Keywords

Book of Mormon, Academics, Disciples

Document Type

Article

Abstract

It doesn’t take a lot of looking to see that something has changed—potentially for the better—about the scholarly world’s relationship to the Book of Mormon. Over the past twenty years, academic presses with no relationship to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have begun publishing serious and high-quality work on this sacred volume of scripture. Various journals have begun to do so as well. Several different scholarly editions of the Book of Mormon are now in print, and both the manuscripts for the Book of Mormon and the volume’s earliest historical editions are readily accessible. We have witnessed a dramatic rise in interest from scholars of other persuasions in writing on and publishing of the Book of Mormon, and the once-common dismissive spirit regarding the book in scholarly circles has begun to fade. For the first time, the Book of Mormon is being considered a legitimate object of inquiry by outside scholars. What do all these changes mean for the believing scholar who wishes to write about the Book of Mormon for as wide an audience as possible?