Review Essay New Studies in Mormonismi Iren E. Annus Adventures of a Church Historian. By Leonard J. Arlington. University of Illinois Press, 1998. 250 pages. $29.95 cloth. All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage. By Armand L. Mauss. University of Illinois Press, 2003. 343 pages. $36.95 cloth. An Insiders View ofMormon Origins. By Grant H. Palmer. Signature, 2002. 281 pages. $24.95 cloth. Autobiography of Leonard J. Arlington: A Pictorial History. By Leonard J. Arrington. Historian's Press, 1994. n.p. n.a. By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion. By Terry L. Givens. Oxford University Press, 2003. 320 pages. $16.95 paper. Contemporary Mormonism: Social Science Perspectives. Edited by Marie Cornwall, Tim B. Heaton and Lawrence A. Young. University of Illinois Press, 1994; New paperback edition 2001. 367 pages. $18.95 paper. Equal Rites: The Book ofMormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture. By Clyde R. Forsberg Jr. Columbia University Press, 2004. 326 pages. $35.00 cloth. Healing Souls: Psychotherapy in the Latter-day Saint Community. By Eric G. Swedin. University of Illinois Press, 2003. 241 pages. $34.95 cloth. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 9, Issue 4, pages 98-111, ISSN 1092-6690 (print), 1541-8480 (electronic). © 2006 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Rights and Permissions website, at www.ucpress.edu/journals/rights.htm. 98 Annus: New Studies in Mormonism Mormon America: The Power and the Promise. By Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling. HarperCollins, 1999. 454 pages. $18.95 paper. Mormon History. Edited by Ronald W. Walker, David J. Whittaker and James B. Allen. University of Illinois Press, 2001.279 pages. $32.50 cloth. Mormon Lives: A Year in theElkton Ward. By Susan B. Taber. University of Illinois Press, 1993. 376 pages. $27.50 cloth. Mormon Passage: A Missionary Chronicle. By Gary Shepherd and Gordon Shepherd. University of Illinois Press, 1998. 454 pages. $49.95 cloth; $24.95 paper. Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930. By Thomas G. Alexander. University of Illinois Press, 1996. 399 pages. $24.95 cloth; $16.95 paper. Of Heaven and Earth: Reconciling Scientific Thought With IDS Theology. Edited by David L. Clark. Deseret, 1998. 234 pages. $18.95 cloth. Rational Theology: As Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-day Saints (Signature Mormon Classics). ByJohn A. Widtsoe. Signature, 1998.190 pages. $12.95 paper. Sojourner in the Promised Land. By Jan Shipps. University of Illinois Press, 2001. 400 pages. $34.95 cloth. The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation. By Harold Bloom. Simon and Schuster, 1992. 288 pages. $12.00 paper. The Mormon Culture of Salvation: Force, Grace and Glory. By Douglas J. Davies. Ashgate, 2000. 293 pages. $94.95 cloth; $29.95 paper. The Refiners Fire: The Making ofMormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. ByJohn L. Brooke. Cambridge University Press, 1994. 443 pages. $70.00 cloth; $24.99 paper. I n recent years we have seen a steadyflowof publications in the United States devoted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the LDS Church. In fact, the Mormon religion and its believers have been the center of attention since the foundation of their church, as indicated by the gradually increasing wealth of literature which has appeared since then. Early writings on Mormonism may be divided into two major categories. One consists of unpublished personal writings by church members, the other of publications primarily on theological aspects of Mormon 99 Nova Religio teachings and Mormonismi unique history which were often written by authors with no formal academic training. In general, these early pieces were principally fuelled by the authors' religious zeal and convictions. They mainly propagated or defended Mormon beliefs, especially in the face of what they perceived as Protestant attack. As of the 1950s, however, Mormonism has gradually emerged as a subject of academic study in the­ ology, history, and the social sciences, the three fields in which Mormon Studies continues to enjoy a strong presence. The first part of this article, therefore, takes a closer look at con­ temporary Mormon Studies, as present in theology, history, and the social sciences, and maps the various trends and salient changes over the last ten years. In order to gain an understanding of the current state of Mormon Studies, it is also necessary to establish the various contexts and forces at the intersection of which it has been shaped. This is outlined in the second part, which argues that the three dominant areas that have determined the course of this field still remain the Mormon Church, American society and culture, and the general academic environment. MORMON STUDIES TODAY Significant writings that reflect on the state of Mormon Studies have appeared in the last several years, primarily focusing on its development since World War Π. Of these, the state of theological writings on Mormonism has been discussed by Terry L. Givens (1-7); Mormon historiography has been overviewed by both Jan Shipps and Ronald W. Walker et al.; and the social scientific study of Mormonism has been analyzed by Armand L. Mauss (in Walker et al., 153-97) and Marie Cornwall (vii-xv). Mormon Theology Until recently, Mormon theology has been characterized by treat­ ments "largely limited to apologetic or inspirational literature directed to the faithful and