Going Forth Unhindered

Time has changed the way in which religious knowledge is communicated. King Benjamin's masterful discourse demonstrates the power of the Spirit through oral communication. Sacred texts such as the Book of Mormon and the Bible drive the Spirit to the hearts of men through words of power. Though the mediums through which spiritual knowledge is communicated constantly change, one thing remains constant: the communication of the Spirit. Both oral and written communication are necessary parts of God's plan in touching his children by the power of his Spirit.

Oral communication, as a medium for the Spirit of God, has always existed. Over the course of history, powerful sermons have pierced the hearts of man by the Spirit of God. Sam Watson referenced President Packer's most recent address when he encouraged us to just listen to what the Spirit was telling us; that therein lies the true hidden gems that will guide our lives. President Packer understood the power of communicating by the Spirit through spoken words and listening. As a class we experienced this first-hand. I think we can all agree that we were touched as we listened to and recited King Benjamin's sermon. The power of the Spirit through oral means was manifested in that inspired activity.

As prophets of old delivered sermons and taught the people, our loving Heavenly Father commanded them to record their words for the benefit of future generations. In our "Salon" activity today, I told a personal experience from my mission about the power of the sacred words recorded in the Book of Mormon. Somehow, despite my horrendous presentation in the Spanish language, the Book of Mormon struck a chord in the heart of a child of God. It is doubtful that Brenda knew what I had said, but it didn't matter. The Spirit, communicated through words written in the Book of Mormon, had touched her heart at that moment in a way that my words could not.

In the "Salon", we were asked to argue both sides of this debate: "Within history, oral knowledge has had a more powerful effect upon spirituality and religious practice than other types of knowledge." From my discussions, both sides drew support. Kody Wood argued that our written texts cite countless examples where oral knowledge had a powerful effect on the listeners. He cited the account of Alma and Abinadi specifically. Another group member emphasized the need for written texts because the effects of oral communication can quickly fade (one generation for King Benjamin's people). Thinking about these examples, it became clear that our Heavenly Father never intended for there to just be one or the other. Words, from oral and written sources, are meant to be used in unison to "declare the word of God with much power unto the convincing of many people of their wickedness" (Alma 62:45).

The words of God, given orally or written by hand, are meant to bring the Spirit into the lives of his children. Print has made the word of God accessible on levels Luther and Tyndale could only have dreamed of. God brings about these advancements for the gathering of his elect. How it is done, by word or by print, is not so much the question as is who and from what source. The Spirit of God proceeds forth from the words of truth. Whether written or spoken, all words of God are confirmed by the Holy Ghost. All provide the spark that will kindle the life-long fire of testimony within each honest seeker of truth.

Unit Final: Print and Medicine

Like Alicia, I too am doing some thinking out loud and documenting my paper as I go. I am still in the brainstorming stage of the project. I actually wanted to run a question by all of you to get your input. For me, at first take, it seems like there are two options for the paper: either we argue for or against the effect that print had on our respective areas. I don't think it is limited to that though. What are some ideas that you all had? Reading Alicia's post helped me to get a grasp on some different ideas that I could look at.

I area of research is medicine. As I wrote about in my last post, print had a wonderfully positive on the world of medicine in terms of unification and development. However, in our group discussion on Thursday, the comment came up about what if a faulty procedure was published, thus resulting in the deaths of many people. That would definitely not be good! Thinking about that then it seems probable that the development of print also gave way to editing groups composed of experts who would allow something to be published or not. Those are just some preliminary thoughts.

My Dad is a researcher and surgeon so I sent him an email and asked him these three questions:

1, How has the ability to print and publish research findings had an impact on your career? What does it mean to you to be able to do that?

2. How does it affect the medical world as a whole to be able to publish and share research?

3. How would the medical field be different without the ability to publish and circulate your findings?

So, that is my progress so far!

Anotated Bibliography: The Effects of Print on Medicine

One area of interest for me is medicine. It kind of runs in the family I guess you could say. My father is an ear surgeon and my two older brothers are both in the residency stage of their training to become doctors. The relationship between print and medicine is positive and direct. There was a great surge in the publishing of medical findings, procedures, anatomy, etc. with the development of the printing press. I hope to show you a bit of that through the books that I found on the topic.

