Free Republic

Joseph Smith was a terrible writer. While that statement might sound foreign to members, considering his testimony and revelations have been spread around the world in more than 160 languages, it should come as no surprise when you realize the Prophet had no more than a third-grade education. "We can't underestimate the significance of all these scribes," said Alex Baugh, professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. "Their contributions are incalculable." Why did the Prophet call the men he did to transcribe his largely oral revelations? The answer to that question depends on whom you ask. SNIP...

Bouncing around on the trend-tossed seas of 21st-century book publishing, Mormon scholarship seems to have docked at the granddaddy of all prestigious presses: Oxford University. By all accounts, the unlikely partnership between the oldest university in the English-speaking world and an upstart American faith seems to be working. Mormon writers, particularly historians, get the academic credibility they crave and Oxford sells a lot of books. Two years ago, Oxford University Press published Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Glen M. Leonard, three LDS Church scholars. The harrowing account of the 1857 slaughter of...