James “Jim” B. Allen passed away at ninety-seven on Sunday, September 1, 2024. He’s perhaps best known in Mormon history circles for his service as Assistant (LDS) Church Historian, his co-authorship of The Story of the Latter-day Saints with Glen M. Leonard, and his work on nineteenth-century British Latter-day Saints. His influence is also seen ..read more

So as part of this larger series (1, 2, 3, 4) I started a while back on this blog about what I see as scholarly principles, I was thinking of eventually getting to the question of the Book of Mormon’s historicity. Often when dealing with religious history, there is a (debated) school of thought that ..read more

Job Title:  History – CFS Professional (Family History/Genealogy) Job Classification:  CFS – Professional; this position is for CFS-track but may be filled by a visitor. Posting close date:  October 1, 2024 Start date of this position:  August 25, 2025 Required Degrees and Certifications: PhD in History or closely-related field must be completed by the start date AG (Accredited Genealogist) or CG (Certified Genealogist) must be earned prior to CFS Job Description and Experience:  Continuing faculty status (BYU equivalent of “tenure”) track appointment at Brigha ..read more

Congrats to all this year’s winners! If you’re going to buy, support university presses and independent bookstores! Personally, I’m a big fan of Benchmark Books. BEST BOOK AWARD Stephen C. Taysom, Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith 35% off with code MHA35 on U of U Press website BEST FIRST BOOK AWARD Janiece Johnson, Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture (UNC Press). 30% off with code 01UNCP30 at UNC Press website BEST DOCUMENTARY EDITING Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2023). BEST BIOG ..read more

APPLY HERE (see info beginning in next paragraph) JOB DESCRIPTION This job is to assist the Church History Department in its purpose to help God’s Children make and keep sacred covenants by researching and writing for Church history publications, occasionally as a lead writer. Under supervision, this individual contributes to Church history publications by researching, writing, annotating, and editing content regarding Latter-day Saint history. Reports to managing historian or senior managing historian. RESPONSIBILITIES Writes for publications in expository and narrative styles Works under th ..read more

“Go Thy Way” Mexico City, Mexico; 23rd-25th May 2024 From friend-of-JI Valeska Griswold:  Registrations close May 1st due to requirements from the venue as the venues are government buildings and we have to submit a list of participants to them and this will also remove any entrance fees at those locations. The tours will meet at 5:30 am and return around 9 pm on May 26th. The meeting location is TBD. Those who signed up for the tour on the registration form will get meeting details emailed directly to them in the next week or so. Conference Theme “Go thy way unto thy brot ..read more

LINK TO AD HERE MUST HAVE GENEALOGICAL CREDENTIAL Assistant Director, Center for Family History and Genealogy (CFHG) The Center for Family History and Genealogy (CFHG) provides both free quality online research and resources for public use as well as extraordinary mentored-learning experiences for students learning the science and methods of family history research. We are now seeking an enthusiastic and dedicated Assistant Director to collaborate with the Center director and play a vital role in student mentoring, center projects, and community outreach. Your commitment to the Center’s missi ..read more

We welcome this guest post from Jenny Champoux, Director of the Book of Mormon Art Catalog. You can see much of the work discussed here at https://meganknoblochgeilman.com/about. A recent insightful article highlighted Megan Knobloch Geilman’s artwork as epitomizing a movement the author labeled “Weird Mormon Art.”[1] Geilman, while fully embracing the strangeness of her art, prefers the term “theological realism.” Her phrase nicely evokes the literary and art style of magical realism, which places fantastical objects or events in a real-world setting. Yet, an important distinction must be mad ..read more

Register at this link The Latter-day Saint tradition maintains a finite conception of God that challenges key tenets of classical Christian theism. God is understood to have a literal body of flesh and bone (D&C 130:22) and to relate to human beings in exceptionally passable and interactive ways (Jacob 5:7 & Moses 7:29). God is said to have created human beings in the divine likeness such that it is possible for humanity to become divine (Moses 1:39). God’s design for humanity is to create the conditions for spiritual growth and to labor with them toward the glorification of both (Jaco ..read more

The Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invites applications for grants to conduct research in its archival, art, and artifact collections in Salt Lake City, Utah. These grants are intended to offset travel and research expenses for performing research at the Church History Library and/or Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. We hope the grants will stimulate the examination of underrepresented groups and topics in Latter-day Saint history, such as women, youth, children, individuals outside the United States, immigrant groups, the globalization of the Church ..read more