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{"id":2647,"date":"2015-09-08T05:33:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T12:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/enigmaticmirror\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2015-09-08T05:33:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T12:33:52","slug":"how-byu-destroyed-ancient-book-of-mormon-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/enigmaticmirror\/2015\/09\/08\/how-byu-destroyed-ancient-book-of-mormon-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"How BYU Destroyed Ancient Book of Mormon Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

College and Department Politics.\u00a0 <\/b>Although many people might find it incredible, every single BYU administrator on every level of the administration has explicitly discouraged me from doing ancient Book of Mormon studies in my annual performance (\u201cstewardship\u201d) reviews.\u00a0 They have all explicitly told me to focus my research and publications on non-Book of Mormon topics, such as the crusades.\u00a0 In part this was good advice on their part; they were telling me if you want to be successful at BYU, don\u2019t publish on the Book of Mormon or publish with FARMS or later Interpreter.\u00a0 More broadly, you must publish outside the \u201cBYU Bubble\u201d\u2014that is, BYU or LDS sponsored publications.\u00a0 Only people hired to teach Mormon history<\/a> should publish on Mormonism.\u00a0 Only publications in non-LDS-related venues are viewed as legitimate scholarship.\u00a0 Since non-LDS publications generally do not accept ancient Book of Mormon studies as a legitimate discipline, this essentially means that no publication on ancient Book of Mormon studies can be acceptable as authentic scholarship at BYU.<\/span><\/p>\n

This policy is also reflected in two other phenomena moving beyond mere verbal discouragement.\u00a0 Over the past twenty-five years I submitted several research proposals to my college on Book of Mormon related topics; none was ever accepted.\u00a0 This is in clear contrast to many of my non-Book of Mormon research proposals, many of which were accepted.\u00a0 Merit pay raises, based largely on academic performance did not include ancient Book of Mormon publications as authentic scholarship.\u00a0 The policy was crystal clear.\u00a0 When I published non-Book of Mormon related books or articles, I received merit pay raises.\u00a0 When I published Book of Mormon-related books or articles, I received no merit pay raise.\u00a0 My promotion to full-professor a few years ago was rejected by my college dean precisely because my Book of Mormon publications were not viewed by him as legitimate scholarship.\u00a0 I was informed explicitly by the dean that I needed more non-LDS-related publications to be promoted\u2014despite the fact that I had two books and numerous non-LDS articles in my vita.\u00a0 (The dean\u2019s decision was overturned by the university.) \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, my experience throughout my 25 years at BYU was that ancient Book of Mormon studies were not considered an authentic discipline.\u00a0 Publications in that field were not legitimate scholarly work.\u00a0 Such research was not supported by the college. \u00a0 Publications in ancient Book of Mormon studies did not contribute to either merit pay raises, nor promotion.\u00a0 Such policies not only obviously discourage young scholars from publishing in ancient Book of Mormon studies, and even\u00a0 overtly punish those who do so against BYU policy and the universal advice of administrators. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Religious Education.<\/b>\u00a0 One would expect that the College of Religious education would be the natural home for intensive ancient Book of Mormon studies.\u00a0 It is not.\u00a0 First, as I\u2019ll note below, the curriculum on the Book of Mormon at BYU is both superficial and extremely limited.\u00a0 Second, many people teaching the Book of Mormon have no professional interest or training in ancient Book of Mormon studies\u2014or ancient scriptural studies of any sort.\u00a0 Finally, Religious Education focuses on teaching what I call the \u201cThree Ds\u201d\u2014doctrine, devotion, and daily application.\u00a0 Those three approaches to the Book of Mormon are certainly important and legitimate.\u00a0 But they do not provide the students much opportunity for intensive text-based academic study of the Book of Mormon.\u00a0 The whole academic culture of Religious Education is directed towards teaching the basic principles of the Gospel, which is fine, and indeed most important.\u00a0 The problem is that they also actively prevent any classes being taught at an advanced level, and essentially discourage the serious academic study of the Book of Mormon as an ancient text.\u00a0 As far as I can tell, this restriction represents an intentional policy by the BYU Religious Education administration.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want the Book of Mormon studied contextually as an ancient historical document.\u00a0 They want it studied only<\/i> as a theological and ethical document. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BYU Curriculum and the Book of Mormon<\/b>.