Samuel M. Brown
SAMUEL M. BROWN {[email protected]} is associate professor of medicine at the University of Utah, with a scholarly interest in lifethreatening infection, approaches to humanizing intensive care units, and religious history. In that last vein, he’s working on an intellectual history of translation in Mormonism and a theological project from which the present essay is drawn.
Tending the Desert | Alan K. Parish, John A. Widtsoe: A Biography
Articles/Essays – Volume 38, No. 4
We have waited five decades for a biography of one of our most prominent apostles, and I am grateful to Alan Parish for bringing the volume into existence. He is to be congratulated for returning…
Read moreThe Prophet Elias Puzzle
Articles/Essays – Volume 39, No. 3
Early Mormonism is notable for a proliferation of angels, scriptural luminaries who visited the Prophet Joseph Smith and his close associates. These visitations not only established prophetic authority generally but were also often associated with specific innovations, rites, and doctrines. Thus, Moroni delivered the Book of Mormon, John the Baptist bestowed the lesser priesthood, and a triumvirate of Christian apostles granted the higher priesthood. Perhaps most important in this august pantheon is Elijah, the biblical patriarch who ascended living to heaven (was translated) as a reward for exemplary faithfulness. For early Mormons, Elijah shouldered a burdensome mission: to oversee LDS temple rites and integrate the human family into an organic whole, sealing up personal relationships against death.
Read moreChoices, Consequences, and Grace | Richard Dutcher, dir., God’s Army 2: States of Grace
Articles/Essays – Volume 40, No. 1
Richard Dutcher, the founding father of Mormon cinema, has much to be proud of in his third film, God’s Army 2: States of Grace. His first effort, God’s Army, was a missionary bildungsroman with a…
Read moreDomlik
Articles/Essays – Volume 41, No. 2
Winter was Domlik’s best season. The New Year rains were the earth’s sweat; and when the soil perspired, the dirt softened into mud so thick it postponed all organized demining activity. Even the bravest deminer—by…
Read moreHurt or Make Afraid
Articles/Essays – Volume 43, No. 2
We’ll find the place which God for us prepared, In His house full of light, Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid; There the saints will shine bright. William Clayton, 1846 I’m cold. We’ve been walking…
Read moreDavid F. Holland, Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America
Articles/Essays – Volume 44, No. 4