Grant Hardy
{{short description|American historian}}
{{Over-quotation|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Grant R. Hardy
| image = Grant Hardy.png
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|03|07|df=y}}
| birth_place = Chicago
| nationality =
| known_for = Book of Mormon studies
| education = Brigham Young University (BA)
Yale University (PhD)
| spouse = Heather Nielsen Hardy{{cite web|url=https://www.fairmormon.org/testimonies/scholars/grant-hardy|title=Grant Hardy|publisher=FairMormon|date=21 July 2017|access-date=19 April 2018}}
| website = {{URL|https://history.unca.edu/faces/faculty/grant-hardy}}
| awards =
| occupation = Professor
| employer = University of North Carolina at Asheville (1994–present)
}}
Grant Hardy is professor of history and religious studies and former director of the humanities program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He earned his BA in ancient Greek in 1984 from Brigham Young University and his PhD in Chinese language and literature from Yale University in 1988.{{cite web|url=https://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/grant-hardy/|title=Professor Bio Page|publisher=The Great Courses|access-date=19 April 2018}} Having written, cowritten, or edited several books in the fields of history, humanities, and religious texts as literature, Hardy is known for literary studies of the Book of Mormon.
Chinese Language and Literature Studies
Hardy has a PhD in Chinese language and literature from Yale University. Starting at nineteen years of age, he served a two-year Mandarin-speaking religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Taichung, Taiwan."[https://www.fromthedesk.org/10-questions-with-grant-hardy/ 10 questions with Grant Hardy]" by Kurt Manwaring. 5 February 2019. Accessed 20 September 2020.[http://thebluebanner.net/grant-hardy-opens-worlds-through-writing-and-teaching/ Grant Hardy opens worlds through writing and teaching]. The Blue Banner. 16 September 2015. Accessed 20 September 2020.
Mormon studies
=Book of Mormon study editions and notes=
Hardy's contributions in Mormon studies are The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition (2003), Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Readers' Guide (2010), The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ: Maxwell Institute Study Edition, (2018),{{cite web|last=Manwaring|first=Kurt|url=http://www.fromthedesk.org/10-questions-spencer-fluhman/|title=10 questions with Spencer Fluhman|publisher=From The Desk|date=10 April 2018|access-date=19 April 2018}}[https://deseretbook.com/p/rsc-book-of-mormon-another-testament-of-jesus-christ-maxwell-institute-study-guide?variant_id=169323-paperback Publication information on the Maxwell Institute Book of Mormon edition] and The Annotated Book of Mormon (2023).{{cite web|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-annotated-book-of-mormon-9780190082208?cc=us&lang=en&|title=The Annotated Book of Mormon|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1 September 2023}}
== Reception ==
;Individual works
According to a review by Michael Austin of The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition (2018; Hardy, ed.), "By combining with a serious and thoughtful scholar like Grant Hardy, the [LDS] Church has produced and authorized a version of its signature scripture that is orders of magnitude more helpful, and more scholarly, than anything it has produced before."{{cite journal|url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/issues/V52N02a.pdf|journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|pages=173–181|date=Summer 2019|author=Michael Austin|title='Reasonably Good Tidings of Greater-than-Average Joy': Grant Hardy, ed. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition.}}
Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon (2010) has been received favorably for what its publisher, Oxford University Press, describes as "comprehensive analysis of the work's narrative structure."{{cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=related:a0twW6KT0lQJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&p=&u=%23p%3DT7fpI1-W5AwJ|title=Google Scholar|access-date=20 April 2018}}
