Women and the Book of Mormon: The Creation and Negotiation of a Latter-day Saint Tradition

This essay argues that religions are made up of numerous streams of traditions that are, in turn, created by multiple conversations between various individuals and constituencies within religious groups. This case study examines how women’s literary work in the late nineteenth century helped to make the Book of Mormon relevant for their community. By exploring how women writers interpreted Eve and the mothers of the stripling warriors, we can see how women incorporated individual revelation, Mormon gender norms, and the wider adulation of motherhood into novel readings of their scriptural tradition, readings that influence how even today the Book of Mormon is