What's New in Mormon History: A Response to Jan Shipps
2007; Oxford University Press; Volume: 94; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/25094963
ISSN1945-2314
Autores Tópico(s)American Constitutional Law and Politics
ResumoNo one is better qualified to comment on the state of Mormon history than Jan Shipps. Not only has she been an observer of the Mormon historiographical scene for half a century; she has been one of the most vigorous and influential participants. Her Mormonism broke new ground in the conceptualization of the Mormon past. I meant it when I said for the dust jacket: “This may be the most brilliant book ever written on Mormonism.” She is to be believed when she says Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling stands squarely in the tradition of the new Mormon history.1 Shipps did not have the space to say more about the book's place in the other major current in Mormon intellectual life: apologetics. She knows full well the major role played by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (farms, now absorbed into the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship) at Brigham Young University, whose mission is to demonstrate the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon and to defend the faith wherever it is attacked. Like farms, the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (fair), an independent organization comprising zealous amateurs and professional academics, sponsors conferences, runs a Web site, and tries to answer virtually every criticism of Mormon claims.2 In addition to these insitutionalized operations, scores of Mormon writers and thinkers collect evidence in support of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Situating Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling in the Mormon apologetic tradition may serve to round out Shipps's illuminating analysis of the book's location in the new Mormon history.
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