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Author spotlight: Julie M. Smith November 08 2017
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Julie M. Smith, author of Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide to the Gospels, part of the Contemporary Studies in Scripture series, and editor of As Iron Sharpens Iron: Listening to the Various Voices of Scripture, winner of the 2016 AML best religious non-fiction award. When and how did you decide to pursue religious studies and Biblical Studies? What is your emphasis in Biblical Studies? I was in college, at UT Austin, as an English major. And I was taking a British literature class from a professor who wanted us to understand the religious backdrop to what we were reading. I was fascinated by her brief description of early Christianity, and that began my interest. Within Biblical Studies, I have two main focal points of interest. The first is what I can non-androcentric interpretation. While I'm comfortable using the word "feminist" in other contexts, in this context I like "non-androcentric" because what I am striving to do is to remove a male focus from interpretation (not necessarily to replace it with a feminist ideology). Secondly, I am interested in literary interpretation. In what ways do you think Search, Ponder, and Pray and As Iron Sharpens Iron can help Latter-day Saints gain a deeper appreciation for and understanding of scripture? Search, Ponder, and Pray presents some background material and then it leaves the reader to reach her own conclusions. I'm trying to model a process there that I hope all teachers would use. But I'm also trying to give students of the scripture some tools with which to do their own thinking about what they are reading. Similarly, with the Iron book, the goal was to present two not-necessarily-harmonious viewpoints about an issue, each couched in the voice of a scriptural author, in order to get the reader thinking about various arguments. You have taught LDS seminary. If those in charge of seminary curriculum came to you for advice in shaping future instruction manuals and training, what advice would you offer? I haven't taught seminary in a long time. But my advice for seminary curriculum would be this: y'all did a great job on the church history side in being sure that our youth are exposed to the difficult issues in church history in a faithful context so that they won't be blindsided by these issues when they are older. Now we need to do that for the Bible as well. Our materials on the Old and New Testament read as if they were written in the late 19th century. We saw the need to update church history materials to address 21st century needs--the next step is to make the same changes for our Bible curriculum. Thanks, Julie! |
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Free Scriptural Theology ebook for newsletter subscribers! October 30 2017
FREE EBOOK FOR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS
Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Scriptural Theology
Edited by James E. Faulconer and Joseph M. Spencer
Part of the Perspectives on Mormon Theology series
$24.95 FREE FOR OUR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS (Limited time)
Greg Kofford Books is pleased to offer for a limited time a free ebook version of Scriptural Theology, the first volume in the Perspectives on Mormon Theology series.
This volume is edited by James E. Faulconer and Joseph M. Spencer and seeks to offer a variety of perspectives regarding the nature and meaning of scripture for Latter-day Saints.
Book description:
The phrase “theology of scripture” can be understood in two distinct ways. First, theology of scripture would be reflection on the nature of scripture, asking questions about what it means for a person or a people to be oriented by a written text (rather than or in addition to an oral tradition or a ritual tradition). In this first sense, theology of scripture would form a relatively minor part of the broader theological project, since the nature of scripture is just one of many things on which theologians reflect. Second, theology of scripture would be theological reflection guided by scripture, asking questions of scriptural texts and allowing those texts to shape the direction the theologian’s thoughts pursue. In this second sense, theology of scripture would be less a part of the larger theological project than a way of doing theology, since whatever the theologian takes up reflectively, she investigates through the lens of scripture.
The essays making up this collection reflect attentiveness to both ways of understanding the phrase “theology of scripture.” Each essay takes up the relatively un-self-conscious work of reading a scriptural text but then—at some point or another—asks the self-conscious question of exactly what she or he is doing in the work of reading scripture. We have thus attempted in this book (1) to create a dialogue concerning what scripture is for Latter-day Saints, and (2) to focus that dialogue on concrete examples of Latter-day Saints reading actual scripture texts.
Contributors: James E. Faulconer, Joseph M. Spencer, Robert Couch, Adam S. Miller, Eric D. Huntsman, Claudia L. Bushman, Bruce W. Jorgensen, Jane Hafen, Jenny Webb, George B. Handley
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Q&A with Blair G. Van Dyke and Loyd Isao Ericson for Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Apologetics July 20 2017
Hardcover $59.95 (ISBN 978-1-58958-581-2)
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Q: Starting broadly with the scope of the Perspectives on Mormon Theology series, can you provide some insight into its background? How and when you decided to do this series and what you hope it will accomplish?
Loyd: The Perspectives on Mormon Theology series has been an idea floating around for a few years by my series co-editor, Brian Birch. Its inspiration is in the similarly-titled Discourses in Mormon Theology: Philosophical and Theological Possibilities, edited by Jim McLachlan and myself, which itself is the proceedings of the inaugural conference of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology (SMPT). As evidenced by that volume, the Society, the Society’s journal (Element), and other publications, Mormonism is a rich field for theological and philosophical exploration; and that exploration yields a wide variation of thought. While authors might be drawing from the same religious tradition and scriptural canon, they each have their own perspectives formed by their philosophical leanings, ecclesiastical commitments, experiences, ideologies, education, and interpretations of articles of faith. Because of the varying (and sometimes conflicting) conclusions that these differing perspectives may lead, it probably makes more sense to talk of Mormon theologies (plural) rather than a singular theology—though that itself is its own philosophical discussion.
The first volume of the Perspectives series was on scriptural theology, and it illustrates well how an author’s perspective shapes the way they read scripture and draw their theology out of (or into) the texts. This second volume, Apologetics, and future volumes will continue that theme as authors look to the same canon to explore, argue for, and delineate their perspective on Mormon theology. We currently have volumes on grace, revelation, and atonement in progress, and should be announcing several more forthcoming volumes before the end of the year.
Q: For readers who are unfamiliar with apologetics, can you offer a brief explanation of what apologetics are as well as their historical development?
Blair: The word “apologetic” comes from the Greek “apologia”, and in the Christian tradition has been used to describe defense by argument of Christian belief and of the Christian way of life. The Apostle Paul’s writings are largely apologetic in approach. He creates arguments to persuade Christians in the early church to argue against the paganism extant in the Greco-Roman world and prove that it was untenable in the face of Christ’s redeeming work. Christ and Christ alone, Paul argued is the sole source of hope and salvation. Similarly, Peter invited believers to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).
Mormon apologetics provide defense by argument for distinct views held by Latter-day Saints. The several accounts of Joseph Smith’s first vision, the historicity of the Book of Mormon, and polygamy are just three examples. Even though he passed away in 2005, Hugh Nibley is still the most recognizable Mormon apologist. He produced volumes of apologetic works.
With the advent of the internet the state of Mormon apologetics has never been more dynamic. The church has responded to this new landscape by sponsoring the Joseph Smith Papers project and publishing a series of gospel topics essays intended to answer questions about difficult historical and doctrinal issues. Essays on the ban on blacks in the priesthood from 1852 to 1978 and violence in 19th century Mormonism are two examples.
The work and writings of apologists in the church has also swelled. Organizations dedicated to defending the church such as FairMormon (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research) continue to grow. They sponsor symposia, lectures, maintain a very active presence in the blogosphere, and provide an outlet for apologetic publications.
Q: Can you summarize some of the current tensions among scholars with regards to apologetics?
