Christopher James Blythe
Biographic Data
| ID | 707328 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher James Blythe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher James |
| FAMILY NAME | Blythe |
| SIGNATURE | BLYTHE C J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brigham Young University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8669-8600 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Fiftieth Anniversary Forum
As the Journal of Mormon History starts publishing its fiftieth volume, this forum looks back at its almost half-century run. During those years, the journal has published articles about the churches that trace their beginnings to Joseph Smith Jr. In this essay, I examine the history and content as the journal grew from a small yearly volume to four quarterly issues per volume of nearly three hundred pages each, and transitioned from a privately …
Finally! A Scholarly Biography of Joseph F. Smith
In the summer of 2009, as a master's student, I sat in one of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute's summer seminars when the topic turned to the absence of a biography on Joseph F. Smith. I listened to Terryl Givens pontificate on the importance of this understudied figure and the significance of his presidency in the period of transition. An end of an era. One of my colleagues, Joseph Spencer, suggested that the groundwork for such a study had been es…
The Legend of the Naked Dead
This article introduces the Latter-day Saint "legend of the naked dead," which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a widely known story emphasizing the importance of proper burial, including the ritual clothing of the dead. The ceremonial robes and garments that Latter-day Saints wear in temple services are also worn in the grave. In these stories, apparitions appear to the living to coax them to fix some error in their buria…
Mormon Studies after Viper on the Hearth
It has been twenty-five years since Terryl Givens's debut Latter-day Saint focused monograph: The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy.1 He has since built a reputation on being the most prolific Mormon studies scholar, having written an additional eight books published by Oxford University Press, another from University of North Carolina Press, and a handful of theological titles aimed at Latter-day Saints. Givens'…
Return to the City of Joseph
Each summer, thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints travel to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they hope to find life-altering and faith-affirming experiences in the city of their spiritual forebears. The pilgrims tour various buildings owned by their church, the Smith family properties and the Red Brick Store owned by the Community of Christ, attend the Nauvoo Pageant, and perhaps perform baptisms or other vicarious ritua…
William Bickerton
Book Review| January 01 2020 William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet Daniel P. Stone. William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2018. Christopher James Blythe Christopher James Blythe Reviewed by Christopher James Blythe is a research associate at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. He is the author of Terrible Revolution: Latter-day Saints and the Am…
From the Book of Mormon to the Circle Seven Koran
This article examines the growing scholarship on scripture in American new religious movements, specifically on exemplary studies on African-American Islam, Mormonism, and Satanism. After reviewing the state of the scholarship, I seek to encourage additional work in this inchoate subfield at the intersection of new religious movements, American religious history, and scriptural studies by offering potential trajectories and publication venues
The Exorcism of Isaac Russell
Emma's Willow
Religious institutions establish collective identities through the production of a usable past, and thereby provide adherents with a sense of heritage. This article examines how this process functions in a Mormon pilgrimage site, Nauvoo, Illinois, where not one but two competing institutions, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and Community of Christ, have established alternative narratives of identity. I focus on the thousands…
“Would to God, Brethren, I Could Tell You Who I Am!”
This article examines how Mormons reinterpreted the figure of Joseph Smith (1805–1844) in the wake of their prophet’s death. As a number of Mormon sects emerged in the years immediately following 1844, rival prophets claimed continued access to Smith as a means of legitimating themselves against opposing bodies. The article argues that these re-conceptualizations of Joseph Smith served to draw boundaries between movements, with particular attenti…
The Quest for the Historical Satan (Miguel A. De La Torre and Albert Hernandez)
In 2001, the mayor of Inglis, a small town in Florida, issued an eviction notice to “Satan, ruler of darkness, giver of evil, destroyer of what is good and just.” The town placed a written proclamation that commanded “all satanic and demonic entities to cease their activities and depart,” on new posts at each of the village's entrances (1–2). In 2003, Army Lt. General William Boykin famously characterized the War on Terror as pitting the United S…
From the Book of Mormon to the Circle Seven Koran
This article examines the growing scholarship on scripture in American new religious movements, specifically on exemplary studies on African-American Islam, Mormonism, and Satanism. After reviewing the state of the scholarship, I seek to encourage additional work in this inchoate subfield at the intersection of new religious movements, American religious history, and scriptural studies by offering potential trajectories and publication venues
The Legend of the Naked Dead
This article introduces the Latter-day Saint "legend of the naked dead," which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a widely known story emphasizing the importance of proper burial, including the ritual clothing of the dead. The ceremonial robes and garments that Latter-day Saints wear in temple services are also worn in the grave. In these stories, apparitions appear to the living to coax them to fix some error in their buria…
The Quest for the Historical Satan (Miguel A. De La Torre and Albert Hernandez)
In 2001, the mayor of Inglis, a small town in Florida, issued an eviction notice to “Satan, ruler of darkness, giver of evil, destroyer of what is good and just.” The town placed a written proclamation that commanded “all satanic and demonic entities to cease their activities and depart,” on new posts at each of the village's entrances (1–2). In 2003, Army Lt. General William Boykin famously characterized the War on Terror as pitting the United S…
“Would to God, Brethren, I Could Tell You Who I Am!”