Growing up in this generation, I am most familiar and comfortable with the internet; thus, that is where my search began. I researched general information on how print had affected medicine and how they developed together. Something interesting that I came across was that Leonardo Da Vinci was the artist for many early anatomy and medical books. I had no idea that his work expanded that far. I was actually pleasantly surprised how often print was mentioned in the books that I came across. From what I saw, most of the books about the history of medicine include something about print and the affect it had on the world of medicine. The importance of print in medicine cannot be over emphasized. It allowed for the sharing of innovations, new techniques, revolutionary treatments, etc. These findings were previously more localized and not as well circulated, thus drastically limiting the sharing of medical knowledge. The books that I came across emphasized this point many times over. After doing some preliminary research online, I then went to the Harold B. Lee Library and flipped through the pages of the books there. As luck would have it, I found exactly what I was looking for as there were many books about the history of medicine that referenced how print and publishing had played a part.

Cheselden, William. The Anatomy of the Human Body. Printed for H. Woodfall, R. 1763. As the title suggests, Cheselden focused this book on the anatomy of the human body. The illustrations that accompanied the text were one of the great revolutions brought about by print. Being a surgeon himself, Cheselden knew the body well and communicated this knowledge to students through words and illustrations. This book was used for medical students for almost 100 years.

Natural Library of Medicine. A Catalogue of Seventeenth Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine. Bethesda, Md. 1989 This was one of the best finds of the day. This book of over 1300 pages contains thousands of concise annotations of the printed books in the National Library of Medicine in the 17th century. What a precious resource this is. This book shows that print and publishing gave way to medical libraries that were able to centralize medical knowledge and also allow it to be circulated. As the reader scans this book, you quickly find a huge variety of subjects, including experiment results, new techniques, etc. This was the most impressive book for me.



Porter, Roy. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity. New York: W.W. Norton. 1998. Porter describes the history of medicine in a way that focuses on medical ideas and how those ideas were implemented by people. It steers away from talking about epidemics or diseases that have spread over the earth. There is a focus on ideas and how the ideas of people aided the development of medicine. There is also a great emphasis on the affect of print in the medical field. An example of this is when Porter states, "print brought simplified versions of elite medicine to the people..." (Porter, 283). There are many references to print and how it allowed the ideas that were flowing in the medical field to reach everyone.


Porter, Roy. The Cambridge History of Medicine. Cambridge University Press. 2006. Porter switches gears from the book cited above and decides to move in on diseases and how medicine has developed as a result of being more prevalent. As you look at the chapter headings you can see that this is the case. Porter opens up with talking about disease and the affect it had on the New World and from there he introduces the development of medicine through combating this diseases. Again, print appears as a them in the publication and distribution of such developments in medical treatments.

Strathem, Paul. A Brief History of Medicine: From Hippocrates to Gene Therapy. Carroll, New York. 2005. Much like Porter's books, Strathem discusses the history of the medical field and its development over time. Strathem too referred to the effects of print on the medical world. He mentioned that 24 years after the Gutenberg Press was developed, a medical encyclopedia was printed that included many works of ancient Greek medicine. Strathem points out how this sparked an interest all over Europe in ancient Greek medicine.

I hope that this post has helped you to understand how the world of medicine was dramatically improved by the development of print and publishing. The world knew medical information sharing like never before. The medical world utilized print for all it was worth.

King James Bible Exhibit

I took a stroll down to the King James Bible exhibit in the library and I would like to report on what I learned while I was there.

The first thing that caught my eye was the artwork that appears in the first Bible on display as you go through the entrance. It gave me the impression of how valued that text was in the eyes of those published it. Just from seeing that I could tell that to them, the scriptures were very important and they truly valued being able to access them. I think today we have lost quite a bit of that appreciation and we take for granted how readily accessible the scriptures are.



I tried to make this photo large enough to be able to see the detail of the letter "I" that begins the text. There is an elaborate blue and red pattern that accentuates and adds character to the text. I couldn't help but think about how neat it would be to have a Bible such as this. I think it would help me appreciate it more! While I was on my mission, an investigator showed me a 200 year-old Bible that had been passed down in her family for generations. It was probably about 1 ft by 2 ft and the cover was pure wood with veins of gold leafing. The pages also had gold leafing on them. What a precious keep sake! I was in awe as I looked at that Bible and contemplated the time that must have gone into creating copies of a book such as that. What a remarkable art!

Another point of interest for me was reading about John Wycliffe. One part in particular stuck out to me about the principles that he was preaching. There was a line about him that explained how he was pushing for the Bible to be more integrated in the government. There is a lot of discussion today about the whole separation of church and state. I heard on the news lately that some association is trying to get a cross taken down at a military base because it is imposing on those who aren't Christian. Things like that frustrate me and it makes me anxious for the Second Coming because all of that will be taken care of : ) I respect Wycliffe a lot for pushing that agenda.