Loyd: The most debated tensions at play with apologetics are those of quality, tone, utility, and its place (if any) in academia. The first (quality) is probably the one that gets the most attention, and deservedly so. This tension revolves around the question of whether apologetic efforts meet the basic standards of good scholarship. I think most can agree that the answer to this question is yes and no. Over the last few decades, LDS scholars trained in ancient Near-East history and language, philosophy, biblical studies, Mesoamerican anthropology, history, and other fields have produced top-notch scholarship for apologetic purposes. On the other hand, since the very beginnings of Mormonism, amateur “armchair” apologists without any real training have produced defenses and “proofs” of Mormonism that exhibit incredibly weak scholarship (if it could even be called that).
This tension has played out both between apologists and critics, as well as within apologetic circles. An example of the latter is the use of Izapa Stela 5--the so-called Lehi Tree of Life Stone--which for decades has been used as a proof of the Book of Mormon, despite the efforts of trained LDS apologists (such as FARMS) to counter the claim and show that it has nothing to do with the Nephite text.
The issue of “tone” is another tension that is frequently discussed. This deals with the civility of discourse in apologetic arguments, tactics, and writings. Like the tension of quality, tone is a mixed bag with a general agreement that apologetics will inevitably have moments of incivility because that is a fact of human nature. While bad tone can be frequent in online message boards, blogs, and other similar forums, the larger tension involves accusations of published, peer-reviewed works containing personal attacks, malicious innuendo, etc.
The tension of utility is whether apologetics does more harm than good. This is explored by a few of our authors, and the answers differ depending on how one views the goals of apologetics, the mandate for believers to engage in it, and what is being defended. While it is usually agreed that poor quality and incivility can be more harmful than good, it becomes a more interesting question when one contends that apologetics is harmful even when it is civil and an example of quality scholarship.
The place of apologetics in academia is generally an insider debate that most outside of the growing field of Mormon Studies are not privy to. While tone and quality play a part in this debate, the larger tension involves whether faith claims should be defended, critiqued, or even considered in academic discourse. For our volume, we have three chapters focused specifically on this question, with each author having different answers.
A tension that has almost no discussion, but am glad to have in this volume, involves the role of women. Apologetics is incredibly male-oriented, with the majority of apologists being men—especially in published apologetics. There are multiple reasons for this, including centuries of male-dominated academia, traditional gender roles within Mormonism, and the often hostile and sexist nature of online religious debate. Despite these imbalances, there are still many Mormon women actively engaged in apologetics, and we are lucky to have a few authors addressing the positive role Mormon women have in apologetics, why more women’s perspectives are need, and exemplifying unique contributions they can bring.
Finally, there are other tensions that I wish we could have explored in this volume, but could not because of time, space, and contributors. These include the tensions of whether apologetics is changing Mormon doctrines, Book of Mormon apologetics and the self-identity of Latin-American and Pacific-Islander saints, and the relationship between apologetics and the institutional Church.
Q: Can you talk about what went into the curation of this volume? What were your thoughts behind selecting its contributing authors, and what areas of focus did you want to make sure were emphasized?
Blair: Mormonism is chockfull of apologetics intramurals that frequently orbit around questions like the following: How should Mormons defend Mormonism? When someone attacks the Church from the outside, what is the most effective way to respond? Should Mormons go on the offensive, anticipate questions, and respond to them before they are actually posed? When a Mormon interprets faith in ways that are perceived to be not doctrinally sound how should other Mormons reply? Is an intellectual or scholarly defense of Mormonism preferable or should apologetics be devotional in approach? Should apologetics be couched in the teachings of contemporary members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or should defenses account for evidences from history and current secular sources that may not precisely align with contemporary Mormon narratives? When scholarly findings disagree with interpretations of scripture should reason yield to faith or should faith bend to reason? Finally, is it errant to defend Mormonism? If the movement can stand on its own in the light of the noonday sun then might defenses hinder more than advance Mormonism? These primary questions, and many others, constitute launching points for this volume.
In recent years, these questions have been debated with particular vigor. What was FARMS (Foundation for Apologetics and Mormon Studies) was dissolved, certain aspects of which were absorbed by BYU’s Maxwell Institute. FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research), a private organization dedicated to apologetics, has a broader platform and audience than ever before. Mormon Studies programs have been established at universities from coast-to-coast including peer reviewed journals and a growing attraction by publishers like Oxford and Illinois. Finally, apologists from the so-called rank-and-file now enjoy open access to the blogosphere from which they may present their defenses of Mormonism at their leisure. Arguably, there has never been a more dynamic moment for apologetics in the history of Mormonism.
As editors, we wanted to capture this unique time. We sought out authors whose voices represent a spectrum of responses to the above questions and the role apologetics play in the Church. We determined that four groups were essential to include in order to create a well-rounded treatment of Mormon apologetics: academics, lay apologists, women, and critics—both positive and negative—of current approaches to defense. Together, they explore issues related to authority, ecclesiastical unity, civility, gender, and doctrine. It is important to know up front that the contributing authors maintain sharp disagreements with one another on certain key points and approaches. However, disagreements are not front and center in this volume—dialogue is. Therefore, reading this book brings the reader to close proximity to discussions that are not new but are ongoing in various circles of Mormonism. The nature and tone of this ongoing exchange has very real implications for how conversations on simple and complex issues are carried out by Mormon communities globally. Awareness and understanding of these exchanges is, we think, essential. Thus, the significance of the book.
Q: What do you hope this volume will contribute to future discourse between scholars and readers who are divided on the subject of the utility of apologetics?
Loyd: My hope is that it will contribute to all—whatever their views on apologetics may be—stepping back and exemplifying more charity, concern, and understanding in their work. For those involved in apologetics, I hope that this volume encourages them to think deeply about how their arguments and style affect readers in the long run and how inclusive their efforts are in appreciating multiple voices and perspectives. For critics of apologetics, I hope that they will exemplify the same virtues in how they view the sincerity and devotion in apologetic efforts. For those in academia, I hope that all can recognize and be more honest about the biases and limitations of their methodologies and the complexity of working together—or at least in conversation—when ideologies, beliefs, and values collide. And finally, for readers who engage or observe this from the sidelines, I hope that they see how lively, complex, and important these issues are beyond the typical tit-for-tat accusations that are too often in public display when arguing over apologetics.
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Preview Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Apologetics June 23 2017
Perspectives on Mormon Theology:
Apologetics
This volume in the Perspectives on Mormon Theology series is an exploration of Mormon apologetics—or the defense of faith. Since its very beginning, various Latter-day Saints have sought to utilize evidence and reason to actively promote or defend beliefs and claims within the Mormon tradition. Mormon apologetics reached new levels of sophistication as believers trained in fields such as history, Near-Eastern languages and culture, and philosophy began to utilize their knowledge and skills to defend their beliefs.
The contributors to this volume seek to explore the textures and contours of apologetics from multiple perspectives, revealing deep theological and ideological fissures within the Mormon scholarly community concerning apologetics. However, in spite of pressing differences, what each author has in common is a passion for Mormonism and how it is presented and defended. This volume captures that reality and allows readers to encounter the terrain of Mormon apologetics at close range.
