Book Review Hub

Sometime soon, I intend to begin a number of series of book reviews here on this blog. All books will be chosen because I see some reason why they would be relevant to Latter-day Saints or to those who are involved in LDS-Evangelical dialogue. Each of the reviews will be done basically chapter-by-chapter, and each book will get its own hub page, to which I'll link here. In many cases, especially where I either don't feel as though I have the expertise to make an evaluation or else I'm simply not in the mood to show my hand, the reviews will basically be summaries of what the books are saying. The main purpose, by and large, will be to introduce readers to the contents of the books. It'll be a little while before we get started, so in the meantime, here's a list of some of the books we'll be examining (order subject to revision):

• Richard L. Bushman's Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (2005)
• Terryl L. Givens' By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion (2003)
• Todd Compton's In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (1997)
• Michael F. Hull's Baptism on Account of the Dead (1 Cor. 15:29): An Act of Faith in the Resurrection (2005)
• Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister, Junius and Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet (2005)
• Leonard J. Arrington's Brigham Young: American Moses (1986)
• Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency (2008)
• R. W. L. Moberly's Prophecy and Discernment (2008)
• Terryl L. Givens' People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture (2007)
• Sarah Barringer Gordon's The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America (2001)
• Craig L. Blomberg and Stephen E. Robinson, How Wide the Divide? A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation (1997)
• John L. Brooke's The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844 (1996)
• Leonard J. Arrington's The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-Day Saints (1992)
• Andre Munzinger's Discerning the Spirits: Theological and Ethical Hermeneutics in Paul (2007)
• Kurt Widmer's Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution, 1830-1915 (2000)
• D. Michael Quinn's Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (1998)
• Klaus J. Hansen's Quest for Empire: The Political Kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty in Mormon History (1974)
• Terryl L. Givens' The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy (1997)
• D. Michael Quinn's The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (1994)
• Philip L. Barlow's Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-Day Saints in American Religion (1991)
• D. Michael Quinn's The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power (1997)
• Douglas J. Davies' The Mormon Culture of Salvation: Force, Grace, and Glory (2000)
• James Patrick Holding's The Mormon Defenders: How Latter-day Saint Apologists Misinterpret the Bible (2001)
• Erich Robert Paul's Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology (1992)
• David John Buerger's The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship (2002)
• Donna Hill's Joseph Smith: The First Mormon (1999)
• Robert L. Millet and Gerald R. McDermott, Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate (2007)
• David Persuitte's Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon (2000)
• Kathryn M. Daynes' More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1910 (2001)
• Dan Vogel's Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (2004)
• Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul Owen, eds., The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement (2002)

Please stay tuned!