Aristotle Smith wrote:Here's the problem in a nutshell: Mormons who do graduate level work in biblical studies almost invariably leave the LDS church. And, the few who stay almost always maintain their faith only by clinging to a very robust fideism, there really isn't that much of a connection between their scholarly work and their faith. But the bottom line is that neither of these groups will be doing apologetics for the LDS church based on some scholarly engagement with scripture.
The root of the problem is that modern biblical studies can really eat at one's belief in and trust of the Bible. Source criticism, redaction criticism, form criticism, textual criticism, etc. can really eat at one's beliefs, especially if you come from a fundamentalist background (and yes, Mormonism is functionally fundamentalist). But the real kicker is that all of those critical techniques work at least 10x better in killing faith in Mormon scripture than they do in the Bible. Pretty much every trained LDS scholar I think ends up realizing that there really isn't a way to defend or engage Mormon scripture from a critical standpoint. So, they either decide they aren't going to put their doubts on the self and leave, or they put their doubts on the shelf and cling to fideism (this is the "Mormonism works for me" crowd).
I put up a topic a couple of weeks ago questioning the value of textual analysis/criticism in promoting or destroying faith, and this is precisely the type of response I was hoping to see because I have long suspected this to be true. I have enjoyed some of Barlow's work, but for the most part I have found most of the faith-promoting, text-based arguments I have read to be unconvincing. They usually rely on parallels that never seem all that remarkable to me or that have easy alternative explanations. Also, as Ari mentioned later on, they are usually written by amateurs (usually academics trained in other fields or dumb lawyers like me).
There is a well-known quote from Justice Louis Brandeis that applies here: "Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” If your religion cannot abide strict scrutiny then what value is it really? So open up the books. Open the archives. Let the David Bokovoys of the world teach in the Religion department. Allow church history to be written and taught by actual historians again. Stop with all this "milk before meat" crap, because let's be honest, you never ever intend to actually give out any meat. Faith should not be built upon fantasy. Truth may indeed destroy some things President Packer, but truth should prevail.
Oh sorry I forgot, we're all just supposed to go shopping now . . .