2016 AML Awards two outstanding Greg Kofford Books titles! April 24 2017
The Association for Mormon Letters held its annual meeting this past weekend, April 22-23, 2017. This year, the event was held at Utah Valley University in Orem, UT. The keynote speaker was Phyllis Barber, author of eight books and winner of the Smith-Pettit Foundation and the Association for Mormon Letters Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters. Acclaimed science fiction author Orson Scott Card and renowned poet and short-story author Susan Howe, were also presented with AML Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Among the winners at the AML Awards Ceremony were two Greg Kofford Books titles:
As Iron Sharpens Iron: Listening to the Various Voices of Scripture, edited by Julie M. Smith, won the 2016 Best Religious Non-fiction Award. From the citation:
“As Iron Sharpens Iron provides an excellent study on the challenges found in the Mormon scriptural cannon in a manner that is very intriguing and is sure to challenge Mormon readers to rethink how they approach their scriptural studies and thought.”
Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism, by Jack Harrell, won the 2016 Best Literary Criticism Award. From the citation:
“A worthy successor to the work of Eugene England. . . . At his most engaging, Harrell speaks bluntly, knowingly, and aspirationally regarding the plight of the serious Mormon writer, and by extension, their audience. His advice to writers to be honest and to embrace their weirdness, among other things, seeks to reframe the discussion of Mormonism’s cultural debits and credits into a workable and motivational mode of authentic creativity.”
Congratulations to Julie M. Smith, Jack Harrell, and all of the other winners of the 2016 AML Awards! We are proud to have such distinguished talented authors on our roster!
For the complete list of 2016 AML Award winners, click here.
For a complete list of Greg Kofford Books award-winning titles, click here.
For a full catalog (pdf) of Greg Kofford Books titles click here.
Q&A with Michael Austin and Ardis E. Parshall for Dime Novel Mormons March 13 2017
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Q: For those who are not familiar with the Mormon Image in Literature series, can you explain its purpose and scope?
Mike: The Mormon Image in Literature series is a collaboration between an archival researcher and a literary critic that seeks to reprint the books that shaped the public perceptions of Mormonism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will include books by Mormons and books about Mormons, but will focus on works that are hard to find and virtually unknown in the twenty-first century (as opposed to books like A Study in Scarlet and Riders of the Purple Sage, which have been continuously in print since their first publication). Along with faithful reproductions of the texts that scholars can use as primary research texts, each of these volumes contains an introduction and notes that set the works, and their authors, in a context that relates both to the way Mormons were understood by the author and the way the publishing industry in the United States was changing and demanding different kinds of works.
Ardis: These novels have next to nothing to teach me about Mormon history directly—they're too wildly inaccurate to be data sources. What they do give me is a chance to enter the Mormon past, in a sense. I read the words, knowing that readers of a hundred or more years ago read the same words. This is what people thought of us. If I were a missionary, this is what would be in the minds of people behind the doors I knocked on and in the minds of listeners at street meetings. If I were a Mormon mother sending my boy out as a missionary, this is what he would have to face, this is why I might be afraid for him, this is why I would be proud of him. This is what is behind the sneer on the conductor's face when he takes my ticket; this is what brings a curl to the lip of the government employee I appeal to for assistance. I know how I feel and what I think when I read news accounts today, or watch current TV, with caricatures of my behaviors and beliefs; when I read a sensational novel like those in our series, I know what it meant and felt like to a Mormon of the era to read these. We can dress up like pioneers and we can put on pageants about episodes in Mormon history—but that is superficial playacting. Watching the stories of these novels playing out in my imagination, just as they played out in the imaginations of their original readers, seems to me to be much closer to replicating historical reality.
Q: If you ran a bookstore, what section do you think these books would fit best in?
Ardis: Fiction, or historical fiction. I would keep the series together, rather than breaking it up by genre. (The genre mix will be more and more evident as the series continues.)
Mike: I would put them in the fiction section. Or in the Mormon Studies section if I owned one of the handful of bookstores in the world with a Mormon Studies section. And, like Ardis, I would keep the series together.
Q: Granted that the four titles collected in Dime Novel Mormons are not considered “highbrow” literature, can you give me a passage or scene that stood out to you in illustrating how public perception of Mormons may have been influenced by popular media tropes?
Ardis: When the villain Mercer Aldrich/John Leigh is introduced in Dolores, the Danite's Daughter, he is portrayed as handsome and intelligent and well-mannered and well-dressed—everything a woman might want, seemingly. But, of course, his civilized exterior is a mask hiding what he really is: a Mormon! a Danite! a threat! The fact that he can present himself so attractively only underscores the danger by warning readers that they cannot trust their judgment where a Mormon is concerned. That is a trope repeated in many of these novels, whenever a Mormon agent or missionary is among civilized society in the East or in England—it is only when he is among his own evil kind that the character's true nature shows itself.
A flesh-and-blood Mormon missionary who was kind and articulate had two strikes against him when the people he approached had that stock Mormon villain in mind. The more polite an elder was, the more effort he put into personal cleanliness, the more cheerful he was, the more carefully he presented his gospel message, the more at a disadvantage he could be: Isn't he just like the novels portray Mormons? Why, the nicer he is, the more rotten his heart must be, and the more clever he is at concealing his evil intent! There really isn't much a man can do to dispel the expectations of a public primed to expect the worst exactly when he is on his best behavior. In some cases, novelists who are most familiar with the Mormon message have also worked bits of standard missionary presentations into their stories, so that when an elder taught a bit of doctrine, it must have set off alarm bells in the minds of readers—here is a Mormon who not only acts the way these novels have depicted Mormons, he's actually saying what they warned me he would say! He must be just as bad as they say, too!
Mike: In the beginning of The Bradys Among the Mormons, Old King Brady, the nation's most accomplished private detective, is summoned to Washington, DC, to meet with a senator. Utah has become a state, and a candidate for its congressional seat has proposed to the senator's daughter. The senator will allow the marriage, but only if the Mormon, Joseph Smith Podmore, proves to be single and not secretly practicing polygamy.
This book came out right at the start of the Reed Smoot hearings, so it refers to a major public concern of the time. But it also shows a popular dime novel publisher trying to get as much life as possible out of the Mormon stereotypes that had existed for about thirty-five years in this kind of fiction. Brady will travel to Utah and discover a beautiful and modern Salt Lake City, but beneath that city, in a series of tunnels and caverns accessible only to Mormon elders, things go on just as they always have: polygamy, Danites, blood atonement, and all the rest.
I think that the new generation of dime novels that came out at the turn of the twentieth century created modern frames for the previous century's sensational stereotypes of Mormons, which had a lot to do with the perpetuation of those stereotypes and the assumption of many Americans that nothing really changed after the Manifesto.
Q: Was there anything in this collection of stories that surprised you in its depiction of Mormons, whether positive or negative? Anything that did not follow the standard villain tropes of secrecy, sexual deviancy, and violence?
Mike: In Frank Merriwell Among the Mormons, the author takes care to depict the standard Mormon villain—an aging patriarch trying to force a beautiful young maiden to marry him—as a member of a breakaway group of Mormons who are defying the Church. One of the heroes of the story is a young, monogamous, mainstream Mormon who wants to marry the beautiful young maiden in question. Frank Merriwell points out that the rising generation of Mormons are good citizens who are opposed to polygamy. In 1897, in a dime novel, this amounts to something like high praise.
