Latter-day Eloquence

Richard Benjamin Crosby is a professor of English at Brigham Young University. He is the author of American Kairos: Washington National Cathedral and the New Civil Religion. Isaac James Richards is a University Graduate Fellowship recipient at Pennsylvania State University, where he teaches public speaking.

• Table of ContentsForewordGideon O. BurtonIntroductionRichard Benjamin Crosby and Isaac James RichardsThe Nineteenth Century"Where Is Your Confidence in God?": Lucy Mack Smith's Unexpected Eloquence (1831)Amy D. Williams and Thomas B. WilliamsThe Vine and the Fig Tree: A Pacifist Polarity in Sidney Rigdon's Fourth of July Oration (1838)Isaac James RichardsThe Rhetorical Repercussions of Joseph Smith's "King Follett Sermon" (1844)William V. Smith"Slavery Is a Great Evil": Orson Pratt's Antislavery Speech (1852)Jordan T. Watkins and W. Paul ReeveUnsettling Salvation: Land Inheritance and Racial Improvement in Orson Hyde's "Common Salvation" (1853)Kyle S. Bond and Romeo GarcíaRestoration, Violence, Coloniality: Decolonizing The Church-Settler Instruction-Curriculum in Brigham Young's "Our Indian Relations—How to Deal With Them" (1866)Kyle S. Bond and Romeo García"Silence Is No Longer a Virtue": Eliza R. Snow and the Great Indignation Meeting (1870)Megan Armknecht"Miltons and Shakespeares of Our Own": Orson F. Whitney's "Home Literature" (1888)Gideon BurtonRhetorical Questions, Reunification, and Prophetic Authority in Wilford Woodruff's Cache Stake Address on the Manifesto (1891)Joshua M. Matson"Western Women Authors and Journalists": Emmeline B. Wells's Rhetoric of Religious Camouflage (1893)Rachel Helps"A Phase Of Woman's Education": Leah Dunford Widtsoe's Balance Between Mormon and American Utopias (1896)El Call and Jaclyn FosterLucretia Heywood Kimball's Speech at the Dedication of the Church of Christ, Scientist, Salt Lake City (1898)Michael Hamilton"The Methods and Motives of Science": James E. Talmage's Lecture in the Logan Temple (1898)David L. ClarkThe Twentieth Century"With Entire Candor": Reed Smoot's Speech Before the U.S. Senate (1907)Carter CharlesA Long-Lasting Latitude and Longitude: President J. Reuben Clark's "The Charted Course of the Church in Education" (1938)William G. PerezA Heavenly Logic for Mundane Living in Stephen L. Richards's "Where is Wisdom?" Commencement Address (1948)Maclane E. HewardFragmented Feminism in Belle Spafford's "International Women" (1955)Mallory Hutchings-TryonMoral Mandates in the Public Square: Lenore Romne's Speech to the Kiwanis Club of Danville, Illinois (1968)G. Breck Wightman and Whitney FitzgeraldStephen R. Covey's Liberal Protestant Exhortation in "An Educated Conscience" (1975)Matthew BowmanSpiritual Learning and Academic Excellence: Spencer W. Kimball and "The Second Century of Brigham Young University" (1975)Jared W. LudlowNarrative Theology in Truman G. Madsen's "The First Vision and its Aftermath" (1978)Steven C. HarperArt and Orthodoxy: Wayne Booth's Sardonic "Art and the Church" (1980)Nathan D. WoodAristotelian Truth-Telling in Orson Scott Card's "Nobody Here but Us Orcs: How a Mormon Writer Deals with the Problem of Good and Evil" (1980)Timothy GervaisUrging an Equal Rights Revolution: Byron Marchant's Speech Before the Alice Louis Reynolds Foundation (1982)S. Spencer Wells and Isaac Barnes May"Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift": Hugh Nibley Challenges the Saints (1983)Joseph M. Spencer"From Housewife to Heretic" and Beyond: Sonia Johnson's Storytelling (1983)Christine TalbotSpiritual Epistemology and the Rhetoric of Witness in Bruce R. McConkie's "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane" (1985)Tyler J. AndersenA Provocative Challenge to Conventional Thinking: Eugene England's "Why The Church Is More True Than the Gospel" (1985)Robert A. Rees"Weaned from Milk": Agency and Authority in Francine Bennion's "A Latter-day Saint Theology of Suffering" (1986)Eliza WellsThe Wager of Religious Agnosticism: Levi S. Peterson's "A Christian by Yearning" (1988)John Durham Peters"Learning to Believe": Richard Bushman on "To Be Learned Is Good, If . . ." (1991)J.B. HawsThe Power of the Ordinary: "Martha's Diary and Mine" by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (1991)Colleen McDannell"Mercy Without End": Lavina Fielding Anderson's Devotion in Dissent (1993)Kristine HaglundDisciplined Eloquence: A Stylistic Analysis of Neal A. Maxwell's "Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father" (1995)David StockBroadcast Live: The Performative Construction of Public Leadership in the 1998 Hinckley Larry King Live InterviewBenjamin PetersThe Twenty-First CenturySpeaking the Unspoken: "Healing from Sexual Abuse" by Chieko Okazaki (2002)Meridith Reed"I Think He Did a Little Too Much LDS": The Conversion Narrative of Arthur Kane in New York Doll (2005)Scott Haden ChurchFirst Things First: Judge Thomas Griffith's "Very Root of Christian Doctrine" (2006)J. Spencer FluhmanAnswering the Mormon Question: A Rhetorical Analysis of Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" Speech (2007)David Charles GoreThe Innovative Path to Eternal Bliss: Clayton M. Christensen's "How Will You Measure Your Life?" (2010)W. Michael Hutchings"Righteous Dominion and Compassion for the Earth": Elder Marcus B. Nash's Case for Dominion as a Principle of Responsibility (2013)Addison Graham"Come, Join with Us": Dieter F. Uchtdorf's Invitation to Latter-day Saints in Faith Crisis (2013)Patrick Q. Mason"No More Shame": Mental as Medical in Jeffrey R. Holland's "Like a Broken Vessel" (2013)Heather J. StoneThe Choice We Can Make: Elizabeth Smart's "My Story" (2014)Ashlee HatchOur Mormon Stories: John Dehlin's Prepared Remarks Following His Disciplinary Hearing (2015)Logan PackerRethinking Knowledge and Leadership to Instill Hope: "The Power of Not Knowing" by Liz Wiseman (2016)Travis P. SearleThe Sacredness of Learning in Eva Witesman's "Women and Education" (2017)Michelle GraabekSteadfast and Eloquent: Jeff Flake Defies the New Normal in "Protecting Our Democracy" (2017)Tyler Duane Gardner"Intersections of Religious, Race, and Immigrant Rhetoric in Carolina Núñez's BYU Devotional" (2018)Brittany RomanelloDarius Gray's Forward-Looking Christian Discipleship: "A 54-Year Journey Toward Racial Equality in the Mormon Church" (2018)Joseph R. StuartThree-Part Harmony: Joanna Brooks's Tribute "In Honor of Carol Lynn Pearson" (2019)Jim RichardsThe Hymn That Haunts: Tara Westover's "The Un-Instagramable Self" (2019)Richard Benjamin Crosby"So Much to Celebrate?" LGBTQ Identities in Matt Easton's Convocation Address (2019)Taylor G. Petrey"Sharpen My Shovel": Melissa Inouye's "Making Zion" as a Personal Apologetics of Digging In (2019)Catie NielsonMortality and the Social Practice of Scholarship: Kate Holbrook's "The Weight of Legacy" (2020)Rosalynde Welch and Sophia Snyder ConclusionLatter-day Saint Rhetoric and Mythic Return: Time, Place, and Memory in the Bicentennial ProclamationIsaac James Richards and Richard Benjamin Crosby