The JWHA Best Articles Awards Committee is pleased to announce the following nominees in these two categories. 2021 was another spectacular year in Restoration Studies with top scholarship published in the world of Restoration Studies.

The committee will select the best articles (privileging works that are most relevant to Community of Christ history or theology, regardless of the time period they encompass).


Historical Articles:

Addams, R. Jean. “Zion’s Printing & Publishing Company: From the Redemption of Zion to Corporation.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 2 (2020): 46-73.

Aryeh, Daniel Nii Aboagye. “The Relief Society in Ghana.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 3 (2020): 125-30.

Bell, David. “In Search of Jason Mack.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 1 (2020): 1-25.

Blythe, Christopher. “The 1965 Salt Lake City Race Riot that Never Happened.” Public Square Magazine, June 2020.

Brassard, Brooke Kathleen. “Proselytizing, Building, and Serving: Latter-Day Saint Missionaries in Manitoba and Eastern Canada, 1897-1942.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, November 2020.

Clark, Rebekah Ryan. “A Harmony of Voices: Negotiating Latter-day Saint Unity on Women’s Suffrage.” BYU Studies Quarterly 59, no. 3 (2020): 46-70.

Dinger, John S. “Resigned to Fate or Resigning to Vote: The Idaho Test Oath and Woolley v. Watkins.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 4 (2020): 60-89.

Embry, Jessie L. “Home Teaching (1963–2018).” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 3 (2020): 102-24.

Esplin, Scott C. “Dark Tourism: Healing at Historic Carthage Jail.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 1 (2020): 85-116.

Evans, Melinda. “Belva Lockwood: The “Nerviest Woman in the United States,” Who Became the Latter-day Saints’ Irrepressible Advocate and Friend.” BYU Studies Quarterly 59, no. 3 (2020): 123-149.

Harper, Steven C. “Raising the Stakes: How Joseph Smith’s First Vision Became All or Nothing.” BYU Studies Quarterly 59, no. 2 (2020): 23-58.

Harris, Matthew L., and Madison S. Harris. “The Last State to Honor MLK: Utah and the Quest for Racial Justice.” Utah Historical Quarterly 88, no. 1 (2020): 5-21

Homer, Michael W. “Arthur Conan Doyle’s Adventures in Mormon Land.” JWHA Journal 40, no 1 (2020): 1-39.

Howlett, David J. “Why Denominations Can Climb Hills: RLDS Conversions in Highland Tribal India and Midwestern America, 1964–2000.” Church History 89, no. 3 (2020): 633–58.

Mackinnon, William P. ““Yo Mismo” in Motion William Allen Wallace and His Extraordinary Cross-Country Travels, 1850–1860.” Overland Journal 38, no 3 (2020): 108-117.

Mesle-Morain, Sherry  “Why Did the RLDS Youth Programs Disappear After a Half-Century of Success?” JWHA Journal 40, no. 1 (2020): 104-118.

Padro, Manuel W. “Redemption: The Treasure Quest and the Wandering Soul.” JWHA Journal 40, no. 2 (2020): 40-80.

Smoot, Stephen O. ““From the Catecombs of Egypt”: Latter-day Saint Engagement with Ancient Egypt and the Contest of Religious Identity.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 4 (2020): 1-44.

Stevenson, Russell W. “The Celestial City: “Mormonism” and American Identity in Post-Independence Nigeria.” African Studies Review 63, no. 2 (2020): 304-330.

Townsend, Colby. “Translation as Expansion: The Method of Joseph Smith’s Revision of Genesis in Moses 1 and 7.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 4 (2020): 45-59.

Wilcox, Miranda. “Sacralizing the Secular in Latter-day Saint Salvation Histories (1890–1930).” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 3 (2020): 23-59.

Woods, Fred E. “The Balance between Church and State in Tonga: A Study in Mutual Respect between the Latter-day Saints and the Royal Family.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 1 (2020): 53-84.

Worthen, Bruce W. “How the Erie Canal Corridor Became the Burned-over District: Rochester and the Advent of Mormonism.” JWHA Journal 40, no 1 (2020): 48-64.

Theological Articles:

Bryant, Seth. “Holy Fools of the Restoration: Using Performance and Mimicry to Prophetically Expose Injustice.” JWHA Journal 40, no 2 (2020): 125-138.

Colvin, Gina. “The Mobility of Race: An Indigenous Feminist View From Aotearoa/New Zealand.” Mormon Studies Review 7 (2020): 35-42.

Davis, D. Morgan. “Prophets and Prophecy in the Qur’an and the Book of Mormon.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 50-84.

Davis, William L. “The Book of Mormon and the Limits of Naturalistic Criteria: Comparing Joseph Smith and Andrew Jackson Davis.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 53, no. 3 (2020): 73-104.

Faulconer, James E. “Performative Theology: Not Such a New Thing.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 53, no. 3 (2020): 1-24.

Holland, David F. “Of Contrasts, Apologies, and Authenticity.” BYU Studies Quarterly 59, no. 2 (2020): 95-110.

Mackay, Michael Hubbard. “Materializing Religion, Heidegger, and the Stability of Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones as Religious Objects.” Material Religion 16, no. 3 (2020): 345-359.

McClellan, Daniel O. “2 Nephi 25:23 in Literary and Rhetorical Context.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 1-19.

Mouw, Richard J. “Evangelicals and the First Vision.” BYU Studies Quarterly 59, no. 2 (2020): 135-148.

Petrey, Taylor G. “Silence and Absence: Feminist Philosophical Implications of Mormonism’s Heavenly Mother.” SOPHIA 59 (2020): 57–68.

Townsend, Colby. “Revisiting Joseph Smith and the Availability of the Book of Enoch.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 53, no. 3 (2020): 41-72.

Welch, Rosalynde. “Lehi’s Brass Ball: Astonishment and Inscription.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 20-49