We should let people come up with their own answers and find their own explanation, Bushman said.

One of the best answers, Bushman said, was given by Richard Land, former head of the Southern Baptist Association. Land said Mormons are the fourth Abrahamic religion.

"Judaism, Islam, Christianity and Mormonism," Bushman said, "That's good company."

He said Mormons should be what they are and not worry about what other churches think.

An incredible amount of energy and money in the LDS Church is spent on history and apologetics, Bushman said. Mormon historians are world renowned, and the apologists do well.

But Bushman believes the governing question for the future of Mormon scholars is defining the humanistic meaning of Mormonism.

Helen Whitney, producer of the recent PBS series about the Mormons, asked many Mormons about their perspective on the world. She had one specific question: What can you say that could be used by the rest of the world?

Bushman and several other prominent Mormon historians and scholars attempted to answer, but "none of us could give her an answer," Bushman said. "Mormons have all sorts of perspective of immense value. None of them communicated with Helen."

Bushman said many doctrines that are second nature to Mormons are so deeply embedded in the problems of understanding life.

"So rather than apologists or historians," Bushman said, "we need people who can make literature in comparative religion and philosophy who will situate Mormonism in this larger scheme."

It is true that Mormons don't understand the strength of their position, Bushman said, "because we haven't put it to the test. We haven't brought it up against all these other ideas to find the meaning."