Telling the Story.......

(I apologize that this is so late. I have been traveling since midnight on Friday.)

Growing up, what were some of your favorite childhood books? Where the Wild Things Are? Possibly a Dr. Seuss book; or, how about Clifford: The Big Red Dog? Hopefully we were all able to experience a "good night" story or two when we were younger. Why did we enjoy them so much? What made these books come alive? Perhaps it was the varied voices those reading to us would use to express different characters. Maybe it was the soothing voice of a loved one rocking us to sleep as they read. Setting these reasons aside, there is a common thread between all of the books mentioned above and probably all of the ones that you thought of in your mind: pictures.

As we were talking in class this week about print, I was thinking about picture books and how I can't imagine life, especially my early childhood, without them. Naturally the question came about, "when and how did picture books originate?" Let's take a look.


Johann Comenius lived in the 1600's and was considered a master teacher by all of that generation. He moved around quite a bit and helped reform and restructure schools in order to help the children receive a better education. As an educator, he was very much interested in the collecting and organization of human knowledge. Like the knowledge institutions that we have talked about in class, Comenius had a desire to centralize knowledge through the use of encyclopedia's and things of the sort. As an educator, he wasn't just interested in teaching but in teaching how to teach; the theory of education if you will. Here are his main points on how it should be done:

"1. Learning foreign languages through the vernacular

2. Obtaining ideas through objects rather than words

3. Starting with objects most familiar to the child to introduce him to both the new language and the more remote world of objects

4. Giving the child a comprehensive knowledge of his environment, physical and social, as well as instruction in religious, moral, and classical subjects

5. Making this acquisition of a compendium of knowledge a pleasure rather than a task

6. Making instruction universal"

Although there are many things to discuss from these points, I want to highlight the use of visuals and object association in Comenius' theory. There was a great stress on associating real life objects with words or other symbols that would greatly enhance learning. To this point, in 1657, Comenius published the Orbis Sensualium Pictus, which was "first successful application of illustrations to the work of teaching". The illustrations were done by the same method that I explained in my previous post: block printing. The pictures were carved and "raised up" from the surface of the wood so as to take the ink and then transfer it to the paper or printing medium. (Source)

What a revolutionary idea this was!!! I know that for myself I am a visual learning and so I am indeed in debt to Comenius for putting pictures in textbooks. You know that feeling when you are reading a long chapter for a class and you turn the page to find that 3/4 of the page is a picture? How great is that? We can all thank Comenius for that. What other reasons can you identify as to the importance of pictures in print?

Our Rosetta S[croll]

Hey Carpe Diem! This is a little report of the Rosetta Stone project from the Asia region. After reading some of the blogs about those who did the stone engravings, I feel like ours was a bit easier to complete. Maybe that just means we had a more advanced civilization!

I had the opportunity to work with Shuan and Montana from group 8 and Alicia from group 6. We represented countries such as China, Cambodia, and Japan. The medium that we were originally going for was rice paper. This was a traditional medium used by Asian civilizations and is made from parts of the rice plant stem. My rice garden just froze over last week, so weren't able to do that one. Instead, we decided to go with bamboo.



As we worked on our project, we quickly found why bamboo was such a popular and advantageous medium for writing. It is extremely light and portable. The scrolls that we used for our project were 19x14 inches and it couldn't have weighed more than a pound or two. A piece of sheet rock that size would not be as friendly. The method of painting on the bamboo is extremely convenient and easy as well. There are no hammers or chisels required. Just some paint and a brush. However, with portability, as you might imagine, comes a decrease in durability.



As Alicia described to the class last week, bamboo scrolls were often given as gifts to friends and children. The sayings on the scroll often resemble advice and counsel to those on the receiving end and that is what we modeled ours after. Our group was each responsible for different parts of the transcribing, translating, and production of the bamboo scroll.



Many learning outcomes can be drawn out of this project. The historical aspect of our class came out as we were able to replicate an ancient artifact that would have been accurate for the time period we were studying. What a great opportunity it was to learn how the ancient Asian, Mayan, or other cultures kept their records. It definitely made me appreciate typing on my computer a bit more! We also hit communicating knowledge right on the head. As each group presented their medium I was impressed with how different civilizations adapted to their environment and made use of nature to help them keep records. Stone, plant leaves, bamboo, clay, etc. It was fun to search these things out and learn how knowledge was communicated in different parts of the world in different time periods. Finally, as we shared our thoughts and ideas about how we as groups were going to tackle this project, learned a great deal about civilizations other than our own. This project was perfect in terms of incorporating the learning outcomes into our unit assessment....and it was FUN!

