In my blog post of August 11, 2020 (“B. H. Roberts and the Book of Mormon: Exhumation and Reburial”) I argued against the claim that Brigham Henry Roberts (1857–1933) lost his faith in the Book of Mormon as a book of ancient scripture. With this argument I was, in part, responding to a recent Master’s … Read more
To anybody even passingly familiar with Latter-day Saint scholarship and historiography, Brigham Henry Roberts (1857–1933) needs no introduction. Those who may not be familiar with B. H. Roberts or his contributions can learn about him and his story from either his own autobiography prepared shortly before his death or Truman G. Madsen’s 1980 biography. In … Read more
On June 12, 2016, Richard Bushman was posed the following question during a fireside talk with a small group of people: In your view do you see room within Mormonism for several different narratives, multiple narratives, of a religious experience or do you think that in order for the Church to remain strong they would … Read more
The subject of the lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon continues to be a topic of considerable interest among researchers of Latter-day Saint history and readers of the Book of Mormon. Indeed, the lost 116 pages continue to tantalize modern readers of the Book of Mormon, prompting scholars to offer hypothetical reconstructions of … Read more
The apocryphal story is told of the freshman who storms up to the reference desk at his university library flustered and frustrated. “What seems to be the problem?” the kind librarian asks him. “I’m trying to do research,” he replies, “and I keep seeing references to a book called “Ibid.”, but I can’t find it … Read more
John Hamer, a Community of Christ pastor and cartographer, recently went on John Dehlin’s podcast Mormon Stories and made the following observation: It’s not only that it’s academically impossible to justify arguing that the Book of Mormon is an ancient text, it’s actually an ongoing contribution to the injustice, the racism, imperialism, and genocide that … Read more
Embedded in Jacob’s discourse on the scattering and restoration of Israel is this prophecy: But behold, this land, said God, shall be a land of thine inheritance, and the Gentiles shall be blessed upon the land. And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon … Read more
Last week I attended part of the 22nd International Book of Mormon Evidences Conference hosted by the FIRM Foundation. One of the presentations on Friday morning was delivered by James F. and L. Hannah Stoddard of the Joseph Smith Foundation. The title of the presentation was “Urim & Thummim or the Seer Stone & Hat?” … Read more
The so-called Heartland model for the geography of the Book of Mormon is built on a foundation of fraud. Fraudulent artifacts, fraudulent science, fraudulent theology, and fraudulent history secured in place by racist ethno-nationalism are the four cornerstones of Heartlanderism. (By Heartlanderism I do not mean general belief in a North American setting for the … Read more
Zelph on the Shelf is the name of a blog run by Samantha Shelley and Tanner Gilliland, two millennial ex-Mormons who are, sadly, afflicted with the handicap of thinking that Twitter hot takes and edgy memes are suitable substitutes for sound historical scholarship and critical thinking. Take, for instance, the “fun facts” which Zelph recently … Read more
One exercise I have found interesting is looking at the criticisms Joseph Smith’s contemporaries made against the Book of Mormon. The granddaddy of Book of Mormon skeptics is without a doubt Alexander Campbell (1788–1866), the learned Christian divine who spearheaded, along with his father Thomas, the Restorationist movement of Christianity. Campbell published the first substantive … Read more
When asked by the New York Times to name a book that people might be surprised to discover on his bookshelf, the illustrious physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson responded, “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. . . . [T]he book tells a dramatic story in fine biblical style. The reader has to … Read more
Two of the authors who contributed to the composition of the Book of Mormon, Nephi and Moroni, both claim at the end of their respective records that they will meet the reader of the book at the judgement bar of God and testify to him or her concerning the truthfulness of their writings and teachings. … Read more