In August 2023, Prof. Hardy's "The Annotated Book of Mormon" was released. It is a fully annotated version of the BoM in the style of the New Oxford Annotated Bible.{{cite web|url=https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2024/01/grant-hardy-on-the-annotated-book-of-mormon/|title=Grant Hardy on the Annotated Book of Mormon|author=Chad Nielsen|date=16 January 2024|website=Times and Seasons|access-date=18 January 2024}} In introducing his interview with Hardy concerning this work, host Jack Dugan called him one of the preeminent scholars of the history and theology of the LDS Church.[https://soundcloud.com/oupacademic/the-revelation-of-the-book-of-mormon-at-200-episode-86-the-oxford-comment The Revelation of the Book of Mormon at 200]
;In general
Grant Shreve says the Book of Mormon's text, "once derided as 'a fiction of hob-goblins and bugbears,'" now is being examined by non-Mormon academics and university students, its inclusion on syllabi facilitated by "attractive reader’s editions of the Book of Mormon armed with immaculate scholarly introductions framing it for non-Mormon audiences" by Hardy (2005) and also by Laurie Maffly-Kipp (2008, Penguin).{{cite web|url=http://religionandpolitics.org/2017/05/23/the-book-of-mormon-gets-the-literary-treatment/|title=The Book of Mormon Gets the Literary Treatment | Religion & Politics|publisher=Religion and Politics|date=19 January 2016|access-date=22 April 2018}}
In the Mormon apologetics journal Interpreter, Neal Rappleye lauds Hardy's demonstrations of the Book of Mormon's "depth and complexity, multiple voices, and insightful readings," that bolsters its truth claims according to Rappleye.{{cite web|last1=Rappleye|first1=Neal|title=Creating a List of "Standard Works" on Book of Mormon Authenticity|url=https://interpreterfoundation.org/blog-creating-a-list-of-standard-works-on-book-of-mormon-authenticity/|website=Interpreter|access-date=1 October 2021|date=5 January 2014}}
In April 2016, the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies devoted an issue to Hardy's Book of Mormon studies, its editor saying, "We see his work as crucially transitional, bringing the scripture increasingly to the attention of the broader academy."{{cite web|author=Brian Hauglid|url=https://mi.byu.edu/hauglid-intro-jbms-25/|title=Now Available: Journal of Book of Mormon Studies vol. 25|publisher=Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship|date=22 April 2016|access-date=20 April 2018}}
=Apologetics=
Hardy, who is a member of the LDS Church, has joined proponents advocating tolerance within the faith for struggles with doubt. Providing context for his work, in his 5 August 2016 address at the annual FairMormon conference, he said, "Academics have little interest in debates about whether Mormonism is true or false, but they are increasingly interested in Mormonism as a religious and social movement." When asked during the question-and-answer session concerning believers who harbor questions about the Book of Mormon's historicity, he said, "Can faith in the Book of Mormon as inspired fiction be a saving faith? And I think the answer is, absolutely."{{cite web|url=https://www.fairmormon.org/conference/august-2016/more-effective-apologetics|title=More Effective Apologetics|publisher=FairMormon|access-date=20 April 2018}}
A two-part 2017 article by Duane Boyce in the LDS apologetics journal Interpreter questions the didactic effectiveness of Hardy's study's ascriptions of possible psychological motives to individuals categorized as prophets within the Book of Mormon. Boyce believes literary analysis of this type detracts from the book's divine purpose.{{cite web|url=https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/a-lengthening-shadow-is-quality-of-thought-deteriorating-in-lds-scholarly-discourse-regarding-prophets-and-revelation-part-two/|title=A Lengthening Shadow: Is Quality of Thought Deteriorating in LDS Scholarly Discourse Regarding Prophets and Revelation? Part Two | Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture|publisher=Mormon Interpreter|date=28 July 2017|access-date=20 April 2018}} Ralph C. Hancock published in Interpreter his argument that Hardy’s reading of the Book of Mormon is "in a way more religious than any other because it is more rational—that is, by allowing natural questions to arise and to resonate, he reveals characters to us (especially the three authors"
=Background: Opening the Book of Mormon studies sub-discipline=
{{See also|Allegorical interpretation of the Bible|Textual criticism#Book of Mormon|Mormonism and history#Tension between faith and scholarship}}