The (Gutenberg) Reformation

In class the other day, a question was posed about whether or not there was a correlation between the development of patents and the Reformation, since both took place at roughly the same time. Dr. Burton said that there probably wasn’t much of a correlation, but how about a correlation between the Reformation and the development of the Gutenberg Press? Sie glauben ihm besser (German for “you better believe it“).

As we have been learning in our unit on written knowledge, in order to copy manuscripts or any sort of text, it was a painful process that required immense amounts of time and perfect concentration. I’m sure those of you who are working with stone as your medium for our project have a little more sympathy for those who considered stone the standard! As has been the theme throughout this course, we have to ask ourselves, “there has to be a better way!“ This was the inquiry of Johannes Gutenberg in the mid 1400’s.

Gutenberg grew up reading books made from block printing. Block print was done by first making a block of wood that was the same size as the piece of paper that you would be printing on. The printer would then carve the letters onto the block of wood; yes, all of them! Then they would have to carve around those letters in order to “raise“ them from the surface of the wood. Ink was then applied and the paper pressed, leaving the imprints of the letters. Buying books made in this form was very expensive. Gutenberg enjoyed reading and determined that he was going to develop a quick and easy way to print books that would be affordable for all. (Check out this video to see this method applied to playing cards) (Source)

Gutenberg set up a small, private workshop and set off after his dream. He failed many times at developing a new method for print and eventually became bankrupt. He met a wealthy goldsmith and lawyer named Joahann Fust who provided funds for Gutenberg to continue his work. With time, the Gutenberg Press, a system of moveable types, was created. It revolutionized the world of print; it reformed the world of religion.

The Gutenberg Press developed quickly and became the mainstay for printing. It was the Gutenberg Press that allowed Martin Luther to publish his 95 Theses quickly and widely. The Reformation was underway and there was little that could stop it. As copies of the 95 Theses were distributed, the fire of the Reformation intensified. If Martin Luther had been born 100 years earlier, the Reformation may have happened in local units, but it would have been much more difficult to make it widespread. (Source)

What other influences has the Gutenberg Press had on society? What else happened with it that couldn’t have happened without it?

In the Language of Our Fathers

“Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians” (1 Nephi 1:2)

There is no ancient text that we are all more familiar with than the Book of Mormon. Although written in English for our convenience, in ancient days it was not so. The Nephites used a “reformed Egyptian” language in their writings that “none other people knoweth” (Mormon 9). Obviously, this mysterious language was derived from Egyptian, but it was modified to meet the needs of Lehi and his family.

This wasn’t the first time that the Egyptian language had been modified though. The original Egyptian language was a system of more than 700 hieroglyphs, which were depictions of things in their lives, “such as people, animals, geographical features,” etc. As time went on, a cursive script version of Egyptian was developed and was called “hieratic”. This system was developed to make it easier and quicker to write. Hieratic was widely used on papyrus. Later, in 900 BC, the cursive script of hieratic was further revised and the “demotic” system arose. This shows that the Egyptian language had already been “reformed” before Lehi and his family devised their own system. (Source)

With regards to being written after “the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians”, this too was not an uncommon practice. In the ancient civilizations of the Near East, the Egyptian language was borrowed and modified. An example of this is with the Meroitic language, which was spoken anciently in what is now modern day Sudan. This language, sometimes even recorded on bronze plates, had an alphabet of characters modified from Egyptian. (Source) Another example of this can be found in this account:

“In 1967, Israeli archaeologists discovered at the ancient site of Arad an ostracon from shortly before 600 BC, the time of Lehi. The text on the ostracon is written in a combination of Egyptian hieratic and Hebrew characters, but can be read entirely as Egyptian.” (Source)

The Anthon transcript is a well-known part of church history. Martin Harris took portions of transcripts from the Book of Mormon to Dr. Mitchell, a respected professor of ancient languages. Dr. Mitchell confirmed that the characters on the transcripts were true characters from Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic. We know how that story ends, but it is interesting to see how many different languages were included in those transcripts. (Source) Here is a picture of part of the transcripts taken to Dr. Mitchell:

Universitas: Oriental Style

In class we talked about universitas and how they played a part in the development of education in ancient Europe. I looked at a similar transformation in education in ancient China. Surprisingly, there were some similarities between the two. I am willing to bet, based on what I found, that many other civilizations underwent similar transformations.

