Obviously, one of Midgley’s areas of interest is insisting on the necessity of the literal historicity of the Book of Mormon. So far, it is in these articles that one can glean statements that appear to be coherent with the attitude Clayton described. This article is a review of "The Word of God Is Enough: The Book of Mormon as Nineteenth-Century Scripture" by Hutchinson, titled
The Current Battle Over the Book of MormonWhile these statements are expressly about the Book of Mormon and whether or not LDS should consider it “inspired fiction” instead of a literal ancient account, he does make statements therein that provide clues as far as his attitude towards those who proffer “naturalistic” explanations for Joseph Smith’ teachings or revelations. (naturalistic could well include “product of culture”) He sees the “inspired fiction” route as a serious threat to the truth claims of the LDS church. This seems consistent with the idea that he would also view naturalistic explanations for Joseph Smith’ teachings as a serious threat, as well, although is not conclusive evidence. But so far, it’s the best I can find. I have repeatedly invited DCP to inform us which of Midgley’s articles best demonstrate Midgley’s acceptance of presenting some of Joseph Smith’teachings as cultural products, but he has, so far, declined. So here are the quotes I found relevant, with the most pertinent statements bolded.
Professor McMurrin resents the fact that "the Encyclopedia editors and authors assumed that their readers had no questions about" what he denigrates as "the literalistic orthodox interpretation of the Book of Mormon and the Bible. The authenticity of the Book of Mormon is taken for granted."16 McMurrin finds evidence in the Encyclopedia that Latter-day Saint scholars take seriously the possibility of "personal revelation which is now so prominent in the church."17 The belief in revelation is, for him, "a belief that already accounts for much of the lunatic fringe in the church and could very well expand into an irrationalism quite uncharacteristic of Mormonism, which could produce a kind of intellectual anarchy in the church."18 McMurrin seems unable to spit or swallow when it comes to the Restored Gospel; he rejects its grounds and much of its content, but simply cannot leave it alone. He has a fondness for elements of Mormon culture, but he objects to signs of genuine faith among the Saints. In this regard, he is the archetypal cultural Mormon.
That is not to say that a few secularized Latter-day Saints have not followed Brodie or McMurrin, but, until recently, they couched their accounts in ambiguous language by describing, for example, how Joseph Smith's opinions prior to 1830 on certain matters might be seen in language in the Book of Mormon,28 or how Joseph Smith could be sincere in telling stories about visits with angels because he lived before Sigmund Freud had explained how the mind works.29 Some have tried to make a distinction between what they label "sacred history," which they understand to be a myth grounding the community of believers, and real history, which involves real people, places and events. They then brush aside questions of whether what they consider the "Mormon myth" really happened.30 The implication of such arguments, when applied as explanations and not as excuses for avoiding facing up to difficult questions, is that Joseph Smith invented the Book of Mormon. Cautious cultural Mormon historians have avoided drawing undue attention to themselves. But we are now faced with a spate of forthright denials that the Book of Mormon is an authentic ancient text in the pages of Dialogue31 and Sunstone.32
These writers may, if it suits their fancy, retain some ties to the Church, but henceforth they insist that they will determine the content of Latter-day Saint faith. For example, one writer poignantly describes his "anti-conversion"—he insists that the Book of Mormon and book of Abraham are fiction and not fact. He concedes that "many questions remain" and that he has some questions that even he "can't answer." For instance, if "Joseph Smith is the author of the Book of Mormon, is he then a fraud, or is the Book of Mormon the result of revelatory experience?"33 He adds a comforting note: "At present, I have no compelling answer and am willing to entertain either possibility. Either way," he acknowledges, "there are serious implications for my faith."34 It seems odd to me for someone talking about the ground and content of faith in God to be entertaining possibilities that range from fraud to perhaps some weak notion of a "revelatory experience." So much for testimony!
But such endeavors have a history. It turns out that Hutchinson is imitating or even borrowing from an army of secularized scholars engaged in fashioning naturalistic readings of the Bible. From this history we can begin to see what the consequences are for the academic study of sacred texts and also for the life of the faith and the faithful.
And yet the publication of New Approaches is an important event. It marks the most sophisticated attack on the truth of the Book of Mormon currently available either from standard sectarian or more secularized anti-Mormon sources, or from the fringes of Mormon culture and intellectual life. But attention to certain strands of thought being advanced by some of those who advertise themselves, especially to the press, as "Mormon intellectuals," should have alerted Latter-day Saints that cultural Mormons were gearing up for a frontal attack on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. For more than a decade I have been warning of the direction being taken by a few—and I stress once again a few—Mormon historians bent on explaining Joseph Smith's prophetic charisms and the Book of Mormon in essentially secular, naturalistic terms.39 Most recently efforts to turn the Book of Mormon into fiction have been financed, promoted, and published by George D. Smith.40 And, for a cautionary tale, one ought to give attention to the subtle shift away from commitment to the Book of Mormon, including what appears to be the officially approved treatment of that text as "inspired" or inspiring fiction, which is one of the more crucial elements in the radical transformation of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.41
The theologians (who are not biblical scholars) who have fashioned various notions of "myth" have, for Hutchinson, suggested a model for understanding the Book of Mormon as fiction, and also for what constitutes inspiration, divine special revelation, and so forth. In so doing, he has fashioned a radically different mode of understanding crucial prophetic truth claims. But, unfortunately for Hutchinson, those from whom he draws his scholarly inspiration do not necessarily hold that Jesus was in fact raised from the dead. Quite the contrary is the case. Paul Tillich, the late well-known German-American theologian, provides a fine example of one anxious to deliteralize the entire Christian message in such a radical way that even the necessity of there having been a Jesus disappears.
