The following is a selected list for readers interested in pursuing the subject of Mormonism. It is not a list of all works consulted in researching this book.
ENCYCLOPEDIA
Ludlow, Daniel H., ed. Encyclopedia of Mormonism: The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 5 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1992. Nearly 800 articles by BYU professors and other LDS scholars. Authoritative, but not always candid on delicate issues.
DENOMINATIONAL DATA
Church Almanac. Salt Lake City: Deseret Morning News. Annual editions contain biographies of all present and past General Authorities, statistics, detail on each U.S. state and foreign nation, temples, history, auxiliaries, news events and other data; some curious omissions.
BOOKS
(See Endnotes for other works cited.)
Scriptures
The “Standard Works”
The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, The Pearl of Great Price. 1 vol. ed. Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981.
The Holy Bible: King James Version. Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979. With explanatory notes and cross-references to the other Standard Works.
Joseph Smith’s “New Translation” of the Bible. Independence, Mo.: Herald Publishing House, 1970. The Community of Christ owns the copyright to the Joseph Smith Translation. This edition has parallel columns of the Smith and King James Versions.
Secondary Works on Scripture
Barlow, Philip L. Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. An intellectual and cultural history, by a Mormon, based on his 1988 doctoral thesis for Harvard Divinity School.
Givens, Terryl L. By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. An LDS professor at the University of Richmond surveys Book of Mormon controversies, responds to skeptics and describes the book’s impact.
Larson, Stan. Quest for the Gold Plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson’s Archaeological Search for the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Freethinker Press/Smith Research Associates, 1996. Story of the search for archaeological support for the Book of Mormon, with similar material on the Book of Abraham. By a former LDS translation department employee with a New Testament Ph.D.
Metcalfe, Brent Lee. New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Exploration in Critical Methodology. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1993. Essays by liberal scholars who doubt the literal historicity of the Book of Mormon.
Reynolds, Noel B., ed. Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins. Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1997. Essays by Mormon scholars defending Book of Mormon historicity.
Roberts, B. H. Studies of the Book of Mormon. Edited and with an introduction by Brigham D. Madsen and a biographical essay by Sterling M. McMurrin. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985. Controversial work by the General Authority considered the dominant Mormon intellectual of the early twentieth century, withheld from publication during Roberts’s lifetime.
Sorenson, John L. An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. 1985; reprint, Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book Company and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1996. Posits that Mesoamerica provides a plausible setting for the Book of Mormon.
Vogel, Dan, and Brent Lee Metcalf, eds. American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002. Nine essays along lines of Metcalfe’s New Approaches (above).
Doctrine
Blomberg, Craig L., and Stephen E. Robinson. How Wide the Divide?: A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997. Dialogue on four topics of theological disagreement. Critics on both sides said the authors softened points of contention too much to be accurate, but the debate is interesting and the tone is gracious.
Gospel Principles. Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1997. Basic doctrine as presented in official adult Sunday school manual; approved by the Correlation Committee.
McConkie, Bruce R. Mormon Doctrine. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1979. A perennial best-seller among Mormons. The author, an apostle, was a hard-line conservative. Non-official and often controversial (for example: “Racial degeneration, resulting in differences in appearance and spiritual aptitude, has arisen since the fall.”).
McMurrin, Sterling M. “The Philosophical Foundations of Mormon Theology.” 1959; reprint, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1979. Lecture published as a pamphlet.
–––-. The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1965. A very sophisticated liberal explication of Mormon thought.
Millet, Robert L. A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005. An explanation of Mormon doctrines from a BYU theologian and church expert on external relations, aimed at evangelicals, with irenic foreword and afterword by Richard Mouw, his co-leader in an evangelical-Mormon dialogue.
–––-. The Mormon Faith: A New Look at Christianity. Salt Lake City: Shadow Mountain/Deseret Book, 1998. Intended as an appealing introduction for non-Mormons.
Roberts, B. H. The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: The Roberts-Van der Donckt Discussion. With a foreword by David L. Paulsen. 1903; reprint, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998. Debate between Roberts and a Catholic priest over the nature of God.
