DOCSLIB.ORG

Why Does Latter-Day Saint Art Matter? with Jennifer Champoux Released May 8

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Why Does Latter-Day Saint Art Matter? with Jennifer Champoux Released May 8 Latter-day Saint Perspectives Podcast Episode 106: Why Does Latter-day Saint Art Matter? with Jennifer Champoux Released May 8, 2019 This is not a verbatim transcript. Some wording has been modified for clarity. Laura Harris Hales: Hello, this is Laura Harris Hales. I’m here today with Jenny Champoux, who has an interesting background. You have a master’s in art history, but that’s not what you started out studying. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your background? Jennifer Champoux: Sure. Thank you. When I was at Brigham Young University, I got my undergraduate degree in international politics and political science, and I did a minor in art history. I went on an art history study abroad to Europe and then ended up writing an honors thesis paper on a Flemish artist and just fell in love with the research and writing process in art history. I realized that that was really what I love to do. I decided to pursue a master’s degree in art history, and I took some extra art history classes, learned French, and did my graduate work at Boston University studying Dutch art of the Golden Age, Baroque art. Laura Harris Hales: You lecture part-time on art history right now, don’t you? Jennifer Champoux: I do. I’m adjunct faculty at Northeastern University. Laura Harris Hales: Our discussion today is based on your article “Wise or Foolish: Women in Mormon Biblical Narrative Art,” published in the summer 2018 issue of BYU Studies Quarterly, which is a tough venue. So congratulations. Jennifer Champoux: I was very excited. Laura Harris Hales: What motivated you to write about religious visual imagery? Jennifer Champoux: Well, I’m coming from a background studying Flemish and Dutch art from the 15th to 17th centuries. I have studied a lot of art that has religious content and symbolism, and I thought a lot about the ways that religious belief can influence artistic styles and depictions. For example, I have always been interested in the way Rubens, who was painting in Catholic Flanders in Antwerp, depicts biblical scenes so differently from Rembrandt who was just a hundred miles away in Protestant Amsterdam. Rubens is more focused on the narrative and these very heroic, larger-than-life figures and idealized flesh. A Rembrandt has a lot more inner drama, more of the focus on the individual, more psychological, a little less heroic, and a little more down to earth and gritty. I’ve always been interested in the way religious belief influences art. LDS Perspectives Podcast Episode 106: Why Does Latter-day Saint Art Matter? with Jennifer Champoux Jennifer Champoux: And that led me to think about our own Latter-day Saint art. I think we do have a lot of visual art. We are surrounded by it in our culture, but we don’t tend to engage with it very closely. Before moving to Virginia, we lived in Colorado. In the Relief Society room in Denver, we had on either side of the lectern two huge reproductions. On one side was Walter Rane’s “Five of Them Were Wise,” the parable of the ten virgins. On the other side was Minerva Teichert’s depiction of Jesus at the home of Mary and Martha. I sat there every Sunday trying to make sense of these two images and thinking about issues of placement. Why were these specific images chosen for the Relief Society room? How did they interact with each other? What’s the message they’re sending? Laura Harris Hales: Can you give us a little background on the different types of visual imagery? Jennifer Champoux: When we think of traditional visual arts, we might think of things like paintings, sculptures, or drawings, but it would also encompass things like crafts, photography, film, and architecture. In Latter-day Saint art that might mean temples and meetinghouses. There are also the larger categories of visual culture and material culture, which would include things like our texts— scriptures, manuals, other books and texts—historical sites, and personal devotional objects. That’s really not something that we often think about with Latter-day Saint culture. You might consider a CTR ring as a kind of a personal devotional object—something that you wear to remind you of your faith and to try to bring you closer to God. Jennifer Champoux: There’s also figural versus non-figural art. Figural art portrays people or animals, anthropomorphic images, whereas non-figural art can be a lot more geometric and abstract, sometimes even calligraphic or textual. Latter-day Saint art is not really tied to ritual practice. In some religions art actually plays a role in the way you interact with God or the way you perform a sacrament or an ordinance. Our Latter-day Saint chapels