Amy Hoyt, a doctoral candidate in women's studies at Claremont, is on the LDS advisory council to the school and agrees with Birch. She said the reaction among Latter-day Saints in Southern California is one of "pleasant surprise and almost a sense of disbelief that someone would actually take the study of Mormonism seriously and want to study it accurately. I think it's surprising to a lot of people because it hasn't been done" before.

"There's some surprise that it's a secular, non-Utah university. I also get a sense of relief from people, like 'finally someone is going to take us seriously.' "

She said the LDS Church is becoming a topic of increasing interest among religion scholars as it grows beyond the Western Hemisphere into a worldwide faith. A scholarly conference at Yale University two years ago and discussions by some at Harvard about various facets of the faith lead Birch and Hoyt to the conclusion that "Mormon studies is coming into its own" in the academic arena.

"They're beginning to deal with the reality that Mormonism is a global religion," Hoyt said. "Why not study it in a setting with a university that's extending its hand to us and wants to partner with us? I believe it will be done regardless, so why not partner with a group that's willing to partner and we can work actively to help shape the discipline so it's authentic."

Grant Underwood, a professor in the Smith Institute for LDS History at Brigham Young University, is on also on Claremont's LDS advisory council. He spoke during the school's recent conference, addressing his comments mainly to the LDS community there in an attempt to help distinguish the relationship between legitimate scholarly inquiry and faith-building approaches.

"The academic study of religion is not about settling truth claims. That's why it can take place there, where there is no fear that Mormon studies is going to contaminate the university because it's covert proselytism," he said. "They're not out to finally settle whether Mormonism is true or not but examining how it functions socially, economically, psychologically."

"None of that has to do with whether they feel they've connected with God and this is the true church. It's about describing the entity and the people and not determining whether it really came from God."

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com