External links
- Biographies of Joseph Smith Papers Project staff, including Esplin
- Listed as contributor to the PBS documentary American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith
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Ronald Kent Esplin (born 1944) [1] is the managing editor of The Joseph Smith Papers project and the former director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at Brigham Young University (BYU).
Esplin was born in Cedar City, Utah and raised in Salt Lake City. [2]
Esplin served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Central American Mission, when that mission not only included all the countries from Guatemala to Panama, but also had Colombia within its borders.
Esplin holds degrees from Brigham Young University, the University of Utah and the University of Virginia.
In 1972 Esplin was planning to start a teaching career as an Institute instructor. He was recruited to work for the summer under Church Historian Leonard J. Arrington doing a search and study of Brigham Young's papers in the church archive. He remained working in the Church History Archives until 1980 when Church Commissioner of Education Jeffrey R. Holland announced that Esplin and his colleagues would come to Brigham Young University with Holland who was appointed university president. [3] Esplin received a Ph.D. from BYU with his doctoral dissertation being entitled The Emergence of Brigham Young and The Twelve to Mormon Leadership, 1830-1841. [4]
By 1984 Esplin was director of the Smith Institute and he helped Dean C. Jessee to get The Papers of Joseph Smith: Volume 1 published in 1984. Esplin was also involved in the decision to entirely revamp the project. In 2001 he left BYU and took over as director of the papers project full-time. However, from 2001 to 2005 the project was operating at BYU. In 2005 it relocated to the Church Archives (part of the Church History Department) in Salt Lake City. [5]
Esplin's research has focused on the early period of the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints particularly the role of Brigham Young during the presidency of Joseph Smith. Esplin was among the contributors to the Atlas of Mormonism [6] and the Encyclopedia of Mormonism . [7] Esplin was also one of fourteen editors working on the project under Daniel H. Ludlow. [8]
Besides directing the Smith Institute, Esplin also taught classes in Church History at BYU.
As managing editor of the Joseph Smith papers project Esplin has been working to make it so that once the papers come out they are available in many libraries around the world. [5]
Esplin also served as the president of the Mormon History Association from 2006 to 2007. [9] [10]
Esplin has seven children and has served in such positions as a counselor in a bishopric. [11]
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In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is one of the governing bodies in the church hierarchy. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are apostles, with the calling to be prophets, seers, and revelators, evangelical ambassadors, and special witnesses of Jesus Christ.
Orson Pratt Sr. was an American mathematician and religious leader who was an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Christ. He became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was a leading Mormon theologian and writer until his death.
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Century I is a six-volume history published in 1930 and written by B.H. Roberts, a general authority and Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It should not be confused with the seven-volume History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was also produced by Roberts in the early 20th-century but as an editor and which focused on the history of Joseph Smith.
Church Historian and Recorder is a priesthood calling in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The role of the Church Historian and Recorder is to keep an accurate and comprehensive record of the church and its activities. His office gathers history sources and preserves records, ordinances, minutes, revelations, procedures, and other documents. The Church Historian and Recorder also chairs the Historic Sites Committee and Records Management Committee, and may act as an authoritative voice of the church in historical matters.
The Joseph Smith Papers is a project researching, collecting, and publishing all manuscripts and documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The documents, which include transcriptions and annotations, have appeared both online and in printed form. The Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsors the project; the department's imprint, the Church Historian's Press, publishes the website and the printed volumes.
Dean Cornell Jessee is a historian of the early Latter Day Saint movement and leading expert on the writings of Joseph Smith Jr.
Brigham Young University Press was the university press of Brigham Young University (BYU).
Daniel Hansen Ludlow was a professor of religion at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. He was also the chief editor of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992 by Macmillan.
The Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History was an academic research organization at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 1980 to 2005 that sought to promote the study of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
James Brown "Jim" Allen is an American historian of Mormonism and was an official Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972 to 1979. While working as Assistant Church Historian, he co-authored The Story of the Latter-day Saints with Glen Leonard. After Ezra Taft Benson dismissed the book as secular new history, other events led to the dissolution of the LDS Church History department in 1982. Allen resigned as Assistant Church Historian in 1979, returning to work at Brigham Young University (BYU) full-time.
Richard Eyring "Rick" Turley Jr. is an American historian and genealogist. He previously served as both an Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as managing director of the church's public affairs department.
Mark Roscoe Ashurst-McGee is an American historian of the Latter Day Saint movement and editor for the Joseph Smith Papers project.
Paul Robert Cheesman was an American academic and a professor of religion at Brigham Young University (BYU).
Steven Craig Harper is a professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He was a historian for the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From 2019, he is the Editor-in-Chief of BYU Studies Quarterly.
The Religious Studies Center (RSC) is the research and publishing arm of Religious Education at Brigham Young University (BYU), sponsoring scholarship on the culture, history, scripture, and doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The dean of Religious Education serves as the RSC's director, and an associate dean oversees the two branches of the RSC: research and publications.
Gilbert Woodrow Scharffs was a Latter-day Saint religious educator and author.
Mormon studies is the interdisciplinary academic study of the beliefs, practices, history and culture of individuals and denominations belonging to the Latter Day Saint movement, a religious movement associated with the Book of Mormon, though not all churches and members of the Latter Day Saint movement identify with the terms Mormon or Mormonism. Denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by far the largest, as well as the Community of Christ (CoC) and other smaller groups, include some categorized under the umbrella term Mormon fundamentalism.
This is a bibliography of works on the Latter Day Saint movement.
