Item Detail
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3538
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6
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0
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English
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Faithful History/Secular Faith
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Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought
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Winter 1983
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16
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65-71
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"I hope to argue persuasively three points: one, history is a finite discipline incapable of revealing divine nature or will; two, only God can witness to divine faith or to the infinite; and three, finding a meaningful religion or faith or theology will not be easy for believers; however, the rewards of such efforts will be greater if undertaken after the facts of history and the evidences of faith are in the believers' possession. This paper hopes to suggest a useful rationale for believing Mormons and Latter Day Saints who desire to be professional historians and serious students of the Restoration movement. Such individuals generally agree that objectivity is a critical quality of good history and that such quality is very difficult to come by, even for very competent scholars and even when the issues are ordinary, human issues. When the debate involves the divine and perceptions of final truths, objectivity is almost impossible. What can be done to help, since believers are always involved emotionally on these basic issues and life values? I am suggesting a two-pronged answer: desensitizing history and accepting the nonhistorical elements and existence of faith. Hopefully, with such an approach, believers will be able to bring to their scholarly research both historical objectivity and their unique insights and understanding." [Author]
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Advocacy and Inquiry in the Writing of Latter-day Saint History
A New Historiographical Frontier : The Reorganized Church in the Twentieth Century
A Time and a Season : History as History
Faithful History/Secular Religion
Naturalistic Assumptions and the Book of Mormon
'This is a New Day' : A Look Back in Anticipation of the Future in Writing Mormon History