If we recall from Dr. Peterson’s lecture, there are three characteristics of universitas that make them unique:

1. 1. The first were founded spontaneously, not formally as we see today

2. 2. Urban phenomena

3. 3. The first universities didn’t have campuses. Universitas referred to a group of people, teachers, etc…not mortar, buildings, and libraries.

Although not identical, shu yuan represents the same idea of taking responsibility for education and knowledge. Like universitas, shu yuans had students from all over the country. A difference that exists between them though is the end goal in mind. Universitas were established to further professional education and to offer training in four major fields: theology, law, medicine, philosophy; they “emerged to meet the overwhelming need to provide for the training of lawyers, schoolmasters and clerics to fill the ranks of the increasingly sophisticated administrations of both church and state.” Shu yuans, however, were aimed at “the moral transformation of oneself without regard to any practical concern”. Both look to serve a higher purpose in human development, but they take different approaches. What approaches have you seen in different civilizations to learning?

Relating this to my life, I feel that I have experienced a little bit of the shu yuan and a little bit of the universita in my life. At BYU, I am receiving my universita education: math 113, civ 201, psych 211, etc. I am learning, with students from all over the world, about core topics that will provide me with a basis to receive a professional job. My mission, on the other hand, provided me with my shu yuan education. I experienced a greater moral transformation and gained more spiritual knowledge in those two years than I will at any other point in my life. I have found that different institutions are created for different educational purposes and often times we get experience in many different ones. What examples of different types of education have you seen in your lives that have come from different institutions?

Short and Sweet

Have you ever been writing notes in class with a professor who is speaks insanely fast? Have you ever felt frustrated when that same professor moves on in the PowerPoint presentation and you are just halfway through taking notes on the slide? I think we all have! That is why I would like to welcome you to the world of shorthand. A written language that took shape in order to allow us transcribe speech into writing much more efficiently.

Growing up, I was very familiar with shorthand. I knew all about it and I hated it! To me it was not efficient or cute. It terrorized me and my siblings. Why? My mom is fluent in it and she would write her Christmas lists in shorthand so that we would have no idea what Santa was thinking. Sometimes I even think that she would mock us by purposefully leaving it out in the open, knowing we wouldn't be able to decipher the list. One year she caught us in our basement storage room trying to go through her shorthand dictionary and translate her secret combinations.


My Mom is fluent in what is known as Gregg Shorthand. It is a written language of squiggles and curves that makes note taking more efficient. I called my Mom this week and had a little Q&A session with her about shorthand. My Mom learned shorthand in a high school course and then continued her studies in college. I asked her when she used it the most and she said, "I used it the most when I was a secretary for Gerald Lund in the Church Education System. He would dictate and I would transcribe it." She also mentioned that is has been useful for taking notes on our baby blessings and for, you guessed it, the cursed Christmas list. We talked about if it would be worth teaching it in schools nowadays and my Mom said that, although useful, writing in general, let alone shorthand, are becoming lost arts with the technology available nowadays. She said that most kids' handwriting these days look like the scribbles of her shorthand! Ouch! She openly admitted that she is having trouble keeping up with the times. My Mom loves handwriting. She has beautiful cursive and calligraphy. On my mission she sent me a hand-written letter every week. However, she struggles to turn on the computer and open Explorer or Firefox to send an email. I originally sent her the interview questions on an email and after multiple efforts of failed sends and computer glitches, she said she would just prefer to call me and tell me the answers. Something so normal for me is very foreign to her. The opposite is true for me and her shorthand skills.

Many civilizations have developed some sort of shorthand system in order to simplify of the process of recording what would otherwise be impossibly long proceedings or speeches. Imperial China, believe it or not, had a system of shorthand that was used to take notes on things such as court proceedings and criminal confessions (Source) You can check out this page to see various styles of simplified Chinese characters that are easier and quicker to write than the standard characters (Source) These forms of writing were developed as early as the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.) (Source)


I found a wonderful source that shares a great story about shorthand in China and its usefulness. It is too long to include as text in this post, but PLEASE check out this link to read it. The story is of a man writing in what is known as "grass script", or Chinese shorthand. He is recording faster than the speaker and talk, which surprises the speaker very much. The man then shares how he does it. Very interesting!!! Check it out, page 510.

How do you feel about shorthand? Do you think that it could ever catch on in schools if a standardized version was created and offered as a second language? Would you take it?

P.S. - The symbols after the first paragraph mean "Seize the Day" in Gregg Shorthand