As we explained in the introduction, the purpose of this appendix is to serve as a guide to books, articles, and institutions relevant to students of the Book of Mormon. Citation information for every book and essay we’ve referred or alluded to in the previous pages can be found here, in most cases alongside a little further information about what’s important about the source in question. There’s also some helpful information about each of the institutions that promote, publish, or otherwise support Book of Mormon studies. The appendix is divided into five parts: (1) “Getting Started,” a quick guide to the essential works coming out of Book of Mormon studies, which is the kind of thing we’d recommend to absolutely anyone hoping to learn more; (2) “Getting Serious,” an introduction to the books and essays that anyone serious about contributing to Book of Mormon studies should read or become familiar with, regardless of her or his specialization; (3) “Getting Specialized,” an outline of works that can’t be missed by anyone getting involved in this or that specialization within Book of Mormon studies; (4) “Getting Around,” a quick guide to the institutions that serve and support the field; and (5) “Other Sources We’ve Cited along the Way,” a list of other sources we’ve mentioned that aren’t found elsewhere in the appendix.

What follows here is by no means exhaustive. It is, though, relatively comprehensive. That is, it ought to be enough to get anyone oriented in the field without any major gaps. Of course, specialization always requires going further into the literature, but we hope this appendix lights the first several yards of each road leading to a specific specialization.

Part 1: Getting Started

Everything we’ve talked about in the preceding chapters might seem a bit overwhelming, and so the very idea of Book of Mormon studies might now feel daunting. To ease the burden, here we’d like to lay out the essential works in Book of Mormon studies—the kinds of things that anyone—student, scholar, or lay reader alike—might immediately benefit from. The list is short, and it should be all you need to begin to find your way into the unwieldy world of scholarship we’ve tried to summarize in this book.

First, there are two editions of the Book of Mormon itself with which even a beginning student of the Book of Mormon ought to be familiar. By far the most important scholarly edition of the book is Royal Skousen, ed., The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). This edition is the finished product of literally decades of research on the manuscripts for and every major printed edition of the Book of Mormon. Professor Skousen gave years to the task of tracking down every variant among the manuscripts and editions and then analyzing these variants in depth to decide what their significance might be for establishing a critical text. (The details of all this labor are found in Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, discussed in part 2 below, and The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, discussed in part 3 below.) Skousen’s Earliest Text thus contains what he estimates to be the actual words spoken by Joseph Smith during the dictation of the Book of Mormon to his scribes. In Book of Mormon scholarship, it’s now more or less standard to quote from this edition. The edition is easy to read. Scholarly apparatus (such as a list of major differences among editions and manuscripts) is relegated to an appendix, and the text is laid out in “sense lines” that arguably make reading the text more natural. Skousen’s work has made clear how much serious academic study of the Book of Mormon must be informed by a reliable edition of the text.

As anyone familiar with the Book of Mormon knows, the translated book has a peculiar origin story—involving angels and plates, miraculous gifts of translation and scholars hoping to open sealed books, and difficulties surrounding finances and manual printing labor. Really, though, every student of the Book of Mormon ought to be far more familiar with all these details of history. By far the best resource for becoming familiar with the translation history of the Book of Mormon is a book written specifically for believing Latter-day Saints: Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2015). MacKay and Dirkmaat, currently professors in the Department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University (BYU), are both former contributors to the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Their study of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon therefore demonstrates astonishing intimacy with original historical sources, and it brings out many details about these events that are less familiar to the Saints. Without reading this book, one doesn’t know the full story of how the Book of Mormon came into the world in the latter days.

After its translation and initial publication, the Book of Mormon almost immediately became the object of intense devotion and furious attack. There has followed a long and complex history of nearly two hundred years, during which the Book of Mormon has not only been loved and hated but also carefully interpreted and editorially repackaged, represented in art and made into film, translated into many languages, and used in a variety of ways in curriculum and missionary labors. A brilliant historical summary of the Book of Mormon’s uses and abuses since its first publication is found in Paul C. Gutjahr, The Book of Mormon: A Biography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012). Gutjahr isn’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he takes great care with the sacred text and tells the story of its “biography” most responsibly. Gutjahr’s book is not only a key orienting work of reception history for scholars but also a solid introduction for any student of the Book of Mormon to how the book has fared over the first two centuries of its circulation. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the Book of Mormon in a serious way.

Another key work in reception history—although with different stakes and a narrower focus—is Terryl L. Givens, By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). Givens’s book has proved deeply important not only for Book of Mormon studies more narrowly but also for the whole larger field going by the name of “Mormon studies.” The book tracks the specifically intellectual history of the Book of Mormon’s reception—the good and the bad, and in substantial detail. Moreover, this book is arguably the one that sealed off twentieth-century Book of Mormon studies through its celebration of the successes of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) and the one that inaugurated twenty-first-century Book of Mormon studies by landing itself with Oxford University Press. Givens doesn’t have much to say about the text of the Book of Mormon itself (although some parts of the book do look at passages in detail). What’s of interest to him is where the book fits into the Restoration and why it’s important that the book has served as the principal evidence for the truth of Joseph Smith’s role as prophet. No one serious about Book of Mormon studies in the twenty-first century can avoid grappling with Givens’s presentation of the Book of Mormon’s place and stakes.

Finally, there’s one book on the actual content of the Book of Mormon that unquestionably ought to be read by everyone seriously interested in scholarly study of the Book of Mormon. This is Grant Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). Building on the close reading that went into creating his earlier Reader’s Edition (dealt with in detail in part 2 below), Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon is without question the most important single book published to date on the Book of Mormon. It has been astonishingly influential for twenty-first-century Book of Mormon studies. In terms of method, Hardy approaches the text with a narratological perspective, asking how the Book of Mormon’s authors and editors go about telling their stories. The result is a careful analysis of the volume’s three major contributors: Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni—each with his own interests and style, purpose and hopes. Hardy carefully lays aside worries about defending or attacking the historicity of the Book of Mormon and instead asks just what the book says and how it says it. Hardy’s book not only has raised Latter-day Saint scholarship on the Book of Mormon to a new level but also has been a key invitation to non–Latter-day Saint scholars to read the book in earnest. Every student of the Book of Mormon must be familiar with Understanding the Book of Mormon.

