The Present of Book of Mormon Studies: Introduction to a Roundtable Discussion

In October of 2017, a relatively small group of scholars gathered for a two-day conference entitled “Book of Mormon Studies: Toward a Conversation.” Tucked away on the schedule—among the keynote lectures, paper presentations, student sessions, reviews of recent books, and presentations of awards—was an organizing meeting. The two scholars who put the whole affair together, Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick, wisely committed themselves initially to just a one-time event. They had a limited grant to work with, and it was unclear when they issued their original call for papers whether there would be enough interest to sustain even the one conference, let alone a recurring event. When a healthy slate of submissions came in, however, they decided it would be worth raising the question among participants of whether it might be feasible to host a conference year after year. And so the organizing meeting took place on...