Item Detail
-
32521
-
0
-
12
-
English
-
Standing on the (Shrugging) Shoulders of a Giant: Notes on Hugh Nibley’s Contribution to Book of Mormon Studies
-
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
-
2021
-
30
-
Champaign, IL
-
University of Illinois Press
-
90-110
-
"I’m not a historian, and I’m therefore unprepared to answer a question that has come to bother me. I want to know when the word 'studies' in the phrase 'Book of Mormon studies' passed—if it ever has passed—from being a plural to being a singular noun. Let me illustrate what I mean with a brief example. When the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies began publication in 1992, was it a journal in which to publish studies (plural) of the Book of Mormon, or was it a journal in which work in Book of Mormon studies (singular) might appear? This is the sort of question I want to answer. However nascent or inchoate it might be at present, is there a singular (but, of course, interdisciplinary) field of research called Book of Mormon studies? And if so, for how long exactly has this been the case? I suspect there was some point in time at which it became possible to hear the phrase 'Book of Mormon studies' as pointing to something in the singular, to a conversation or (the beginnings of) a coherent discipline, rather than as gesturing toward disparate bits of academic prose that might be grouped together because they all say something about the Book of Mormon. When did it become possible—if it’s even possible now—to be a Book of Mormon scholar in a recognizable field? Now, it might seem like an overly fine distinction I’m drawing, but I think the distinction makes a real difference. Take, for instance, the case of Hugh Nibley. Today, we can ask what Nibley’s contribution to Book of Mormon studies was without hoping just for a list of his published research on the Book of Mormon. That is, it’s possible today to ask how Nibley shaped a field, how his writings on the Book of Mormon helped to determine what others might do with their careers, or how he made himself indispensable for those who work on this particular volume of scripture. At the same time, I’m not sure that when Nibley first turned his scholarly attention to the Book of Mormon, it was possible to ask these kinds of questions, or at least that there was anyone to ask them about. Prior to Nibley’s work, I gather, there were only studies (in the plural) about the Book of Mormon. Today, however, after and thanks to Hugh Nibley, there seems to exist something like a field or a discipline—again, however small or fledgling—of Book of Mormon studies (in the singular)." [Author]
-
https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jbms/article/doi/10.5406/jbookmormstud2.30.2021.0090/283560/Standing-on-the-Shrugging-Shoulders-of-a-Giant
-
B. H. Roberts : Studies of the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon Compendium
By Study and Also by Faith : Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, 27 March 1990
Hugh Nibley : A Consecrated Life
Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites
Mormonism and Early Christianity
No, Ma'am, That's Not History
Since Cumorah : The Book of Mormon in the Modern World
Standing Apart : Mormon Historical Consciousness And The Concept Of Apostasy
The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley
The Myth Makers
The Prophetic Book of Mormon