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Jana Kathryn Riess (born December 13, 1969) is an American professor, writer, and editor. Riess' writings have focused on American religions, especially the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) of which she is a member, and other new religious movements.

Early life and education

As she describes in her own autobiographical writings, Riess was born in the Midwestern United States, and has an older brother, John. She and her mother Phyllis were, per her description, abandoned by her father without warning in 1984, by which time her brother was on his own. Riess has described her father, who died at age 71 in Mobile, Alabama, in October 2010, as "an angry atheist" and her mother as "considerably more charitable but no more interested in organized religion."

Riess has a Bachelor's degree from Wellesley College, a Master's degree in theology from the Princeton Theological Seminary, and a PhD in American Religious studies from Columbia University.

Career

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Riess is an expert on religion in literature. As of this date, Riess is a Religion and American Studies professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

From 1999 to 2008 she was the religion book editor for Publishers Weekly.

A member of the LDS Church, Riess has spoken at Brigham Young University Women's Conference and other gatherings of the LDS Church, as well as professional conferences.

Writings

This section needs expansion with: a full scholarly representation on this scholar's writings, based on third party sources. You can help by adding to it. (April 2023)

Riess' 2019 The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church, received critical praise; Phil Zuckerman, a professor of sociology at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, describes the work as "ociologically sound, extremely well-researched and well-written".

Riess and her colleague Benjamin Knoll published a landmark analysis which questioned the accuracy of reports that LDS membership was growing.

Tweeting the Bible

On October 4, 2009, Riess began a project to tweet the bible. Her "Twible" quest concluded in January 2013. Each tweet summarizes a chapter of the bible. Riess tweets the bible in order and plans to hit all 1,189 chapters in 140 characters. She later published it in book form as The Twible: All the Chapters of the Bible in 140 Characters or Less . . . Now with 68% More Humor!

Other work

In July 2001 Riess moderated a debate between Richard Abanes and Connie Neal at a convention of Christian retailers over the "real religious concern" over the Harry Potter books with regard to their presentation of witchcraft and aspects of the occult. Among the books by Riess are the 2004 What Would Buffy Do?, and an abridgment of the Book of Mormon with commentary.

As of 2017, she was conducting "The Next Mormons" survey project to look at how different generations of Mormons have interacted with the Church.

Personal life

Riess is a convert to the LDS Church. She is married to Phil Smith, and they reside in Cincinnati.

Works

Books

Riess, Jana (2002), The Spiritual Traveler: Boston and New England: A Guide to Sacred Sites and Peaceful Places, Mahwah, NJ: HiddenSpring, ISBN 978-1-58768-008-3

• —— (2004), What Would Buffy Do?: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, ISBN 978-0-7879-6922-6
• —— Bigelow, Christopher Kimball (2005), Mormonism for Dummies, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-7645-7195-4
• —— (2005), The Book of Mormon: Selections Annotated and Explained, Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths, ISBN 1-59473-076-8
• —— (2011), fLunking sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor, Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, ISBN 978-1-55725-660-7, retrieved April 29, 2023
• Ogilbee, Mark; Riess, Jana (2006), American Pilgrimage: Eleven Sacred Journeys and Spiritual Destinations, Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, ISBN 978-1-55725-447-4

Articles

• Riess, Jana (June 1999), "Stripling Warriors Choose the Right: The Cultural Engagements of Contemporary Mormon Kitsch" (PDF), Sunstone Magazine (114): 36–47
• —— (Spring 2000), "'Heathen in Our Fair Land': Presbyterian Women Missionaries in Utah, 1870–90", Journal of Mormon History, 26 (1): 165–195, archived from the original on August 8, 2011, retrieved December 3, 2018
• —— (August 21, 2000), "New Genres, Emerging Audiences", Publishers Weekly, 247 (34): S4
• —— (2001), "Mormon Fast and Testimony Meetings", in Colleen McDannell (ed.), Religions of the United States in Practice, vol. 2, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 67–71, ISBN 0-691-01001-3
• —— (2001), "The Latter-day Saint Word of Wisdom", Religions of the United States in Practice, vol. 2, Princeton University Press, pp. 297–301, ISBN 0-691-01001-3
• —— (2002), "Introduction", Mary Baker Eddy, Speaking for Herself: Autobiographical Reflections, Boston: The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy, pp. xv–xlv, ISBN 0-87952-275-5
• —— (March 2003), "Strengthening the Part-Member Marriage?: We're Just Fine, Thank You" (PDF), Sunstone (126): 66–67
• —— (July 2003), "Seek Ye Out of the Best Flicks: R-Rated Movies That Have Helped Me Think About the Gospel" (PDF), Sunstone Magazine (128): 42–44
• —— (March 2005), "'More Fully Unspotted from the World': Thoughts on Sabbath Keeping" (PDF), Sunstone (135): 23–25
• —— (March 2005), "Sacred Envy: What I've Learned from Other Religions" (PDF), Sunstone (136): 52–54
• —— (September 2005), "For the Love of Reading" (PDF), Sunstone (138): 56–58
• —— (September 2006), "How to Give a Sacrament Meeting Talk: An Open Letter to Converts" (PDF), Sunstone (142): 55–57
• —— (June 2007), "Why the Heck Don't Mormons Swear?: Musings on the Sacred and the Profane" (PDF), Sunstone (146): 57–59
• —— (October 2, 2007), "We're Christians Too", Christian Century, 124 (20): 9–10, archived from the original on October 11, 2008
• —— (December 2007), "Tributaries of Faith" (PDF), Sunstone (148): 20–26
• —— (2009), "Book of Mormon Stories that Steph Meyer Tells to Me: LDS Themes in the Twilight Saga and the Host", BYU Studies, 48 (3): 141–47

