Welsh Journals

emerging theology. This Davies identifies as "a type of narrative theology" (p 62). As Welsh nonconformity looked to first century Palestine for its cultic reference, so the Welsh Mormons looked to nineteenth century Utah, and did so within the Old Testament motifs of exodus, wilderness and promised land. For these people the Zion in Utah had replaced "heaven" as an attainable goal. Welsh converts were encouraged to learn both the spiritual and the physical language (English) of this new Zion, and to make their way to it. By 1890 between fifteen to twenty thousand Welsh people had emigrated to this alternative heaven. This meant the near extinction of Mormonism in Wales, until its revival from the 1920s onwards, which Davies vividly documents. He suggests that the radical nature of the new religion was the principal reason for the powerful impact Mormonism had on the religious society of mid-nineteenth century Wales, especially within the Baptist community. "This", adds Davies, "was precisely the right note for the local inhabitants who were unhappy with the status quo" (p 17). This work ranges widely over a number of related disciplines, and while one may suspect that the historical aspect is used as a framework for the sociological approach, and may regret the heavy dependence on the English language sources rather than the Welsh sources delineated by Dennis, nevertheless Davies explores a worthwhile field to which he has contributed an important and far- reaching study. RLB The Annual Report of the Glamorgan Archivist, 1989. 44pp. Available from the Glamorgan Record Office, County Hall, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF1 3NE. No price quoted. 1989 was to have been the golden jubilee year of the Glamorgan Record Office, but instead of celebrations, there are the photo- graphs of the Glamorgan Archivist and her staff mopping out some of the strong rooms. Alas, unsuspected high water levels had caused an increase in humidity. Significantly, if not prophet- ically, the theme of water had been chosen for the articles which always accompany these annual reports articles which are mainly based on Glamorgan's association with the sea and shipping. The list of accessions contain, as usual, a number of ecclesiastical records, including minute books, orders of services, parish magazines and chapel histories, but also a new departure under the entry of Religion: "Hinduism, Diwali cards." One error perhaps needs to be corrected. In the article on Hughersovka a steel works in the Ukraine which attracted many Welsh families to Russia it is stated that the office had acquired copies of lists of subscribers from that place to a fund established to provide for