Still, the Small Voice: Narrative, Personal Revelation, and The Mormon Folk Tradition by Tom Mould (review)

Still, the Small Voice: Narrative, Personal Revelation, and the Mormon Folk Tradition delivers a detailed and precise folkloristic study of personal revelation narratives in Mormon folk culture. The book is a valuable resource that documents and examines how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experience personal revelations and then share these occurrences with others. The central contribution of the book is its illumination of how this core value of Mormonism functions in the everyday life of Latter-day Saints. The author gives readers a unique perspective on this essential Mormon supernatural belief. Personal revelation narratives “are spiritual stories of communication with the divine,” and these revelatory experiences are at the heart of Latter-day Saint life (23).

The book is an analytical study that draws principally upon oral material. A significant purpose of folkloristic research is to broaden understanding of folk groups by examining the expressive culture of the group. Therefore, folklorists frequently study that which is communicated orally. Drawing on the current emphasis in folklore studies on personal experience narratives, the author documents and explores the stories he collected from his own interviews with Latter-day Saints. Thus, even though this book is a folkloristic study of the Mormon folk group, it also preserves oral history accounts. As Mould includes the text from several of his interviews, the book is also a Mormon folk history record.

Mould answers this key historical question, “How do Latter-day Saints themselves describe their experiences of receiving personal revelation?” Furthermore, the book explores the manner in which, and purposes for which, Mormons share these personal accounts. In analyzing these narratives, the author demonstrates the personalized nature of these stories: Messages are unique to each individual’s life situation and divine communication is tailored to the way each person receives revelation, which span the mediums of feelings, thoughts, impressions, dreams, visions, voices, and visitations. Although the sharing of these personal experiences varies inside and outside of church settings, the primary purpose is to edify listeners. The author elaborates on how this is accomplished by demonstrating the need for humility in performance. Additionally, through genre and pattern analysis, the author reveals that Latter-day Saints often share personal revelation accounts of peril and danger, of making difficult decisions, of having and raising children, as well as of serving in the Church. Although there are specific patterns in personal revelation narratives, the author notes that this “does not undermine their truth; it merely suggests that people have worked out a way of communicating effectively, efficiently, and expressively with their peers” (193). Furthermore, the author concludes the book by discussing how stories move back and forth between oral and written traditions. Although the bulk of his study focuses on stories passed orally, he discusses the influence of written accounts in shaping those passed through oral means.

Mould’s documentation of his interviews resembles oral history transcription methods. The texts of the included interviews are faithful to the spoken narrative; the only minor modifications were for the sake of understanding. Although Mould does not specify whether his material is archived, the text of the book includes many excerpts of the transcriptions of his interviews. The narratives Mould collected form the foundation of his study; yet, he also draws relevant accounts from archival collections at Brigham Young University, Utah State University, and the University of Utah, as well as records published by the Church and faithful church members. His folkloristic study of personal revelation narratives is the first of its kind, even though personal revelation is a central aspect of Mormonism and the experience stories that stem from this are many. The study of Mormon folklore has considered other supernatural realms of the Mormon folk group in past works, but none are as revealing as in this book. Mould uncovers an everyday Mormon narrative tradition.

These narratives are likewise relevant as oral history...