Other

• Riess, Jana (1991), The Saints Go Marching In: Mormonism in American Politics, 1970–1990, , Wellesley, MA: Department of Religion, Wellesley College
• —— (2000), Heathen in Our Fair Land: Anti-Polygamy and Protestant Women's Missions to Utah, 1869–1910, , New York: Columbia University
• Bigelow, Christopher Kimball (2007), Jana Riess (ed.), The Timechart History of Mormonism from Premortality to the Present, Bassingbourne, Hertfordshire, UK: Worth Press, ISBN 978-1-903025-40-6

References

1. ^ Riess, Jana (2011). fLunking sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press. ISBN 978-1-55725-660-7. Retrieved April 29, 2023. Note, the unique spelling of the first word of the book's title is as it is presented by the author, on the title page of the book.
2. ^ Riess, Jana (2005). The Book of Mormon: Selections Annotated and Explained. SkyLight Illuminations. Vol. 12. Nashville, TN: SkyLight Paths Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59473-076-4. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
3. ^ Riess, Jana (September 2006). "How to Give a Sacrament Meeting Talk: An Open Letter to Converts" (PDF). Sunstone Magazine (142): 55–57. Retrieved June 21, 2010..
4. Pagitt, Doug; Riess, Jana (February 17, 2022). "Common Good Faith—The Rise of the Progressive Mormons with Jana Riess" (podcast guest autobiography). Edina, MN: The Common Good Podcast. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
5. ^ Cranney, Stephen (April 2019). "The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church" (book review). BYU Studies Quarterly. 58 (2): 177–183. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
6. ^ Zuckerman, Phil (May 6, 2019). "Secularization Hits the Mormons: Is the LDS church losing ground?". PsychologyToday.com. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
7. "Phil Zuckerman". TheGuardian. April 29, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2023. Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He is the author of Society Without God (2008) and Faith No More (2011).
8. Mooney, Deborah Arca; Riess, Jana (April 9, 2010). "Tweeting the Bible: An Interview with Jana Riess". Patheos.com. Archived from the original on May 29, 2010. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
9. Riess, Jana (April 29, 2023). "Authors: Jana Riess" (contributor biographical sketch). FaithandLeadership.com. Durham, NC: Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, Duke University.
10. "Harry Potter Raises Eyes of Christians". The Ledger. June 15, 2009 . Retrieved April 29, 2023. 'There's a real religious concern,' observes Jana Riess of Publishers Weekly, who moderated an Abanes - Neal debate at a July convention of Christian retailers. 'Evangelical Christians believe that witchcraft is real.' / But, she said, witchcraft in the Potter novels 'is not a worldview in the way evangelicals would think of it.' She likens the fuss to parallel complaints when 'The Wizard of Oz' was published a century ago.
11. Nielsen, Alyssa (June 1, 2017). "Religion Scholar Studies Why Millennials Leave LDS Church". Universe.BYU.edu. Retrieved April 29, 2023.

External links

• Jana Riess at the MLCA Database
• "Flunking Sainthood" blog on Beliefnet
• The Review Revolution: Improving Culture through Kvetching – Jana Riess' blog
• @janariess on Twitter
• FARMS Review on Riess' abridgment of the Book of Mormon

• 1969 births
• American Latter Day Saint writers
• American religion academics
• Columbia University alumni
• Converts to Mormonism
• Living people
• Mormon studies scholars
• Mormon memoirists
• Writers from Cincinnati
• Princeton Theological Seminary alumni
• Wellesley College alumni
• 20th-century American writers
• 21st-century American non-fiction writers
• 20th-century American women writers
• 21st-century American women writers
• Latter Day Saints from Ohio