Casey Paul Griffiths - What You Dont Know about the 100 Most Important Events in Church History

2016 Casey Paul Griffiths, Susan Easton Black, and Mary Jane Woodger

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Griffiths, Casey Paul, author. | Black, Susan Easton, author. | Woodger, Mary Jane, author.

Title: What you dont know about the 100 most important events in church history / Casey Paul Griffiths, Susan Easton Black, Mary Jane Woodger.

Description: Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016048595 | ISBN 9781629722467 (paperbound)

Subjects: LCSH: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsHistory. | Mormon ChurchHistory.

Classification: LCC BX8611 .G75 2017 | DDC 289.3/3209dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048595

Printed in the United States of America

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Preface

We live in an era when top ten lists seem to be multiplying at an exponential rate. Often such lists present an excuse for sensationalized writing and shallow analysis. At the same time, the mental exercise of creating a list of the most important events in any span of time can impel a person to think critically about events, stories, and people. This book project began when Casey Griffiths read a book called The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History and thought about what events a similar list from the history of the Latter-day Saints would include. After accepting an invitation to become a visiting professor at Brigham Young University, he began to create his list.

Recognizing that the task might be beyond his individual expertise, he invited a distinguished colleague, Mary Jane Woodger, to join in formulating the final list of 100 events. Her skill as a writer and her insights into the history of Latter-day Saint women added to Caseys focus on the development of the global Church. Mary Jane in turn reached out to Susan Easton Black, whose wide-ranging knowledge of nineteenth-century Church history proved an invaluable addition to the project. All three of us likewise received generous assistance from colleagues in the Department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. From them we gained expert insights into early, modern, and global Latter-day Saint history.

We also used the most current scholarship and sources available to us. In many instances, this means we have cited the Joseph Smith Papers and other documents at josephsmithpapers.org. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation in such quotations has been modernized for ease in reading.

With a history and records that span nearly 190 years, the story of the Latter-day Saints is a vital and lively topic for historians, critics, and members alike. As teachers of Church history, we see the inherent worth of providing readers with a series of brief essays on the top 100 events that have shaped the Latter-day Saints as a people.

Nonetheless, it was not our intention to create a definitive list of such events. We have made no attempt to list these 100 events in order of importance or prominencewe have simply listed them chronologically. It is our hope to start a conversation about well-known events and introduce a few lesser-known ones that have played a key role in shaping the beliefs and practices of Latter-day Saints worldwide.

Our approach toward the well-known events, such as the First Vision, has been to provide a brief overview of the complexities that surround the defining historical moments. For instance, most Latter-day Saints are familiar with the story of the First Vision as presented in the Pearl of Great Price but are less familiar with other accounts that Joseph Smith and his contemporaries shared about that pivotal, sacred event.

Our approach to lesser-known events has been to tell the event in context and then show why we think the event is significant enough to be included in the list. For instance, most Latter-day Saints likely know the basics of Brigham Youngs epic trek to the Great Basin in 1847 but know little of the last months of his life thirty years later when the aging leader initiated a sweeping series of reforms that created the modern ward and branch structure of the Church.

Ever-present was our realization that from small things proceeds that which is great, from the organization of the Church with only a handful of members to the creation of such worldwide programs as Humanitarian Services and the Perpetual Education Fund, and from President Spencer W. Kimballs announcement that all worthy males could receive the priesthood to the fulfillment of President Gordon B. Hinckleys vision to build smaller temples around the world and have a hundred operating temples before the end of the twentieth century. Selecting events from the most recent years of Church history was thus a particular challenge, as in many cases not enough time has passed to show clearly which events should be included.

More important, however, is our recognition that the history of the Church is continuing and that the greatest events are still to come. Yet as this generation moves toward the millennial day, it is important to pause to reflect upon the events of the past that shape our future. With that in mind, we are proud to present What You Dont Know about the 100 Most Important Events in Church History.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the faculty and staff of Religious Education at Brigham Young University, many of whom contributed to this work and assisted in its preparation. Robert L. Millet and Richard E. Bennett provided encouragment and suggestions when the project was just an idea. As the work progressed, Gerrit Dirkmaat, J. B. Haws, Kenneth L. Alford, Craig K. Manscill, and Scott C. Esplin read portions of the manuscript and offered suggestions. Alexander L. Baugh, Andrew H. Hedges, Michael Hubbard MacKay, and Greg Wilkinson were also consulted. We are grateful for their expertise in early LDS Church history and their valuable guidance. We also thank the Religious Education staff, led by Patty Smith and Beverly Yellowhorse, for their help in preparing the manuscript. It is a blessing to work with such talented and generous people.

We were fortunate also to have the assistance of a number of hardworking and diligent BYU students who assisted in researching and editing the manuscript. The project would not have been possible without the assistance of Jillie Orth, Anne Katherine Toronto, Elijah Kaika Cole, Charlotte Searle, Tyler Smith, Kalli K. Searle, and Carli Hanson.

We likewise express thanks to the staff at the Church History Library, Harold B. Lee Library, J. Willard Marriott Library, Merrill-Cazier Library, and other archival repositories. We express special appreciation to Cindy Brightenburg, who assisted in securing several images used in the book. We appreciate the assistance of Brent L. Top, dean of Religious Education at BYU, because many of the photographs featured in this book were taken during a tour for new faculty that Dean Top arranged. We thank him and others in the deans office, including Robert L. Freeman and Dana Pike, for their support of Religious Education.