Part 2: Getting Serious

If you’re quite familiar already with the materials discussed in part 1, you might feel that you’re ready to get serious about Book of Mormon studies. What in the field—at least as it’s currently constituted—should every earnest student of the Book of Mormon be familiar with? What comes next? There’s of course so much more written on the Book of Mormon than anyone can get to in a reasonable amount of time, so what’s worth privileging? To answer these questions and so to construct part 2 of this appendix, we’ve asked ourselves a simple question: What works in Book of Mormon studies would anyone presenting a scholarly paper at a conference or submitting a scholarly paper for publication on the book be expected to be familiar with? Of course, depending on what one speaks or writes about, there might be specialized publications of particular relevance one would need to know. But the question here is what everyone writing on the Book of Mormon is expected to know. That’s a hard question to answer. We’ve had to make some judgment calls in answering it. What follows, though, is nonetheless a helpful place to get moving.

We recommended one particular edition of the Book of Mormon in part 1, which is a standard source for those working in the field and is simultaneously accessible to nonscholars. Here we might recommend two other editions. The first is Grant Hardy, ed., The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship; Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2018). The second is something like an earlier version of this: Grant Hardy, ed., The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003). This earlier effort was deliberately aimed at assisting non–Latter-day Saint readers and introducing the Book of Mormon to the larger scholarly world. After some years, however, Hardy returned to the task of producing a useful edition of the Book of Mormon, this time with the deliberate aim to make the book more accessible and useful to Latter-day Saint readers, scholarly and nonscholarly alike. The Maxwell Institute Study Edition uses the current official text of the Book of Mormon but resets the text in readable paragraphs and (where it’s amenable) poetic stanzas. Footnotes explain major textual variants, key details within the text’s structure, direct citations or borrowings from other passages, and basic issues of chronology. A series of deeply useful appendices concludes the volume, with maps and genealogies, statements by witnesses to the translation, and some general introductions to a few key issues in Book of Mormon studies. The book is beautiful to boot, including gorgeous artwork by Brian Kershisnik created for the volume.

While we’re talking about editions, a key resource for understanding the publishing history of the text of the Book of Mormon—a guide to historical editions—is Richard E. Turley Jr. and William W. Slaughter, How We Got the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011). Turley and Slaughter write for a general audience rather than a scholarly one, and they assume a readership made up of believing Latter-day Saints. They provide a wonderfully helpful orientation.

A few standard reference materials are crucial. The most comprehensive commentary yet published on the Book of Mormon is Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007). Gardner leans heavily in a historical direction, and especially a Mesoamerican direction, but his wide-ranging commentary takes in a variety of approaches. He also usefully sifts twentieth-century scholarship as he comments on the text, more or less verse by verse. Another helpful resource for sifting twentieth-century sources is the encyclopedia-like Dennis L. Largey, ed., Book of Mormon Reference Companion (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003). Entries in the Reference Companion are authored by a variety of different scholars, the vast majority of them from BYU’s Religious Education faculty. Gardner’s and Largey’s works are thus good places to check to see what’s been said on just about any topic or passage in the Book of Mormon before proceeding to one’s own work. Also useful for sifting twentieth-century work, by the way—and this time with a specific focus on FARMS’s contribution—is Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002). This book is a collection of essays, each of which is written by a major FARMS scholar and summarizes FARMS research on some specific dimension of the Book of Mormon.

A particularly important reference work is Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, 6 vols., 2nd ed. (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; FARMS, 2017). This set of six large volumes contains Skousen’s notes on more or less every variant in the Book of Mormon’s print history. They’re essentially the notes produced along the way as Skousen worked to publish The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, mentioned already in part 1. Because Skousen occasionally makes judgment calls in constructing The Earliest Text, it’s crucial for serious students of the Book of Mormon to be familiar with the details lying behind his now-standard edition. (Remember that some of the more significant variants are highlighted in The Earliest Text itself in an appendix, as well as in the footnotes of Hardy’s Maxwell Institute Study Edition of the Book of Mormon.) One further reference work of sorts that certainly deserves notice here is Terryl L. Givens, The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). Going much deeper into the text of the Book of Mormon than By the Hand of Mormon, this little volume gives an overview of the text from a theological angle. It’s a likely place for many non–Latter-day Saints to start, and so it’s crucial for serious students of the Book of Mormon to know it well.

Since 2018, in each issue the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies has published a detailed review of literature on some specialized topic within Book of Mormon studies. These reviews have quickly become key resources for all students of the Book of Mormon and a starting place for further research. They are key reference works in their own right and include—so far—Russell W. Stevenson, “Reckoning with Race in the Book of Mormon: A Review of Literature,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 27 (2018): 210–25; Nicholas J. Frederick, “The Bible and the Book of Mormon: A Review of Literature,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 28 (2019): 205–36; Joseph M. Spencer, “The Presentation of Gender in the Book of Mormon: A Review of Literature,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 231–63; and Scott Hales, “Something Akin to Dissatisfaction: A Review of Book of Mormon Novels,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 30 (2021): 198–230. Each issue of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies has also included—since 2017—an annual bibliography of scholarly works on the Book of Mormon published during the previous year. Every scholar working on the Book of Mormon should be perusing these annual bibliographies alongside the literature reviews. Note also that there’s a comprehensive bibliography for work published up until the mid-1990s: Donald W. Parry, Jeanette W. Miller, and Sandra A. Thorne, eds., A Comprehensive Annotated Book of Mormon Bibliography (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1996).

A few works on the early history of the Book of Mormon’s reception—on how the book was read and understood by the first Latter-day Saints and sometimes by later generations—have profoundly influenced the way that scholars have understood the book’s modern history. Of chief importance here (in addition to Givens’s By the Hand of Mormon, already addressed in part 1) are three treatments: the first chapter of Philip L. Barlow, Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Grant Underwood, “Book of Mormon Usage in Early LDS Theology,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17, no. 3 (Autumn 1984): 35–74; and Noel B. Reynolds, “The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon in the Twentieth Century,” BYU Studies Quarterly 38, no. 2 (1999): 6–47. Recent work that has garnered much attention and begun to qualify and clarify the picture of the Book of Mormon’s early reception includes Janiece Johnson, “Becoming a People of the Books: Toward an Understanding of Early Mormon Converts and the New Word of the Lord,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 27 (2018): 1–43.

What we’ve mentioned so far in part 2 are the general works that anyone working in the field of Book of Mormon studies is expected to know. There are also, of course, many works of a more specialized nature that have been influential enough to shape a lot of what’s being written on the Book of Mormon in all areas. These therefore deserve the attention of all serious students of the Book of Mormon, whatever specialized topics they work on. We might begin with a few works that are substantially older than others. To start, then, all students of the Book of Mormon ought to be familiar with the writings and approaches of Hugh W. Nibley and Sidney B. Sperry. Although several of their works can be found in parts 3 and 5 of this appendix, some particularly important ones that can quickly familiarize students with their work are Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, 2nd ed., vol. 7 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: FARMS, 1988); and Sidney B. Sperry, Our Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1947).