Ardis: Hmm. This one is harder. Nothing comes to mind as surprising in the depiction of Mormons—the maidens are all fair and helpless; the Mormon villains are uniformly despicable; the Gentile heroes are unfailingly perfect specimens of stalwart American manhood.
One element that I hadn't been aware was so prevalent in these books is that the Mormon landscape is shown to be as malevolent as the Mormon soul. There is that vast underground network of dimly-lit caverns beneath Salt Lake City, all interconnected by natural tunnels, their walls sometimes dripping with lake water, their dead-ends dropping off suddenly into bottomless pits, their acoustics so perfect that our heroes can eavesdrop on secret Danite conversations without their own voices or footsteps betraying their presence to those Danites. The natural twists and turns in those tunnels and caverns somehow magically line up with the geometric regularity of the surface, so that the house of every prominent Mormon, built on Salt Lake's straight streets and right-angled blocks, has easy access to the subterranean world. Even the mountain hideouts have magical qualities. Danites, and eventually our heroes, can pass into and out of valleys by means of caves and secret passages.
I understand that readers of dime novels were probably not familiar with the legitimate writings of naturalists and army surveyors and the great Western explorers who report no trace of such geographic features, but it's still a bit surprising to me that readers of these stories could suspend their disbelief in such weird and abnormal landscapes in order to enter into the story. So, you have no faith in the basic humanity of tens of thousands of Mormons? Okay, but how does that translate into your lack of faith in the integrity of the natural world? That, in some ways, surprises me.
Q: This has already been addressed in passing, but I’d like to make it an explicit focus: How would you address readers who may be concerned that the books collected in this volume are often stigmatized as being “anti-Mormon” literature?
Mike: Oh, there is no question that these are anti-Mormons books—much more so than anything being produced today. But these portrayals are not unrelated to depictions of Mormons in some kinds of contemporary literature—the modern mystery novel, for example, where there are still Danites and blood atonement in some places. It is important for Latter-day Saints to understand the history of how we have been portrayed because that history has had consequences that we are still living with. It is always worth our time to learn the history of ideas and perceptions that are still with us today.
Ardis: They are anti-Mormon books—they falsify Mormon doctrine and character and intent; they shaped and promoted anti-Mormon feeling that extended from the novels into the real world and persists to the present. The question for me is, “Granted that these are anti-Mormon books, is there any good purpose in reprinting them, in reading them?” And I would answer that with a shouted “Yes!”
You won't learn anything about Mormonism here, but you will learn—in a sometimes delightful way, if you can turn off the natural tendency to take offense—quite a bit about the world that Mormons lived in or confronted whenever they looked outside Mormondom. You'll better understand where these warped views come from when you hear them repeated in some form today.
And I wouldn't hesitate to recommend that anybody, young or old, Mormon or not, read these stories, recognizing them for what they are. I agree with something Boyd K. Packer said in 1976 in a fireside address about the arts: “Teachers [readers in this case] would do well to learn the difference between studying some things, as compared to studying about them. There is a great difference.” Readers aren't reading anti-Mormonism in these novels to adopt that view themselves; they're reading about it, to understand and face it.
Q: Can you give us a glimpse as to what is yet in store for the Mormon Image in Literature series?
Mike: The next few volumes will focus on some of the literature produced by Mormons in the nineteenth century. We are working on a critical edition of Orson F. Whitney's Elias, for example, and on the collected works of Josephine Spencer, which have never been published before.
Ardis: I'm especially excited for two books written by Mormon women, which are as different as can be from the dime novels. The first is one or more volumes of the collected short stories of Josephine Spencer who saw well beyond her own time, and the other is the novel Venna Hastings by Julia Farr (the pseudonym of a woman I had been chasing through history before realizing she was a novelist). Both of these present a Mormon image that is positive, generally not preachy, and which Mormons at the turn of the twentieth century could read with interest—and maybe a sigh of relief that for once they could see themselves, not caricatures, on the printed page.
Along with these, you can look forward to mysteries, love stories, comedies, an outrageous depiction of missionaries that sparked a national investigation, high-minded or well-intentioned religious prose—just about every genre imaginable, except perhaps science fiction.
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Q&A with Joseph Spencer for The Vision of All February 27 2017
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Q:How and when did you begin to recognize the need for a different approach to studying the Isaiah sections in the Book of Mormon?
A: Well, I've always been overconfident about what I might be able to accomplish, so I first decided to tackle Isaiah in earnest when I was a teenager. Of course, I understood little, because I knew no real resources. I read carefully through the King James Version of the text, and I followed every footnote in the LDS edition. I spent a whole summer doing that, and I gained little more than some familiarity. I turned to Isaiah again shortly after my mission, when I was taking an introductory course on Hebrew. Studying straight from the Hebrew, using dictionaries and a few other tools, I felt like I came to understand the text a bit better, though I only worked at the time through about five chapters of Isaiah. At about the same time, I discovered a few other scholarly resources, especially the old FARMS volume Isaiah in the Book of Mormon. Those helped orient me in Isaiah's world a bit better, but I wasn't yet doing the sort of thing I've come to do now.
What changed things was twofold. First, my wife, Karen, and I were studying First Nephi, and we struck on some structural features of Nephi's record that make clear he means to emphasize Isaiah above all else in his record. (I've talked about these structural features in my books.) That spurred me to give closer attention to Nephi's treatment of Isaiah than I had before. Up to that point, I'd tried only to approach Isaiah on his own terms, using just a few scholarly resources. But stumbling onto the idea that I could see how Nephi reads Isaiah fired me up. And it got me more interested than before in understanding Isaiah on his own terms as well. I figured that understanding Isaiah himself would allow me to see how Nephi was using him in his own inventive ways. So I began, finally, to read the massive scholarly literature on Isaiah. Second, I was asked to teach early-morning seminary one year, while we were living in Oregon. The course of study was the Old Testament, and I asked for permission to focus the whole year just on Genesis, Job, and Isaiah. The bishop granted it, and so I worked with my students all the way through Isaiah for three months. In preparation for each class discussion, I did nothing but read commentaries, and then we came together and just wrestled with the text of Isaiah. By that point, I was finishing work on my first book, An Other Testament, which is largely about how the Book of Mormon handles Isaiah, so working carefully through every line of Isaiah with my students helped me to see even better how inventive and interesting Nephi is in his reading of Isaiah.
So I suppose it's been a circuitous path. The short answer is that it was only when I saw (a) that Nephi really means to privilege Isaiah and (b) that he deliberately reads Isaiah in his own way that my project began to take shape.
Q: In what ways does Nephi use Isaiah inventively? And how might his usage differ from scholarly consensus on Isaiah's original intent?
A: On my reading, Nephi explicitly tells his readers that he's reading Isaiah inventively. I believe this is what he tries to signal with the word "likening" (see, for example, 1 Ne. 19:23). He sees Isaiah's prophecies as having a meaning of their own, which we might call their immediate meaning. But then he sees the possibility of finding in Isaiah's prophecies a basic pattern that's replicated in Israel's history at times and in places where Isaiah wasn't himself focused. This is clearest when he applies prophecies from the Book of Isaiah, which in their biblical context are clearly about the return of exiled Jews from Babylon during the sixth century before Christ, to things he sees in vision regarding Lehi's descendants in modern times. He explicitly recognizes that passages from Isaiah have their natural fulfillment in the return of Jews from exile to the land of Judah, but then he suggests that the same passages can be likened to the return of latter-day Lamanites to the gospel of Christ their ancestors knew. He seems to see Isaiah as outlining patterns of how God works with Israel, whether in whole or in part, whether anciently or in modern times, again and again. And so he sees the possibility of adapting Isaiah texts to events that arguably outstrip the straightforward meaning of those texts. That is, I think, a rather responsible (because self-aware) form of inventive interpretation.
