Book Chapters by Jeffrey Cannon
Latter-day Saints and Religious Liberty: Historical and Global Perspectives, 2023
Missionary Interests: Protestant and Latter-day Saint Missions in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 2024
Foundational Texts of Mormonism, 2018
In “The Image as Text and Context in Early Mormon History,” Jeffrey G. Cannon examines the creati... more In “The Image as Text and Context in Early Mormon History,” Jeffrey G. Cannon examines the creation of images that capture aspects of the foundational period of Mormonism though made in subsequent decades. Understanding the context for the creation of these images facilitates a discernment of their full meaning to later generations. While very few contemporary images of early Mormonism exist, later attempts to document or illustrate the movement’s origins inform the Mormon attitudes of their own past. Cannon looks at several frequently used photographs or images and the context in which they were created, revealing in them the rivalry and insecurity over competing succession claims and how Mormons made sense of their identity following the death of Joseph Smith. (from the publisher's website)
Papers by Jeffrey Cannon
Journal of Mormon History, 2024
Using textual and visual material from Scottish Christian periodicals, this thesis examines the r... more Using textual and visual material from Scottish Christian periodicals, this thesis examines the role of Christian humanitarianism in influencing Scottish public opinion relative to empire and race between c. 1912 and c. 1965. It focuses on the mediation of the Scottish Christian response to South African racial policy and implementation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The thesis demonstrates that an ambiguous mix of ideologies existed within the Scottish churches and argues that the editor of the Church of Scotland’s Life and Work magazine from 1945 to 1965, Rev. J. W. Stevenson, drew from a tradition of Christian humanitarianism in Scottish Christian periodicals in allying the magazine with the church’s liberal-humanitarian wing to oppose apartheid and the Federation. It further argues that despite – or perhaps because of – such alignment, Stevenson and his predecessors demonstrated a persistent paternalism and perpetuated racially inflected tropes regarding Africa and Africans. The tensions between the egalitarian ideals of Christian humanitarianism and this residual paternalism are explored through the treatment of Africa and Africans in church periodicals.
Having found a copy of the Book of Mormon sometime in the 1960s and seeking baptism, a small grou... more Having found a copy of the Book of Mormon sometime in the 1960s and seeking baptism, a small group of black South Africans were denied baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until 1980. Contemporary documents show that beyond the Church’s long-standing policy restricting ordination and temple worship for persons of black African descent, leaders’ fears of running afoul of local laws and practices in apartheid-era South Africa led to the delay. The group waited for more than a decade, showing exemplary faith, humility, and patience.
This dissertation explores the utility of employing Afrikaner concepts of the biblical covenant b... more This dissertation explores the utility of employing Afrikaner concepts of the biblical covenant between God and His people as a paradigm for understanding Afrikaner history in the Cape Colony, especially in relation to the Afrikaners‘ reaction to Mormon proselytising in the mid-nineteenth century. Mormon efforts in the Cape during this period were concentrated on people with European ancestry and were disproportionately more successful among English speakers than the Colony‘s Dutch/Afrikaners. Beginning with a discussion of competing theories of Afrikaner history in chapter 1, the study moves into a review of Afrikaner history from pre-Reformation Europe until the time under consideration in chapter 2. Special attention is given to the origins of covenant theology and its applications in Reformed Zurich and Geneva and also in the South African context. Chapters 3 and 4 explore the covenant milieu of the 1850s and 1860s, when Mormon missionaries were active in the Cape Colony, and the Afrikaner response to Mormon proselytising. Afrikaner reactions to Mormon proselytising are found to be in harmony with a covenant paradigm on the part of the Afrikaners.
Christian missionaries in Africa have long used photography to document their experiences. Photo... more Christian missionaries in Africa have long used photography to document their experiences. Photograph captions, subject choice, and even the way pictures are composed can tell us a great deal about how missionary photographers felt about their subjects. Paul Jenkins and David Maxwell have demonstrated photography’s use in understanding the missionary encounter, specifically in Africa, arguing the medium gives “greater freedom” to the missionary in exploring his or her own interests and giving researchers a clearer window into the missionary’s own thoughts than what is apparent in written documents. Several historians of the Latter-day Saint experience have argued for an increased use of photographs as source material in Mormon historical research. This paper, which was presented at the 2014 meeting of the Mormon History Association, argues for an increased use of photography as primary source material for Mormon history in Africa and demonstrates how this can be done with a collection of photographs from early twentieth-century missionary June Bennion Sharp.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon church is officially known, has em... more The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon church is officially known, has emphasised the Christian vocation to mission almost since its founding in the USA in April 1830. While Mormon historians have written a great deal about the denomination’s success in West Africa very little has been written about Mormonism in South Africa. The present paper aims to fill part of the gap by relating the experience of one of Mormonism’s first missionaries to the continent i.e. Jesse Haven. In a conclusion the question is addressed whether Mormonism’s American origins or its drive to gather in an American Zion made it just too foreign or too un-Afrikaans to be compatible with the emerging identity of the Afrikaans nation.
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Book Chapters by Jeffrey Cannon
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Web Articles by Jeffrey Cannon