Also important by way of providing context for earlier Book of Mormon studies is Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, 2nd ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1995. This is, of course, the book that spurred scholars like Nibley and Sperry to write in defense of the Book of Mormon in the first place. References to Brodie’s skeptical readings still frequently appear in the literature. A substantial and decidedly more faith-affirming replacement for Brodie’s book now exists in the form of Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling; A Cultural Biography of Mormonism’s Founder (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005). This is required reading for anyone working in the larger field of Mormon studies today. An oft-noted attempt to update Brodie’s skeptical reading of Joseph Smith’s relationship to the Book of Mormon—one that’s more invested in addressing the Book of Mormon specifically, in fact—is Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004). Also still of serious importance is D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987), which focuses on the role that folk magic may have played in the circumstances surrounding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

Two absolutely essential essays—still relevant a half century later—appeared between the time that Nibley and Sperry fell silent on the Book of Mormon and the time when the FARMS era began in earnest. They are too often neglected, but earnest scholars of the Book of Mormon pay them much heed. They are James H. Charlesworth, “Messianism in the Pseudepigrapha and the Book of Mormon,” in Reflections on Mormonism: Judaeo-Christian Parallels, ed. Truman G. Madsen (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1978), 99–137; and Krister Stendahl, “The Sermon on the Mount and Third Nephi,” in Reflections on Mormonism: Judaeo-Christian Parallels, ed. Truman G. Madsen (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1978), 139–54. These two works by towering non–Latter-day Saint biblical scholars modeled long in advance the spirit of twenty-first-century Book of Mormon studies, and they both continue to be real spurs to current productive work.

Naturally, there are several works from the FARMS era of Book of Mormon scholarship that have been especially important and should be familiar to all working on the Book of Mormon. Unquestionably, the best-known product of the FARMS scholars is John Welch’s work on chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. Welch produced a variety of essays on the subject, and other FARMS scholars (and lay authors) followed up on his discovery with further work of their own. The best introduction to Welch’s discovery remains, however, John W. Welch, “Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon,” in Chiasmus in Antiquity: Structures, Analyses, Exegesis, ed. John W. Welch (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998), 198–210. (Note that the whole collection in which the essay appears clarifies the status of chiasmus in various ancient contexts.) Of course, FARMS produced many volumes of important work, but the best representative of their collective work—a solid place to become familiar with their general conclusions rather than with the details of their operation—is John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks, King Benjamin’s Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom” (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998). Further, without question, the best twentieth-century work on Mesoamerican connections within the Book of Mormon—also a product of the FARMS project—is John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book; 1985). As we’ve noted, the doctrinal project represented by BYU’s College of Religious Education was concurrent with FARMS. A particularly representative volume for that whole project would be Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr., eds., The Book of Mormon: Second Nephi, the Doctrinal Structure (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1989).

Moving toward the twenty-first century, we’ve mentioned that questions of translation have been of perennial interest in the history of Book of Mormon studies. These have been admirably summarized in Grant Hardy, “The Book of Mormon Translation Process,” BYU Studies Quarterly 60, no. 3 (2021): 203–11. Key writings by representatives of the two major theories became essential reading by the early twenty-first century. On the “loose control” end of the spectrum, the still-standard work is Blake T. Ostler, “The Book of Mormon as a Modern Expansion of an Ancient Source,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 66–123. On the “tight control” end of the spectrum, the best study remains Royal Skousen, “Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript,” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997), 61–93. Key essays calling for a potential revision of the very idea of translation have appeared quite recently in Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Brian M. Hauglid, eds., Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2020). For a helpful introduction to the basic mechanics of translation and the key sources, see Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick, Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2016).

Several books stand at the cutting edge of their respective specializations and have drawn much attention. As we’ve said, each deserves familiarity from anyone working in the field, at the very least in order to have a sense of what’s taking shape. On the study of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, particularly unique and celebrated is Don Bradley, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2020). Representing the theological angle is Joseph M. Spencer, An Other Testament: On Typology, 2nd ed. (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2016)—as well as, naturally, the whole Book of Mormon: Brief Theological Introductions series, edited by J. Spencer Fluhman and Philip L. Barlow and published in 2020 by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute. At the cutting edge of intertextuality stands Nicholas J. Frederick, The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the Rhetoric of Allusivity (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016). Pressing the way forward in comparative scripture is unquestionably Jad Hatem, Postponing Heaven: The Three Nephites, the Bodhisattva, and the Mahdi, trans. Jonathon Penny (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2015). Securing the possibilities of a conversation about the Book of Mormon across the borders of different religious traditions is John Christopher Thomas, A Pentecostal Reads the Book of Mormon: A Literary and Theological Introduction (Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2016). And outlining what it might mean to pursue a literary reading further—especially one informed by current Americanist scholarship—is Elizabeth Fenton and Jared Hickman, eds., Americanist Approaches to “The Book of Mormon” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019).

Part 3: Getting Specialized

Once you’ve developed a sense for the field as a whole, you might be interested in pursuing a more specialized dimension of Book of Mormon studies. Because this field is small by comparison with many academic disciplines, some might feel like it’s possible to become familiar with everything of importance in relatively short order. Others will certainly feel as if it’s impossible to ever get to the bottom of so much research. Either way, it’s crucial to recognize that there’s often far more important past scholarship to be surveyed than is expected when it comes to more specific topics in Book of Mormon studies. And these specialist literatures are far too often ignored by students working their way into the field. Here in part 3, then, we introduce resources mentioned or alluded to in the preceding pages that will be of particular interest to students of the Book of Mormon hoping to get more specific.

Students of the Book of Mormon interested in the textual history of the Book of Mormon beyond the resources appearing in part 2 should see The Joseph Smith Papers editions of the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon: Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 3: Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, facsimile ed., 2 pts., vol. 3 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Ronald K. Esplin and Matthew J. Grow (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2015); and Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 5: Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, facsimile ed., vol. 5 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Matthew C. Godfrey, R. Eric Smith, Matthew J. Grow, and Ronald K. Esplin (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2021). Also essential is Royal Skousen, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. (Provo, UT: FARMS; BYU Studies, 2016–21). For an important early effort to produce a critical text of the Book of Mormon, see Robert F. Smith, ed., Book of Mormon Critical Text: A Tool for Scholarly Reference, 3 vols. (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1984).

