{"id":568,"date":"2004-03-24T17:05:01","date_gmt":"2004-03-25T00:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=568"},"modified":"2004-10-01T13:59:04","modified_gmt":"2004-10-01T17:59:04","slug":"most-overrated-books-in-mormon-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2004\/03\/most-overrated-books-in-mormon-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Overrated Books in Mormon Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am feeling testy today, so I thought that I would post on a subject I have been thinking about for a while: the most over rated text in Mormon studies.  Perhaps it is part of being raised in a prophetic, leader-revering culture, but there is a tendency on the part of Mormon intellectuals toward hagiography.  Not of church leaders of course.  (Being Mormon intellectuals has liberated them from anything so crass.)  Rather, I am talking about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.signaturebooks.com\/excerpts\/mavericks.htm\">hagiography by Mormon intellectuals <i>of<\/i> Mormon intellectuals<\/a>.  (See the article on Quinn.)<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nOriginally, I had thought of doing a most over-rated Mormon intellectual thread, but I ultimately decided that was too cruel, even for me in a testy mood.  No personal attacks please.  Rather, I am interested in those texts that everyone says are a &#8220;must read&#8221; but end up being a bit disappointing when you actually check them out.  For my money the winner is:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.signaturebooks.com\/theo.htm\">Sterling McMurrin, <i>The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t get me wrong.  I like this book.  It is a fun discussion of Mormon theology in the context of the history of western philosophy and theology.  However, at the end of the day, McMurrin doesn&#8217;t have much to say about Mormonism that hasn&#8217;t already been said (better!) by B.H. Roberts.  In addition, when you get right down to it, McMurrin doesn&#8217;t really spend much time even talking about Mormonism.  Instead he gives us a rough and ready history of a couple of theological concepts with some commentary about Mormonism thrown in.  Yet as an intro to the history of theology or philosophy McMurrin is woefully inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>None of this is a criticism of the book per se, but it does make me wonder at the sometimes breathless way in which I have heard McMurrin&#8217;s acumen and insight praised.<\/p>\n<p>Any other runners up?  (Remember to be nice.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am feeling testy today, so I thought that I would post on a subject I have been thinking about for a while: the most over rated text in Mormon studies. Perhaps it is part of being raised in a prophetic, leader-revering culture, but there is a tendency on the part of Mormon intellectuals toward hagiography. Not of church leaders of course. (Being Mormon intellectuals has liberated them from anything so crass.) Rather, I am talking about hagiography by Mormon intellectuals of Mormon intellectuals. (See the article on Quinn.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essential-texts-in-mormon-studies"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}