Richard Olsen Cowan (born 1934) is a historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and a former professor in the Church History Department of Brigham Young University (BYU). [1] He was one of the longest-serving BYU faculty and the longest-serving member of the Church History Department ever.
Cowan was raised in Los Angeles. He is legally blind, having retinitis pigmentosa since birth, and by 2000, he had lost nearly all vision.
Halfway through his undergraduate and graduate degrees, Cowan served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Spanish-American mission, among the Mexican immigrants in Texas and New Mexico from 1953 to 1956. [2] [3] Cowan tells of one instance when he was able to use his braille scriptures to prove his gospel knowledge to another minister. [3] On his mission, he met Dawn Houghton, which he later married, and decided to teach religion at Brigham Young University. [3]
Cowan received his Bachelor of Arts in political science at Occidental College in 1958. He received an M.A. in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1961 in American History, both from Stanford University. In 1959, he received an award from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, selected as one of four visually handicapped students in the United States. [2]
Beginning in 1961, Cowan was a professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. Cowan received BYU’s professor of the year award in 1965. He has taught at the BYU Jerusalem Center and in the spring of 2007 was a visiting professor at BYU-Hawaii. He retired from BYU in 2015. [4]
Cowan has focused a good portion of his scholarship on temples and has been sought out by the media and academics for his expertise. [5] [6] [7]
Cowan followed the construction of the Provo Utah Temple closely. [8] He attended the dedication in 1972 and was moved by the proceedings. [8] [9] He wrote some of his memories of the time and compiled other people's memories into his 2015 book Provo's Two Temples. [8]
Among other positions in the Church, Cowan has served as a stake patriarch. [10]
Cowan helped write the Sunday School manual for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1978 to 1980, on the Doctrine and Covenants and LDS history. [2]
In 1972, the Church planned a new sixteen-volume sesquicentennial history to be published in 1980, and Cowan was commissioned to write about the 20th century. [2] [11] These contracts were all canceled in 1981, [12] but Cowan still completed and published his volume as The Church in the Twentieth Century in 1985. [13]
From 1981 to 1993, Cowan served as the chair of the committee in charge of preparing Gospel Doctrine lessons for the Church. Among his books are Temples to Dot the Earth (1997), California Saints, A 150-year Legacy in the Golden State; The Church in the Twentieth Century (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985); The Latter-day Saint Century, which covered about the same topic but was written 15 years later. He also co-wrote a book with Donald Q. Cannon about the international church. Cowan, along with Cannon and Arnold K. Garr, was one of the editors of the Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History. [14] He wrote the article on the history of the Church from 1945 until 1990 (or basically as recent as he could at the time) for the Encyclopedia of Mormonism . He also wrote the articles for History of Temples, Missionary Training Centers, Branch, and Branch President.
He was a co-editor with John P. Livingstone and Craig J. Ostler of The Mormons: An Illustrated History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, published in 2013.
In 2015, BYU’s Religious Studies Center published his Provo's Two Temples book.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link)In Mormonism, the restoration refers to a return of the authentic priesthood power, spiritual gifts, ordinances, living prophets and revelation of the primitive Church of Christ after a long period of apostasy. While in some contexts the term may also refer to the early history of Mormonism, in other contexts the term is used in a way to include the time that has elapsed from the church's earliest beginnings until the present day. Especially in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "the restoration" is often used also as a term to encompass the corpus of religious messages from its general leaders down to the present.
Boyd Kenneth Packer was an American religious leader and educator who served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2008 until his death. He also served as the quorum's acting president from 1994 to 2008, and was an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1970 until his death. He served as a general authority of the church from 1961 until his death.
Jeffrey Roy Holland is an American educator and religious leader. He served as the ninth President of Brigham Young University (BYU) and is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Holland is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the fourth most senior apostle in the church.
James Edward Talmage was an English chemist, geologist, and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1911 until his death.
Minerva Bernetta Kohlhepp Teichert was a 20th-century American painter notable for her art depicting Western and Mormon subjects, including a collection of murals depicting scenes from the Book of Mormon. Teichert received her art education from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League of New York. Teichert was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other religious-themed artwork she is known for include Christ in a Red Robe, Queen Esther, and Rescue of the Lost Lamb. Additionally, Teichert painted 42 murals related to stories in the Book of Mormon which reside in Brigham Young University's (BYU) Museum of Art. She was the first woman invited to paint a mural for an LDS Church temple.
Robert James Matthews was a Latter-day Saint religious educator and scholar, teaching in the departments of Ancient Scripture and Religious Education at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah.
Joseph Taylor Bentley was the tenth general superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1958 to 1962.
Matthew B. Brown was a Latter-day Saint (Mormon) author and historian whose emphasis was on the history and doctrine of Joseph Smith and his successors through Brigham Young.
Sidney Branton Sperry was one of three scholars who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who began the scholarly and systematic study of the Book of Mormon in the mid-20th century — the other two being John L. Sorenson and Hugh W. Nibley. Sperry was also a leading Latter-day Saint scholar of the Bible.
Louis Auguste Bertrand, born John Francis Elias Flandin, was an early leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France.
Brigham Young University Press was the university press of Brigham Young University (BYU).
Donald Quayle Cannon is a retired professor at Brigham Young University who specializes in Latter-day Saint history, particularly early Latter-day Saint history and international Latter-day Saint history.
Arnold Kent Garr was the chair of the department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 2006 to 2009. He was also the lead editor of the Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History.
Richard Eyring "Rick" Turley Jr. is an American historian and genealogist. He previously served as both an Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as managing director of the church's public affairs department.
Grant Revon Underwood is a historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU). He is also the author of The Millennial World of Early Mormonism and the editor of Voyages of Faith: Explorations in Mormon Pacific History.
Steven Craig Harper is a professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He was a historian for the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From 2019, he is the Editor-in-Chief of BYU Studies Quarterly.
Harry Donl Peterson was a religion professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) who primarily studied topics related to the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price.
Ellis Theo Rasmussen was an American professor and dean of Religious Instruction at Brigham Young University (BYU). He helped produce the edition of the Bible published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1979.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.