I have news! Big news. So read on.
I have been awarded the University of Utah’s Graduate Research Fellowship in Mormon Studies for 2022-23. This means I will be spending a lot of time in Utah for the next academic year, while I focus on writing my dissertation. I may do some public lectures or something, I don’t know. TBA.
My wife and I will also be in Provo for most of June-August. However, since we don’t know her logistics for the next year, we don’t know if we’ll be together in Utah, or taking turns commuting back and forth between Utah and Phoenix. So while I know we ARE looking for housing in Utah, I don’t know what kind: rented room, housesit, furnished studio, etc.
This Fellowship also means I’ll be spending much less time on the blog and social media in order to defend my dissertation in mid 2023.
My dissertation is tentatively titled, The Intellectual Roots of Latter-day Saint Creation/Evolution Conflict in the Twentieth Century: Expertise, Exegesis, and Ecclesiology. I look at how LDS went from being very pro-science and warily open to evolution in the first half of the 20th century, to quasi-fundamentalist in the latter half. It’s a counter-intuitive shift, given what both science and biblical scholarship did in the 20th century; science solidified the reality of evolution and scriptural scholarship, based on new discoveries, concluded that Genesis didn’t mean what “fundamentalists” claimed. (See here, for example.) These are, of course, topics I’ve written about at length here on the blog and spoken on elsewhere.
My chapter outline currently looks like this, though titles and divisions will likely shift.
- Introduction
- The Rules of the Game (relevant LDS ecclesiastical structures, inherited 19th century assumptions, etc.)
- Diversity and Dispute, 1900-1951
- The Fundamentalist Turn, 1951-1971
- Tradition Becomes Orthodoxy, 1971-1980
- Conclusions
I have far far more material and research than will go into the dissertation; finding the uniting narrative thread, and deciding what goes on the cutting room floor has been quite difficult. On the positive side, it means multiple papers and books with different emphases and audiences are inevitable, but those are mostly a few years down the road. Much of what I write and speak derives from my dissertation research, and I occasionally post snippets.
My thanks to the Tanner Center at the U, my advisors, my family, and especially my wife, for their support in making this possible.
As always, you can help me pay my tuition here via GoFundMe. *I am an Amazon Affiliate, and may receive a small percentage of purchases made through Amazon links on this page. You can get updates by email whenever a post goes up (subscription box below) and can also follow Benjamin the Scribe on Facebook.
April 20, 2022 at 5:44 pm
Congratulations, Ben! That is wonderful. I look forward to reading the books in the future.
April 21, 2022 at 6:18 am
I am so pleased for you, so glad that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Your blog has been a tremendous resource for me as I navigate my questions. I don’t know how you’ve managed to balance it all, but thank you for making your findings available to us plebeians.
May 17, 2022 at 1:06 am
I found that the Church used to teach a class to converts called “Gospel Principles”. The latest version has changed. The orignal was copyrighted in 1978 and 2009. It must be for the year between baptism and entering the temple because there’s no mention of the endowment from what I can tell. From what I’ve read so far, converts still need this. It took forever for me to be able to type the words “lost covert lds” into the search bar. I found things changed in 2019 to focus on learning at home, and at least where I am, converts got lost in the change.
April 21, 2022 at 6:29 am
Congrats – the resources you have organized and insights shared are really helpful and have helped me really broaden my perspective. As someone who was a youth in the 70s and 80s these insights have made what was going on then make a lot more sense. Looking forward to your future publishings.
April 21, 2022 at 6:33 am
Congrats Ben! I’m really looking forward to reading all of your stuff in the years to come. I guess your book on Genesis 1 will be postponed for a while right?
Hope you the best on your dissertation. You have had a huge influence in the way I study scriptures and in the way I understand revelation, church leaders, inerrancy and how Heavenly Father communicates with us. I feel closer to Him and my testimony of the restoration is stronger because I learned from your blog how to look for faithful answers in our history.
Keep the excellent work!
Best wishes from Brazil
April 21, 2022 at 9:51 am
Congrats Ben. It saddens me that the Genesis book is put on hold for awhile—I’m excited for this conversation to gain a broader audience! But obviously, all the groundwork will only make them better.
I will say, especially if you plan to put the CFM lessons on hold: I’d love to see a page (listed on the menu) with an index of lessons by standard work. I go searching for them often (for personal study and teaching seminary), but search isn’t always very quick, and I’m not sure if I’ve missed something.
April 24, 2022 at 7:16 am
Congratulations, Ben. This sounds like an exciting opportunity. I look forward to reading about your findings and analysis on the evolution of the church.