vitriolic attacks shelved in the cult section of Christian bookstores" (Givens, 6). The overarching implications of Givens' propo­ sition are that (1) much theological writing by Mormon authors has been stoked by emotion and presented by the faithful Saint rather than the trained theologian; (2) an ever growing body of scholarly studies on Mormon theology has remained isolated, not able or willing to enter into interfaith dialogue; and (3) most non-LDS authors have continued to produce theological writings aimed at discrediting the Mormon doc­ trines and community. The established academic community of theolo­ gians, therefore, has often viewed theological writings on Mormonism warily, casting doubt on the level and credibility of this scholarship. Douglas J. Davies even argued that '\vhen practiced by adherents of 100 Annus: New Studies in Mormonism Mormonism, [LDS theology] can easily be read as an exercise in orthodoxy or heresy" (11). The second important feature of Mormon theology has been the strong interdependence it has developed with the study of Mormon history. The Book ofMormon is considered as much a historical document as a source of Mormon beliefs. The truth-value of Mormon theological claims often depends on the verifiability of what the Saints regard as historical events. This explains Davies' proposition that "history within Mormonism often plays the role occupied in other religions by theology" (11). This particular feature also contributes to the distinctive development of Mormon theological writing. The third feature of the theological writings, especially by LDS authors, has been the need to establish Mormonism as a religious worldview in a modern age of science and technology. The outcome of this effort is what has become known as "rational theology," the most thorough treatment of which was presented in a book with that verytitlebyJohn A. Widtsoe, a professor of chemistry and church leader in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Another book, OfHeaven and Earth, a collection of studies by contemporary LDS scientists published in 1998 (the same year the reprint of Widtsoe's book appeared) also attempted to reconcile modern scientific thinking with LDS theology. These books are indicative of the centrality of this motive in LDS theological writings even today. New scholarship, however, seems to exhibit noticeable shifts as well. One of these is the outcome of what Shipps calls "neopragmatism in philosophical theology, a movement that generated a substantial body of discussion about how historical reality emerges from historical interpretation" (175), which appeared in the 1970s and 1980s. Some recent scholarship on the theological roots of Mormonism (e.g., John L. Brooke) centers its argumentation on contemporary intellectual and cultural currents, thus marking an essential epistemological turn on the part of the authors in their understanding of religion's reality as a cultural product of hermeneutical interpretation. This is especially relevant in interpretations of the Book of Mormon, which has to this day remained the focal point of theological studies. Recent scholarship is also marked by what Davies called the "eclectic perspective" (7) offered by interdisciplinary approaches. In his book, The Mormon Culture of Salvation, Davies, a theologian himself, drew on a number of disciplines, including theology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, not only in his method, but also in the areas he investigated. Informed by the conviction that salvation is not only a matter of theological consideration, he examined various art forms, including music and architecture, as constitutive elements of the Mormon theological construct and considered a wider realm within which the LDS concept of salvation shapes Mormon practices and lifestyle. Davies' writing is 101 Nova Religio informed by the need to understand social worlds in their complexity and to acknowledge their interrelated nature. The third feature to challenge traditional scholarly treatment is the area of the authors' academic training—a feature many would associate with interdisciplinary studies. Within the field of theology, Harold Bloom's famous 1992 book on American religions was a milestone. Bloom, a literary critic, composed a highly acclaimed piece of writing on matters of theology, based on his training in the comparative treatment of texts. Givens' By the Hand ofMormon is another example, in which the author, trained in comparative literature, demonstrates with elegance the application of literary perspectives in religious studies. Interestingly, it is literary critics rather than historians who represent this new hermeneutical turn. Mormon History History has been the discipline most intimately tied to Mormon Studies from its inception. Latter-day Saints have always regarded the Book of Mormon as history, a narrative depicting the true history of the American continent and its people, while at the same time placing it into a new Christian context, one which far surpassed the narrative constructed by the Puritans. Accounts of the deeds of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the two Mormon prophets about whom the most has been written, extended the original narrative. Their life stories have become strongly intertwined with the history of the church and its doctrines. Today, the intimate relationship between church histories and LDS life stories appears as a distinctive mark of Mormon culture, as reflected in