BYU Studies Quarterly 55/4 (2016)

To start off this issue, Khumbulani Mdletshe shares his personal history of conversion in South Africa and his call in 1985 to serve as a missionary in London, where he first learned about the 1978 revelation on the priesthood and its difficult history. Now a member of the Third Quorum of the Seventy serving in Africa, he tells here his personal tale of growth through searching for answers and learning to trust in God and his prophets. Next, Richard Dilworth Rust introduces an important new resource: the online journals of George Q. Cannon. Then, Nelson Chung describes the revolutionary nature of using analytics in football programs and tries to divine the new coaching staff's likelihood of using these tools.

 

Alonzo Gaskill writes in memory of the Christian scholar Stephen H. Webb, who died earlier this year and who engaged deeply with Mormon thought. For a new scriptural insight, David Larsen examines closely the semantic range of meanings behind the Hebrew word that is translated as "victory" in Isaiah 25:8, "He will swallow up death in victory." Similar statements in the Book of Mormon appear to be dependent variations on this hopeful and eternal theme. Returning to the age-old question of the problem of pain and suf­fering, Tyler Johnson's essay searches in Mormon theology for answers. Johnson sees empathy as God's answer to human suffering, pointing out that in many ways we are God's hands in extending that empathy. Philosophy professor Daniel Graham argues that Socrates, the para­gon of intellectual inquisitiveness, was not only devoted to rationality but also to spirituality. As such, the famous Greek wise man shows that Athens and Jerusalem may not be as completely alien to each other as some have thought.

 

Finally, this issue includes two personal essays, two poems, a review essay, seven full book reviews, and three short book notices. We hope readers will appreciate this issue's broad topics in Mormon studies.