External links
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
Noel B. Reynolds | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1942 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Brigham Young University, Harvard University |
| Spouse | Sydney S. Reynolds |
Noel Beldon Reynolds (born 1942) is an American political scientist and an emeritus professor of political science at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he has also served as an associate academic vice president and as director for the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). He was a member of the BYU faculty from 1971 to 2011. [1] He has also written widely on the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), of which he is a member.
Reynolds was born in Los Angeles, California. He grew up near Cody, Wyoming where his father had received a homestead in 1948. [2] Reynolds served as an LDS Church missionary in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay from 1961 to 1964. Reynolds earned a bachelor's degree at BYU, followed by M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University.
Reynolds has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, Edinburgh University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In the 1970s, Reynolds was chair of BYU's department of philosophy. [3] He also coedited Religious Liberty in Western Thought with Cole Durham Jr., as well as the Encyclopedia of Mormonism , published in 1992 by Macmillan. [4]
Reynolds has published books and articles in several fields, including: legal and political philosophy (20), American founding (8), authorship studies (11), ancient studies and Dead Sea Scrolls (11), and Mormon studies (18). He is also the author of Interpreting Plato’s Meno and Euthyphro: A Defense of the Literary Approach. [5] [6] [7]
Several of Reynolds' works have been involved in theological explanations of the Book of Mormon and what it teaches. He also has advanced the idea that the Lectures on Faith was not written by Joseph Smith but instead by Sidney Rigdon. [8]
Reynolds edited On the History of the Idea of Law authored by Shirley Robin Letwin, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2005. [9]
In 2005, BYU and FARMS published Early Christians in Disarray: Conterporary LDS Perspectives on the Apostasy edited by Reynolds.
Reynolds has published in several journals including Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, [10] Journal of Mormon History and the Mormon Studies Review .
Among other callings in the LDS Church, Reynolds has served as a bishop and stake president. From 2005 to 2008, Reynolds was president of the church's Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. During part of this time, the mission included the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. From 2011 to 2014, he was president of the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. [11] [12]
Reynolds is married to the former Sydney Sharon Smith (now Sydney S. Reynolds). She was a member of the LDS Church's Primary General Presidency from 1999 to 2005. They are the parents of eleven children.
Sydney Sharon Smith was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho to J. Alvin Smith and his wife, Marguerite Rees. She grew up in Burbank, California. At age 16 she entered BYU, where she met Noel B. Reynolds, whom she married four years later in the Los Angeles Temple. She earned a bachelor's degree in history and political science from BYU. She was the first counselor to Coleen K. Menlove in the LDS Church's Primary General Presidency from October 1999 until April 2005. She has served in the various LDS Church organizations as a scouting leader, early-morning seminary teacher, and on the steering committee for BYU's annual women's conference. Prior to serving in the Primary General Presidency, Reynolds served for five years as a member of the Primary General Board. From 2005 to 2008, she served with her husband while he was president of the church's Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. From 2011 to 2014, she and her husband served as the temple president and matron of the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. [13] [12]
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16.8 million members and 54,539 full-time volunteer missionaries. As of 2012, the church was the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States, and reported over 6.7 million US members as of 2021. It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the early 19th-century period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
Gordon Bitner Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 1995 until his death in January 2008 at age 97. Considered a prophet, seer, and revelator by church members, Hinckley was the oldest person to preside over the church in its history until Russell M. Nelson surpassed his age in 2022.
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.
Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and writer who served as the tenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1970 until his death in 1972. He was the son of former church president Joseph F. Smith and the great-nephew of Church founder Joseph Smith.
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.
Henry Bennion Eyring is an American educational administrator, author, and religious leader. Eyring has been the Second Counselor to Russell M. Nelson in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since January 14, 2018. Previously, Eyring was the First Counselor to Thomas S. Monson in the First Presidency from 2008 until Monson's death on January 2, 2018. Eyring was the Second Counselor to Gordon B. Hinckley in the First Presidency from October 6, 2007, until Hinckley's death on January 27, 2008.
Jeffrey Roy Holland is an American educator and religious leader. He served as the ninth President of Brigham Young University (BYU) and is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Holland is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the fourth most senior apostle in the church.
Russell Marion Nelson Sr. is an American religious leader and retired surgeon who is the 17th and current president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nelson was a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for nearly 34 years, and was the quorum president from 2015 to 2018. As church president, Nelson is considered by the church to be a prophet, seer, and revelator.
William Rolfe Kerr is an emeritus general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served previously as the fifteenth Commissioner of Church Education and as president of the Logan Utah Temple.
Marlin Keith Jensen is an American attorney who has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1989. He served as the official Church Historian and Recorder of the church from 2005 to 2012. He was the 19th man to hold that calling since it was established in 1830. Jensen was made an emeritus general authority in the October 2012 general conference.
John Sears Tanner is a former president of Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYU-Hawaii). He was the 10th president of BYU-Hawaii, serving from 2015 to 2020. He previously served as first counselor in the General Sunday School Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as president of the church's Brazil São Paulo South Mission and as Academic Vice President of Brigham Young University (BYU). Tanner is married to Susan W. Tanner, a former general president of the LDS Church's Young Women organization.
Jay Edwin Jensen has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1992. He served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from 2008 to 2012. Jensen was designated an emeritus general authority in the October 2012 general conference.
Richard Olsen Cowan is a historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former professor in the Church History Department of Brigham Young University (BYU). He was one of the longest-serving BYU faculty and the longest-serving member of the Church History Department ever.
Gerrit Walter Gong is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been a general authority since 2010 and served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from October 2015 until his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve in March 2018. He is the LDS Church's first apostle of Asian descent. Prior to becoming a general authority, he served as Assistant to the President of Brigham Young University (BYU) for Planning and Assessment. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Gong is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the fourteenth most senior apostle in the church.
Three missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started proselyting to white English-speaking people in Cape Town in 1853. Most converts from this time emigrated to the United States. The mission was closed in 1865, but reopened in 1903.The South African government limited the amount of missionaries allowed to enter the country in 1921 and in 1955. Starting around 1930, a man had to trace his genealogy out of Africa to be eligible for the priesthood, since black people were not permitted to be ordained. In 1954 when church president David O. McKay visited South Africa, he removed the requirement for genealogical research for a man to be ordained, stipulating only that "there is no evidence of his having Negro blood in his veins".
The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Apostolic succession in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the process of transition to a new church president when the preceding one has died.
Jean Barrus Bingham was the 17th Relief Society General President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from April 2017 to August 2022.
Reyna I. Aburto is a Nicaraguan-born American religious leader, language translation specialist, and public speaker. She served as the second counselor to Jean B. Bingham in the Relief Society General Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from April 2017 to August 2022.
General Conference is a gathering of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held biannually every April and October at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. During each conference, church members gather in a series of two-hour sessions to listen to the faith's leaders. It consists of five general sessions. From April 2018 to April 2021, the priesthood session was held during the April conference, with a General Women's Session held during October's conference. The Saturday evening session was changed to a general session in October 2021. The conference also generally includes training sessions for general and area leaders. Although each general conference originates from Salt Lake City, the conference is considered an international event for the church. The sessions are broadcast worldwide in over 90 languages, primarily through local and international media outlets, and over the Internet.