the two major types of writings tied to memory and selfreflexivity: history and biography. Postmodern understandings challenge the application of absolute categories such as truth and reality in these two genres. The view of history as writing, as narrative, as literary performances of self-reflexivity has placed a major strain on the traditional value and meaning of histories and historiography. Similarly, auto/biographies are investigated with an apparent bias in that the search reaches beyond the text itself and regards the various frameworks which have shaped the writing and key points of self-censorship. This postmodern approach, however, has yet to find its way into the circle of Mormon scholars and authors who, with a few exceptions, still put great stock in metanarratives, whether religious or secular in content, believing in their absolute truth value. However, as the following sections will illustrate, a slow but clearly noticeable paradigm shift has begun, one marked by (1) the reassessment of previous LDS histories; (2) the inclusion of specific issues, previously silenced in academia; and (3) the greater significance assigned to the study of life narratives, especially by previously neglected groups, such as women or missionaries. 102 Annus: New Studies in Mormonism Histories Mormon historiography is usually divided into three phases. The first period— the nineteenth-century—is characterized by early, often partisan historiography, which produced pieces that are often regarded today as primary sources on the beginnings of the church, its practices, institutions and tenets, the emergence of the LDS community, and the heroic migration to the West. The second phase—placed to the first half of the twentieth century—is characterized as a period of transformation in which LDS history writers, many of whom were not trained historians, shifted towards a more balanced form of historiography. This shift in attitude represented part of the changing position of the LDS church and community, which was marked by a major effort at mainstreaming and integration. Thomas G. Alexander concluded that by 1930, "Mormons and Gentiles were . . . working together in social and community betterment causes" and had achieved integration in the business world (308), meaning that the Mormons had entered the mainstream. Faith- and church-promoting history writing began to lose prominence, offering a platform for more balanced writings on topics of wider interest, including the settlement of the American West as well as LDS rural life and the economy there. This tendency continued well into the second half of the twentieth century—the third phase of Mormon historiography—which is characterized by an increased number of LDS historians trained at leading American universities, an increased professionalism with a shift to contemporary scholarly attitudes and methods, and a growing interest among non-Mormon historians in the LDS community. The church initially responded to these changes by instituting a liberal policy on the use of its archives and materials, establishing new research centers, and launching new research projects. The two landmark events of this era were the publication in 1966 of the first issue of Dialogue: Afournal of Mormon Thought at Stanford, as well as the establishment in 1972 of the Historical Department in Salt Lake City—replacing the Church Historian's Office—headed by Leonard J. Arlington, which saw a sixyear period of openness called the "Arlington Spring." Arrington himself remembered 1972 as follows: "At the time of my appointment as Church Historian... I had an unshakable conviction that it was possible, if a man was clever enough, to write a professional history that would be accepted as such by the profession, and at the same time be acceptable to the intelligent LDS reader" (1998,156). However, by the fall of 1977, he was deeply concerned: "My confidence in that conviction has been shaken. . . . It is not that they [the LDS church leadership] disapprove of me as Church Historian; they would disapprove of any professional historian, any intellectual, any independent-minded writer" (1998,156). The coming years saw a new policy, aimed at safeguarding the records, 103 Nova Religio which translated to a limiting of access even to those scholars who enjoyed the support of the church authorities. A breathtaking chronicle of this period is provided by Arrington in Adventures of a Church Historian, the publication of which one year before his death certainly marked the end of the era. A beautifully written memoir, it is a faithful account given "in a spirit of honesty and sincerity" (5), describing a professional and intellectual journey which shaped the entire era. This is a biography which satisfies the criteria for history writing in its truthfulness and accuracy but is also an engaging literary piece. It reveals the power with which Arrington was determined to serve as a professional historian, bringing Mormon historiography up to a level of academic excellence, making sources available to a wide community of historians. And, although the Mormon church was not yet prepared for such a major shift and sensed potential threats, the spirit Arrington instituted clearly directed the future of Mormon Studies. New Mormon history has been marked by an aura of scholarly integrity and independence, resulting in a willingness to discuss events and themes the church had neglected or silenced, as well as to re-assess canonized historical