Of course, such an approach to the Book of Isaiah differs drastically from the kinds of approaches on offer in scholarly work on Isaiah today. For one, Nephi asks a rather different set of questions about Isaiah than do modern scholars. Academic work on Isaiah aims at reconstructing the historical origins and context of the Book of Isaiah, as well as the processes through which what originated with Isaiah came to have the shape we're familiar with from the Bible. Nephi isn't at all interested in these questions. He's apparently familiar with the basic, straightforward historical meaning of prophecies in the Book of Isaiah, but he moves pretty quickly beyond such meanings to explore other possible meanings and applications. Further, though, there are many other ways Nephi seems to differ from the conclusions of modern scholarly work on Isaiah. For instance, he clearly regards the whole of Isaiah 2–5 as a larger unit of text (as can be seen from connecting words and original chapter breaks in the Book of Mormon), but most interpreters today regard those chapters as divisible into at least two larger units (Isaiah 2–4 and Isaiah 5, for example). That only scratches the surface, of course. There are still larger issues of conflict between the way Nephi (or really, the Book of Mormon quite generally) handles Isaiah and the conclusions drawn by modern scholarship, but that would take some work to develop.
Q: How does The Vision of All negotiate this sometimes tense or conflicting terrain of modern scholarship and a more philosophically-grounded reading of Isaiah?
A: First and foremost, I think it's important just to make clear that there are various ways of reading Isaiah, and that Nephi acknowledges the uniqueness of his approach. We're far too prone as Latter-day Saints to think that there's one correct answer to questions about the meaning of a passage of scripture. We tend to think that we're done with a text once we know the "right" interpretation. And, in many ways, that's mirrored in modern scholarship, although modern scholars come up with a very different set of answers about the meanings of Isaiah's writings. The result is that too many academics think that average believers (Mormon or otherwise) simply get scripture wrong, and average believers return the compliment by claiming that scholars in turn get scripture wrong. What Nephi teaches us, I think, is that a given passage of scripture can have a variety of meanings and applications. Meaning is dynamic and contextualized by the act of reading. The result is that there's more a history of interpretation than there's a definite meaning for any particular passage or text. In Nephi's writings we can glimpse Lehi's approach to Isaiah, and it's quite different from Nephi's. And then he sets his own interpretations side by side with Jacob's, which are similar but far from identical. Even within just the sermon Nephi quotes from Jacob in 2 Nephi 6–10, we can track two rather different interpretations of one and the same passage (Isa. 49:22–23).
Just getting clear about all this can help us to feel a good deal more at home with Isaiah. Our job isn't to figure out the one true meaning of Isaiah, but to let Isaiah's words work on us. They provide us with patterns and images, relationships and themes. Our task is to dwell in the text and to let it begin to shape the way we see things. We won't be able to do this very well if we don't become familiar with the range of meanings the text can accommodate. So we ought to read Isaiah scholarship to become familiar with historical reconstructions of Isaiah's (apparent) original meaning. In fact, it's important to read some of this scholarship just to become familiar with the fact that no two interpreters agree on Isaiah's meaning. There are key passages in Isaiah that are literally interpreted in a dozen different ways by major modern interpreters. And then it'd be helpful for us if we became more familiar with the history of interpretation of Isaiah. How have Jews read Isaiah 53? Do different sorts of Christians read Isaiah 11 in different ways? How does a Seventh-day Adventist read Isaiah's references to the remnant by comparison with a mainline Protestant? And then how might we, as Latter-day Saints, find meaning in Isaiah? These are questions that go a good deal further than I ever do in The Vision of All, but I try in the book to open the way to these kinds of approaches, since I argue that Nephi does something like this in his own context.
Q: Can you give us a concrete example of a passage that Latter-day Saints may be prone to interpret a specific way, but which consideration of other interpretations, both within modern scholarship and other religious traditions, may be beneficial?
A: It's probably easiest here just to begin with an example that's decently known already. Most Latter-day Saints are familiar with those passages in Isaiah that play a prominent role in Handel's Messiah. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14). "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). These kinds of passages are generally understood by average Mormons to be straightforward prophecies of Jesus Christ's birth. Modern scholars, however, generally read these passages in a fundamentally different way, say, as prophecies concerning events that were to happen within Isaiah's own lifetime. Some familiarity with the history of Jewish interpretation also helps to reveal how differently these texts can be read. Even many modern Christians, usually in mainline Protestantism, don't read these passages as direct references to Jesus Christ. It turns out that there are many different ways of making sense of these texts. They can be read as predictions of Jesus's birth. But they can also be read in many other ways, often informatively. Now, I don't mean to suggest that the other ways are necessarily the best ways. They may or may not be. But any reading of these passages will be stronger and more interesting if it acknowledges that it approaches the text from a certain perspective, from the perspective of a certain faith.
And really, that's what matters here, I think. When I say that we can benefit from familiarity with the ways that other traditions or modern scholars read certain passages of Isaiah, I mean that we can grow out of the naive assumption that there's only one possible way to understand a text (an assumption that too easily leads us to think that everyone who doesn't see things our way is simply stupid), and we can grow into a recognition that our readings are rooted in our own system of beliefs. I might put that another way: we can grow out of the naive idea that our interpretations of Isaiah are a matter of straightforward knowledge, and we can grow into the deeply mature realization that our interpretations of Isaiah are a matter of invested faith. Now, I suspect that most who become a bit more familiar with the variety of interpretations of Isaiah will come to interpret some of the texts in a new way. I certainly have as I've studied. And that's good, I think. But I think also that the best readers will also find reasons to defend uniquely Mormon interpretations of many passages of Isaiah, even while recognizing that those interpretations are rooted in a very specific perspective of faith. Why shouldn't we grow all the fonder of interpretations that grow directly out of our faith commitments, even as we recognize that the text can be read in many ways? I think we should, that we should feel free to defend an understanding of Isaiah that's informed by other traditions and scholarly work but that's simultaneously rooted in the Restoration.
Q: Switching topics, let's talk about the style of the book: The Vision of All is laid out as a series of twenty-five classroom-style lectures. Give us some insight into your decision to use this approach and if it had any precedent that inspired you.
A: A few things came together that led me to do the book this way. First, over the past few years, I'd begun to write some of my public presentations in this style, instead of always delivering a more formal or finished paper. I found I really enjoyed the writing process of producing something less formal, something where I don't have to tie up every loose thread and can focus on rhetorical delivery. Experimenting with that form of writing got me thinking. Second, I'd begun teaching courses on the Book of Mormon at Brigham Young University, and I'd found that students responded very well to my lectures on the Isaiah material. These weren't written up even in an informal style, but I began thinking that the sort of presentations I was making in the classroom with Isaiah might be more accessible to Latter-day Saints in general. Finally, I've been working steadily on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon for more than a decade now, and I began to think that I had too many ideas piled up in my head that really needed to be put in writing in some form or another, and writing up popular lectures would allow me to work quickly. These all came together at once, and so I began writing the book, one lecture a week.