In addition to works already mentioned on the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon, interested students should be familiar with the more detailed history recounted in Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984). Historical sources can be found compiled in Larry E. Morris, ed., A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). Hugh Nibley’s response to Fawn Brodie’s infamous biography of Joseph Smith is titled “No, Ma’am, That’s Not History: A Brief Review of Mrs. Brodie’s Reluctant Vindication of a Prophet She Seeks to Expose,” in The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, vol. 11, Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass, ed. David J. Whittaker (Provo, UT: FARMS; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1991), 1–45. An important but problematic development of D. Michael Quinn’s work on these issues is John L. Brooke, The Refiner’s Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994). For Brant Gardner’s development of Blake Ostler’s expansion theory of the Book of Mormon, see Brant A. Gardner, The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2011). For more recent work on the textual history of the Book of Mormon, see especially William L. Davis, Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020); and Samuel Morris Brown, Joseph Smith’s Translation: The Words and Worlds of Early Mormonism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).

Students of the Book of Mormon interested in the defense of the historicity of the Book of Mormon should be familiar with Sidney B. Sperry, The Book of Mormon Testifies (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1952); and Sidney B. Sperry, The Problems of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1964). (The latter was later published in 1967 under the title Answers to Book of Mormon Questions.) Some of the most important among Sperry’s contributions were gathered in a special issue of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: volume 4, issue 1 (1995). Obviously crucial also is Hugh Nibley, and among Nibley’s key works on the Book of Mormon as yet unmentioned are Lehi in the Desert / The World of the Jaredites / There Were Jaredites, vol. 5 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Provo, UT: FARMS; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1988); An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 3rd ed., vol. 6 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Provo, UT: FARMS; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1988); and the essays gathered in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, vol. 8 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Provo, UT: FARMS; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book; 1989).

Key works by FARMS scholars not mentioned in part 2 include the essential stand-alone books by founder John Welch: The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount: A Latter-day Saint Approach (Provo, UT: FARMS; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990); and The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2008). Also, previously unmentioned FARMS volumes of particular value and importance are Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998); Noel B. Reynolds, ed., Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997); and John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely, eds., Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004). See also Andrew C. Skinner and Gaye Strathearn, eds., Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2012).

Critical responses to FARMS scholarship (and some of its predecessors) appear famously and most importantly in Brent Lee Metcalfe, ed., New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1993). FARMS scholars responded to this book in numerous reviews and essays, especially in volume 6, issue 1 (1994) of the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon. The important acknowledgment of FARMS’s scholarship from evangelical scholars can be found in Carl Mosser and Paul Owen, “Mormon Scholarship, Apologetics, and Evangelical Neglect: Losing the Battle and Not Knowing It?,” Trinity Journal 19, no. 2 (Fall 1998): 179–205. Responding to their own essay, Mosser and Owen gathered further critical responses to FARMS scholarship in Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul Owen, eds., The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002). For helpful theoretical reflections on the nature of apologetics, see Blair G. Van Dyke and Loyd Isao Ericson, eds., Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Apologetics (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2017).

Those interested in Book of Mormon geography can find a good summary of what’s been done in Andrew H. Hedges, “Book of Mormon Geographies,” BYU Studies Quarterly 60, no. 3 (2021): 193–202. They should be especially familiar with the writings of John Sorenson. Beyond what’s already mentioned in part 2 are John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2013); and the especially helpful reference volumes John L. Sorenson, The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1992); and John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Map (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2000).

The most important of Brant Gardner’s conclusions in his commentary Second Witness have been gathered into a sustained treatment in Brant A. Gardner, Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2015). Good examinations of particular issues representing a new generation of Mesoamericanists are Mark Alan Wright, “Joseph Smith and Native American Artifacts,” in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, ed. Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2015), 119–40; and Kerry Hull, “An ‘East Wind’: Old and New World Perspectives,” in Abinadi: He Came among Them in Disguise, ed. Shon D. Hopkin (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2018), 169–208. For important critiques of the Mesoamerican model, see Deanne G. Matheny, “Does the Shoe Fit? A Critique of the Limited Tehuantepec Geography,” in New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, ed. Brent Lee Metcalfe (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1993), 269–328.

Key representative works from those promoting a Heartland model (the model that assumes that the events of the Book of Mormon took place geographically within the United States) are Rod L. Meldrum, Exploring the Book of Mormon in America’s Heartland: A Visual Journey of Discovery (New York: Digital Legend Press, 2011); and Bruce H. Porter and Rod L. Meldrum, Prophecies and Promises: The Book of Mormon and the United States of America (New York: Digital Legend Press, 2009). Important responses to the Heartland project are Mark Alan Wright, “Heartland as Hinterland: The Mesoamerican Core and North American Periphery of Book of Mormon Geography,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 13 (2015): 111–29; and Gregory L. Smith, “Often in Error, Seldom in Doubt: Rod Meldrum and Book of Mormon DNA,” FARMS Review 22, no. 1 (2010): 17–161.

Recent years have seen the emergence of a handful of Book of Mormon scholars interested in pressing forward with setting the book in its ancient context but without making arguing for historicity central to their work. Such studies are helpfully illuminating the text for a believing readership without becoming embroiled in debates. Particularly helpful starting points for seeing what this scholarship looks like are Daniel Belnap, “‘And It Came to Pass . . .’: The Sociopolitical Events in the Book of Mormon Leading to the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 23 (2014): 101–39; Daniel Belnap, “‘And He Was Anti-Christ’: The Significance of the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges, Part 2,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 28 (2019): 91–136; and Avram R. Shannon, “Law of God/God of Law: The Law of Moses in Alma’s Teachings to Corianton,” in Give Ear to My Words: Text and Context of Alma 36–42, ed. Kerry M. Hull, Nicholas J. Frederick, and Hank R. Smith (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2019), 129–54.

Major works from the doctrinal school of interpretation, especially prominent during the 1980s and 1990s, include those in the Book of Mormon Symposium series, 9 vols. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1988–94). Also important have been volumes of essays given at the annual BYU Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, which focuses on the Book of Mormon every four years. See especially important volumes in more recent years: Daniel L. Belnap, Gaye Strathearn, and Stanley A. Johnson, eds., The Things Which My Father Saw: Approaches to Lehi’s Dream and Nephi’s Vision (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2011); Dennis L. Largey, Andrew H. Hedges, John Hilton III, and Kerry Hull, eds., The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2015); and Kerry M. Hull, Nicholas J. Frederick, and Hank R. Smith, Give Ear to My Words: Text and Context of Alma 36–42 (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2019). For the most important doctrinal reading of the whole of the Book of Mormon, see Joseph Fielding McConkie, Robert L. Millet, and Brent L. Top, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987–92). See also, however, the important critique of this work by Louis Midgley, “Prophetic Messages or Dogmatic Theology? Commenting on the Book of Mormon: A Review Essay,” Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1, no. 1 (1989): 92–113.

