportunity and constraint for associated organizations, this study also highlights the complexity involved in the construction of christian feminist identities.

Seventy-five directors of the Institutes of Religion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California, responded to a questionnaire regarding their public relations' practices. Institute directors with formal training in public relations utilized more practices, an average of 30.4, than directors without formal training who used an average of 26.9 practices. Institute directors in different locations (divisions) did not differ in the average number of practices used. Seventeen percent of the directors had structured public relations' programs. Directors emphasized more frequently public relations practices relating to priesthood leaders (72 percent) and students (67 percent) than practices relating to parents (33 percent) and campus leaders (33 percent).

While the tragedy of American fatherlessness has evoked a growing body of research, religious beliefs, practices, and communities have not been a significant part of the scholarly discussion. This article discusses possible reasons for this and reviews the religion and family literature with a focus on fathers. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 19 Latter-day Saint (LDS) fathers of children with special needs and analyzed to examine the meaning of religious experience for these fathers and their families. Analysis indicated three dimensions of religious experience: spiritual belief, religious practice, and faith community. The spiritual belief in an eternal perspective, including the potential for family relationships to endure eternally, was identified by the researcher as central. Religious practice was found to be most meaningful when both sacred and relational. Faith community was found to be most beneficial when the congregation [ward] mentioned helped the fathers meet their families' needs. Challenges related to the three dimensions of religious experience are also reported. Religious experience is discussed as a support for responsible fathering, and a conceptual model of religious experience and faithful fathering is presented.

This project considers questions of religious othering in the contemporary United States through the lens of popular post-religious narratives. These narratives salaciously depict mistreated women in order to demarcate certain religions as deviant; authors and pundits then use these narratives in order to justify outside intervention in specific religious communities. By closely analyzing a selection of contemporary narratives written about women from Muslim and fundamentalist Mormon communities with special attention to both the feminist enactments and tropes of captivity which permeate these texts, this project challenges simplistic portrayals of religious Others. In doing so, the analysis draws the reader's attention to the uncanny imitations in many of these texts: in arguing that certain religions "capture" their female adherents, authors of contemporary captivity narratives silence the voices of women whose stories they seek to illuminate. The dissertation also explores the ambivalent content of many of these narratives. When read against the grain, captivity literature offers surprising opportunities for nuanced explorations of religion, gender and agency. / Religion

This dissertation offers an analysis of two American religions–the Church of Christ, Scientist (CS), and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)–and the ways that their particular/peculiar ideologies regarding the body govern the everyday realities of their respective memberships. Biopower is the political power used to control bodies and bodily actions, such as the care of oneself, and the details of personal family life. Belief can act as an especially powerful agent of biopolitical power as it inspires a lived faithfulness through its various theologies. What is more, the effects of biopolitical belief are often complicated by the mixed interests of Church and State, leaving the territory of the individual body a disputed claim. To better understand these disputes, this project utilizes a Foucaultian interpretation of the CS and LDS churches to better understand the roots of the biopolitical conflicts they confront. Specifically, the histories and contemporary practices of these religious organizations are analyzed through a genealogical method, using Foucaultian interpretations of the biopolitical, pastoral, and psychiatric powers they use to effectively govern the minds, bodies, and spirits of their people. A historical background of the CS and LDS churches traces the emergence of the biopolitical practices of each group by evaluating their groundedness in their current social-political milieus, and by making connections between their respective religious beliefs, practices, and government and the broader Jacksonian American political culture into which they were born. Additionally, this particular form of analysis poses important questions for the study of religion and politics today. Although most of the examples used in this study are historical, both the LDS and CS churches continue to hold on to many if not all of the theologies and doctrines which historically brought them into conflict with the US government. What has changed is not the belief itself, but the embodiment of it, and also the state and federal government reaction to it. Therefore, the theological histories and founding stories of these religions remain relevant to their contemporary status as extra-statal biopolitical forces within the US today. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of History. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [147]-158).

A pesquisa teve como objetivo realizar uma investigação sócioistórica do processo de cotidianização do carisma no mormonismo procurando apreender a transformação do carisma religioso-profético e, assim reunir elementos que possibilitem consolidar, a partir de um caso particular, uma teoria mais geral da ocorrência de tais processos sociais. A investigação buscou encontrar, no emaranhado de lutas por poder e chances de prestígio, o fio condutor pelo qual se desenrolou o processo de transformação de um movimento religioso carismático, de religiosidade altamente emotivo-pneumática a uma religião desencantada, hierarquizada e institucionalizada. Para isso utilizou-se farta documentação e interpretação histórica que permitiu uma observação mais detalhada dos fenômenos sociais investigados. No plano teórico-metodológico empregou-se como instrumental teórico fundamental de pesquisa, primeiramente a teoria da dominação carismática de Max Weber, sua teorização dos processos de transformação do carisma e sua sociologia da religião. O outro referencial teórico imprescindível encontra-se na obra do sociólogo alemão Norbert Elias, a saber, seus conceitos de psicogênese e sociogênese, figuração, processo de monopolização, equilíbrio das tensões entre outros, que permitiram um acesso privilegiado ao processo de longo prazo que conformou e solidificou o carisma genuíno do profeta-fundador Joseph Smith em uma religião ritualizada e uma instituição hierarquizada. / The research has aimed to accomplish a social-historical investigation of the process of routinization of charisma in Mormonism, seeking to perceive the change of the religious-prophetic charisma, and thus gathering elements which can enable to consolidate, considering a particular case, a more general theory of the occurrence of such social processes. The investigation sought to find, in the struggle for power and chances of prestige, the leading thread with which the process of change of a religious charismatic movement has developed, from highly emotional-pneumatic religiosity to a disenchanted, hierarchical and institutionalized religion. In order to achieve that, thorough documentation and historical interpretation has been applied, this way allowing a more detailed observation of the social phenomena investigated. The primarily theoretical instrument used in the research has been Max Weber theory of the charismatic domination, the theorization of the processes of charisma change and sociology of religion. The other essential theoretical reference can be found in the German sociologist Norbert Elias, including his concepts of psychogenesis and sociogenesis, figuration, monopolization process, balance of tension among others, which allow a privileged access to the long-term process which conformed and solidified the genuine charisma of the founder-prophet Joseph Smith in a ritualized religion and a hierarchic institution.