In writing the book, I didn't try to follow any particular precedent. At the same time, I thought often while I was writing the book about a few similar projects. I thought sometimes about Hugh Nibley's four volumes of lectures on the Book of Mormon, which are literal transcripts of a four-semester honors course he taught on the Book of Mormon at BYU. I haven't read or watched all of those lectures, but certainly some of them, and I often thought about him providing a kind of example of something useful. Of course, my style in the lectures is quite different from Nibley's. Nibley largely began at one end of the Book of Mormon and worked his way to the other end, and he didn't always seem to have a sense of what he wished to accomplish in any given hour of lecture. I tried to impose a larger architectonic on the project, and I tried to assign myself several specific tasks in each lecture. But then, like Nibley, I let the time limits (or really, for me, word limits) decide where I had to stop. And so a lot of the lectures wrap up with overly quick summations of things. But that's meant to give readers a feel for how much more needs to be said than can be said about the subject of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon. I hope it's effective.
Q: Final question: Where do you hope your readers will go from here in their study of Isaiah?
A: I hope they'll start studying Isaiah on their own! Really, I hope the book itself makes clear that I want readers to take this just as a primer, a way of getting started. A recent review of The Vision of All criticized it because many of the lectures end with something like "Ack! We're out of time! We can't really tie up all these loose ends or get into everything we'd like!" The reviewer suggested that I was unwilling to write an extra thousand words to tie all the loose ends together, or that I was too lazy to work my way toward appropriate conclusions. But the fact is that I deliberately wrote the lectures this way. I want readers to feel how much work needs to be done, and I want them to feel responsible for that work. I want them to see how we might go about working on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, but I want them to know that I can't and won't do all that work for them. Neither I nor anyone else is going to write the book that sorts out everything important that needs saying about Isaiah in the Book of Mormon. But there's a danger in writing scholarly books, a danger that readers might think that reading the scholarly book is all that's needed. So I wanted to write a book that does scholarly work and nonetheless makes perfectly clear that it just points in the right direction, rather than travels the whole length of the road to its ultimate destination.
I'd love to see dozens, hundreds, even thousands of Latter-day Saint readers of Isaiah, scholarly and not. We of all people ought to be invested in making sense of Isaiah's writings. Perhaps I could even wish for the emergence of a marked Latter-day Saint approach to Isaiah, one that becomes recognized as uniquely Mormon and worthy of interest from outsiders. I'd love to see that Latter-day Saint reading be profoundly responsible academically, fully informed about the best scholarly literature. But I'd love just as much to see that Latter-day Saint reading be deeply invested in the unique faith claims of the Restoration, deeply rooted in faithfulness to what Mormonism claims about the world. Our own unique scriptures ask us to take Isaiah seriously, but we tend to leave that task to scholars whose writings we can barely understand or to oddball amateurs who borrow their interpretations from the fundamentalist Christian tradition. What if we began to work on Isaiah in a way that didn't ultimately feel it necessary to conform to every scholarly conclusion (while nonetheless being aware of them) but also didn't look like wacky esoteric speculation? I think we could forge an interpretive tradition that could speak to the world.
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Q&A with Scott Hales for The Garden of Enid, Part 2 February 02 2017
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What are some of the themes that pop up in part 2?
As I was writing The Garden of Enid, I was interested in unpacking ideas about faith, history, human connection, and truth. Part two is especially interested in truth—one of the slipperiest words in language and Mormonism. For much of the book, Enid is trying to anchor herself to some kind of monolithic notion of truth. She wants to finds something stable in the universe, but she finds that the closer she thinks she gets to monolithic truth, the less monolithic it appears.
I think her journey encourages readers to reflect on the value of truth and how they want it to function in their own lives.
Cameos played a big role in part 1. Who are some of the cameos that we can expect in part 2?
Joseph Smith continues to make cameos in part two, as do Eliza R. Snow, Evan Stephens, and the Book of Abraham mummy. Enid also talks with people like Jane Austen, Karl Maeser, Doctor Philastus Hurlbut, Charles Anthon, George A. Smith, and Juanita Brooks. The lost 116 pages and Joanna Brooks’ Book of Mormon Girl also make appearances.
Some of my favorite cameos in part two involve fictional or mythological figures from pop culture. Enid talks with Matt and Mandy from The Friend magazine, Big Foot, and Charlie Brown.
The most significant cameo in the book, however, is the late Mormon scholar Eugene England, who dresses like the Angel Moroni and acts like Virgil in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Unlike other cameo characters, who always show up in simple four-panel comics, Eugene takes Enid on a five-page odyssey through space and time, belief and doubt.
How does her relationship with her mother develop in part 2?
The relationship becomes much rockier in part two. Enid looks to her mother’s past for answers about her own identity, but she often goes about it the wrong way. She and her mother have a traumatic falling out, and much of the book is about what happens after their relationship hits the fan. In both books, Enid struggles to see her mother as a real person, which causes her to say and do hurtful things to her mother. In part two, things go from bad to worse, but they also get better in unforeseen ways.
What do you think Enid learns about herself in part 2?
At the end of part one, Enid begins to see herself as someone who is capable of having meaningful relationships with other people. In part two, she learns that cultivating such relationships makes her vulnerable to the raw emotions that define human experience. This make her a much more awkward and vulnerable character than the weird Mormon girl we saw in part one, but it also makes her more endearing and relatable. Her heart gets much bigger in part two.
What are some of the challenges you have felt in writing this story?
Writing Enid’s story rarely felt like a challenge. Perhaps my biggest challenge was never letting my natural reserve get in the way of her audacity. Enid and I share many of the same interests, but we have different temperaments. Maybe that’s why I found her story so easy to write.
Of course, many of the comics touch on controversies within Mormonism, and addressing them with sensitivity was sometimes a challenge. Some satirists like to aggravate wounds, but my satire is meant to sting like antiseptic.
What do you hope readers will take away from Enid’s life?
I hope people will read Enid and decide to stop being sucky to each other. In other words, I hope Enid’s life brings about world peace and better music on the radio.
I also hope people will read Enid and be inspired to tell stories of their own. Mormonism is an inexhaustible landscape for creative people. I hope better writers and artists than me will read Enid and want to draw on their own experiences with Mormonism to tell stories that enrich our understanding of and appreciation for the Mormon landscape.
Will there be a part 3? There has to be a part 3. I mean, there really, really has to be a part 3.
Part three is always a possibility. I have an idea for a comic about Enid’s last summer before she goes to college. The Garden of Enid has always unfolded in real time, however, and I don’t know if I have the time this summer to do that with this story. I’ll probably start drawing it anyway to see where it goes. If I end up showing Enid as a freshman in college, so be it. I’m sure it will be awkward.
But I don’t plan to start a part three until I finish my current serial comic, Chronicles of Wyler, which is a kind of spin-off prequel to The Garden of Enid. Readers of The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Girl, Part One know Wyler from Enid’s EFY experience. Chronicles of Wyler tells the story, more or less, of how Wyler got to EFY. I’m almost finished with it, but one Wyler comic takes about three times longer to draw than an Enid comic—and I have much less time to devote to it than I had when I was drawing Enid comics all the time.
