Vol. 23 Num. 1 the FARMS Review
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Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 Volume 23 Number 1 Article 17 2011 Vol. 23 Num. 1 The FARMS Review Mormon Studies Review Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Review, Mormon Studies (2011) "Vol. 23 Num. 1 The FARMS Review," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: Vol. 23 : No. 1 , Article 17. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol23/iss1/17 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. BX 8622 . R325x vol.23 n o.1 MORMON STUDIES revzew--·- VOLUME 23 • NUMBER 1 • 2011 Highlights Neal A. Maxwell Lecture I The Book of Mormon: Passport to Discipleship 1 BY MARILYN ARNOLD Revisiting "A Key for Evaluating Nephite Geographies" 13 BY JOHN E. CLARK Shattered Glass: The Traditions of Mormon Same-Sex Marriage Advocates Encounter Boyd K. Packer 61 BY GREGORY L. SMITH Examining a Misapplication of Nearest Shrunken Centroid Classification to Investigate Book of Mormon Authorship BY PAUL J. FIELDS, G. BRUCE SCHAALJE, AND MATTHEW ROPER Beyond Politics 135 BY HUGH NIBLEY volume 23, number 1 • 2011 MorMon StudieS review EDITOR PRODUCTION EDITOR Daniel C. Peterson Don L. Brugger ASSOCIATE EDITORS EDITORIAL INTERNS Louis C. Midgley Julie A. Davis George L. Mitton Stetson J. Robinson Gregory L. Smith TYPESETTING Alison V. P. Coutts COVER / LAYOUT DESIGN Stephen Hales Creative, Inc. ISSn 2156-8022 © 2011 by brIgham young unIverSIty Provo, utah. all rIghtS reServed. Mormon Studies Review 23.1 | iii Contents Editor’s Introduction “To Cheer, to Raise, to Guide”: 22 Years of the FARMS Review vii by Daniel C. Peterson n eal a. maxwell lecture The Book of Mormon: Passport to Discipleship 1 by Marilyn arnolD Book of Mormon Revisiting “A Key for Evaluating Nephite Geographies” 13 by John e. Clark Nephi as Scribe 45 by brant a. GarDner Book of Moses A New Resource on the Book of Moses, review of In God’s Image and Likeness: Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Book of Moses, by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw 57 by brian M. hauGliD R esponses to Criticism Shattered Glass: The Traditions of Mormon Same-Sex Marriage Advocates Encounter Boyd K. Packer 61 by GreGory l. Smith iv | Contents Examining a Misapplication of Nearest Shrunken Centroid Classification to Investigate Book of Mormon Authorship, review of “Reassessing Authorship of the Book of Mormon,” by Matthew L. Jockers, Daniela M. Witten, and Craig S. Criddle 87 By Paul J. fielDs, G. bruCe sChaalJe, anD Matthew roPer The Historical Case against Sidney Rigdon’s Authorship of the Book of Mormon, review of “Reassessing Authorship of the Book of Mormon,” by Matthew L. Jockers, Daniela M. Witten, and Craig S. Criddle 111 by Matthew roPer anD Paul J. fielDs Studies in mormon history Raising Kane, review of “Liberty to the Downtrodden”: Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer, by Matthew J. Grow 125 by riCharD e. bennett n ibley Studies Out of Obscurity: The Story of Nibley’s “Beyond Politics” 131 by louis MiDGley anD shirley s. riCks Beyond Politics 133 by huGh nibley n ew testament Studies In the Mouths of Two or More Witnesses, review of Jesus and the Eye Witnesses, by Richard Bauckham 153 by noel b. reynolDs Telling the Larger “Church History” Story, review of Church History: A Crash Course for the Curious, by Christopher Catherwood 155 by louis MiDGley Mormon Studies Review 23.1 | v Book Notes Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years 171 by DiarMaiD MaCCulloCh Ten Myths about Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition 175 by kenneth J. stewart The Tree of Life: From Eden to Eternity 177 by John w. welCh anD DonalD w. Parry Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N. T. Wright 178 by niCholas Perrin anD riCharD b. hays The Resurrection of the Son of God 181 by n. t. wriGht Exploring Church History: A Guide to History, World Religions, and Ethics 182 by JaMes P. EckMan To Our Readers 185 “To Cheer, to Raise, to Guide”: Twenty-Two Years of the FARMS Review daniel C. PeterSon The office of the scholar is to cheer, to raise, enthusiasm during that time, since, from the fall to guide men by showing them facts amidst of 1978 through the late summer of 1982, I had appearances. He plies the slow, unhonored, been living in Egypt and since, from the summer and unpaid task of observation. He is the of 1982 to the fall of 1985, I was busy with my world’s eye. —Emerson1 doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles. (California was a