Scholarship to impact for generations

PROVO — The impact of Hugh Nibley's scholarship branches throughout the LDS Church and will be felt for generations, though the typical church member around the world might not recognize his contributions, say scholars and church leaders.

Nibley helped shape the church's chief training ground — Brigham Young University — and was the intellectual workhorse who eased the minds of members concerned by attacks on the Book of Mormon and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He wrote dozens of influential articles for church magazines in the 1940s and '50s, many on parallels between the ancient world and the Book of Mormon, and his book "An Approach to the Book of Mormon" became a church manual. The combination helped lay the foundation for greater use of and focus on the book within the church.

"If they hadn't had Hugh Nibley, they'd have had to invent him, because he did so much to reassure the typical church member there was a reason for believing the Book of Mormon was an ancient document," said Jan Shipps, a scholar who has studied Mormonism from outside the religion for nearly 45 years.

Nibley earned a doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley, mastered at least a dozen languages and studied the ancient Near East. Then he turned his vast expertise into a defense of his faith.

"Nibley stood at the end of an academic era where great scholars ranged widely over topics from history to literature to religion to psychology," said John W. (Jack) Welch, founder of BYU's Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). "It was possible in those days to know something about everything. The information explosion today has made that impossible."

In this age of specialization, Welch added, "there may be dozens of LDS scholars working on the areas Nibley encompassed."

Many are his proteges, products of his impact on BYU.

Nibley arrived at BYU in 1946 and was in the vanguard of the university's postwar boom. There were four buildings, a small library and 1,811 students when he arrived. The next year enrollment leaped to 4,366.

Welch said Nibley proved to be a model mentor and a model for teaching at BYU, helping to raise the standard of research.

"Maybe most important is he left a legacy of other scholars who were inspired or stimulated by his example to follow his example," said Daniel Peterson, associate executive director of BYU's Institute for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (ISPART).