\u00a0 Currently, there are only two courses that BYU students can take on the Book of Mormon: REL A 121: The Book of Mormon (first half), and REL A 122 : The Book of Mormon (second half).\u00a0 Both are introductory courses, and are only two hours long, making a total of only four hours.\u00a0 Even if a student wants to do more in depth study of the Book of Mormon, it is impossible to do so anywhere at BYU or in the church<\/i>.\u00a0 BYU classes on the Book of Mormon are perpetually stuck at the introductory level.\u00a0 Furthermore, the new Book of Mormon class offered by BYU\u2014Rel A 275 \u201cTeachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon\u201d\u2014is now a single two hour class approaching the Book of Mormon thematically.\u00a0 In other words, it\u2019s a glorified Sunday School class.\u00a0 It\u2019s getting more superficial.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What BYU actually needs is a robust curriculum in the Book of Mormon.\u00a0 Most simply, BYU could offer in depth courses on each of the major books of the Book of Mormon, combining some of the smaller books into one.\u00a0 Note that Religious Education offers a class on Isaiah, but no class on the book of Alma or Helaman or Nephi?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Beyond in depth classes on major books of the Book of Mormon, BYU should offer classes on Book of Mormon geography, history, archaeology, linguistics, literature, theology, culture, language (ancient Near East and Maya), textual criticism, religion, law, warfare, apocalyptic, reception history, the Bible in the Book of Mormon, etc.\u00a0 BYU could, if the administration wanted, have a program in Book of Mormon studies, and offer two dozen different advanced courses on the Book of Mormon, certainly enough for a major.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 This cannot be an oversight or random chance.\u00a0 This is obviously a conscious policy that implements curriculum decision which minimizes the opportunities of students to study the Book of Mormon as a serious academic discipline at BYU.\u00a0 Which, for all practical purposes, means students can\u2019t do ancient Book of Mormon studies at all, anywhere. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Graduate Studies and the Book of Mormon<\/b>.\u00a0 The only way that young LDS scholars can study the Book of Mormon in graduate school is to study it as a nineteenth century text in a secular religious studies program, or US history program.\u00a0 There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with this.\u00a0 But what this means is that one cannot do graduate work anywhere in the world in ancient Book of Mormon Studies.\u00a0 Unremarkably, young scholars are not doing ancient Book of Mormon studies.\u00a0 Furthermore, no one teaching has at BYU has a PhD in ancient Book of Mormon Studies.\u00a0 BYU has completely failed in its mission to prepare young LDS scholars for ancient Book of Mormon studies. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BYU and the Destruction of FARMS.<\/b>\u00a0 I\u2019ve written extensively on the debacle of BYU\u2019s destruction of FARMS.\u00a0 FARMS originated outside of BYU precisely because of the policies of BYU that I\u2019ve outlined above, which prevented ancient Book of Mormon scholarship from thriving at BYU.\u00a0 Then, not satisfied with undermining ancient Book of Mormon studies on their own campus, BYU administrators decided they should undermine it outside of campus as well.\u00a0 Their goal in forcing FARMS to join was not because they wanted to support ancient Book of Mormon studies.\u00a0 Quite the contrary.\u00a0 BYU wanted to gain control of land that FARMS owned, and be able to manipulate potential donations to FARMS.\u00a0 BYU administrators made a number of promises to the FARMS board at the time of the hostile takeover\u2014almost none of them have been fulfilled.\u00a0 Furthermore, in the past three years, BYU administrators have completely transformed the direction of the Maxwell Institute from ancient scriptural studies to modern Mormon Studies in its broadest sense.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve detailed in blogs over the past few years, BYU has taken what was once the most productive center of research and publications on ancient Book of Mormon studies\u2014which came into existence precisely because of the failure of BYU in this regard\u2014and transformed it into Sunstone South. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion.<\/b>\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what the goals or motives of the BYU administrators have been over the past thirty years in relationship to the Book of Mormon. \u00a0 I suspect they haven\u2019t actually considered the implications of their policy decisions at all.\u00a0 Their focus is on other important aspects of running a university.\u00a0 However, the law of unintended (and perhaps even some intended) consequences has resulted in a series of administrative policy decisions over the past thirty years all of which have combined to result in undermining serious ancient Book of Mormon studies at BYU.\u00a0 Indeed, if their actual goal was to intentionally minimize the discipline of ancient Book of Mormons<\/a> studies, they could have achieved that goal no better than by making precisely the decisions they have made. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"