Hello Mormonism: Dead Sea Scrolls, London 1966 & the Robinson Mission

In this episode, we step away from satire and popular culture and explore something much richer: how mid-twentieth-century Latter-day Saints in Britain introduced and defended their faith through real documents, real correspondence, and real theological imagination.

Using three remarkable artefacts from one household —
• a mid-century book on the Dead Sea Scrolls
• a personal missionary letter written in London in 1966
• and a glossy, illustrated booklet introducing Mormonism to the British public —

We discover how O. Preston Robinson and his wife Christine framed the Restoration story for outsiders, long before the days of TikTok, YouTube, or Broadway musicals.

This episode asks:

How did Latter-day Saints present their history and theology to non-members?
How did they interpret ancient texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls?
How did missionary tone, public relations, and theological conviction work together?
And what can these archival artefacts tell us about continuity, identity, and self-imagination in Mormonism from the 1950s to today?

We move from ancient Judaean manuscripts to a London mission office, from biblical scholarship debates to colourful printed literature travelling through British post boxes, all to understand how one movement explained itself with confidence, hospitality, and historical imagination.

If you enjoy:
• religious history
• archival documents
• Victorian ritualism
• theology and philosophy
• or the history of Christianity in Britain

…you’ll love exploring this story through original sources.

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