Chronicles of Wyler is a different reading experience than The Garden of Enid, and has a much smaller fan base, but I think readers who like Enid will like Wyler’s story as well.
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Preview The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl, Part Two January 11 2017
The Garden of Enid:
Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl, Part Two
On the twelfth day of Kofford: $1.99 flash sale on Kindle e-books! December 12 2016
On the twelfth day of Kofford, fill your digital stockings with our HUGE e-book promotion. Today only, each of the following titles are only $1.99 on Kindle! PLUS, to help you prepare for the upcoming D&C year in Gospel Doctrine class, we are offering B. H. Robert's classic six-volume A Comprehensive History of the Church on Kindle for only $3.99!
This flash sale ends at midnight tonight (Dec. 12th)
On the eleventh day of Kofford: 30% off Mormon Image in Literature titles! December 11 2016
Mormon Image in Literature titles are 30% off December 11th. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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The Mormoness; Or, The Trials Of Mary Maverick: A Narrative Of Real Events Retail: $12.95 |
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Boadicea; the Mormon Wife: Life Scenes in Utah Retail: $15.95 |
On the tenth day of Kofford: 30% off war and peace titles! December 10 2016
War and peace titles are 30% off December 10th. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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War & Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives Retail: $29.95 |
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Even unto Bloodshed: An LDS Perspective on War Retail: $29.95 |
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The End of the World, Plan B: A Guide for the Future Retail: $13.95 |
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Saints of Valor: Mormon Medal of Honor Recipients, Updated 2nd Edition Retail: $31.95 |
On the ninth day of Kofford: 30% off biography titles! December 09 2016
Biography titles are 30% off December 9th. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life Retail: $32.95 Best Biography Award, Mormon History Association |
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“Swell Suffering”: A Biography of Maurine Whipple Retail: $31.95 Best Biography Award, Mormon History Association |
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William B. Smith: In the Shadow of a Prophet Retail: $39.95 Best Biography Award, John Whitmer Historical Association |
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The Man Behind the Discourse: A Biography of King Follett Retail: $29.95 |
On the eighth day of Kofford: 30% contemporary issues titles! December 08 2016
All contemporary issues titles are 30% off December 8th. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women's Local Impact Retail: $21.95 |
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Common Ground—Different Opinions: Latter-day Saints and Contemporary Issues Retail: $31.95 |
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The Liberal Soul: Applying the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Politics Retail: $22.95 |
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Voices for Equality: Ordain Women and Resurgent Mormon Feminism Retail: $32.95 |
On the seventh day of Kofford: 30% off polygamy titles! December 07 2016
All polygamy titles are 30% off December 7th. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy, Volume 1: History Now in paperback! Retail: $34.95 |
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy, Volume 2: History Now in paperback! Retail: $34.95 |
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy, Volume 3: Theology Now in paperback! Retail: $25.95 |
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding Retail: $19.95 |
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Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations after the Manifesto Retail: $31.95 Best Book Award, John Whitmer Historical Association |
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Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle Retail: $24.95 |
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Prisoner for Polygamy: The Memoirs and Letters of Rudger Clawson at the Utah Territorial Penitentiary, 1884–87 Retail: $24.95 |
On the sixth day of Kofford: 30% off international Mormon studies titles! December 06 2016
All international Mormon studies titles are 30% off December 6th. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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The Trek East: Mormonism Meets Japan, 1901–1968 Retail: $39.95 |
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Mormon and Maori Retail: $24.95 Best International Book Award, Mormon History Association |
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Tiki and Temple: The Mormon Mission in New Zealand, 1854–1958 Retail: $29.95 Best International Book Award, Mormon History Association |
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For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830–2013 Retail: $32.95 Best Book Award, Mormon History Association |
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The History of the Mormons in Argentina Retail: $24.95 |
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From Above and Below: The Mormon Embrace of Revolution, 1840 – 1940 Retail: $34.95 Best International Book Award, Mormon History Association |
On the fifth day of Kofford: 30% off Contemporary Studies in Scripture titles! December 05 2016
All Contemporary Studies in Scripture titles are 30% off December 5th. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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Authoring the Old Testament, Volume 1: Geneses—Deuteronomy Retail: $26.95 |
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Re-reading Job: Understanding the World's Greatest Poem Retail: $20.95 |
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Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide to the Gospels Retail: $27.95 |
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Beholding the Tree of Life: A Rabbinic Approach to the Book of Mormon Retail: $21.95 |
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The Vision of All: Twenty-five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi's Record Retail: $25.95 |
On the fourth day of Kofford: 30% off Blake Ostler titles! December 04 2016
All Blake Ostler titles are 30% off on December 4th. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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Exploring Mormon Thought, Volume 1: The Attributes of God Retail: $29.95 |
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Exploring Mormon Thought, Volume 2: The Problems of Theism and the Love of God Retail: $34.95 |
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Exploring Mormon Thought, Volume 3: Of God and Gods Retail: $34.95 |
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Fire on the Horizon: A Meditation on the Endowment and Love of Atonement Retail: $17.95 |
On the third day of Kofford: 30% off personal essay titles! December 03 2016
All personal essay titles are 30% off on December 3rd. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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Dead Wood and Rushing Water: Essays on Mormon Faith, Culture, and Family Retail: $22.95 |
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Mr. Mustard Plaster and Other Mormon Essays Retail: $20.95 |
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Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism Retail: $18.95 |
On the second day of Kofford: 30% off Adam Miller titles! December 02 2016
Adam Miller's Essays in Mormon Theology titles will be 30% off on December 2nd. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
To get the 30% discount, simply enter the code MILLERCHRISTMAS (all caps) in the discount code box at check-out.
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
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Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology Retail: $18.95 |
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Future Mormon: Essays in Mormon Theology Retail: $18.95 |
On the first day of Kofford: all Brant Gardner titles 30% off retail price! December 01 2016
Greg Kofford Books is pleased to offer 30% off of the following titles on December 1st. These special prices are only available for one day, so don't wait!
To get the 30% discount, simply enter the code BOOKOFMORMON (all caps) in the discount code box at check-out.
Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping. Also, local Utah customers can opt to pick up their order directly from our office in Sandy (select this option under the shipping menu).
For more information about the Twelve Days of Kofford holiday sales, click here.
Twelve Days of Kofford Christmas Sale 2016 November 30 2016
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM GREG KOFFORD BOOKS
Greg Kofford Books is pleased to announce our annual holiday sale on select popular titles beginning December 1st – December 12th.
Here's how it works: at the stroke of midnight each day, a new blog post will go live on our website listing that day's special offerings along with a discount code that you can enter at check-out to get the holiday price. It's that simple. We will also be posting the daily offering and discount code on our Facebook page at 7am.
