Skip to main content
Intellect

BYU Religious Studies Center releases volume on Pacific Isles

The Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center has published “Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: The Pacific Isles,” the eighth volume in its series on the regional history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The book will be available in the BYU Bookstore beginning in May at a cost of $14.95.

Topics discussed in this volume include the introduction of the gospel to Tubuai, the influence of Jonathan Napela in Hawaii, the Tongans’ receptivity of the gospel, the Oahu Tabernacle, the contributions of educational missionaries to Kiribati, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s performances in the Pacific Islands and the destructive fire in the Apia Samoa Temple.

Unlike the earlier volumes in this regional studies series, contributors were asked to research and write on the peoples and places of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia and Australasia prior to the BYU Church History and Doctrine Department’s official tour.

Years before Brigham Young declared the Salt Lake Valley as the site of future gathering in 1847, Church members had already pushed even further west into the Pacific Basin frontier. William Barratt made his way to Australia on a mission in 1840, and Addison Pratt and his evangelizing companions arrived in the Society Islands in 1844, the year Joseph Smith was martyred in Illinois.

During the early 1850s, when Saints in the Utah Territory were struggling for their physical survival in America’s Great Basin, missionaries enjoyed success in sharing the gospel among the native Sandwich Islanders in today’s Hawaii.

Previous volumes in this series include “The British Isles,” “Ohio and Upper Canada,” “The New England States,” “Europe,” “New York and Pennsylvania,” “Western Canada” and “California.”

For more information, contact Stephanie Wilson at (801) 422-3293.

Writer: Marissa Ballantyne

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

Air traffic control for drones: BYU engineers introduce low-cost UAV detection technology

February 10, 2025
With the exponential rise in drone activity, safely managing low-flying airspace has become a major issue. Using a network of small, low-cost radars, engineering professor Cammy Peterson and her colleagues have built an air traffic control system for drones that can effectively and accurately track anything in an identified low-altitude airspace.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Risk it or kick it? BYU research analyzes NFL coaches’ risk tolerance on fourth down

February 06, 2025
BYU study reveals how NFL coaches, including Super Bowl contenders Andy Reid and Nick Sirianni, weigh risk on fourth down.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Forum: “The Pursuit of happiness”

January 28, 2025
Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, spoke to BYU students and employees at the Marriott Center in this week’s forum address. He emphasized the importance of self-improvement through the pursuit of virtue.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=