–––-. (1) The Truth, the Way, the Life, edited by John Welch. Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 1994.
–––-. (2) The Truth, the Way, the Life, edited by Stan Larson. San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1994. Controversial doctrinal work withheld in Roberts’s’ lifetime; published simultaneously by both houses after disputes on who owned the copyright.
Robinson, Stephen. Are Mormons Christians? Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1991. A discussion of the perennial question, aimed at a Mormon audience.
Talmage, James E. A Study of the Articles of Faith. Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1890, 1913, 1924, 1960. A classic doctrinal statement by an apostle.
White, James R. Is the Mormon My Brother?: Discerning the Differences Between Mormonism and Christianity. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1997. Answers How Wide the Divide? (above); a fairly articulate analysis of theological differences, from an Evangelical perspective.
White, O. Kendall. Mormon Neo-orthodoxy: A Crisis Theology. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987. Argues from a liberal Mormon perspective that some late-twentieth-century thinkers reacted to a crisis culture in a manner resembling Protestant neo-orthodoxy, emphasizing sin, depravity, and man’s dependence on an absolutist God, thus straying from LDS tradition.
General Histories
Allen, James B., and Glen M. Leonard. The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976. A one-volume history aimed at an LDS audience, a project of the church historical department.
Arrington, Leonard J., and Davis Bitton. The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979. A one-volume history aimed at a non-Mormon audience, produced by the church historian Arrington and his colleague Bitton.
Bushman, Claudia L. Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2006. Affirmative overview by an LDS historian.
Hansen, Klaus J. Mormonism and the American Experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Treats Mormon cultural and intellectual development.
O’Dea, Thomas F. The Mormons. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957. Still a classic study by a non-Mormon; good theological analysis.
Shipps, Jan. Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985. By a leading non-Mormon expert; particularly good on the Mormons’ own sense of their sacred history.
Biographies
Arrington, Leonard J. Brigham Young: American Moses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985. Well-written biography by a scholar who is an admirer and knows how to tell a good story.
Brodie, Fawn M. No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. New York: Knopf, 1945. Thoroughly researched, groundbreaking when published; criticized by many Mormons for a negative, polemical tone and failing to take Smith’s faith claims seriously.
Bushman, Richard L. Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984. Interpretation of Smith’s early career by a Columbia University historian who is a devout Latter-day Saint.
Bushman, Richard Lyman. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York: Knopf, 2005. The LDS historian’s landmark treatment of Smith’s full life story.
Hewitt, Hugh. A Mormon in the White House? Washington: Regnery, 2007. A conservative Protestant’s sympathetic account of candidate Mitt Romney’s career and the 2008 religious issue.
Hill, Donna. Joseph Smith: The First Mormon. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977. By a believing Mormon; something of a rival to Brodie’s earlier biography.
Launius, Roger D. Joseph Smith III: Pragmatic Prophet. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. Informative biography of the LDS prophet’s son who led the rival Reorganized Church.
Newell, Linda King, and Valeen Tippetts Avery. Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith: Prophet’s Wife, “Elect Lady,” Polygamy’s Foe, 1804–1879. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984. A well-framed account of Joseph Smith’s wife, with clear and fair analysis of controversial elements affecting their marriage and the early Mormon Church.
Vogel, Dan. Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004. A skeptic reinterprets Mormon origins in terms of Smith’s biography and psychology.
Specialized Topics
Alexander, Thomas G. Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986, 1996. Study of the ecclesiastical, political, economic, and cultural adjustments the LDS had to make in the decades after Utah’s statehood.
Arrington, Leonard. Adventures of a Church Historian. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. A loyal LDS intellectual’s candid memoir, including the church history department’s troubles.
–––-. Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958. A classic in Mormon studies.
Bagley, Will. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. A controversial sequel to Brooks’ history (see below) that argues for Young’s complicity in the 1857 atrocity.
