After the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City’s Temple Square was renovated in 2007, historian Scott C. Esplin released this in-depth review of the Tabernacle’s construction. Featuring beautiful and historic photos, much of the book consists of a newly edited version of Stewart Grow’s thesis on the building of the Tabernacle. Grow was the grandson of Henry Grow, the bridge builder who built the roof of the historic Tabernacle. The editor has provided a new introduction, placing the thesis in historical context. ISBN 978-0-8425-2675-3

What was the heritage of Jenson’s expedition to Mormondom abroad? How did his two-year fact-finding mission help shape the balance of his life and the Latter-day Saint historical enterprise? Jenson’s global tour was an unprecedented adventure in Latter-day Saint history. Through his own hard work and the seeming hand of Providence, historian Andrew Jenson found his niche as a laborer in the cause of the Restoration. He pursued the goal of collecting and writing comprehensive, accurate, and useful histories of the Church with a rare passion. Acquiring, documenting, and publishing Church history was not purely a scholarly or historical pursuit for him—the untiring Danish-American believed it was a spiritual labor with eternal ramifications. He devoted his adult life to enlarging the institutional memory of the Church and protecting what he considered to be the sacred records of the final dispensation. ISBN 978-0-8425-2820-7

Jeffrey R. Holland, then dean of Religious Instruction at Brigham Young University (BYU), established the Religious Studies Center (RSC) in 1975 with the mission of encouraging and supporting the pursuit of truth through scholarship on gospel-related topics. This collection of essays, like all RSC endeavors, is part of Religious Education’s overall mission of building the kingdom of God by teaching and preserving the sacred doctrine and history of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Religious Educator, a publication of BYU’s RSC, is a place where Church leaders and teachers publish thoughtful essays for those who study and teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The editors of this compilation selected some of the outstanding contributions from past issues to celebrate the Religious Educator’s tenth year of publication. This volume features outstanding articles by Elder Robert D. Hales, Elder Richard G. Scott, Elder Tad R. Callister, J. R. Kearl, Brent L. Top, Kathy Kipp Clayton, and others. ISBN 978-0-8425-2717-0

Religious instruction has been central to Brigham Young University’s unique mission since the beginning. Religious Education faculty and staff members identify with those whose commission it was in ancient times “to teach the word of God among all the people” (Helaman 5:14; see also Alma 23:4; 38:15; 2 Timothy 4:2). Therefore, it has been their desire, as it was with two of Lehi’s sons, to teach . . . the word of God with all diligence” (Jacob 1:19). This book tells the story of BYU’s efforts to fulfill the Savior’s commission. ISBN 978-0-8425-2708-8

Early Semitic temple and religious practices one thousand years before Israel entered Canaan

Symbolic connections between the sacred mountain and the temple in ancient Israel

The answer to “What is a temple?” is partially the answer to “What was the temple?” Here a distinguished array of scholars trests this theme. This collection of essays—which grew out of a BYU symposium of experts—presents recent findings on the temple in antiquity: historical, linguistic, and archaeological data which bear on the idea of the temple in Israelite, Jewish, and Christian traditions. The book includes an expansive introduction to temple traditions and a bibliography for further clarification and comparison. ISBN 0-8849-4518-9

Contents:

The Pearl of Great Price as Scripture / A. Theodore Tuttle
The New Edition of the Scriptures / Robert J. Matthews
Historical Background of the Pearl of Great Price: How the Book Came to Be / James P. Mitchell
Moses One: The Divine Prelude to the Holy Bible / H. Donl Peterson
To Prepare a People / William O. Nelson
Eschatology in the Pearl of Great Price / Rodney Turner
The Duel of the Kings / Richard D. Draper
Understanding Facsimile 2 of the Book of Abraham / James Roy Harris
Astronomy and the Book of Abraham / Fred Holmstrom

A testimonial wherein the author states that knowledge of the Old and New Testaments prepared her for the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon explained her American Indian heritage and gave her dignity.

This fourth volume by the Book of Mormon Academy at Brigham Young University is a careful study of the intersections of two ancient texts: The Book of Mormon and the Bible. The authors approach the two books of scripture from within two fundamental frameworks. First, several of the essays explore the books in terms of the worlds from which they come with their related ideals, interests, and origins. Second, a number of the authors analyze topics based on the texts themselves, closely studying the two texts and helping readers better understand connections. ISBN 978-1-9503-0430-1

William Wordsworth wrote: The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Yet life does not have to be that way. In this thought-provoking book, H. Curtis Wright, professor emeritus of ancient Greek and modern library education, presents four messages on “things of redeeming worth”—eternal things that penetrate and transcend human temporal experience. ISBN 1-57008-745-8

The 47th Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium While Jesus and his disciples were at or near Caesarea Philippi, Peter testified that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Martha had a similar divine testimony, proclaiming, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” In much the same way, a standard part of Latter-day Saint discourse includes bearing testimony that “Jesus is the Christ,” but what do we mean when we say that Jesus is the Christ? This volume compiles essays given at a BYU Sidney B. Sperry Symposium that uniquely address such questions from a Latter-day Saint perspective, bringing together both biblical scholarship and Restoration insights that invite us to come to Christ and apply gospel teachings to real life.