positions and narratives. This is what Grant H. Palmer did in his Insiders View of Mormon Origins. He returned to historical accounts of the beginnings of Mormonism and, through a careful re-evaluation, concluded that some of the events and original narratives have been rewritten through the years. He claimed that the Book of Mormon is in fact a cultural product, its content being shaped primarily by the Bible as well as the early nineteenth-century religious environment of upstate New York. As a result, he argued, church history regarding the origin of this book and the Mormon tenets is not a factual history but a religious narrative used as literature created to encourage fellowship and missionary work. Clyde R. Forsberg's Equal Rites also revolves around an issue which is problematic for many in the Mormon church: the early relationship between Mormonism and Freemasonry. This work analyzes the history of this relationship in the wider American context, primarily relying on a non-LDS reading of the Book of Mormon. Forsberg's main proposition is that by integrating women into the secret temple ceremonies, early Mormonism wished to locate itself within the American religious scene of the 1830s by "occupying the middle ground between (Evangelical) feminism and (Masonic) patriarchy" (xvii). Both Palmer's and Forsberg's works were disavowed by the church, a potential risk undertaken by any author offering a re-interpretation of LDS history. Life Stories The Latter-day Saints are also well known for their deep devotion to what they call "record keeping," expressed in a series of practices, which 104 Annus: New Studies in Mormonism include maintaining journals and writing family histories, memoirs, and biographies. These various types of life writings are created with various aims for various audiences, and therefore their potential for publication tends to vary accordingly, as do the possibilities of self-censorship and "corrective" interpretation in writing about the past. Journal writing, for example, is regarded as extremely important in missionary work. Despite the wealth of writings in this style, authors are reluctant to submit them for publication because of the personal tone and semi-private nature of the entries. That is why Gary and Gordon Shepherd's 1998 edition of a chronicle based on their diaries from their mission in Mexico in the mid-1960s was a prominent landmark. The various diary entries and personal letters they included in this book bear witness to their lives at the time, all contextualized in introductory sections to each chapter which explain related LDS practices and capture the retrospective insights of the authors. Biography remains the most popular genre among LDS authors, and is primarily devoted to the life stories of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other presidents and outstanding leaders of the church. As this implies, most biographies have been written about white male leading figures of the church. Throughout the nineteenth century, argued Walker et al., Mormon auto/biographical writing was shaped by the Puritan tradition in that they "told the saga of God's dealings as seen in their personal lives" (117), while twentieth-century biographies were written with a didactic, faith-promoting purpose. It was only in the last quarter of the century that serious, thoroughly researched biographies, some on outstanding LDS women, started to appear. Most of these had as their subject either prominent pioneer women from the nineteenth century or specially chosen women, such as the mothers of church presidents. A number of these biographies were written by professional historians, capturing not only the events in the lives of the subjects but also offering a wider context for the interpretation of their lives. Published autobiographical writings continue to be quite small in number, although two excellent books must be mentioned here. One, Adventures of a Church Historian, is Arrington's memoir, his life story as a professional historian. His personal life story is captured in another book, Autobiography ofLeonardJ. Arrington, which was published and circulated privately. This division between the professional and the private is quite a striking feature of many contemporary LDS scholars: they separate their public lives as independent professionals from their private lives marked by their deep religious devotion. The other book—which reflects the same trend even though it is written by an author who, albeit not a church member, is considered an "honorary" Saint—is Shipps' Sojourner in the Promised Land. She refers to this work as her "intellectual autobiography" (5), a narrative focusing on her academic career. It contextualizes pieces of her professional writing on 105 Nova Religio Mormonism, often allowing for specific insights into the whys and hows of these studies. Mormon Society and Culture Social scientific approaches provide the latest addition to Mormon Studies. Although Mauss claimed that the "origin of social science literature on the Mormons might reasonably be traced to a 1903 article by Richard T. Ely" (in Walker et al., 153), this scholarship from the early period focused on the study of rural Western communities and took the form of demographic studies up until the 1950s when large-scale projects on American religious life also gave birth to the first sociological studies on the Mormons. Within the Church, social science research began to gain support in the late 1970s and 1980s, the