Literary students of the Book of Mormon should be familiar with the earliest fruits of literary work on the volume, published in the early 1980s. Especially important are Proceedings of the Association for Mormon Letters, 1979–82 (Salt Lake City: Association for Mormon Letters, 1983); and Neal E. Lambert, ed., Literature of Belief: Sacred Scripture and Religious Experience (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1981). Late 1990s flowerings of some of this early work include Richard Dilworth Rust, Feasting on the Word: The Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1997); Marilyn Arnold, Sweet Is the Word: Reflections on the Book of Mormon—Its Narrative, Teachings, and People (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 1996); and Mark D. Thomas, Digging in Cumorah: Reclaiming Book of Mormon Narratives (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1999). Grant Hardy provided a particularly important review of Thomas’s book in “Speaking So That All May Be Edified,” FARMS Review of Books 12, no. 2 (2000): 83–97.

As for the twenty-first century, Amy Easton-Flake has provided a valuable review of Grant Hardy’s seminal work, along with a detailed outline of narratology in “Beyond Understanding: Narrative Theory as Expansion in Book of Mormon Exegesis,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 25, no. 1 (2016): 116–38. More recent works push literary study into the field of Americanism and address the place of the Book of Mormon in American literature. Especially important here, besides works mentioned in part 2, are Peter Coviello, Make Yourselves Gods: Mormons and the Unfinished Business of American Secularism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019); Elizabeth Fenton, Old Canaan in a New World: Native Americans and the Lost Tribes of Israel (New York: New York University Press, 2020); David F. Holland, Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Seth Perry, Bible Culture and Authority in the Early United States (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018); and Eran Shalev, American Zion: The Old Testament as a Political Text from the Revolution to the Civil War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013). See also Elizabeth Fenton, “Open Canons: Sacred History and American History in The Book of Mormon,” J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists 1, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 339–61. For texts contemporary with the publication of the Book of Mormon that are often commented on, see Kent P. Jackson, ed., Manuscript Found: The Complete Original “Spaulding Manuscript” (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1996); and Charles D. Tate Jr., ed., View of the Hebrews: 1825 Second Edition (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1996).

For students interested in developments in Book of Mormon studies that reflect larger trends in the world of biblical scholarship, it might be best to begin with a guide to methods in biblical studies, such as John H. Hayes and Carl R. Holladay, Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner’s Handbook, 3rd ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007). Genre-defining treatments of intertextuality and reception history, less represented in handbooks for interpretation, include Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989); and John F. A. Sawyer, The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). A helpful primer on scriptural theology can be found in James K. Mead, Biblical Theology: Issues, Methods, and Themes (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007).

Major works on the Book of Mormon’s reception appear in part 1 and part 2 of this appendix. An important edition of the Book of Mormon (using the 1840 edition), however, comes with a contextual introduction to the book’s reception: Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, ed., The Book of Mormon (New York: Penguin, 2008). The early commentary by Reynolds and Sjödahl represents interpretation of the Book of Mormon on the eve of Book of Mormon studies: George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjödahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, ed. Philip C. Reynolds, 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1955). Another important contribution to reception history, although from an idiosyncratic position, is Daymon M. Smith, A Cultural History of the Book of Mormon, 8 vols. (n.p.: self-published, 2013–14).

Important works on connections between the Book of Mormon and the Bible stretch back into the twentieth century, with long-standing treatments appearing in Sidney Sperry’s Answers to Book of Mormon Questions and Hugh Nibley’s Since Cumorah. Approaches similar to those of Sperry and Nibley are reflected well in Kent P. Jackson, “Isaiah in the Book of Mormon,” in A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History, ed. Laura Harris Hales (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2016), 69–78. More recent work, however, on the important issue of quotations from Isaiah in the Book of Mormon includes Joseph M. Spencer, The Vision of All: Twenty-Five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi’s Record (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2016). On the New Testament’s relationship to the Book of Mormon, beyond his book mentioned in part 2 (The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the Rhetoric of Allusivity), see Nicholas J. Frederick, “Evaluating the Interaction between the New Testament and the Book of Mormon: A Proposed Methodology,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 24 (2015): 1–30; Nicholas J. Frederick, “The Book of Mormon and Its Redaction of the King James New Testament: A Further Evaluation of the Interaction between the New Testament and the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 27 (2018): 44–87; and Nicholas J. Frederick, “Finding Meaning(s) in How the Book of Mormon Uses the New Testament,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 30 (2021): 1–35.

Preliminary studies of the Book of Mormon and other world scripture include—beyond Jad Hatem’s Postponing Heaven, mentioned in part 2—Grant Hardy, “The Book of Mormon as Post-Canonical Scripture,” in The Expanded Canon: Perspectives on Mormonism and Sacred Texts, ed. Blair G. Van Dyke, Brian D. Birch, and Boyd J. Petersen (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2018), 73–84; Joseph M. Spencer, “Christ and Krishna: The Visions of Arjuna and the Brother of Jared,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 23 (2014): 56–80; and D. Morgan Davis, “Prophets and Prophecy in the Qur’an and the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 50–84.

An important summary treatment of how the Book of Mormon can speak to the marginalized is Fatimah Salleh and Margaret Olsen Hemming, The Book of Mormon for the Least of These, vol. 1, 1 Nephi–Words of Mormon (Salt Lake City: By Common Consent Press, 2020). More specialized work speaking to disabilities in particular is Blair Dee Hodges, “A Disability Studies Reading of Moroni Chapter 8,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 309–22. Political issues, particularly with an emphasis on war (and violence) and peace, were already the subject of Hugh Nibley’s studies in the last part of Since Cumorah, and important contributions came later in the twentieth century in Lisa Bolin Hawkins and Gordon C. Thomasson, “I Only Am Escaped to Tell Thee: Survivor Witnesses in the Book of Mormon,” FARMS Preliminary Report, 1984; Gordon C. Thomasson, “Mosiah: The Complex Symbolism and Symbolic Complex of Kingship in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2, no. 1 (1993): 21–38; and Eugene England, “Why Nephi Killed Laban: Reflections on the Truth of the Book of Mormon,” in Making Peace: Personal Essays (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995), 131–56. Historical assessments of war in the Book of Mormon can be found in Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin, eds., Warfare in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1990). Representative works pointing the way in the twenty-first century are David Charles Gore, The Voice of the People: Political Rhetoric in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2019); and Patrick Q. Mason and J. David Pulsipher, Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021).

