Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormonism: Shadow or Reality

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Learn more about responses to: Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Wiki links	Jerald and Sandra Tanner Answering Mormon Scholars Answering Mormon Scholars (Vol. 2) Archaeology and the Book of Mormon Covering Up the Black Hole The Changing World of Mormonism — (Index of claims) Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? — (Index of claims)
FAIR links	Barry R. Bickmore, "The Tanners on the Hereafter:A Case Study in 'Studied Ignorance'," FAIR FAIR link Michael R. Ash, "Up In Smoke: A Response to the Tanners' Criticism of the Word of Wisdom," FAIR Conference, 2000. off-site Mike Ash, "Up In Smoke: A Response To the Tanners’ Criticism of the Word of Wisdom," Proceedings of the 2000 FAIR Conference (August 2000). link Danel Bachman, "Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?: History or Propaganda? Joseph Smith as a Case Study," Proceedings of the 2000 FAIR Conference (August 2000). link Daniel C. Peterson, "'Easier than Research, More Inflammatory than Truth'," Proceedings of the 2000 FAIR Conference (August 2000). link Robert Vukich, "An Incident Concerning Page 81 of 'Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?'," Proceedings of the 2000 FAIR Conference (August 2000). link
Online	Lawrence Foster, Dialogue<ref>Lawrence Foster, "Career Apostates:Reflections on the Works of Jerald and Sandra Tanner," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17 no. 2 (Summer 1984), 45–46. Todd Compton's response to Jerald and Sandra Tanners' Review of In Sacred Loneliness off-site Allen Wyatt, "Largely Shadow, Short of Reality," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 59/6 (17 November 2023). [135–158] link Tom Nibley, "A Look at Jerald and Sandra Tanner's Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 5/1 (1993). [273–289] link L. Ara Norwood, "Review of Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 3/1 (1991). [158–169] link Matthew Roper, "'A Black Hole That's Not So Black (Review of Answering Mormon Scholars: A Response to Criticism of the Book, vol. 1 by Jerald and Sandra Tanner)'," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6/2 (1994). [156–203] link John A. Tvedtnes and Matthew Roper, "Joseph Smith's Use of the Apocrypha: Shadow or Reality? (Review of Joseph Smith's Use of the Apocrypha by Jerald and Sandra Tanner)," FARMS Review 8/2 (1996). [326–372] link Matthew Roper, "Review of Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 3/1 (1991). [170–187] link Matthew P. Roper, "Review of Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 4/1 (1992). [169–215] link Matthew Roper, "Unanswered Mormon Scholars (Review of Answering Mormon Scholars: A Response to Criticism Raised by Mormon Defenders)," FARMS Review 9/1 (1997). [87–145] link John A. Tvedtnes, "'Review of Answering Mormon Scholars: A Response to Criticism of the Book, vol. 1 by Jerald and Sandra Tanner,'," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6/2 (1994). [204–249] link John A. Tvedtnes, "Review of Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 3/1 (1991). [188–230] link
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Response to Mormonism: Shadow or Reality

A FAIR Analysis of: 'Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?', a work by author: Jerald and Sandra Tanner

The Changing World of Mormonism

Response to claims made in Mormonism: Shadow or Reality by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Jump to details:

• Reviews of this work

Index of claims

Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in Mormonism: Shadow or Reality indexed by page number.

About this work

The point is, we're trying to be accurate. We want to be straightforward, we want to have the research we put out be reliable so that people can go look it up for themselves and see that in fact is what the case is. So we're upset when we see people stretching things on either side.
— Sandra Tanner, taped interview by Scott Faulring, 10 February 1982, in Faulring, "An Oral History of Modern Microfilm Company," Special Collections Library, Brigham Young University, 297.

Reviews of this work

Matthew Roper, "Review of Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?"

Matthew Roper,  Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, (1992)

The first edition of Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? was published by the Tanners in 1963 under the title, Mormonism: A Study of Mormon History and Doctrine. Since that time the Tanners' magnum opus has been published in no less than five editions, the most recent being in 1987. In 1980, in an attempt to facilitate wider distribution of their work, they published a condensed version through Moody Press. Since their debut as vocal anti-Mormons in the early 1960s, the Tanners have produced and distributed numerous other works attacking various aspects of Mormon history, scripture, and doctrine.

There are several reasons why this book merits review. First, the Tanners are considered by their fellow critics to be among the foremost authorities on Mormonism and the Book of Mormon. Their arguments are central to most anti-Mormon attacks on the Book of Mormon today. One recent critic describes Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? as "the heavyweight of all books on Mormonism." Even some of the more sophisticated Book of Mormon critics will often repeat methodological errors exemplified in the Tanners' work. Second, since virtually none of the criticisms raised by the Tanners is new, their work supplies us with a useful reference point in showing how far Book of Mormon scholarship has come in the last thirty years. This review will focus only on the Tanners' criticisms of the Book of Mormon in chapters five and six of Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? (pp. 50-125). We will notice four general areas: criticisms of the Book of Mormon witnesses, nineteenth-century parallels with the Book of Mormon, alleged biblical influences, and criticisms related to archaeology.

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