outcome of which is the appearance of a series of in-depth, "first ever" book-length treatments of various areas key to the social scientific field in general. Among these, in the Introduction to the original 1994 edition of the book Contemporary Mormonism, Cornwall stated, "it is the first collection that uses social science perspectives (rather than theological or historical ones) to describe the institutional and personal dimensions of Mormonism" (1). The issues this collection was structured around were in line with contemporary research in the social sciences in general, including the position of women, ethnic and racial minorities, the missionary experience and its globalizing aspects, family life, drug use, and identity construction. More recently, Eric G. Swedin's Healing Souh provided the first in-depth study of the history and present role of psychology and psychotherapy in the Mormon community. Mauss' award-winning opus, AU Abrahams Children, is also considered to be the first thorough, book-length sociological study of the complex processes which shaped the changing conceptions of race and lineage in the LDS church. Interest in Mormon culture and community has persisted among social scientists, especially in areas such as racial and minority issues, the position of women, family life, same-sex sexual orientation, the missionary movement and globalization, identity formation, and political behavior, to mention only a few. However, current researchers, unless associated with some church-related research institutes, may find it quite difficult to carry out any in-depth research since negotiating church safeguarding efforts tends to be an uphill battle. At present, only certain selected empirical data on Mormon society are made available to the wider public with regard to certain issues, and no larger-scale research may be conducted among the Saints without the approval of the church leadership. Latter-day Saint Susan B. Taber noted in the Introduction to her remarkable work—a collection of interviews with members of her ward—that her fieldwork could only begin once Richard Bushman, a highly respected Mormon historian and ward bishop at the time, 106 Annus: New Studies in Mormonism "had obtained permission from the church hierarchy to conduct the project over a one-year period—as an unofficial church project and as long as working on it didn't cause members of the committee to neglect regular church callings" (1). In the 2001 paperback edition of Contemporary Mormonism, Cornwall described a major shift in church policy, in which social scientific research on the LDS community is now strongly discouraged because of the perceived damage it may cause to the image of the church and its mission (viii-ix). Although social scientific analyses are not written with the intention of doing so, the nature of this type of writing is to examine social institutions, groups and actions, including the unusual and unexpected, which may stand in contrast to the desire of the church hierarchy to present Mormon society as ideal and close to perfect. Unfortunately, without the consent and support of the church, social research may remain neglected within Mormon Studies—even if the field might assist the church itself enormously in locating and finding solutions to potential problem areas. CONTEXTUALIZING MORMON STUDIES Mormon Studies, like all academic fields, has developed under the impact, and at the intersection, of various contexts and power relations. Of these, the specific LDS environment and current church leadership, American social and cultural realities, as well as the broad academic context all seem to have been prominent forces in shaping the contemporary study of Mormonism. The present American social and cultural scene developed as a result of the re-negotiations of social positionings and powers in the late 1950s and 1960s. These formative years re-shaped the United States as a political unit and as a society, in which voices and powers came to be more democratized, resulting in a change in the socio-political positionings of various, formerly marginalized groups, including African Americans, Native Americans, women and homosexuals. The Vietnam War tested national loyalties in numerous ways and revealed the multiplicity of meanings and actions allowed for within the American national identity. The Civil Rights movement was a complex struggle for the equality of voices, leading to a more sophisticated and compassionate understanding of minority positions, to a more democratic legal recognition of their needs, and to the ever-greater vesting of power in them. Racial and ethnic communities, women, and the gay/lesbian population all became visible and called for a new social and economic order. Major intellectual trends in which much of the contemporary academic climate is rooted also emerged in the socio-political context of the United States and Europe in the 1960s. Key movements brought certain considerations to the center again, challenging traditional frameworks 107 Nova Religio and concepts such as reality, history, agency, power, ideology, state, and identity, to mention only a few, and provided fertile ground for new approaches in all areas of both the humanities and the social sciences. The linguistic, or cultural, turn gave rise to new ontological and epistemologica! considerations, leading to questions regarding the very legitimacy of the existence of some disciplines, including history and die social sciences as such. The