For students interested in race and the Book of Mormon, it’s necessary to add to the works cited already in part 2 the historical treatment by John Sorenson in An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, as well as Eugene England, “‘Lamanites’ and the Spirit of the Lord,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18, no. 4 (Winter 1985): 25–32. A novel and important proposal regarding race appears in Ethan Sproat, “Skins as Garments in the Book of Mormon: A Textual Exegesis,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 24 (2015): 138–65. Crucial recent work includes especially Max Perry Mueller, Race and the Making of the Mormon People (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017); and the summary essay David M. Belnap, “The Inclusive, Anti-Discrimination Message of the Book of Mormon,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 42 (2021): 195–370.

For gender issues and the role of women in the Book of Mormon, see relatively conservative approaches from the late twentieth century in Jerrie W. Hurd, Our Sisters in the Latter-Day Scriptures (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987); Francine R. Bennion, “Women and the Book of Mormon: Tradition and Revelation,” in Women of Wisdom and Knowledge: Talks Selected from the BYU Women’s Conferences, ed. Marie Cornwall and Susan Howe (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990), 169–78; and Camille S. Williams, “Women in the Book of Mormon: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Interpretation,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 11, no. 1 (2002): 66–79, 111–14. For more obviously liberal positions from the same time period, see Carol Lynn Pearson, “Could Feminism Have Saved the Nephites?,” Sunstone 19, no. 1 (March 1996): 32–40; and Lynn Matthews Anderson, “Toward a Feminist Interpretation of Latter-Day Scripture,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27, no. 2 (1994): 185–203. Essential recent work that’s more informed by recent theory includes Amy Easton-Flake, “Arise from the Dust, My Sons, and Be Men,” in Americanist Approaches to “The Book of Mormon,” ed. Elizabeth Fenton and Jared Hickman (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 362–90; Kimberly Matheson Berkey and Joseph M. Spencer, “‘Great Cause to Mourn’: The Complexity of The Book of Mormon’s Presentation of Gender and Race,” in Americanist Approaches to “The Book of Mormon,” 298–320; and Deidre Nicole Green, Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2020). For a recent survey of gender in the Book of Mormon without a particular theoretical angle, see Heather Farrell and Mandy Jane Williams, Walking with the Women of the Book of Mormon (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2019).

The theological approach to the Book of Mormon can be studied especially by surveying volumes published by the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar. To date, see Adam S. Miller, ed., An Experiment on the Word: Reading Alma 32 (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2014); Joseph M. Spencer and Jenny Webb, eds., Reading Nephi Reading Isaiah: 2 Nephi 26–27 (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2016); Adam S. Miller, ed., A Dream, a Rock, and a Pillar of Fire: Reading 1 Nephi 1 (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2017); Adam S. Miller and Joseph M. Spencer, eds., Christ and Antichrist: Reading Jacob 7 (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2017); and Matthew Bowman and Rosemary Demos, eds., A Preparatory Redemption: Reading Alma 12–13 (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2018).

Part 4: Getting Around

In addition to books and essays on the Book of Mormon, there are naturally many institutions sponsoring and publishing work on the Book of Mormon. It’s important to be aware of what and where these institutions are. Some host conferences and symposia, some publish essays or books, and some gather and archive material online. Beyond getting familiar with the larger field and a specialized subdiscipline, it’s useful to know where to turn either to find good work on the Book of Mormon or to take one’s own work for institutional support or potential publication. Here we outline the shape of the various institutions operating within the field of Book of Mormon studies.

Since its first appearance in 1992, the premier scholarly journal for the field has been the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. From the beginning, the journal has been devoted to publishing a wide range of Book of Mormon scholarship, representing informed amateur scholarship as well as scholarship produced by established scholars. It’s currently published once a year and includes research articles, book reviews, reviews of literature, short research notes, and an annual bibliography—in addition to occasional special features (such as roundtable discussions or interviews).

Several other journals regularly publish work on the Book of Mormon. BYU Studies Quarterly publishes occasional work on the Book of Mormon addressed to an educated Latter-day Saint readership. The Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel, published by BYU’s Religious Studies Center (see below), regularly publishes studies of the Book of Mormon, principally with a focus on material that might be useful for those who teach the Book of Mormon in the classroom. The Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship publishes a good deal of scholarship on the Book of Mormon, most of it in the vein of traditional twentieth-century scholarship. Historical studies of reception of or the coming forth of the Book of Mormon occasionally appear in Latter-day Saint Historical Studies (formerly Mormon Historical Studies) and the Journal of Mormon History. Two periodicals that are more controversial, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and Sunstone, have published important work on the Book of Mormon and occasionally publish such work today. These journals publish work from an informed and often academic perspective, even if sometimes from a point of view that troubles traditional believers.

And of course, studies of the Book of Mormon can be found scattered across the publishing world in various scholarly journals in addition to the ones discussed here. Those articles can be best found using online databases such as EBSCO or Google Scholar. The annual bibliography in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies attempts to discover and list all these further-flung publications each year.

Various outfits publish full book-length studies of the Book of Mormon. By far the most important of these historically was the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), which published dozens of books on the Book of Mormon—as well as the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies and the FARMS Review in its various iterations—during the 1980s and 1990s. The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship (see below) took responsibility for FARMS’s operations in 2006 and has continued publishing book-length studies of the Book of Mormon, as well as the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. While FARMS specialized in treatments of the Book of Mormon arguing for its ancient historicity (whether through an ancient American setting or through connections with the ancient Near East), the Maxwell Institute has especially privileged theological work on the Book of Mormon. It accordingly has published not only the multivolume Book of Mormon: Brief Theological Introductions and the proceedings of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar (see below) but also the Groundwork: Studies in Theory and Scripture series. The Interpreter Foundation, publisher of the Interpreter (mentioned above), publishes occasional books in the traditional FARMS vein. All these principally aim to speak to educated Latter-day Saints.

BYU’s Religious Studies Center often publishes scholarly work on the Book of Mormon, generally in collaboration with Deseret Book (see below) and also always with the aim of reaching educated Latter-day Saints. It publishes, for instance, the proceedings of the Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, held at BYU every year and focused on the Book of Mormon every fourth year. The Religious Studies Center also publishes volumes assembled by BYU’s Book of Mormon Academy (see below), such as volumes on Abinadi (in 2018), the Jaredites (in 2019), Samuel the Lamanite (in 2021), and the Bible’s relationship with the Book of Mormon (in 2022). Apart from these series of sorts, the RSC occasionally publishes stand-alone volumes on the Book of Mormon. Deseret Book, the primary publishing outlet for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, frequently publishes content on the Book of Mormon but primarily from a devotional perspective.