Bergera, Gary James, and Ronald Priddis. Brigham Young University: A House of Faith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1985. Conflicts between religious authorities and BYU intellectual life.
Bringhurst, Newell G., and Darron T. Smith. Black and Mormon. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. The background and aftermath of the 1978 opening of LDS priesthood to all races.
Brooks, Juanita. The Mountain Meadows Massacre. With a foreword and afterword by Jan Shipps. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962, 1970. Most interesting as a study of the church’s difficulty dealing with the aftermath of the massacre.
Buerger, David John. The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship. San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1994. LDS ritual history.
Bush, Lester E., Jr., and Armand L. Mauss, eds. Neither White nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church. Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, 1984. Mostly articles from Dialogue; out-of-print, but the full text is available on the New Mormon Studies CD-ROM.
Compton, Todd. In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997. Carefully documented study of all the polygamous marriages of Joseph Smith.
Flake, Kathleen. The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. The Congressional showdown.
Flanders, Robert Bruce. Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965, 1975. Particularly good on the economics of Nauvoo; by an RLDS scholar.
Gordon, Sarah Barringer. The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. The title says it.
Hardy, B. Carmon. Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992. Careful study of post-Manifesto polygamy and the LDS transition to monogamy.
Marquardt, H. Michael. The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and Commentary. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1999. A critic’s examination of changes in Smith’s published revelations.
Mauss, Armand L. The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. An excellent analysis of Mormon cultural changes in the last four decades of the twentieth century, by an LDS sociologist.
–––-. All Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003. An important history of church beliefs about blacks, Native Americans and Jews.
Quinn, D. Michael. Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. Revised and enlarged edition. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998. Well-documented history of the folk magic and occult culture associated with Joseph Smith.
–––-. The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books/Smith Research Associates, 1994. The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books/Smith Research Associates, 1997. Well-researched and scrupulously documented pair of volumes on history of the church leadership, by a former BYU history professor.
Smith, George D., ed. Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992. Thoughtful essays ranging from conservative (Louis B. Midgley) to moderate (Richard L. Bushman, Leonard J. Arrington) to liberal (D. Michael Quinn) and includes non-Mormons (Martin Marty and others).
Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Mormonism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. A prominent non-LDS sociologist updates his 1984 growth projections, with Mormonism depicted as an emerging “new world faith” akin to Islam.
Van Wagoner, Richard S. Mormon Polygamy: A History. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989. A solid account from polygamy’s LDS beginnings to present-day “fundamentalists.”
Waterman, Bryan, and Brian Kagel. The Lord’s University: Freedom and Authority at BYU. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998. Controversies from 1988 to 1998 at Brigham Young University with well-publicized faculty firings. The authors were student editors at BYU.
Why I Believe. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 2002. A church-published collection of 53 prominent Saints’ religious testimonies.
Wilkinson, Ernest L., and W. Cleon Skousen. Brigham Young University: A School of Destiny. Provo, Utah: BYU Press, 1976. Official centennial history.
PERIODICALS
BYU Studies. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602. A quarterly intellectual journal supporting the LDS faith. http://byustudies.byu.edu.
Church News. A weekly tabloid supplement to Salt Lake City’s Deseret Morning News published by the LDS Church. http://desnews.com/cn.
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. P.O. Box 58423, Salt Lake City, UT 84158. An independent quarterly with scholarship from various perspectives, including liberal LDS viewpoints. http://www.dialoguejournal.com.
Ensign. Church Magazines, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84250. The church’s official English-language adult magazine since 1971; published monthly, with General Conference issues in May and November. Recent issues archived at http:// www.lds.org
FARMS Review. Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University, Provo UT 84602. Journal of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies; defends the LDS faith against all critics and assesses pro-LDS writings. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/reviewmain.php
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. Related. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbmsmain.php.
Journal of Mormon History. Mormon History Association, 581 South 630 East, Orem, Utah 84097. MHA historical articles. http://mhahome.org/pubs/journal.php.
Sunstone. 343 North Third West Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84103. This independent magazine includes liberal LDS thinking. http://www.sunstoneonline.com.