*Orders over $50 qualify for free shipping (continental U.S. customers only). Local Utah customers can stop by our office in Sandy to pick up their orders as well. Holiday inventory on some titles may be limited, so be sure to take advantage of the daily sale early.*
To help you plan in advance, here are our scheduled sales:
Day 1 — Brant Gardner titles
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Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon series
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The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon |
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Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History Best Religious Non-fiction Award, Association for Mormon Letters |
Day 2 — Adam Miller titles (essays in Mormon theology)
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Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology Retail $18.95 |
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Future Mormon: Essays in Mormon Theology Retail: $18.95 |
Day 3 — Personal Essays
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Dead Wood and Rushing Water: Essays on Mormon Faith, Culture, and Family Retail: $22.95 |
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Mr. Mustard Plaster and Other Mormon Essays by Mary Lithgoe Bradford Retail: $20.95 Sale price: $14.67 |
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Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism Retail: $18.95 |
Day 4 — Blake T. Ostler titles
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Exploring Mormon Thought series by Blake T. Ostler 30% off each title |
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Fire on the Horizon: A Meditation on the Endowment and Love of Atonement Retail: $17.95 |
Day 5 — Contemporary Studies in Scripture
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Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis — Deuteronomy Retail: $26.95 |
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Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World's Greatest Poem Retail: $20.95 |
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Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide to the Gospels Retail: $27.95 |
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Beholding the Tree of Life: A Rabbinic Approach to the Book of Mormon Retail: $21.95 |
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The Vision of All: Twenty-five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi's Record Retail: $25.95 |
Day 6 — International Mormonism
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The Trek East: Mormonism Meets Japan, 1901–1968 Retail: $39.95 |
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Mormon and Maori Retail: $24.95 Best International Book Award, Mormon History Association |
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Tiki and Temple: The Mormon Mission in New Zealand, 1854–1958 Retail: $29.95 Best International Book Award, Mormon History Association |
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For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830–2013 Retail: $32.95 Best Book Award, Mormon History Association |
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The History of the Mormons in Argentina Retail: $24.95 |
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From Above and Below: The Mormon Embrace of Revolution, 1840 – 1940 Retail: $34.95 Best International Book Award, Mormon History Association |
Day 7 — Polygamy titles
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology Now in paperback! 30% off each title |
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding Retail: $19.95 |
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Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations after the Manifesto Retail: $31.95 Best Book Award, John Whitmer Historical Association |
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Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle Retail: $24.95 |
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Prisoner for Polygamy: The Memoirs and Letters of Rudger Clawson at the Utah Territorial Penitentiary, 1884–87 Retail: $29.95 |
Day 8 — Contemporary Issues
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Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women's Local Impact Retail: $21.95 |
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Common Ground—Different Opinions: Latter-day Saints and Contemporary Issues Retail: $31.95 |
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The Liberal Soul: Applying the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Politics Retail: $22.95 |
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Voices for Equality: Ordain Women and Resurgent Mormon Feminism Retail: $32.95 |
Day 9 — Biography
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Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life Retail: $32.95 Best Biography Award, Mormon History Association |
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“Swell Suffering”: A Biography of Maurine Whipple Retail: $31.95 Best Biography Award, Mormon History Association |
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William B. Smith: In the Shadow of a Prophet Retail: $39.95 Best Biography Award, John Whitmer Historical Association |
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The Man Behind the Discourse: A Biography of King Follett Retail: $29.95 |
Day 10 — War and Peace
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War & Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives Retail: $29.95 |
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Even unto Bloodshed: An LDS Perspective on War Retail: $29.95 |
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The End of the World, Plan B: A Guide for the Future Retail: $13.95 |
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Saints of Valor: Mormon Medal of Honor Recipients, Updated 2nd Edition Retail: $31.95 |
Day 11 — Mormon Image in Literature
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The Mormoness; Or, The Trials Of Mary Maverick: A Narrative Of Real Events Retail: $12.95 |
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Boadicea; the Mormon Wife: Life Scenes in Utah Retail: $15.95 |
Day 12 — Ebook Flash Sale — $1.99 for select titles
To be announced. Stay tuned!
Black Friday Sale: 40% Off Church History and Doctrine Titles! November 21 2016
GET READY FOR NEXT YEAR'S GOSPEL DOCTRINE CLASS WITH ESSENTIAL READING IN CHURCH HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
Helpful resources for understanding the historical setting of Joseph Smith's Ohio revelations—which comprise the majority of the Doctrine and Covenants—the Law of Consecration, and the development of Mormon theology:
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Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith's Ohio Revelations by Mark Lyman Staker Winner of the Best Book Award from the Mormon History Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association “Sets a new standard of in-depth research in Latter-day Saint history.” — Richard L. Bushman, author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling $34.95 hardcover |
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For Zion: A Mormon Theology of Hope “The most ambitious scholarly engagement with the law of consecration since Hugh Nibley’s Approaching Zion.” — By Common Consent $19.95 paperback |
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“This is My Doctrine”: The Development of Mormon Theology “Because he does not attempt to square circles by making Mormon doctrine consistent over time, Harrell’s encyclopedic survey of Mormon doctrine is more stimulating and more insightful than most other books on Mormon doctrine.” — James McLachlan, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Western Carolina University $34.95 hardcover |
Understanding the Missouri conflict and the building of Nauvoo:
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Fire and Sword: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Norther Missouri, 1836–39 “Gentry used more thoroughly than any scholar before him the official documents published by the State of Missouri and the U.S. Senate in the aftermath of the Mormons’ departure from the state, which contained the correspondence between Boggs and his militia commanders.” — The Juvenile Instructor $36.95 hardcover |
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Drawing on numerous journals and other primary sources, Professor Backman sketches for us the founding, growth, and development of Nauvoo. $12.95 paperback |
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A House for the Most High: The Story of the Original Nauvoo Temple “A wealth of information about the details of building the temple and also a glimpse into the working of the Church during this same period.” — Association for Mormon Letters $29.95 paperback |
Understanding the life of the prophet Joseph Smith, including his controversial practice of polygamy:
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Knowing Brother Joseph Again: Perceptions and Perspectives “A thoughtful and thought-provoking introductory text for someone wanting an overview of Joseph Smith.” — Improvement Era $19.95 paperback |
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy, Volume 1: History “There has never been a more thorough examination of the polygamy idea.” — Richard L. Bushman, author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling $34.95 paperback |
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy, Volume 2: History “[A] landmark in the historiography of Mormon polygamy.” — Todd M. Compton, author of In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith $34.95 paperback |
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy, Volume 3: Theology “[T]he standard against which all other treatments of this important subject will be measured.” — Danel W. Bachman, author of “A Study of the Mormon Practice of Plural Marriage before the Death of Joseph Smith” $25.95 paperback |
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Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding “Despite the book's brevity, it is detailed enough to address, or touch on, the full range of controversies associated with this topic.” — BYU Studies Quarterly $19.95 paperback |
Become well-informed about the pioneer trek to Utah and emergence of modern Mormonism, including the development and reversal of race-based priesthood restriction as well as international growth of the Church:
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Villages on Wheels: A Social History of the Gathering to Zion “A riveting compilation for any reader looking to discover this monumental and defining experience in Mormon history through the accounts of the common people who lived it.” — BYU Studies Quarterly $24.95 paperback |
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Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930 Winner of the Best Book Award from the Mormon History Association “Will be required reading for all historians of Mormonism for some time to come.” – Journal of American History $31.95 paperback |
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For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830–2013 Winner of the Best Book Award from the Mormon History Association “Brings together a wealth of sources to create this ambitious and quick-moving but detailed overview of the intersection of Latter-day Saint and black history.” — The Journal of Mormon History $32.95 paperback |