The status of women in Mormonism has been a source of public debate since before the death of Joseph Smith in 1844. Various denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement have taken different paths on the subject of women and their role in the church and in society. Views range from the full equal status and ordination of women to the priesthood, as practiced by the Community of Christ, to a patriarchal system practiced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to the ultra-patriarchal plural marriage system practiced by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and other Mormon fundamentalist groups.
The Encyclopedia of Mormonism is a semi-official English-language encyclopedia for topics relevant to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The five-volume texts have been digitized and are available for free online via the Harold B. Lee Library's official website.
Thomas Glen Alexander is an American historian and academic who is a professor emeritus at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, where he was also Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr. Professor of Western History and director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. After studying at Weber State University (WSU) and Utah State University (USU), he received a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965. He taught history at BYU from 1964 until 2004, and served in the leadership of various local and historical organizations.
Daniel Carl Peterson is a former professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University (BYU).
Terryl Lynn Givens is a senior research fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University (BYU). Until 2019, he was a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, where he held the James A. Bostwick Chair in English.
Terry Briggs Ball was the dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 2006 until 2013.
Paul Y. Hoskisson is an American professor of Ancient scripture and former associate dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University (BYU). In 2008, he was appointed director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Research.
The Story of the Latter-day Saints is a single-volume history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, first published in 1976.
Anticipatory socialization is the process, facilitated by social interactions, in which non-group members learn to take on the values and standards of groups that they aspire to join, so as to ease their entry into the group and help them interact competently once they have been accepted by it. It involves changing one's attitudes and behaviours in preparation for a shift in one's role. Words commonly associated with anticipatory socialization include grooming, play-acting, training, and rehearsing. Examples of anticipatory socialization include law school students learning how to behave like lawyers, older people preparing for retirement, and Mormon boys getting ready to become missionaries.
Grant Revon Underwood is a historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU). He is also the author of The Millennial World of Early Mormonism and the editor of Voyages of Faith: Explorations in Mormon Pacific History.
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.
Valerie M. Hudson is an American professor of political science in the Department of International Affairs at The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University as of January 2012. Prior to coming to Texas A&M, Hudson was a professor of political science at Brigham Young University for over 24 years. She is most noted for having co-authored the book Bare Branches which discussed the effects of China's demographic decisions on sex ratios in China and other countries.
Marie Cornwall is the editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, a professor of sociology and women's studies at Brigham Young University (BYU) and a former director of BYU's Women's Research Institute.
David Lamont Paulsen (1936–2020) was a professor emeritus of philosophy at Brigham Young University (BYU). From 1994 to 1998 he held the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding at BYU. He was an active faculty member at BYU from 1972–2011.
Jeffrey N. Walker is an attorney and adjunct professor at the J. Reuben Clark Law School (BYU).
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.
Howard M. Bahr has been a professor of Sociology at Brigham Young University (BYU) since 1973 and was director of field research for the Middletown IV study in 1999.
Reid Larkin Neilson was the managing director of the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2010 to 2019. On January 23, 2015, he became an Assistant Church Historian and Recorder, still retaining his duties as managing director.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