CD-ROMS
GospeLink. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998. A two-disc “reference library” with hundreds of LDS inspirational books, scriptural reference works, selected issues of the onetime church magazine Improvement Era (but not Ensign, the church magazine since 1971), and some other periodicals; from the LDS Church’s publishing house.
Infobase Library. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1998. A three-disc set from the LDS publisher with a concordance of Ensign articles (but not the full issues), BYU Studies, Church News 1988–98, official teachings and discourses of LDS prophets, the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Bruce McConkie’s Mormon Doctrine, the collected works of Hugh Nibley, and hundreds of other conservative titles published by FARMS, Bookcraft, Brigham Young University, and other church-related houses.
New Mormon Studies. Salt Lake City: Smith Research Associates/Signature Books, 1998. Indispensable, easy-to-use tool for a serious Mormon studies researcher, from an independent liberal publisher. Includes a wealth of primary-source historical books, documents, and periodicals including the Nauvoo Expositor, Ethan Smith’s View of the Hebrews, original texts of the Mormon scriptures, nearly full serials of the independent contemporary Mormon journals Dialogue and Sunstone, and much of the best independent scholarship (eighty titles from Signature Books and nineteen from the University of Illinois Press).
WEB SITES
Denominational
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints official site: http://www.lds.org. Church site aimed at outside inquirers: http://www.mormon.org.
Family Search: http://www.familysearch.org. Official Internet genealogy site begun in 1999 by the LDS Church so members and non-members can trace ancestors, with a billion-plus searchable names; draws 50,000 visitors daily.
All About Mormons: http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons. Unofficial but seeks to be “consistent with official church teachings”; much material not available on the church’s own sites.
The Cumorah Project: http://www.cumorah.org. Physician David Stewart’s independent site analyzes LDS church growth data and missionary operations.
Community of Christ (formerly Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) official site: http://www.cofchrist.org.
Restoration.org: http://www.Restoration.org. Unofficial information and links for other Restoration church groups as well as the Community of Christ (former RLDS) and LDS Church.
Educational
Brigham Young University (Provo): www.byu.edu. BYU-Hawaii: www.byuh.edu. BYU-Idaho: www.byui.edu.
Southern Virginia University: www.southernvirginia.edu.
Book Publishers And Related Materials
Deseret Book Company: 1–800–435–4532; http://deseretbook.com. Owned by the LDS Church.
Signature Books: 1–800–356–5687; www.signaturebooks.com Independent; specializes in liberal Mormon scholarship.
News Media
Associated Press. The wire’s Salt Lake City bureau closely follows LDS news. AP Digital archive at http://nl.newsbank.com/sites/apab; free story summaries since 1998, nominal fee for full texts.
Deseret Morning News: Church-owned daily in Salt Lake City. www.deseretnews.com.
Salt Lake Tribune: Salt Lake City’s non-LDS daily likewise covers the church. www.sltrib. com.
Defense Of Mormonism (Apologetics)
Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR): http://www.fairlds.org.
Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU incorporates the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), its periodicals and publications, and BYU Studies: http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu.
Scholarly and Historical Information Exchange for Latter-day Saints (SHIELDS): Unofficial; includes a “Critics Corner” targeting LDS opponents. http://www.shields-research.org.
Criticism Of Mormonism
Critics of the LDS religion post dozens of Internet sites. Among the more interesting:
Mormonism Research Ministry: http://www.mrm.org. Operated by Bill McKeever; based in Draper, Utah.
Mormons in Transition: http://www.irr.org/mit. From the Institute for Religious Research, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Numerous documents available online.
Recovery from Mormonism: http://www.exmormon.org. A Web site for ex-Mormons, Christian and not, and those questioning the church. Not affiliated with, and does not advocate, any religious faith.
Utah Lighthouse Ministry: http://www.utlm.org. Original research and links to 65 like-minded sites. Sells Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?, a self-published, frequently updated book by Evangelicals Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Salt Lake City’s best-known former Mormons.