A major publisher of work on the Book of Mormon, more scholarly in tone than but often just as confessional as more traditional publishers, is Greg Kofford Books. Important as an independent publishing outfit, it has published some of the most important Book of Mormon scholarship in the twenty-first century, opening its doors with Boyd Jay Petersen’s biography of Hugh Nibley (Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life) and then publishing a few years later Brant Gardner’s crucial six-volume commentary, Second Witness. Also independent but much more partisan is Signature Books, often the avowed publishing rival to FARMS during the 1980s and 1990s. Signature published much work of a critical nature during its heyday, as well as more decidedly neutral and even confessionally traditional works. It has published relatively little on the Book of Mormon during the twenty-first century.

Various traditional academic presses have become interested in publishing work on the Book of Mormon in the past two decades. Particularly important among these are two publishers with strong commitments to work on the Latter-day Saint tradition: Oxford University Press (the publisher of Terryl Givens’s By the Hand of Mormon, Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon, and Elizabeth Fenton and Jared Hickman’s Americanist Approaches to “The Book of Mormon”) and the University of Illinois Press (the publisher of Grant Hardy’s The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition and, with the Maxwell Institute, the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies). Additional major publications have appeared from Yale University Press, Princeton University Press, the University of North Carolina Press, the University of Chicago Press, and Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Many major academic presses are interested in publishing solid scholarly work on the Book of Mormon that has a broader appeal.

Several websites gather much good information about the Book of Mormon or archive past Book of Mormon scholarship so that it’s readily accessible. The most important of these is unquestionably Book of Mormon Central (bookofmormoncentral.org), which archives astonishing amounts of past Book of Mormon scholarship on its website. Beyond archiving past work, Book of Mormon Central creates online media about the Book of Mormon, especially focusing on establishing the historicity of the text, and provides resources for everyday readers of the Book of Mormon interested in deeper study. It has also begun to publish some of its popularizing work, especially in the Knowing Why series. Another important online resource is the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (or FAIR) website (fairlatterdaysaints.org), which provides well-documented answers to difficult questions and issues surrounding the text of the Book of Mormon—often drawing on the work of FARMS scholars. A more specialized online resource is the Book of Mormon Onomasticon (onoma.lib.byu.edu), which gathers information on potential meanings for Book of Mormon names in light of ancient languages.

Four institutions lead the way in promoting current and ongoing Book of Mormon research in a focused way. In 2017, a conference held in Logan, Utah, devoted toward furthering serious study of the Book of Mormon, led to the creation of the Book of Mormon Studies Association. Aimed at both Latter-day Saint and non–Latter-day Saint scholars of the Book of Mormon, the organization holds annual conferences (at Utah State University) aimed at establishing a space for serious discussion of the Book of Mormon. The association does not sponsor any publication directly, encouraging conference participants to pursue publication of their work in established journals and other publication outfits. The organization welcomes major scholars as keynote speakers each year and features dozens of papers from current researchers in the field.

The Maxwell Institute, in addition to publishing work on the Book of Mormon, actively promotes Book of Mormon scholarship through conferences, seminars, and other events. Since 2014, it has helped sponsor annual seminars held by the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar (see below), and it has held occasional symposia on Book of Mormon topics since its creation in 2006. It hosts in-person and online events about Book of Mormon scholarship and occasionally features Book of Mormon scholars on the Maxwell Institute Podcast. In addition, the Maxwell Institute sponsors postdoctoral positions specifically for scholars seriously producing scholarship on the Book of Mormon. Finally, every other year the Maxwell Institute hosts the Laura F. Willes Lecture on the Book of Mormon, a talk that is then published. Speakers have included John Welch, James Faulconer, Terryl Givens, and David Holland, among others.

The Book of Mormon Academy, founded in 2013 as part of the Department of Ancient Scripture at BYU, consists of several of the department’s faculty members who devote part of their research to the Book of Mormon. Although the academy sponsors a variety of minor initiatives, including efforts to improve teaching on the Book of Mormon and efforts to reach out to lay Latter-day Saints, its primary mark in Book of Mormon scholarship is a series of studies of shorter stretches of the Book of Mormon. Published by the Religious Studies Center, the series so far has volumes on Abinadi, the Jaredites, and Samuel the Lamanite, with other volumes currently under construction. Written from the perspective of faith, these volumes work to promote much closer reading of particular passages in the Book of Mormon than has appeared in previous scholarship, and they are informed by a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.

Begun in 2008, the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar (originally the Mormon Theology Seminar) has hosted numerous in-depth seminars on single chapters of the Book of Mormon. Originally hosting online seminars followed by public in-person symposia, it has since 2014 held annual in-person seminars in collaboration with the Maxwell Institute and a variety of other academic institutions. Each seminar gathers six to ten scholars with various backgrounds to work in a theological and literary way on short texts from scripture—generally from the Book of Mormon. At the end of each intensive seminar, participants produce individual papers, and the seminarians collectively produce a report of their shared findings. The proceedings then appear in print. Volumes on Alma 32; 2 Nephi 26–27; 1 Nephi 1; Jacob 7; Alma 12–13; and Mosiah 15 have appeared to date, and other volumes are in production.

Part 5: Other Sources We’ve Cited along the Way

Austin, Michael. “How the Book of Mormon Reads the Bible: A Theory of Types.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 26 (2017): 48–81.

Benson, Ezra Taft. A Witness and a Warning: A Modern-Day Prophet Testifies of the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988.

Berkey, Kimberly M. “Temporality and Fulfillment in 3 Nephi 1.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 24, no. 1 (2015): 53–83.

Berrett, William E., Milton R. Hunter, Roy A. Welker, and H. Alvah Fitzgerald. A Guide to the Study of the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Department of Education of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1938.

Blythe, Christopher James. “‘A Very Fine Azteck Manuscript’: Latter-day Saint Readings of Codex Boturini.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 26 (2017): 185–217.

“Book of Mormon Geography.” Gospel Topics. ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Boxer, Elise. “The Book of Mormon as Mormon Settler Colonialism.” In Essays on American Indian and Mormon History, edited by P. Jane Hafen and Brenden W. Rensink, 3–22. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.

Compton, Todd M. “The Spirituality of the Outcast in the Book of Mormon.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2, no. 1 (1993): 139–60.

Erdmann, Angela. “Subjective Objects: ‘The Book of Pukei’ and Early Critical Response to The Book of Mormon.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 27 (2018): 163–74.

Fenton, Elizabeth, and Joseph M. Spencer. “Teaching The Book of Mormon at the University of Vermont: An Interview with Elizabeth Fenton by Joseph Spencer.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 27 (2018): 128–48.