The Sperry Symposium is sponsored annually by Brigham Young University and the Church Educational System. Named in honor of the late Dr. Sidney B. Sperry, who, in the course of his forty-year career, earned a reputation for outstanding teaching and scholarship.

Contents:

Our Heritage from Joseph of Israel / Robert J. Matthews
Isaiah’s Imagery of Plants and Planting / Terry Ball
Melchizedek: Seeking After the Zion of Enoch / Frank F. Judd
The Lord Will Redeem His People: “Adoptive” Covenant and Redemption in the Old Testament / Jennifer Clark Lane
Elijah’s Mission: His Keys, Powers, and Blessings from the Old Testament to the Latter Days / E. Dale LeBaron
“The Spirit of Prophecy is the Testimony of Jesus” / D. Kelly Ogden
Symbolic Action as Prophecy in the Old Testament / Donald W. Parry
Seals and Sealing Among Ancient and Latter-day Israelites / Dana M. Pike
Aaron’s Consecration: Its Nature, Purpose, and Meaning / J. Lyman Redd
Jacob in the Presence of God / Andrew C. Skinner
The Wife/Sister Experience: Pharaoh’s Introduction to Jehovah / Gaye Strathearn
The Provocation in the Wilderness and the Rejection of Grace / M. Catherine Thomas
The Exodus: Prophetic Type and the Plan of Redemption / Thomas R. Valletta

To be humble in the scriptural sense does not mean to be obsequious but to obey God cheerfully in all things, to possess the traits of a child, i.e., submissiveness, meekness, patience, being filled with love, and to discard the negative trappings of adulthood. Pride is the opposite of humility, as exemplified by the Rameumptom. Other examples, positive and negative, are given.

The 2008 and 2009 BYU Easter Conferences Easter is a good time to recall Jesus’ mission to the least, the last, and the lost, for he said, “The Son of man is come to save that which was lost.” Not surprisingly, we discover that he sent his disciples to the “lost sheep,” and thus their mission of finding the lost is a natural extension of his mission. Some of Jesus’ most memorable teaching moments have to do with finding the lost. This volume contains the papers delivered at the 2008 and 2009 Brigham Young University Easter Conferences, which is a celebration of the life and atoning mission of Jesus Christ. We are honored to include articles from Elder Merrill J. Bateman, emeritus member of the Seventy, and Bonnie D. Parkin, former general Relief Society president. ISBN 978-0-8425-2728-6

The 2018 and 2019 BYU Easter Conferences This volume is a compilation of inspiring presentations given at BYU​’s annual Easter Conferences, which have become a popular tradition at the university. Well-known speakers discuss such essential concepts as teaching about that life which is in Christ, the role of the Savior in our lives, the power of the Atonement, how to help those with doubts, and his life and mission. This volume includes talks given by Elder Bruce C. Hafen, Susan W. Tanner, Richard Lyman Bushman, Thomas A. Wayment, Anthony R. Sweat, and Barbara Morgan Gardner. ISBN 978-1-9443-9469-1

One thing that has always perplexed readers of Genesis is the location of the two special trees within the Garden of Eden. Although scripture initially applies the phrase “in the midst” only to the tree of life (Genesis 2:9), the tree of knowledge is later said by Eve to be located there too (see Genesis 3:3). In the context of these verses, the Hebrew phrase corresponding to “in the midst” literally means “in the center.” How can both trees be in the center?

The Exodus was a means by which the Israelites developed faith

Joseph F. Merrill became the first native Utahn to earn a PhD. Working at the University of Utah, he labored to reconcile the secular world with the spiritual world of his youth. In 1912 he helped establish the first Latter-day Saint seminary at Granite High School. As Church commissioner of education, he helped establish the institutes of religion, with a mission to allow college students to reconcile the secular truths learned in university settings with the truths of the gospel. He created the Religion Department at Brigham Young University and encouraged young scholars to produce professional studies of the Latter-day Saint religion. In 1933 Merrill was called as an Apostle, where he continued his work to modernize the Church. In the final years of his life, Merrill continued to work to show that science and religion could be reconciled. ISBN 978-1-9503-0412-7

Making and keeping covenants