denial of the existence of absolute categories and metanarratives challenged key modernist concepts such as knowledge and truth, establishing new grounds for understanding cultures and social formations. The major shift to the study of culture and to interdisciplinary approaches represented the most prominent responses of poststructuralist propositions. The essential features of poststructuralist scholarship imply that their positioning is inappropriate for traditionalist communities and writings. Therefore, although interdisciplinary approaches do appear in Mormon Studies today, poststructuralist thinking and methodology still remains on the margins. The religious establishment in the 1960s was also shaken to its very foundations by various spiritual and political movements. New, alternative religions mushroomed; Asian mysticism entered die public realm; and the hippie movement and drug culture offered alternative paths to mystical experiences in this period. Moreover, concerns expressed by marginalized groups could no longer go unheard. The role of women in churches, the nature of religious power, the claims of feminist theology, the issue of homosexuality, and the treatment of people of color all sparked a series of heated debates, often bringing about changes in church policy. These presented issues the LDS church also needed to consider and adopt a position on. LDS responses to these issues tended to be conservative, as were the responses of numerous other churches and organizations. Religion yet again filtered into the public sphere, becoming a powerful force in shaping the political thinking and behavior of many. The New Christian Right emerged as probably the most prominent public representation of the conservative religious responses to the turmoil of the 1960s, in contrast to the liberal-minded policies introduced by more tolerant denominations, such as the ordination of women to the clergy by the American Lutherans in 1970, by the Reform Jews in 1972, and by the Episcopalians in 1976. The LDS church, while remaining conservative on most issues, instituted one change in 1978 when, as a result of a revelation, the priesthood was opened to members of all racial groups. Obviously, this may be interpreted not simply as a product of the changing American environment, including civil rights activists' continued attacks on the institutionalized racist policy of the church through demonstrations against and boycotting of sports teams and athletes from the Mormon Brigham \bung University, but at least as much by the fact that, whereas overseas missionary activities had by then successfully 108 Annus: New Studies in Mormonism targeted non-white populations, the new converts could not be admitted to the church as full members—thus jeopardizing extensive church growth. Nevertheless, the church has insisted on maintaining its traditional power structure and patriarchal family model, preferring Mormon women to embrace the Victorian model of domesticity. As the guardians of the home and family, they are indeed tied to the domestic sphere. As a result, the circle of Mormon female academics remains relatively small and they tend to be more readily questioned and reprimanded than their male colleagues should their work meet with the disapproval of the all-male church authorities. At this point, there is no significant Mormon feminist, let alone womanist, theology to speak of, although emerging debates center on issues related to the existence and nature of the Heavenly Mother and the resultant implications of that belief. Moreover, the study of women's experiences, identity constructions, life stories, and literature, among other areas, is also underrepresented in mainstream Mormon Studies today. Many of the themes current academic writing centers on are also the outcome of issues debated in the 1960s. As for Mormon Studies, in addition to the female experience, topics related to gender relations, homosexuality, abortion, drug use, domestic violence, and racial and ethnic issues continue to be among the most controversial themes academics are discouraged from researching. Other distinct features of American culture, such as the significance of psychology, the application of psychoanalysis and therapy, although remaining areas of interest, still receive minimal attention. Information on any social phenomena which the church may perceive as possibly embarrassing, such as divorce, teen pregnancy, or suicide, are still kept from scholars, so studies on these remain scarce. The continuing policing of social scientific facts and figures, of historical documents, and of sources so crucial to the development of Mormon Studies places the church hierarchy in the position of being the primary operational force in determining the potential direction, content, and methodology as well as the academic quality of Mormon Studies. Access to primary sources is essential to conducting any serious research and should not be founded on the approval of church authorities. The practice of academic freedom is often interpreted by the church authorities as lack of cooperation with the church, possibly leading to personal recrimination or disfellowship, as in the case of Grant Palmer in 2004 following the publication of his An Insider's View on Mormon Origins. The LDS leadership viewed Palmer's book as controversial because it questioned certain events currently regarded as part of canonized church history. The harshest form of reprimand is excommunication, as was the case with five members of the so-called "September Six" in 1993. 