Frederick, Nicholas J., and Joseph M. Spencer. “The Book of Mormon and the Academy.” Religious Educator 21, no. 2 (2020): 171–92.

———. “John 11 in the Book of Mormon.” Journal of the Bible and Its Reception 5, no. 1 (2018): 81–106.

Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957.

Hickman, Jared. “The Book of Mormon as Amerindian Apocalypse.” American Literature 86, no. 3 (2014): 429–61.

Hunt, Gilbert J. The Late War, between the United States and Great Britain, from June, 1812, to February, 1815. New York: Daniel D. Smith, 1819.

Hutchinson, Anthony A. “The Word of God Is Enough: The Book of Mormon as Nineteenth-Century Scripture.” In New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, edited by Brent Lee Metcalfe, 1–19. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1993.

Jakeman, M. Wells. The Complex “Tree-of-Life” Carving on Izapa Stela 5: A Reanalysis and Partial Interpretation. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1958.

———. Stela 5, Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico: A Major Archaeological Discovery of the New World. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1958.

Jensen, Robin Scott. “Abner Cole and The Reflector: Another Clue to the Timing of the 1830 Book of Mormon Printing.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 24 (2015): 238–47.

King, Farina. “Indigenizing Mormonisms.” Mormon Studies Review 6 (2019): 1–16.

Madsen, Truman G. Defender of the Faith: The B. H. Roberts Story. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980.

Mauro, Hayes Peter. Messianic Fulfillments: Staging Indigenous Salvation in America. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019.

McConkie, Bruce R. Doctrinal New Testament Commentary. 3 vols. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965–73.

McConkie, Joseph Fielding, Robert L. Millet, and Brent L. Top. Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987–92.

Midgley, Louis. “No Middle Ground: The Debate over the Authenticity of the Book of Mormon.” In Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson, 149–70. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2001.

Miller, Adam S. “Messianic History: Walter Benjamin and the Book of Mormon.” In Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology, 21–35. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2012.

Millet, Robert L. “The Book of Mormon, Historicity, and Faith.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2, no. 2 (1993): 1–13.

Mitchell, Samuel. “‘Caught with Guile’: Tricksters in the Book of Mormon.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 152–77.

Murphy, Thomas W. “Other Scriptures: Restoring Voices of Gantowisas to an Open Canon.” In Essays on American Indian and Mormon History, edited by P. Jane Hafen and Brenden W. Rensink, 23–40. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.

Nibley, Hugh. The Myth Makers. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1961.

———. “New Approaches to Book of Mormon Study.” In The Prophetic Book of Mormon, 54–126. Vol. 8 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley. Provo, UT: FARMS; Salt Lake City, UT: 1989.

———. No, Ma’am, That’s Not History: A Brief Review of Mrs. Brodie’s Reluctant Vindication of a Prophet She Seeks to Expose. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1946.

Nyman, Monte S. Book of Mormon Commentary. 6 vols. Orem, UT: Granite, 2003.

Ogden, D. Kelly, and Andrew C. Skinner. Verse by Verse: The Book of Mormon. 2 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011.

Pratt, Orson. A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records. Edinburgh: Ballantyne and Hughes, 1840.

Pulsipher, J. David. “Buried Swords: The Shifting Interpretive Ground of a Beloved Book of Mormon Narrative.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 26 (2017): 1–47.

Rees, Robert A., and Eugene England, eds. The Reader’s Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2008.

Reynolds, George. A Complete Concordance to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: self-published, 1900.

———. A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon, Comprising Its Biographical, Geographical and Other Proper Names. Salt Lake City: Joseph Hyrum Parry, 1891.

———. The Story of the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Joseph Hyrum Parry, 1888.

Reynolds, Noel B. “Nephi’s Outline.” In Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds, 53–74. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1982.

Riess, Jana, ed. The Book of Mormon: Selections Annotated and Explained. Woodstock, VT: Skylight Paths, 2005.

Roberts, B. H. A New Witness for God. Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1895.

———. Studies of the Book of Mormon. Edited by Brigham D. Madsen. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.

———. “Translation of the Book of Mormon.” Improvement Era, April 1906, 428–30.

Robinson, Stephen E. “Review of The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture by Dan Vogel.” FARMS Review of Books 3, no. 1 (1991): 312–18.

Rosenvall, Lynn A., and David L. Rosenvall, eds. A New Approach to Studying the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. N.p.: Olive Leaf Foundation, 2017.

Sjödahl, J. M. An Introduction to the Study of the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1927.

Smith, Daymon M. The Abridging Works: The Epic and Historic Book of Mormon Arranged in Sequence of Composition. N.p.: self-published, 2011.

Smith, Joseph, trans. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

———, trans. The Book of Mormon. Liverpool: William Budge, 1879.

———, trans. The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1920.

Sperry, Sidney B. “The Book of Mormon as Translation English.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 4, no. 1 (1995): 209–17.

———. Book of Mormon Compendium. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1968.

Steinberg, Avi. The Lost Book of Mormon: A Journey through the Mythic Lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri. New York: Doubleday, 2014.

Thayne, Stanley J. “‘We’re Going to Take Our Land Back Over’: Indigenous Positionality, the Ethnography of Reading, and The Book of Mormon.” In Americanist Approaches to “The Book of Mormon,” edited by Elizabeth Fenton and Jared Hickman, 321–38. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Turley, Kylie Nielson. “Alma’s Hell: Repentance, Consequence, and the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 28 (2019): 1–45.

Turley, Richard E., Jr. Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

Tvedtnes, John A. The Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon. Provo, UT: FARMS, 1981.

Van Wagoner, Richard, and Steve Walker. “Joseph Smith: ‘The Gift of Seeing.’” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 15, no. 2 (Summer 1982): 48–68.

Vogel, Dan. Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1986.

———, ed. The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990.

Walker, Ronald W., David J. Whittaker, and James B. Allen. Mormon History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Welch, John W. “Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon.” BYU Studies 10, no. 1 (1969): 69–84.

Welch, John W., and J. Gregory Welch. Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching. Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999.

Welch, Rosalynde. “Lehi’s Brass Ball: Astonishment and Inscription.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 20–49.

West, Roy A. An Introduction to the Book of Mormon: A Religious-Literary Study. Salt Lake City: Department of Education of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1940.

Westrup, Rebekah. “Imaginings of the Book of Mormon: A Comparison of Arnold Friberg’s and Minerva Teichert’s Book of Mormon Paintings.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 85–119.

White, O. Kendall, Jr. Mormon Neo-orthodoxy: A Crisis Theology. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987.

Widtsoe, John A. Joseph Smith: Seeker after Truth, Prophet of God. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1951.