are usually sparse with very clean lines and hardly ever have art or painting or sculpture in the chapel. We don’t actually use art in any ritual way. Laura Harris Hales: Why is visual art important? Jennifer Champoux: Visual art has the power to elevate the senses, and that’s obviously important in a religious setting. It also has the power to express the intangible. The Italian renaissance artist and theorist Alberti wrote in De Pictura in 1435, “Painting can make the absent present.” Jennifer Champoux: I think art really does do that. We also use art to visualize scripture or history; it has an educational purpose in the way it communicates. Art can reveal a new way of thinking about the world or about an idea. http://www.ldsperspectives.com/2019/05/08/why-does-latter-…h-jenny-champoux/ Page 2 of 10 Episode 106: Why Does Latter-day Saint Art Matter? with Jennifer Champoux Laura Harris Hales: Latter-day Saints use art differently. I think that’s fairly obvious from the difference in how our chapels look. How does it differ? Have you noticed a common approach to how Latter-day Saint artists make art and how it’s displayed or used? Jennifer Champoux: A couple of weeks ago we took my daughter up to New York for the first time. She’s nine years old, and we took her in to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It was her first time going into a cathedral, and she was overwhelmed and amazed at the stained glass, the vaulted ceilings, the statues, and the huge organ pipes. I asked her what she thought and felt about the space. Did it feel special? She said, “Yeah, it felt special.” It felt sacred. It felt separate from the world in a special way. She actually turned to me and said, “Mom, if I went to church here, I wouldn’t be so bored in church because I’d have something to look at.” In our Latter-day Saint culture, we have more of this Protestant, iconoclast tradition of stripping down. Laura Harris Hales: We do have those special spaces, but it’s not where we worship weekly; it is in our temples. We set that place apart and make it full of beauty to help us get in a spiritual place. Jennifer Champoux: Yeah, I think you’re right, but in our weekly meetings, we are pretty casual about it. I’ve heard Terryl Givens talk about trying to listen to Stake Conference sitting under a basketball hoop on a metal folding chair in the gym overflow area. There is this Dutch painting by Emanuel de Witte of the 17th century Protestant Dutch Oude Kerk. Right in the middle there’s two little boys scribbling on a column of the church. Next to them there is another column and a little dog is lifting his leg up on the column. Then there is a broom just sort of propped up. I feel like I have been to ward parties that have been about this casual about the way we treat our meetinghouses. I think that’s a really interesting comparison. Jennifer Champoux: One of the reasons why I love Dutch art is because I see parallels between how modern Latter-day Saints and the Dutch people then are navigating between the sacred and the profane and renegotiating and collapsing those boundaries. The other part of your question was about how Latter-day Saint art works for people today. So, Latter- day Saint artwork functions in several ways. It can have more of a devotional purpose by drawing your mind to God; it can be didactic or used for teaching lessons and communicating. It can be appreciated just for its aesthetic qualities. The formal qualities in Latter-day Saint art tend towards the detailed and highly realistic. If you think of artists like Del Parson, Harry Anderson, Arnold Friberg, or Simon Dewey, their work is very realistic looking. Recently that’s begun to change a little bit. We have artists like J. Kirk Richards, Brian Kershisnik, and Jorge Cocco who are using a little bit more of a sketchy style. It’s a little more self-conscious of the http://www.ldsperspectives.com/2019/05/08/why-does-latter-…h-jenny-champoux/ Page 3 of 10 Episode 106: Why Does Latter-day Saint Art Matter? with Jennifer Champoux medium. I’ve seen some of their images appearing in the Ensign and the new Come, Follow Me manuals. That is an exciting change, and it’s just nice to have the variety. Laura Harris Hales: You mentioned that Latter-day Saint artists favor the realistic. How could these interpretations lead to misconceptions, especially in a global church? Jennifer Champoux: That’s a great question.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • MINERVA TEICHERT's JESUS at the HOME of MARY and MARTHA: REIMAGINING an ORDINARY HEROINE by Tina M. Delis a Thesis Project