very long distance early a quarter of a century ago, in 1988—I from FARMS in those days, to say nothing of never really envisioned myself becoming Egypt. Some younger readers will find this diffi- N cult to imagine, but there was no Internet in 1979. as old as I now am—John W. Welch, the moving Few people even had personal computers.) force in the establishment of the Foundation for By 1988, though, I had been on the faculty at Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) Brigham Young University for roughly three roughly a decade earlier, approached me with a years, and I had begun to involve myself with the question. Would I be willing to launch and edit work of FARMS. a new annual volume reviewing books about the Still, Jack Welch’s invitation represented my Book of Mormon? first opportunity to be formally connected with I had been an enthusiastic fan of what came FARMS. So I leaped at the chance. And, thus, the to be known as FARMS from its founding in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, as it was 1979, but I had been unable to do much about my originally called, was born. 1. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar,” speech given on From the beginning, though, I wanted our 31 August 1837. new periodical—FARMS’s first periodical—to Mormon Studies Review 23.1 | vii viii | Daniel C. Peterson—Introduction be more than just a simple collection of book pages in the printed edition, complete with maps, reviews. I thought about the way I myself used tables, and figures. Going beyond simply review- the work of music critics: When I went into a ing a specific book, it set forth ten fundamental music store to buy a recording of, say, Mahler’s requirements that had to be met by any aspiring Ninth Symphony, I would first walk over to the geographical model for the Book of Mormon. It bookshelf, if the store had one, to consult various was precisely the kind of thing that, just as I had guides to, or magazines on, classical recordings. hoped, would have value in itself and would be Having familiarized myself with what the com- worth buying and reading in its own right. From mentators had to say, I would put the guides back then on, in every issue of the Review, there has on the shelf and buy the version I had selected. always been at least one essay—often more than But I never bought any of the guides. Why should one—that has had value independent of (and I? They had served their purpose when I made sometimes much greater than) the book or other my choice. For me, they had little or no intrinsic item that it was reviewing. Some of the books value; they were merely a means to an end. I wanted the Review of Books on the Book of being reviewed provided an excuse for important Mormon to be something that would have value contributions to the scholarship on a topic. in itself, that would be worth buying and reading Another characteristic feature of the Review in its own right. was also established with the very first issue: its Fortunately, that goal was achieved right from willingness to be critical even of books by friends, the start. by people on our “side.” Todd Compton, a clas- I’ll use as my illustration of that fact John sicist and an old friend of mine from graduate- Clark’s review of F. Richard Hauck’s Deciphering school days at UCLA, opened his review of three the Geography of the Book of Mormon. When I first volumes in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley approached Professor Clark, already a very expe- by saying that “one approaches Hugh Nibley with rienced Mesoamerican archaeologist, with the a mixture of awe and anguish.” 3 The sweep and proposal that he review the Hauck book, he was— genius of Nibley were stunning, but, Compton to put it mildly—reluctant. He was busy, often said, sometimes the details were a bit inaccu- on the road, preoccupied with digs in Chiapas, rate. Likewise, Louis Midgley’s review of the Mexico. He wasn’t particularly eager to wade into first two volumes of Joseph Fielding McConkie the squabbles over Book of Mormon geography. and Robert L. Millet’s Doctrinal Commentary on Frankly, I did not expect to receive any- the Book of Mormon faulted seeming tendencies thing from him. But then he came through, in to recast our scriptures as—though, of course, spectacu lar fashion, with a marvelous review no believer would actually say it this way or be essay entitled “A Key for Evaluating Nephite Geographies.” 2 It eventually yielded fifty-one less than offended at such a thought—messy and inadequate attempts to do dogmatic theology, 2.