Welsh Journals

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Douglas James Davies, Mormon Spirituality: Latter Day Saints in Wales and Zion University of Nottingham Series in Theology, Nottingham, (1988): 186pp. No price quoted. Although it is well known that Mormon missionaries made substant- ial inroads amongst nonconformist churches in Merthyr and some of the rural areas of Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire during the earlier years of their activity in Great Britain, and were instrumental in persuading many thousands of Welsh people to emigrate to Utah, little has been written of the Mormon impact. on Welsh religion and society until very recently. T H Lewis in his Y Mormoniaid yng tighymu, (Cardiff, 1956), provided a pioneering survey for those who could read Welsh, but offered only a few pages to relate Mormon history in Wales after 1861. A number of articles appeared from the pens of David Williams ("The Welsh Mormons", Welsh History Review, 7 (1948) 113-8), T H Lewis ("Three Carmarthenshire Mormons", Carmarthenshire Antiquary, IV 812-4), Lewis Evans, ("Mormon Baptists at the Brechfa Branch, 1846-56", ibid, III 38-41) D G Thomas, ("William Lewis, Mormon", in Gelligaer, XI (1976-7) 10-13),and E M Smith ("Mormonism in Merthyr Tydfil" in Huw Williams' Merthyr Tydfil 1500 Years, (Merthyr, 1980, pp 38-47), but these, so far as I am aware, represent the sum total of recent material on the history of Mormonism in Wales until last year. Therefore it is good to welcome a number of books published in this country and in the USA to commemorate the 150th anniver- sary of the coming of seven Mormon missionaries to this country from America. Truth will Prevail (Solihull, 1987) is an illust- rated account for more popular consumption of the history of the Mormon Church in the British Isles. It is edited by V Ben Bloxham and others and superbly printed by the Cambridge University Press. This book contains a chapter by Ronald D Dennis on "The Welsh and the Gospel". Dennis has also written two books dealing specifi- cally with Wales: The Call of Zion is the story of the first Welsh Mormon emigration, utilising eyewitness accounts wherever possible. Welsh Mormon Writings, 1844-1862, A Historical Biblio- graphy, notes the one-hundred and seven known titles published books and pamphlets generally in the Welsh language. These not only include the classic Mormon texts, but also polemical works designed to popularise their beliefs in Wales. Both books are published by the Religious Studies Centre of Brigham Young University, Utah. A further volume, containing addresses given at a commemorative conference held last year at Oxford, is due to be published later this year. This will include an account of the Mormon activity at Merthyr by D V Davies as well as a contribution from the author of the study under review. Douglas James Davies writes as an Anglican priest and as a social anthropologist. His concern is to set the historicity of the Mormon presence in Wales within the context of its gradually