    MINERVA TEICHERT’S JESUS AT THE HOME OF MARY AND MARTHA: REIMAGINING AN ORDINARY HEROINE by Tina M. Delis A Thesis Project Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Art History Committee: ___________________________________________ Director ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Department Chairperson ___________________________________________ Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: _____________________________________ Spring Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Minerva Teichert’s Jesus at the Home of Mary and Martha: Reimagining an Ordinary Heroine A Thesis Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at George Mason University by Tina M. Delis Bachelor of Arts George Mason University, 1987 Director: Ellen Wiley Todd, Professor Department of Art History Spring Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noderivs 3.0 unported license. ii DEDICATION For Jim, who teaches me every day that anything is possible if you have the courage to take the first step. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the many friends, relatives, and supporters who have made this happen. To begin with, Dr. Ellen Wiley Todd and Dr. Angela Ho who with great patience, spent many hours reading and editing several drafts to ensure I composed something I would personally be proud of. In addition, the faculty in the Art History program whose courses contributed to small building blocks for the overall project. Dr. Marian Wardle for sharing insights about her grandmother. Lastly, to my family who supported me in more ways than I could ever list.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Pioneer's Heart: BYU-Pathway at Year
    BYU-Pathway Worldwide Devotional September 24, 2019 “The Pioneer’s Heart: BYU-Pathway at Year 10” Clark G. Gilbert President of BYU-Pathway Worldwide Introduction I’m standing near the mouth of Emigration Canyon, where the first pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. “Those early pioneers brought a spirit of [humility and] frugality, a faith and optimism for the unknown, a longing for prophetic direction, and a spirit of personal sacrifice to their trek west.”i Today I would like to talk about how the Pioneer’s Heart shaped the development of BYU-Pathway and how it Can shape you on your own eduCational journey. The Creation of BYU-Pathway This year marks the 10th anniversary of the creation of BYU-Pathway Worldwide. LaunChed in 2009 as a simple pilot in three loCations with just 50 students, BYU-Pathway now touChes the entire ChurCh with over 45,000 students in more than 100 Countries. It was not by aCCident that BYU-Pathway would grow out of BYU-Idaho, an institution with its own pioneering heritage.ii The earliest concepts for Pathway were foCused on building a bridge to College through life skills Courses and job-foCused CertifiCates. Elder Kim B. Clark, then president of BYU-Idaho, sought counsel on those early impressions from the ChurCh Board of EduCation. Approval was granted to run limited pilots in Mesa, Arizona; Nampa, Idaho; and New York City. The Board’s decision to limit the early pilot sites proved providential because our early assumptions were a little bit right and a little bit wrong, and we needed time (and the humility) to learn and adapt.
    [Show full text]
  • J. Kirk Richards
    mormonartist Issue 1 September 2008 inthisissue Margaret Blair Young & Darius Gray J. Kirk Richards Aaron Martin New Play Project editor.in.chief mormonartist Benjamin Crowder covering the Latter-day Saint arts world proofreaders Katherine Morris Bethany Deardeuff Mormon Artist is a bimonthly magazine Haley Hegstrom published online at mormonartist.net and in print through MagCloud.com. Copyright © 2008 Benjamin Crowder. want to help? All rights reserved. Send us an email saying what you’d be Front cover paper texture by bittbox interested in helping with and what at flickr.com/photos/31124107@N00. experience you have. Keep in mind that Mormon Artist is primarily a Photographs pages 4–9 courtesy labor of love at this point, so we don’t Margaret Blair Young and Darius Gray. (yet) have any money to pay those who help. We hope that’ll change Paintings on pages 12, 14, 17–19, and back cover reprinted soon, though. with permission from J. Kirk Richards. Back cover is “Pearl of Great Price.” Photographs on pages 2, 28, and 39 courtesy New Play Project. Photograph on pages 1 and 26 courtesy Vilo Elisabeth Photography, 2005. Photograph on page 34 courtesy Melissa Leilani Larson. Photograph on page 35 courtesy Gary Elmore. Photograph on page 37 courtesy Katherine Gee. contact us Web: mormonartist.net Email: [email protected] tableof contents Editor’s Note v essay Towards a Mormon Renaissance 1 by James Goldberg interviews Margaret Blair Young & Darius Gray 3 interviewed by Benjamin Crowder J. Kirk Richards 11 interviewed by Benjamin Crowder Aaron Martin 21 interviewed by Benjamin Crowder New Play Project 27 interviewed by Benjamin Crowder editor’snote elcome to the pilot issue of what will hope- fully become a longstanding love affair with the Mormon arts world.
