Edward Partridge (1793-1840) became the first bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1831, two months after joining the church. He served in this capacity until his death in 1840. The first chapter examines his preparation for his role as bishop. Having no precedent to follow, he drew extensively upon his background and experiences in civic leadership, business management, and property ownership in order to succeed in his assignment. Partridge moved to Missouri in 1831 at the forefront of Mormon settlement in the state, where on behalf of the church he ultimately purchased hundreds of acres, which he then distributed to the gathering saints as part of the law of consecration. In addition, he prepared consecration affidavits and oversaw each family's contributions and stewardships. The second chapter examines Partridge's ability to succeed in his assignment, and the tensions that he felt between seeing the vision of Zion and administering the practical details. Forty years after his death, his children began to write extensively about their father. The third chapter of this thesis examines their writings, focusing on how their memories of their father illuminate their own lives as well as their father's. The final chapter finds that the three published descendants' modern attempts to chronicle the life of Edward Partridge each fall short in at least one of the following: the field of history, literature, or a faithful representation of his life.

Informed by theories of media framing, exemplification, and non-fiction film production, this case study used as its sample for textual analysis the typed transcripts from the final cut of Helen Whitney's (2007) documentary film, The Mormons, and the interview transcripts of the 15 key commentators interviewed for the documentary. These theories suggest that (a) media producers condense topics in the media by selecting information that connects news stories to a larger context and imbues them with symbolic value; (b) verbal and visual examples have been shown to be more easily retrieved in memory than abstract ideas and are consequently judged by audiences to be more common in the real world; and (c) expository non-fiction films are organized in ways that convey objectivity, belying their constructed nature. With the aid of NVivo (2002), the themes in each text were identified and compared in order to evaluate which themes about Mormons were given salience in the film and which themes were de-emphasized in the film. It was found that the themes about Mormons' unusual commitment to their faith, as well as the Mormon Church's historical conflict in the United States and more recently with disaffected church members were accentuated in the film; the film did not equally incorporate the themes of LDS Church officials' self-description of Mormon beliefs and social practices. By coupling a close examination and comparison of the texts with the filmmaker's own personal statements about the making of the film, this thesis suggests that Helen Whitney constructed the film through a process that gave voice to minority viewpoints, challenged institutional or ecclesiastical authority, and favored complexity. As a result of these decisions, for example, the film perpetuated confusion about whether Mormons are Christians, the 19th-century LDS practice of plural marriage, and the current treatment of homosexuals within the LDS Church.

While previous research has identified religion as an influence of fertility, how context changes the nature of that relationship remains little understood. Using census data from Brazil, Chile and Mexico, this study examines whether the high fertility pattern of one pronatalist, American-born religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) translates to the Latin American context. Results indicate that it does, but only inconsistently as the pronatalist pattern is masked by members' educational attainment and mixed religion marriages. When these attributes are accounted for LDS fertility is high in Latin America, especially among the more educated. This study highlights both the importance of member characteristics in influencing fertility and the role of selective recruiting in determining how and whether these characteristics vary by context.

According to recent research, Latter-day Saint young people are achieving desirable social outcomes at a higher rate than their peers of other backgrounds. As reasons for those findings have been offered, only social aspects of the LDS faith and culture have been given any attention. This thesis will provide an alternate interpretation of the data and provide new data through the administration of the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). Results from the LDS ROS/NPI Study indicate that LDS young adults continue to score overly intrinsic on the ROS and score significantly lower on the NPI than their peers.

The purpose of the present study was to gain insight into the prevalence, nature and etiology of perfectionism in a sample of devout Latter-day Saint college students at Brigham Young University. A number of variables-including self-conscious emotions, mental health, interpersonal/cognitive style, and religious orientation-were entered into multiple regression models to determine the strongest predictors of perfectionism. Participants were 245 students studying at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT in the spring of 1995. The self-conscious construct of shame demonstrated to be the strongest predictor of perfectionism followed by depression and religious fundamentalism. In addition to these findings, it was found that students in our sample were not more susceptible to perfectionism than other samples of religious students.

The purpose of this study was three-fold: (1) to compile information explaining what the case method is, giving instructions concerning the use of the case method for students and instructor, and discussing how cases may be obtained and written; (2) to analyze the case method of instruction to show the advantages and disadvantages of its use in teaching religion; and (3) to develop sample cases that could be used in teaching religion in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.This study examined available research material from three major sources: (1) the use of the case method in the L. D. S. Church, (2) the use of the case method in the field of religious education, and (3) the use of the case method in fields other than religious education. The research material was examined in order to determine the usability of this method in teaching religious subjects at the high school level.Letters were sent to 43 seminary teachers within the L. D. S. Church giving them information as to what the case method is and instructions for writing cases. These teachers were asked to write a case, use it, give the reactions of their students, and submit an evaluation of the case method. The cases written by these teachers are included in this study.

This thesis is the description, defense and critique of a course developed to teach gospel principles to 7- through 9-year-old children. The development process through which the course went, its formative evaluations and summative evaluation are described. The summative evaluation employed the pretest-posttest control group design. Thirty children, ages 7 through 9, were in the evaluation. After the pretest, 15 of the children were taught the 19-lesson course by their parents during a 23-day period. A statistical comparison of the mean pretest-posttest gain scores for the experimental group could significantly more accurately identify examples and non examples of fatih, agency, and repentance (.1 level). A sub-group of the experimental group, who went through the course as per instructions, had a mean gain score that was significant at the .005 level when compared with the control group.

This study was designed to evaluate the L.D.S. institute instructors use of statements made by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These leaders have instructed Church school teachers to teach what the prophets have said and not the teachers own ideas or views on doctrine.The data from this study show the following: (1) Approximately twenty per cent of instructor responses in selecting the stated principles of the Church on a current issue are incorrect; (2) The ability of the instructors to recognize prophet's statements from non-prophet's statements is seventy-three per cent; (3) Over ninty per cent of the instructors use prophet's messages in their teaching and counseling but have no organized procedure; (4) Over fifty per cent of the instructors feel the course outlines are not adequate on current issues, and (5) Ninty-three per cent would like an alphabetized syllabus of prophet's statements on current issues. The main recommendation is that instruction, methods, and materials be prepared to assist the Church teacher in teaching messages of the Modern Prophets.

It was the purpose of this study (1) to analyze the teaching methods of the L.D.S. and non-L.D.S. religious educational movements in Southeastern Utah among the Indians since 1943; and (2) to determine the similarities and differences between the teaching methods of these religious educational movements.It was found that (1) the teaching methods used among the Indians in the earlier period of religious instruction were more typical of the culture and traditions of the Indian people than the methods used today, (2) the teaching methods most frequently used were: instructional singing, workbooks, catechization, lecture, storytelling, testimony and spiritual experiences of teacher, reviews, picture and picture stories, and records, (3) teaching methods involving the creative abilities of the students were utilized more frequently by the S.D.A. and Episcopal movements than by the L.D.S., (4) the L.D.S. movement did not utilize a wider variety of teaching methods than the non-L.D.S. movements, and (5) when the teaching methods were directed by trained educators, a larger number of methods was used.

This thesis contains an analysis of the concept of Zion as reflected in the songs sung by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The following definitional areas within Zion concept are considered:1. Zion: A personal spiritual condition.2. Zion: A perfect society.3. Zion: Various geographical locations.4. Events included in the concept of Zion.Each of the above areas is analyzed first, from a historical and doctrinal viewpoint and finally, as to how it is reflected in the songs of the Mormons.