Interpretative Fashions and the Book of Mormon—Some Cautions
I have argued elsewhere that for Latter-day Saints it has been what Professor Martin E. Marty and I have labelled "the acids of modernity"—ideologies grounded in an uncritically accepted and hence dogmatic rationalism growing out of the enlightenment—that have led to the dogmatic rejection of the prophetic truth claims of the Restored Gospel.91 The Saints have texts that seem to provide eyewitness accounts of encounters with plates and angels and the resurrected Jesus. And they also have a complicated text that claims to be an authentic ancient history. How then does one come to know that angels do not bring books? Exactly how did Bultmann know that dead bodies have not and cannot ever come back to life? Well, for Bultmann, it was the "scientific world view"—the currently fashionable ideology that stands behind the skeptical, secularized intellectual's understanding of the limits of human understanding—that required that he explain such claims in naturalistic terms. From his perspective, only primitives, that is, those who are still in thrall to a prescientific understanding of the world, can really believe that those accounts describe a historical reality.
For those Karl Jaspers labelled the "educated among the scornful," to accept what is found in the New Testament, the crucial historical and prophetic claims found in that text must be deliteralized by being seen as a mythology filled with symbols and not genuine events in a real history. Then the contents of texts like the New Testament and Book of Mormon can be manipulated by learned and cynical theologians or exegetes; they can eventually be demythologized, thereby allowing their presumably deeper messages to be rendered in the vernacular of some fashionable ideology or popular philosophy. This may be what Hutchinson has in mind when he opines that "understanding the Book of Mormon as a fictional work of nineteenth-century scripture has real advantages. The book opens up for interpretation when read this way. The stories take on an added dimension far beyond, I find, any that was lost when I stopped believing in historical Nephites" (p. 17).92
Immediate after World War II, Bultmann wanted to popularize a demythologized understanding of the message of the New Testament. He did this in a language borrowed more or less from what he could make out of a school of philosophy sometimes known as existentialism. Of course, his efforts were mostly merely amusing to philosophers and his endeavors are no longer fashionable even in divinity schools. That is just the way it is with academic fads and fashions. Other ideologies have supplanted existentialism. Hence we are now more likely to hear of feminist or postmodernist readings of the Book of Mormon, or of deconstructing that text, rather than appeals to a now virtually forgotten existentialism. But to get to this point, something like Hutchinson's flawed project must be adopted. That is, the Book of Mormon will have to be read as fiction, either "inspired" or, more likely, merely marginally inspiring to the exegete armed with some new mode of interpreting texts. The Saints should avoid such trendy sophistry. We do not build or defend the Kingdom or make ourselves genuine disciples of Jesus Christ by attempting to appear sophisticated or by mouthing slogans borrowed from an essentially foreign culture. We may better serve the Kingdom by maintaining a safe distance from such worldly ideologies.
The Saints need to develop an exegetical tradition where close attention is given to the Book of Mormon, And they also need more—not less—serious and genuinely competent scholarship. But such is not to be achieved cheaply. And it is not to be acquired by thoughtlessly capitulating to slogan-thinking or to some of the latest fads and fashions in the academic world. Instead of something thrust upon us by modern Nehorism or by more obvious unbelievers,93 we must sustain our own authentic reading of the Book of Mormon. One possible way of resisting revisionist accounts of the Book of Mormon is by recognizing wily Nehoristic efforts to harmonize key elements of the Restored Gospel with secular or sectarian opinion and religiosity.
Biblical studies, of course, offer a wealth of insight and information,94 but we need to be cautious about the theological and interpretive assumptions that stand behind some of these studies. And, from the perspective of serious scholarship, Brent Metcalfe is neither properly motivated nor equipped to guide the Saints to some new light on the Book of Mormon. As we have seen, his agenda appears to be similar to that found among the more blatant anti-Mormons. He differs from them in that he is sufficiently savvy to at least mask his intentions. And hence he makes concessions to Tony Hutchinson and others who, despite their revisionist ideologies, still seem to have a streak of piety. Be that as it may, we can be confident that God did not "inspire" Joseph Smith to fabricate fiction.
Midgley provided a footnote for this: For more than a decade I have been warning of the direction being taken by a few—and I stress once again a few—Mormon historians bent on explaining Joseph Smith's prophetic charisms and the Book of Mormon in essentially secular, naturalistic terms.”
The footnote is as follows:
39. See Louis Midgley, "The Acids of Modernity and the Crisis in Mormon Historiography," in Faithful History, 189-225; and also Midgley, "Prophetic Messages or Dogmatic Theology? Commenting on the Book of Mormon," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1 (1989): 101-2, 109-13; Midgley, "The Challenge of Historical Consciousness: Mormon History and the Encounter with Secular Modernity," in By Study and Also By Faith, 2:502-51; Midgley, "Faith and History," in "To Be Learned Is Good, If . . . ," Robert L. Millet, ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987), 219-26.
These would probably be the most fruitful avenues in attempting to reveal Midgley’s further thoughts on the matter. I’m pretty satisfied, at this point, that Clayton’s summary is, at least, one possible coherent explanation for Midgley’s views, although there may be other possible explanations. So I do not believe Clayton invented the summary out of thin air, but instead, out of one legitimate interpretation of Midgley’s own comments. Whether or not the summary reflects exactly Midgley’s thoughts, or is a simplification, is another matter. I suspect even Midgley would accept that Joseph Smith’ teaching of the existence of men on the moon was not revelatory, and was instead, the product of his environment. But I also suspect he would only accept that sentence for teachings of Joseph Smith that no sane person could even imagine were inspired. In other words, it’s a position I suspect he only takes when absolutely forced to do so, and would prefer never have to take that stance.