    [Show full text]
  • Fall 2019 Learning Evaluation the Theme of This Portfolio Is to Exemplify Precision, Alignment, and Organization
    Portfolio of Work Matthew Stoddard Fall 2019 Learning Evaluation The theme of this portfolio is to exemplify precision, alignment, and organization. I felt like that was my biggest hurdle in print publication. The process of making content look and feel organ­ ized is no simple matter. It requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to learn and stretch your creativity. My understanding of those ideas has grown during this course. For instance, I learned how to better align content using grid lines in the InDesign program. I discovered how to line up col­ umns of text using a baseline grid, or even adjusting them in small increments of leading. I even learned how to create my own grid and gutters with proper margins. From that, I saw how to properly organize pictures with their associated captions or text. I especially learned the importance of organization and preci­ sion when it comes to cleaning up and copy fitting text. I saw how things like optical alignment, justifying text, and avoiding eyesores, like widows or orphans, makes a world of difference. I also saw how removing unnecessary white space or using proper characters produces a more polished piece. My skills of InDesign have definitely improved in those areas. Since I had to do it many times, cleaning up or copy fitting text has almost become second nature to me. In this portfolio, I think my magazine feature turned out the best. The reason is because it was the culmination of everything I’d learned in print publishing. Using correct margins, having good line lengths, choosing a good serif/san­serif typeface, utilizing proper hierarchy, accurately implementing the paragraph and character styles, taking advantage of layers, color correcting the images, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • 15 BYTES :: February 2008 :: Page 5
    PAGE 1 PAGE 6 PAGE 2 PAGE 7 PAGE 3 PAGE 8 PAGE 4 PAGE 9 PAGE 5 PAGE 10 February 2008 Page 5 Recently Read Minerva Teichert: Pageants in Paint by Tom Alder One of the most remarkable monographs to have been written in recent years is Marian Wardle's Minerva Teichert: Pageants in Paint. That Wardle is the granddaughter of the venerable western and Mormon muralist is inconspicuous, and with exacting detail, Wardle has created the most important work to date about Minerva Teichert. Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name at Brigham Young University's Museum of Art, Wardle's masterful work is a precisioned arrangement of not only a credible biography and evocative coffee table book of 47 color plates, but also a comprehensive chronology (including an extensive catalogue raisonne), and Teichert's never-before published autobiography. It might be expected that a monumental treatment of Teichert's story by a family member, and published by Brigham Young University, would be a pallid re-telling of the spiritual side of Teichert, akin to a 1940s Relief Society manual; but Wardle freely narrates the salty side of Teichert as well as detailing some noteworthy disappointments in her life. However, Wardle resists writing an extensive account of many of the stories that have been re-told for decades. Yes, in her youth, Teichert slept with a gun under her pillow. Yes, she worked as a trick roper while studying in New York. 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Yes, she often used her children's dates and any others who happened by the modest Cokeville, Organization Spotlight: Provo Wyoming home as models for some of her massive A Future for the Provo Gallery Stroll? and forceful murals.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of the Effect of Color in the Utah Temple Murals
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1968 A Study of the Effect of Color in the Utah Temple Murals Terry John O'Brien Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Art and Design Commons, and the Mormon Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation O'Brien, Terry John, "A Study of the Effect of Color in the Utah Temple Murals" (1968). Theses and Dissertations. 4990. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4990 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF COLOR INTHEIN THE UTAH TEMPLE MMALSMURALS 41k V A thesisthes is presented to the department of art brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for thedegreethe degree master of arts by terryjohnterry john obrien may 19196868 m TABLE OF CONTENTS page LIST OF TABLES e 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 19 0 0 0 vi chapter I1 introduction 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 statement of the problem questions and data inherent to the problem justificationustifaustif icationmication and signifsigniasignificance3 cance of the study sourcsourasourceses of information delimitations of thestathestuthe studydy organization oftheodtheof the material basic assumptions definition of terms II11 THE FOUR UTAH TEMPLES AND THEIR ARTISTS 0 0 11 temple beginnings
    [Show full text]
  • Wise Or Foolish: Women in Mormon Biblical Narrative Art
    BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 57 Issue 2 Article 4 2018 Wise or Foolish: Women in Mormon Biblical Narrative Art Jennifer Champoux Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Part of the Mormon Studies Commons, and the Religious Education Commons Recommended Citation Champoux, Jennifer (2018) "Wise or Foolish: Women in Mormon Biblical Narrative Art," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 57 : Iss. 2 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol57/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Champoux: Wise or Foolish Wise or Foolish Women in Mormon Biblical Narrative Art Jennifer Champoux isual imagery is an inescapable element of religion. Even those Vgroups that generally avoid figural imagery, such as those in Juda- ism and Islam, have visual objects with religious significance.1 In fact, as David Morgan, professor of religious studies and art history at Duke University, has argued, it is often the religions that avoid figurative imag- ery that end up with the richest material culture.2 To some extent, this is true for Mormonism. Although Mormons believe art can beautify a space, visual art is not tied to actual ritual practice. Chapels, for exam- ple, where the sacrament ordinance is performed, are built with plain walls and simple lines and typically have no paintings or sculptures. Yet, outside chapels, Mormons enjoy a vast culture of art, which includes traditional visual arts, texts, music, finely constructed temples, clothing, historical sites, and even personal devotional objects.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Utah Women Artists Utah Museum of Fine Arts • Lesson Plans for Educators October 28, 1998 Table of Contents
    Early Utah Women Artists Utah Museum of Fine Arts • www.umfa.utah.edu Lesson Plans for Educators October 28, 1998 Table of Contents Page Contents 2 Image List 3 Edge of the Desert , Louise Richards Farnsworth 4 Lesson Plan for Edge of the Desert Written by Ann Parker 8 Untitled, Mabel Pearl Fraser 9 Lesson Plan for Untitled Written by Betsy Quintana 10 Étude, Harriet Richards Harwood 11 Lesson Plan for Etude Written by Betsy Quintana 13 Battle of the Bulls , Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert 14 Lesson Plan for Battle of the Bulls Written by Marsha Kinghorn 17 Landscape with Blue Mountain and Stream, Florence Ellen Ware 18 Lesson Plan for Landscape with Blue Mountain Written by Bernadette Brown 19 Portrait of the Artist or Her Sister Augusta , Myra L. Sawyer 20 Lesson Plan for Portrait of the Artist or Her Augusta Written by Ila Devereaux Evening for Educators is funded in part by the StateWide Art Partnership 1 Early Utah Women Artists Utah Museum of Fine Arts • www.umfa.utah.edu Lesson Plans for Educators October 28, 1998 Image List 1. Louise Richard Farnsworth (1878-1969) American Edge of the Desert Oil painting Mr. & Mrs. Joseph J. Palmer 1991.069.023 2. Mabel Pearl Frazer (1887-1981) American Untitled Oil painting Mr. & Mrs. Joseph J. Palmer 1991.069.028 3. Harriet Richards Harwood (1870-1922) American Étude , 1892 Oil painting University of Utah Collection X.035 4. Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert (1888-1976) American Battle of the Bulls Oil painting Gift of Jack and Mary Lois Wheatley 2004.2.1 5.
    [Show full text]
  • THESIS a REASON to BELIEVE: a RHETORICAL ANALYSIS of MORMON MISSIONARY FILMS Submitted by Sky L. Anderson Department of Communic
    THESIS A REASON TO BELIEVE: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF MORMON MISSIONARY FILMS Submitted by Sky L. Anderson Department of Communication Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Spring 2012 Master’s Committee Advisor: Carl Burgchardt Eric Aoki Kathleen Kiefer ABSTRACT A REASON TO BELIEVE: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF MORMON MISSIONARY FILMS In this analysis, I examine Mormon cinema and how it functions on a rhetorical level. I specifically focus on missionary films, or movies that are framed by LDS missionary narratives. Through an analysis of two LDS missionary films, namely Richard Dutcher’s God’s Army (2000) and Mitch Davis’ The Other Side of Heaven (2001), I uncover two rhetorical approaches to fostering spirituality. In my first analysis, I argue that God’s Army presents two pathways to spirituality: one which produces positive consequences for the characters, and the other which produces negative consequences. I call these pathways, respectively, ascending and descending spirituality, and I explore the rhetorical implications of this framing. In my second analysis, I contend that The Other Side of Heaven creates a rhetorical space wherein the audience may transform. Specifically, the film constructs a “Zion,” or a heaven on earth, with three necessary components, which coincide perfectly with established LDS teachings: God, people, and place. These three elements invite the audience to accept that they are imperfect, yet they can improve if they so desire. Ultimately, by comparing my findings from both films, I argue that the films’ rhetorical strategies are well constructed to potentially reinforce beliefs for Mormon audiences, and they also may invite non-Mormons to think more positively about LDS teachings.
