Criticism of Mormonism/Books

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Analysis of books critical of Mormonism

A

American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows by Sally Denton

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins by Grant Palmer

• • Index of claims (Click here for full article)
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Answering Mormon Scholars by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Answering Mormon Scholars (Vol. 2) by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Archaeology and the Book of Mormon by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

B

Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism by Richard Abanes

Summary: This book could best be described as an Evangelical apologetic work against Mormonism. The book spends much time refuting LDS interpretation of scriptural passages in the Bible, often claiming that Mormons have misinterpreted the scriptures and that they require "deeper study." In fact, it is claimed that LDS scholars have only a superficial knowledge of the scriptures, at one time stating that "[p]roperly interpreting them is not as simple as reading today's newspaper"

• • Index of claims (Click here for full article)
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Inside Today's Mormonism by Richard Abanes

Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley

By His Own Hand upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri by Charles Larson

C

Covering Up the Black Hole by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

D

Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism by Ed Decker

Do Christians Believe in Three Gods by RBC Ministries

E

Early Mormonism and the Magic World View by D. Michael Quinn

• • Index of claims (Click here for full article)
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F

From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism by Ronald V. Huggins

I

In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith by Todd Compton

L

"LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904" by D. Michael Quinn

Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church by Simon G. Southerton

• • Index of claims (Click here for full article)
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M

Mormon Enigma by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery

Mormonism 101 by McKeever & Johnson

Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

• • Index of claims (Click here for full article)
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Mormonism Unvailed by Eber D. Howe

• • The Hurlbut affidavits—
    Brief Summary: Hurlbut-Howe affidavits (Click here for full article)
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Mormon America: The Power and the Promise by Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling

• • Index of claims (Click here for full article)
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N

Nauvoo Polygamyby George D. Smith

• • Index of claims (Click here for full article)
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No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith by Fawn McKay Brodie

• • Index of claims—
    Brief Summary: A page-by-page response to critical claims made in this work (Click here for full article)
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O

One Nation Under Gods by Richard Abanes

Summary: In early 2002 a new book entitled One Nation under Gods (ONUG) appeared on bookshelves, promising to tell the "real" history of the Mormon Church. The author attempts to pull disparate sources together to paint a picture that, when compared to objective reality, more closely resembles a Picasso than a Rembrandt—skewed and distorted—obscuring and maligning the actual doctrines and beliefs as understood and practiced by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than 150 years.

• • Index of claims—
    Brief Summary: A page-by-page response to critical claims made in this work (Click here for full article)
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  • Source analysis—
    Brief Summary: An examination and response to how the author interprets the sources used to support this work (Click here for full article)
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  • Loaded and prejudicial language—
    Brief Summary: An examination of how the author employs loaded and prejudicial language in this work in order to discredit Mormonism. (Click here for full article)
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  • Absurd claims—
    Brief Summary: Some of the claims made in this work are simply absurd. We list and respond to those claims here. (Click here for full article)
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R

Reinventing Lamanite Identity by Brent L. Metcalfe

S

Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example by D. Michael Quinn

• • Index of claims—
    Brief Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example. (Click here for full article)
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Studies of the Book of Mormon by B.H. Roberts

Summary: This book is not written by a critic, but its purpose and audience are often misrepresented by critics in an effort to make it appear that Roberts lost his testimony of the Book of Mormon.

T

The "Book of Lehi" by Christopher Nemelka

The Changing World of Mormonism by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

• • Index of claims (Click here for full article)
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The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism by Norman L. Geisler

The God Makers by Ed Decker

The Kingdom of the Cults by "Dr." Walter Martin

The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power by D. Michael Quinn

• • Index of claims—
    Brief Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. (Click here for full article)
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The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn

• • Index of claims—
    Brief Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. (Click here for full article)
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U

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

• • Index of claims—
    Brief Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in Under the Banner of Heaven. (Click here for full article)
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