Emboldened and Embarrassed: The Tenor of Contemporary Book of Mormon Studies and the Role of Grant Hardy

It is hard to believe that one of the most revolutionary publications in contemporary Book of Mormon studies is only a little over ten years old. Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon was published in 2010, and while it undoubtedly rode the crest of the so-called “Mormon moment” in the early 2000s that brought new attention to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its founding text, Hardy's book also used the unique affordances of that moment to set the parameters for all future academic study of the seminal text of Latter-day Saint scripture. Put simply: Hardy's book was a landmark—a turning point in the field visible even to those who worked at a distance from the Book of Mormon—and as a result of this book, Grant Hardy undisputedly secured his place in the pantheon of contemporary Book of Mormon studies. Understanding the Book of Mormon is...