Studies of the Book of Mormon—the foundational scripture of the Latter-day Saints—usually were apologetic (devotional) or polemical (critical of its truth claims) prior to about 2010. Paralleling the burgeoning of Mormon studies generally as a field of more neutral scholarship in early twenty-first century, university courses began including literary studies of this book.{{cite web|url=http://religionandpolitics.org/2017/05/23/the-book-of-mormon-gets-the-literary-treatment/|title=The Book of Mormon Gets the Literary Treatment | Religion & Politics|publisher=Religion and Politics|date=19 January 2016|access-date=19 April 2018}}
In 2016, Nicholas J. Frederick said, "With a few notable exceptions, such as Philip Barlow’s Mormons and the Bible and Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon, full-length monographs devoted to [Book of Mormon studies] have been lacking."{{cite book|author=J. Frederick|url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781611479065/The-Bible-Mormon-Scripture-and-the-Rhetoric-of-Allusivity#|title=The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the Rhetoric of Allusivity – 9781611479065 – Rowman & Littlefield|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|access-date=20 April 2018}} In 2017, organizers of a Book of Mormon studies symposium said, "Grant Hardy has introduced the content and the depth of the Book of Mormon into the larger academic world."{{cite web|url=http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithpromotingrumor/2017/02/call-papers-book-mormon-studies/|title=Call for Papers: Book of Mormon Studies|website=Patheos.com|publisher=Faith-Promoting Rumor|date=16 February 2017|access-date=23 September 2020}}
Publications
=Books=
In addition to chapters and journal articles,{{cite web|url=https://history.unca.edu/faces/faculty/grant-hardy|title=Grant Hardy, Ph.D. | Department of History|publisher=University of North Carolina Asheville -History|access-date=19 April 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://publications.mi.byu.edu/people/grant-r-hardy/|title=Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship|publisher=Publications|access-date=19 April 2018}} Hardy has published the following books:
- {{cite book|title=The Annotated Book of Mormon|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1 September 2023|author=Grant Hardy|isbn=978-0-19-0082208}}
- {{cite book|title=Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Readers' Guide|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-974544-9}}
- {{cite book|title=The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2003|editor=Grant Hardy}}
- {{cite book|title=The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China|series=Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Ancient World|author1=Grant Hardy|author2=Anne Behnke Kinney|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2005|isbn=978-0-313-32588-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/establishmentofh00gran}}
- {{cite book|title=Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian's Conquest of History|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-231-50451-5}}
=Chapter=
- {{cite book|series=Oxford History of Historical Writing|volume=1|title=Beginnings to AD 600|editor=Andrew Feldherr|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2015}}
- {{cite book|last=Hardy|first=Grant|chapter=Textual Criticism and the Book of Mormon|chapter-url=http://m.oxfordscholarship.com/mobile/view/10.1093/oso/9780190274375.001.0001/oso-9780190274375-chapter-3|chapter-url-access=subscription|pages=37–73|title=Foundational Texts of Mormonism|editor1=Mark Ashurst-McGee|editor-link=Mark Ashurst-McGee|editor2=Robin Scott Jensen|editor3=Sharalyn D. Howcroft|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2018|isbn=978-0-19-0274405}}
Multimedia
- {{cite book|title=Sacred Texts of the World|series=The Great Courses|publisher=Teaching Company|year=2013|isbn=978-1-62997-044-8|type=Audio of 36 lectures as narrated by Grant Hardy}}
- {{cite book|title=Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition|series=The Great Courses|publisher=Teaching Company|year=2011|isbn=978-1-59803-742-5}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{cite AV media|people=Interview of Grant Hardy & Heather Hardy by John Dehlin|date=5 April 2011|title=Book of Mormon Scholarship|url=https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/250-251-grant-heather-hardy-book-of-mormon-scholarship/|publisher=Mormon Stories|medium=audio}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:21st-century American historians
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:Brigham Young University alumni
Category:Yale University alumni
Category:University of North Carolina at Asheville faculty
Category:Latter Day Saints from California
Category:Latter Day Saints from North Carolina