    [Show full text]
  • Mormon Abstract
    Abstract http://www.mormonartistsgroup.com/Mormon_Artists_Group/Abstract.html Welcome What's New Works Glimpses Events Freebies About MAG Contact Mormon Abstract by Stephanie K. Northrup January 2010 [i] When you think of Mormons “pushing the envelope,” what comes to mind? Deacons at the door collecting fast offerings? Try Bethanne Andersen’s The Last Supper (Place Setting). Many beautiful renditions of the Last Supper already exist, telling the story through dramatic lighting, facial expressions, and body language. Andersen tries a new perspective. She paints the dishes from which Christ eats His last mortal meal. That’s it. No people. Just us – invited to put ourselves in His shoes. The dishes are painted in soft pastel, as if on the verge of fading. This is a fleeting moment, like mortality, as He sits with His friends before making the ultimate sacrifice. By pushing the envelope, by throwing a new image at us that makes us consider the story in a new way, Andersen invites viewer participation. What a great approach to “likening the scriptures.” While Greg Olsen, Del Parson, and Simon Dewey are household names, ask most Mormons to name an abstract artist in the Church and you’ll probably get blank stares. Do Mormons make abstract art? We do. And we have been for a long time. In 1890, the church sent John Hafen and other “art missionaries” to Paris. Their assignment was to improve their skill so that they could create art for the Salt Lake Temple. What did these artists return with? Impressionism! Bright, thick brush strokes replaced traditional refined detail.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cloning of Mormon Architecture
    THE CLONING OF MORMON ARCHITECTURE MARTHA SONNTAG BRADLEY THOUGH BRIGHAM YOUNGS SERMONS were often full of exaggerations, he was right on the mark when he said, To accomplish this work there will have to be not only one temple but thousands of them, and thousands of ten thousands of men and women will go into those temples and officiate.1 Brigham clearly envisioned the 6,500 church buildings the Latter-day Saints would have erected by 1980. The architectural history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reflects an industrious, proud and diversified tradition in style, technology and objective. Mormon architecture, always responsive to the changing environment, has expressed changes in church membership, tastes, philosophy and the organizational structure of the Church itself. Historically, Latter-day Saints have had three distinct forms of ecclesiasti- cal architecture: the temple, the tabernacle and the ward meetinghouse. In the nineteenth century, these three types were clearly distinguishable in size, style and function. In the mid-twentieth century, however, when tab- ernacles were no longer built by the Church, temples and ward meeting- houses drew closer in style and character. Even in pioneer times, Mormon architecture expressed little that was truly indigenous. Most styles and forms, like the castellated Gothic style of the Salt Lake Temple, were adapted from other historical periods and applied to Mormon culture. The period beginning in 1920 became identified with a growing conservatism and historicity in architectural attitudes and practice, MARTHA SONNTAG BRADLEY is currently completing her master's thesis at BYU. She presented this paper at the Mosaic of Mormon Culture Sesquicentennial Symposium 1980 at BYU.
    [Show full text]
  • Mormon Recruitment of Christian Young People
    How Mormons Recruit Christian Young People for the LDS Church By the Mother of a Mormon who has a Heart for the Lost “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19). Most Christians will recognize the words above as the Great Commission where Jesus Christ commanded His disciples and followers (that’s us!) to share the good news of salvation with all people. Many Christians take these words very seriously. But, others do not. Some Christian who do not take the Great Commission seriously may not feel equipped to share their faith. Others may be afraid to share their faith. And still others may be babes in Christ. We should pray that the Lord would strengthen their faith and encourage them to grow spiritually. But the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints (LDS/Mormons) do take these words seriously. Mormons are knocking on doors, sharing their false teachings and beliefs, and convincing the uninformed Christian and those with no faith that they have the true church. In particular the Mormons are reaching out to your children and youth who may be Biblically uninformed. How do they reach out to your children, youth, and young adults? First, LDS children are trained starting at age 2 or 3 to give their testimony of their faith. They receive training in their faith at church, Sunday school, Family home night (Mondays), Boy Scouts or young Women Activities and camping, classes at Seminaries (high school) or Institutes (colleges).
    [Show full text]