109 Nova Religio The "September Six" were a group of LDS writers and scholars who had published studies and given public lectures which challenged or criti­ cized the LDS Church's teachings and/or practices. Of these, Avraham Gileadi has been re-baptized and is an active Saint today; Lavina Fielding Anderson continues to attend church services as a non-member; D. Michael Quinn has remained an LDS believer, although not a prac­ ticing one; Paul Toscano eventually lost his faith and also saw his wife excommunicated in 2000; and Maxine Hanks became a member of the Wasatch Gnostic Society in 1999. The sixth member, Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, was only disfellowshipped. As noted previously, the number of LDS women authors in Mormon Studies acknowledged by the church remains small, and even their work is at times restricted, such as that of Claudia Bushman and Laurel T. Ulrich, who have occasionally been prevented from delivering public lectures (Shipps, 193-203). To date, established LDS authors involved in this field also tend to be white. Mormon Studies has remained an area in which the majority of the scholars are either current or former members of the church and there­ fore possess first-hand experience and have gained access to various sources more easily than non-LDS scholars would have. This is illus­ trated quite well by the striking example of Jan Shipps, who is frequently singled out as an example of an excellent non-LDS, non-Utahan, female historian who has won the overall respect of both the church and the aca­ demic community. Despite the series of difficulties with regard to the possibility of conducting research and gaining access to materials, there is a small circle of non-LDS scholars drawn to the study of Mormonism, such as Shipps, Bloom, Davies, Forsberg, as well as Richard O. Ostling and Joan Κ Ostling. This is a fascinating religion, group, and culture with a wealth of themes to investigate. Moreover, the current state of the Mormon Church also generates wide interest. Mormonism represents a major denomination, part of mainstream American culture and religious life, and is therefore often included in national studies on religious life in the United States. With its outstanding results in globalizing its religion and increasing membership, the church's missionary program also places the church in the limelight. The economic establishment, the welfare system, and Deseret Industries, just to mention a few, all repre­ sent special features of the Church. The "Arrington Spring" opened doors and inspired unprecedented scholarly interest in Mormon Studies. However, in tandem with the pro­ gressive forces, conservative thinking also began to hold sway. Today, the church seems to have struck a balance between revisionists and tradi­ tionalists, academics possibly more influenced by the former, church lead­ ership by the latter. The outcome is a highly diverse scholarship within Mormon Studies, some writings representing contemporary academic 110 Annus: New Studies in Mormonism currents, others characterized by a strongly evangelizing tone with the primary agenda of supporting church teaching and policy. It must also be noted that a substantial reading public fascinated by the unparalleled success of Mormonism has also emerged, with a greater interest in the reasons behind this achievement than in its theology. The growth of a wider reading audience is served from time to time by the publication of more informative books with a general scope, often with a journalistic twist, such as the book by Ostling and Ostling. This market niche is filled by a number of houses that deal in publications on the Saints. Of these, the most prominent publishers today are the University of Illinois Press in Chicago and Signature in Utah. Both have made it their mission to make excellent academic studies available to a wider public, as have a number of other academic publishers of books on Mormonism as part of various series on history or social sciences. It is quite impossible to have just a quick glimpse at Mormon Studies. It is a highly complex and contested terrain even today, characterized by major discrepancies, oppositions, deep emotions, and personal involvement. As of the 1980s, die strengthening traditionalism of the church authorities has seriously interfered in the natural current of Mormon Studies, which has therefore not managed to develop to its full potential in terms of distribution and intellectual wealth. One obvious factor in Mormon Studies, therefore, remains the fact that the Church has retained its dominance in the field through a variety of techniques. Intellectual curiosity can never be extinguished, however, and it is only a matter of time before current efforts achieve the recognition and the fulfillment they are due. Ill ^ s Copyright and Use: As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling, reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a violation of copyright law. This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However, for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article. Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available, or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s). About ATLAS: The ATLA Serials (ATLAS®) collection contains electronic versions of previously published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American Theological Library Association.