Still, the Small Voice: Narrative, Personal Revelation, and the Mormon Folk Tradition

462 Pages·2011·2.21 MB·English

by  Tom Mould

Still, the Small Voice
Still, the Small Voice
Narrative, Personal Revelation,
and the
Mormon Folk Tradition
ToM Mould
Utah State University Press
Logan, Utah
2011
Copyright © 2011utah State university Press
All Rights Reserved
utah State university Press
logan, utah 84322-7800
ISBN: 978-0-87421-817-6 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-0-87421-818-3 (paper)
ISBN: 978-0-87421-819-0 (e-book)
Manufactured in the united States of America
Printed on acid-free, recycled paper
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Mould, Tom, 1969- author.
Still, the small voice : narrative, personal revelation, and the Mormon folk tradition / Tom Mould.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87421-817-6 (cloth) -- ISBN 978-0-87421-818-3 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-0-87421-819-0 (e-book)
1. Revelation--Mormon Church. 2. Mormons--Folklore. I. Title.
BX8643.R4.M68 2011
306.6’4829--dc23
2011028245
For Brooke
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Literary Tradition 2
Approach 3
Methods 8
Names and Pseudonyms 11
Texts and Transcriptions 13
Chapter 1: The Broad Strokes of Tradition 15
The Mormon Folk Tradition 15
The Mormon Oral Tradition 21
Personal Revelation Narratives 23
Conclusion 50
Synthesis: The Boundaries of Genre 52
Chapter 2: Sharing the Sacred 60
Defning Performance 60
Norms for Performance 61
Strategies to Negotiate the Paradox 76
Evaluating Performance 82
Variation in Performance 96
Conclusion 128
Synthesis: The Paradox of Performance 129
Chapter 3: Transforming life into Story 137
Genre 137
Prescriptive Revelation 140
Descriptive Revelation 159
Experience and the Narrative Tradition 173
Conclusion 180
Synthesis: The Interpretive Challenge of Religious Memorates 181
vii
viii Contents
Chapter 4: The Building Blocks of a Narrative Tradition 192
Narrative Patterns 193
Personal Revelation as Motif 215
Retroactive Revelation 226
Conclusion 240
Chapter 5: Echoes of Culture 242
Danger 244
Domestic Life 261
Church Work 288
Thematic Variation 313
Conclusion 317
Synthesis: Pattern in Performance 320
Chapter 6: A Record-Keeping People 327
The Written Tradition in Mormon Folklore 329
The Written Tradition for Personal Discovery 330
The Written Tradition in Family Records 333
The Written Tradition in Publication 346
Conclusion 372
Synthesis: Oral and Written Traditions 373
Afterword 381
Appendix 389
Notes 394
Works Cited 423
Index 441
Acknowledgments
Personal revelation is a sacred and deeply embedded tradition in the
theology, religious practice, and daily life of latter-day Saints. As a spiritual
experience, personal revelation can be as subtle as a nagging thought or vague
feeling, or as dramatic as a booming voice or vision. While some personal rev-
elations are too sacred or personal to be shared, many are not, and this pervasive
experience of guidance from God is regularly shared in a narrative genre dis-
tinct and widely recognizable within the ldS community. Stories of personal
revelation record some of the most sacred, personal, meaningful experiences
of a person’s spiritual and temporal life. Written down, they serve as personal
scripture. Shared aloud among peers, they can educate and edify in ways parallel
to canonical scripture.
The importance of personal revelation among latter-day Saints cannot be
overestimated. Nor can the reverence with which people regard it. Personal
revelation is not shared lightly. I have taken to heart the faith and trust people
have placed in me to maintain the sacred nature of their experiences. This is a
heavy responsibility, one that I hope I have managed to achieve in the pages
that follow.
As with any project involving ethnographic feldwork, I am indebted to
scores of people. There are, most importantly, the people I came to know in the
course of my feldwork in North Carolina, frst at church, then through their
stories, and ultimately in friendship. First and foremost, there was Shawn Tucker,
my colleague at Elon university, who introduced me to his faith, his ward, his
friends, and his family. It was Shawn who suggested that if I really wanted
to understand prophecy and prophetic narratives within the ldS Church, it
was the deep tradition of personal revelation, not the spectacular predictions of
World War III and the signs of the Second Coming, that should be my focus.
Two weeks of feldwork convinced me he was right. Five years of feldwork later,
I am all the more convinced, and I remain humbly indebted to him for his
guidance. I owe similar appreciation to all the people who sat down and talked
to me about their faith, many but not all of whom also shared with me their
stories of receiving personal revelation: Steve Anderson; Craig, Josette, Jarrett,
ix