{"id":16554,"date":"2015-01-02T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T17:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=16554"},"modified":"2015-01-02T10:19:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T17:19:00","slug":"let-a-hundred-flowers-blossom-some-observations-on-mormon-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/let-a-hundred-flowers-blossom-some-observations-on-mormon-studies.html","title":{"rendered":"“‘Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom’: Some Observations on Mormon Studies”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MSR<\/a>
This is actually the cover of the second first volume of the \u201cMormon Studies Review,\u201d which is the volume in which the routable is published, not the cover of the first first volume of the \u201cMormon Studies Review,\u201d which I edited and which is now, practically speaking, somewhat invisible.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shortly after the abrupt end of my nearly quarter-century long editorship of the FARMS Review\/Mormon Studies Review<\/em> and the sudden termination of my involvement with FARMS and the Maxwell Institute, Spencer Fluhman, who succeeded me as editor, kindly invited me to contribute to a roundtable concerning the nature of \u201cMormon studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That roundtable was published quite some time ago, and it\u2019s now accessible online. \u00a0Here\u2019s a link to my portion of it:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu\/fullscreen\/?pub=2402&index=8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I would like this little article to be entered into\u00a0the public record because it indicates quite clearly, I think, my lack of any objection to truth-bracketing \u201creligious studies\u201d approaches to Mormonism<\/a>. \u00a0My position has sometimes been misunderstood, and sometimes even misrepresented, as one of opposing non-confessional scholarship and of objecting to writing that fails to \u201cbear testimony\u201d or to argue for Mormon truth claims, as one that rejects\u00a0any attempt to interact with non-LDS scholars on neutral ground.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the contrary, I not only recognize that there are legitimate times, places, and venues for such endeavors, but I endorse them. \u00a0Enthusiastically. \u00a0I simply deny that they\u2019re the only<\/em> legitimate scholarly approaches to Mormonism (or Catholicism, or Evangelical Protestantism, or Islam, or Buddhism<\/a>, or any other worldview). \u00a0And I absolutely believe that, at Brigham Young University (of all places!) and in an Institute named after Elder Neal A. Maxwell (of all people!) overtly faithful scholarship, including apologetic defenses of the faith, should also have a valued place.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do I still need to make my actual views any more plain?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Shortly after the abrupt end of my nearly quarter-century long editorship of the FARMS Review\/Mormon Studies Review and the sudden termination of my involvement with FARMS and the Maxwell Institute, Spencer Fluhman, who succeeded me as editor, kindly invited me to contribute to a roundtable concerning the nature of \u201cMormon studies.\u201d \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"'Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom': Some Observations on Mormon Studies"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"      Shortly after the abrupt end of my nearly quarter-century long editorship of the FARMS Review\/Mormon Studies Review and the sudden\" \/>\n<meta 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