This article examines how Mormons reinterpreted the figure of Joseph Smith (1805–1844) in the wake of their prophet’s death. As a number of Mormon sects emerged in the years immediately following 1844, rival prophets claimed continued access to Smith as a means of legitimating themselves against opposing bodies. The article argues that these re-conceptualizations of Joseph Smith served to draw boundaries between movements, with particular attenti…
Emma's Willow
Religious institutions establish collective identities through the production of a usable past, and thereby provide adherents with a sense of heritage. This article examines how this process functions in a Mormon pilgrimage site, Nauvoo, Illinois, where not one but two competing institutions, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and Community of Christ, have established alternative narratives of identity. I focus on the thousands…
The Exorcism of Isaac Russell
From the Book of Mormon to the Circle Seven Koran
This article examines the growing scholarship on scripture in American new religious movements, specifically on exemplary studies on African-American Islam, Mormonism, and Satanism. After reviewing the state of the scholarship, I seek to encourage additional work in this inchoate subfield at the intersection of new religious movements, American religious history, and scriptural studies by offering potential trajectories and publication venues
William Bickerton
Book Review| January 01 2020 William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet Daniel P. Stone. William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2018. Christopher James Blythe Christopher James Blythe Reviewed by Christopher James Blythe is a research associate at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. He is the author of Terrible Revolution: Latter-day Saints and the Am…
Return to the City of Joseph
Each summer, thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints travel to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they hope to find life-altering and faith-affirming experiences in the city of their spiritual forebears. The pilgrims tour various buildings owned by their church, the Smith family properties and the Red Brick Store owned by the Community of Christ, attend the Nauvoo Pageant, and perhaps perform baptisms or other vicarious ritua…
Mormon Studies after Viper on the Hearth
It has been twenty-five years since Terryl Givens's debut Latter-day Saint focused monograph: The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy.1 He has since built a reputation on being the most prolific Mormon studies scholar, having written an additional eight books published by Oxford University Press, another from University of North Carolina Press, and a handful of theological titles aimed at Latter-day Saints. Givens'…
Fiftieth Anniversary Forum
As the Journal of Mormon History starts publishing its fiftieth volume, this forum looks back at its almost half-century run. During those years, the journal has published articles about the churches that trace their beginnings to Joseph Smith Jr. In this essay, I examine the history and content as the journal grew from a small yearly volume to four quarterly issues per volume of nearly three hundred pages each, and transitioned from a privately …
Finally! A Scholarly Biography of Joseph F. Smith
In the summer of 2009, as a master's student, I sat in one of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute's summer seminars when the topic turned to the absence of a biography on Joseph F. Smith. I listened to Terryl Givens pontificate on the importance of this understudied figure and the significance of his presidency in the period of transition. An end of an era. One of my colleagues, Joseph Spencer, suggested that the groundwork for such a study had been es…
The Legend of the Naked Dead
This article introduces the Latter-day Saint "legend of the naked dead," which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a widely known story emphasizing the importance of proper burial, including the ritual clothing of the dead. The ceremonial robes and garments that Latter-day Saints wear in temple services are also worn in the grave. In these stories, apparitions appear to the living to coax them to fix some error in their buria…
Mormonism, Religion, and History (10 works) · Art (7 works) · History (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · American Constitutional Law and Politics (4 works) · Archaeology and Natural History (4 works) · Art history (4 works) · Religious studies (4 works) · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices (4 works) · Sociology (4 works)