Labs
The twelve-week teaching schedule: what happens in each lab, what to prepare, and what leaves the room.
Before the Fracture
What Nauvoo looked like in early 1844 — the overlapping bodies with a claim to authority, before anyone had to use it
Week 1 · 22 February 2027
Carthage Jail and the Vacuum
June 27, 1844 — what happened at Carthage, and why no single body could immediately fill the gap it left
Week 2 · 1 March 2027
The Mantle of the Prophet
The August 8, 1844 conference where Brigham Young's Twelve out-argued Sidney Rigdon in front of the Nauvoo congregation
Week 3 · 8 March 2027
The Kingdom on Beaver Island
James Strang's claim, his letter of appointment, and the only self-declared king ever crowned on American soil
Week 4 · 15 March 2027
The Reorganization
Joseph Smith III's 1860 claim by lineage, and the "Prairie Saints" who rejected polygamy as their founding pivot
Week 5 · 22 March 2027
Polygamy, Doctrine to Liability: Assignment 1 Review
Federal pressure on the Utah church and the 1890 Manifesto, plus a working lab on Assignment 1 drafts
Week 6 · 29 March 2027
After the Manifesto
The fundamentalist split the 1890 Manifesto itself produced, and the road to Short Creek and the FLDS
Week 7 · 5 April 2027
Micro-Prophets and Small Splinters
The Cutlerites, the Bickertonites and the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) — the pattern repeated at small scale
Week 8 · 12 April 2027
What Each Branch Kept
Temple ordinances, priesthood succession theory and the Book of Abraham compared across branches
Week 9 · 19 April 2027
Who Owns Being the True Church
The 1894 Temple Lot lawsuit, where legal ownership and theological legitimacy turned out to be different questions
Week 10 · 26 April 2027
Splintering Never Stopped
The Reorganization's own 1980s schism over women's ordination, and present-day independence groups
Week 11 · 3 May 2027
Capstone Presentations
Final project presentations, and where The Schism Map is due
Week 12 · 10 May 2027