FARMS Reviews

[Maxel]

I'm a huge fan of FARMS and the Neil A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. I've been trying to find some unbiased reviews of the general quality of FARMS-produced articles, but so far I've only found two voices in the matter: FARMS's internal diagnosis of itself and anti-Mormon critiques. Of course, FARMS gives itself a positive review and the anti-Mormons give it a negative review. I've done a little bit of digging through the footnotes on various reviews from both sides and I personally find the FARMS articles more trustworthy (but that can't be because I'm an untrained, biased reader! [/facetiousness]).

So, does anyone know if any non-biased scholar or institute has reviewed FARMS? I'd love to read an honest critical evaluation of it.

[Moksha]

All these agricultural efforts should be applauded. Any journal that brings apologetics to farmers is alright by me.

[NeuroTypical]

So, does anyone know if any non-biased scholar or institute has reviewed FARMS? I'd love to read an honest critical evaluation of it.

There is no such thing as a non-biased review. Or a non-biased scholar, for that matter.

To more fully answer your question, the only people that read anything FARMS has to say, are either entrenched on one side or the other of the grand debate, or they seek to be. Nobody else cares.

LM

[Just_A_Guy]

My overall impression (and I should qualify that by saying I haven't read much FARMS stuff in the last two or three years) is that the recent stuff is consistently pretty good, but what you see in the 80s and 90s is kind of hit-or-miss.

[bytor2112]

Might check with the Holy Spirit......:)

[Moksha]

I understand that FARMS is now reprinting past journal reviews, in their current issues, that many may have previously missed.

[Maxel]

There is no such thing as a non-biased review. Or a non-biased scholar, for that matter.

Well, I'll settle for one that has no interest in the veracity of the Mormon Church's claims then.

To more fully answer your question, the only people that read anything FARMS has to say, are either entrenched on one side or the other of the grand debate, or they seek to be. Nobody else cares.

That's the impression I get, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any non-affiliated scholar that, for whatever reason, reviewed it.

Personally, I love FARMS articles- the more recent ones, that is; haven't read anything before 1990, and the only thing from the '90's I've read are book reviews. Many articles helped me come to terms with a lot of the questions that arose during my 'question-the-Church' phase of my life, and still (in certain cases) offer what constitutes to me as spiritually uplifting discussion about touchy subjects. I also find it a good place to find other work given on certain subjects by LDS scholars, as the FARMS articles often cite previous work by the LDS faithful.

[Maxel]

Might check with the Holy Spirit......:)

Been there, done that, I get the impression it's trustworthy. I still would like to get my hands on an unbiased review though, if one exists. I am an autodidact in background, and the more honest work I can get a hold of and study, the better my understanding becomes. Edited February 11, 2009 by Maxel

[rameumptom]

There is a good article by John Tvedtnes at the FAIR website, which discusses the quality of LDS scholarship, versus the scholarship of others. It includes several non-LDS scholars' thoughts, including a scholarly paper that agreed that LDS scholarship was much better than most of the anti-stuff being tossed about. It was a very interesting article for me to edit for FAIR, and I found that all of John's statements and footnotes were correct.

Scholarship in Mormonism and Mormonism in Scholarship

[Maxel]

There is a good article by John Tvedtnes at the FAIR website, which discusses the quality of LDS scholarship, versus the scholarship of others. It includes several non-LDS scholars' thoughts, including a scholarly paper that agreed that LDS scholarship was much better than most of the anti-stuff being tossed about. It was a very interesting article for me to edit for FAIR, and I found that all of John's statements and footnotes were correct.

Scholarship in Mormonism and Mormonism in Scholarship

Thank you sooo much, this is EXACTLY what I was looking for!

[rameumptom]

You are very welcome. When FAIR sent it to me to edit, I knew it would be a great article. I use about 5 FAIR articles 95% of the time when people ask questions, and this is one of those 5.

[Dale]

I like FAIR articles myself. The only problem i see in some LDS apologetics is it is hard for individuals to always answer objections that precisely match the needs of every interested person, or group. I am Community of Christ/RLDS and have been taking for self defense purposes Evangelical witnessing to Mormons, Reorganized Latter Day Saint training. And i sometimes see answers as not addressing Evangelical concerns precisely enough to help my Evangelical friends. Though the answers on scholarly issues are still mostly good, and i only see areas for improvement from time to time.

I prize FARMS and FAIR stuff for personal use in standing up for my beliefs and for answering questions.

[rameumptom]

I agree that we sometimes do not meet the answers they are looking for. The reality is, for many evangelicals, NO answer would be satisfactory except an admission that we are wrong and are ready to join them in their church.

While CoC believes in the Trinity, many evangelicals still reject them as Christians, simply because they believe in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith!

[Hemidakota]

I'm a huge fan of FARMS and the Neil A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. I've been trying to find some unbiased reviews of the general quality of FARMS-produced articles, but so far I've only found two voices in the matter: FARMS's internal diagnosis of itself and anti-Mormon critiques. Of course, FARMS gives itself a positive review and the anti-Mormons give it a negative review. I've done a little bit of digging through the footnotes on various reviews from both sides and I personally find the FARMS articles more trustworthy (but that can't be because I'm an untrained, biased reader! [/facetiousness]).

So, does anyone know if any non-biased scholar or institute has reviewed FARMS? I'd love to read an honest critical evaluation of it.

I do believe in FARMS but to a point.

[HiJolly]

I do believe in FARMS but to a point.

I like most of them. Some authors I scrutinize closely, but that's the exception, not the rule.

I find that the review of books is fairly problematic at times, where a reviewer will get really personal instead of addressing the material itself. I have seen name-calling and disparaging remarks about unnamed 'sins' and so forth, which truly saddened me. So I think they have a lot of improvement to make in their tone, specifically in book reviews.

Overall I really like FARMS.

HiJolly

[rameumptom]

Unbiased is a tough thing to determine. Who really is unbiased, when it comes to Mormonism? Some are successful in being fair in their writings, such as Richard Bushman in Rough Stone Rollling, but there are still critics on both sides that say he was too apologetic or not apologetic enough.

One thing we can do is look at the various things FARMS and the Neal Maxwell Institute are doing outside of apologetics. Daniel Peterson is well respected in the world of ancient Arab texts, which the NMI is assisting to translate and digitize. The Dead Sea Scrolls were digitized a few years ago at BYU. Some of those involved in FARMS have helped translate Dead Sea Scrolls (Dana Pike, for one). Others, like John Sorensen helped with the translations of the two volume Old Testament Pseudepigrapha with James Charlesworth.

The problem is having outside unbiased groups that would be interested enough in doing peer reviews of FARMS. Most aren't. And those biased groups are usually of the Ed Decker ilk, who definitely are not scholarly enough to make a difference.