This popular text, used throughout the Church for the study of world religions, has been revised and expanded. Two additional authors, several new chapters, a number of new illustrations, and much updated material add fresh perspectives to the former edition’s tried-and-true approach. The result portrays the vivid spectrum of truth as it extends across cultures and religious systems. The book presents a…

In 1947 the artist Han van Meegeren stood in the criminal court in Amsterdam and admitted he was guilty of forgery in what may be the greatest known art fraud. Forty years later, in 1987, Mark Hofmann confessed his guilt of forgery, fraud, and murder growing out of what may be the greatest known historical document fraud. The two cases show some striking similarities.These two men, the artist and the forger, turned their considerable talents to crime because of vanity, anger, and greed. They might have gone undetected, but the love of money held them captive. They risked again and again exposure and imprisonment, unable to quit while ahead. Their forgeries went undetected for years but ultimately came to light when police began investigating the men for much different crimes. As bizarre as the story of Mark Hofmann may seem, he was merely acting out a new production of an old play.

Spencer W. Kimball spent innumerable hours working on a biography of his father, Andrew, but was unable to finish it. This book, completed by Spencer’s son and biographer, Edward L. Kimball, brings that desire to fulfillment. Father of a Prophet is the link between Andrew’s apostle father (Heber C. Kimball) and his prophet son (Spencer W. Kimball), and it provides an important prologue to the biographies Spencer W. Kimball (1977), and Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (2005). Andrew presided for twelve years over the Indian Territory Mission, and he worked for years as a salesman in Utah and Idaho traveling from village to village. Then, in 1898, Church leaders called Andrew to move with his family to Arizona and preside over the St. Joseph Stake, covering southeastern Arizona and extending to El Paso, Texas, including the Mor­mon settlements in the Gila River Valley. Andrew invested himself deeply in his adopted community. He served a term in the Arizona legislature and exerted statewide influence as chair of the agricultural and horticultural commission. Whenever a vacancy occurred in the Quorum of the Twelve, Andrew’s name received speculative mention. His twenty-five years in stake administration illuminate the Church’s maturation from pioneer times to a period of inter­national growth, and his exemplary loyalty and personal high principles were passed on to his son Spencer, especially as father and son served together in the stake presidency.

Historians have used a variety of touchstones to describe the Mormon experience—polygamy, communal associations, and corporatization among others—but none has provided a long-term, large-scale interpretation of Mormon leisure and recreation. Focusing on the period from 1890 to 1940, Richard Ian Kimball describes the most significant changes that occurred in Latter-day Saint recreation practices and ideology. Following the contours of recreation thought in progressive America between 1890 and 1940, leaders and member of the Church employed recreation as a tool to socialize adolescents into the faith. Concerned with the problems posed by rapid urbanization and industrialization, Mormons attempted to ameliorate the problems of the city by inculcating morals and values through sports and recreation programs. The effects of these programs are still visible in the Church today. This dissertation represents a pioneering work in early twentieth–century Mormon social history.

As the century closes, subcultures are being swallowed up by a world culture of mass media and increased secularization. Like a great and abominable church, much of this culture is fundamentally opposed to the principles of the gospel. For twenty-five years, Arthur Henry King has critiqued this mass culture. But he does more. He teaches us to spiritu­ally arm ourselves and our children to win the battle against the destructive forces encompassing us worldwide. King’s talks encourage a deeper commitment to a life of repentance and service and an empathy for the unconverted. They counsel us to turn away from the ugly, vulgar, violent entertainments of our time. Rather, we should seek happiness, not as a goal, but as an activity that includes learning from the best art, music, and literature. By attending to the minute particulars of texts and to the de­tails of everyday living, we free ourselves from traditions that stunt our souls. We open our hearts and minds to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, our souls to the Atonement. Professor King persuasively argues that genuine education begins in homes where parents read the scriptures to and with their children. The language and moral­ity of scripture then form the foundation for learning and judging every activity, art, and discipline. Arm the Children includes all the talks found in King’s Abundance of the Heart plus several previously unpublished talks that continue his jeremiad on behalf of us all.

When the priesthood was extended to blacks in 1978, faithful followers rejoiced and a new day dawned in Africa. Senior missionary couples soon arrived in Ghana, and within a year four hundred people were baptized, many coming from congregations that were patterned after the Church and that had operated unofficially for more than a decade. With Church growth came persecution. Rumors spread that both the organization and the missionaries were American spies. In June 1989, the Ghanaian government instituted an eighteen-month “Freeze,” forcing all Church activities to cease. The Freeze was lifted in 1991. The number of stakes has now multiplied, with a temple dedicated in 2004. “Walking in the sand,” a Ghanaian expression meaning “alive and well,” aptly describes the Latter-day Saints in Ghana.

There are several names in the Book of Mormon—such as Zenephi, Zenos, and Zenock—that look as though they are composed of scriptural names (Nephi, Enos, Enoch, and so forth) with different forms of a z-prefix that might mean “son of ” or “descendant of.” This article proposes that the names Zenephi Zenos, Zenock, and Cezoram incorporate the names of other Book of Mormon or biblical individuals and the Egyptian pin-tail duck hieroglyph, represented by the morpheme se-/ze-, which denotes filiation with these ancestors. If this hypothesis is accurate, it could provide insight into some aspects of the structure of the language of the Book of Mormon and could also reveal information about Book of Mormon naming practices and genealogical lineages of the people who received these names.