Louis C. Midgley

Midgley studied at the University of Utah for his bachelor's and master's degrees.{{Cite web|url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865692448/The-acts-of-remembering-and-forgetting.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110011736/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865692448/The-acts-of-remembering-and-forgetting.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 10, 2017|title=The acts of remembering and forgetting|last=Peterson|first=Daniel|date=2017-11-09|website=DeseretNews.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-13}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.fairmormon.org/testimonies/scholars/louis-midgley|title=Louis Midgley|website=FairMormon|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-13}} He took an extended leave to serve as a missionary for the LDS Church in New Zealand 1950–1952. On his mission, he first encountered sectarian anti-Mormon arguments.{{cite journal |last1=Midgley |first1=Louis |title=Editor's Introduction: Debating Evangelicals |journal=The FARMS Review |date=2008 |volume=20 |issue=2 |url=https://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1431&index=1 |accessdate=18 March 2019}}

He earned a PhD in political science from Brown University. His dissertation focused on Paul Tillich. Midgley taught political science, specifically, the history of political and legal philosophy, at Brigham Young University from 1960 until his retirement in 1996.

In the 1980s, Midgley, along with David Bohn and Neal Kramer, criticized practitioners of New Mormon History. Midgley called the New Mormon Histories an "act of treason" against the LDS faith since they did not take a stance on the LDS Church's truth claims. Midgley wrote that since objectivity in writing history is impossible, that Mormon historians ought to "defend" the faith. Midgley's argument was a familiar one, but his use of antipositivist rhetoric was unfamiliar to Mormon historians.{{cite journal |last1=Duffy |first1=John-Charles |title=Can Deconstructionism Save the Day? "Faithful Scholarship" and the uses of Postmodernism |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |date=Spring 2008 |volume=41 |issue=1 |accessdate=14 March 2019|url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V41N01_11.pdf}}{{rp|9–10}} Thomas G. Alexander responded, stating that positivism is a miscategorization, because New Mormon Historians usually accepted spiritual experiences like Joseph Smith's visions, rather than attributing them to mental illness or fabrication as a positivist might. Later, in his Dialogue article on the subject, John-Charles Duffy described Midgley's and Bohn's logic as antimodernist rather than postmodernist.{{rp|11}}

Midgley often responded to arguments with a style one blogger referred to as "feisty."{{cite web |last1=Hodges |first1=B |title=On being cultish |url=https://bycommonconsent.com/2011/10/10/the-seaward/ |website=By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog |language=en |date=10 October 2011}} David Bohn wrote an essay for Sunstone about Mormon historiography, which Thomas Alexander critiqued at length. Informed by this critique, Bohn rewrote portions of the essay, according to Alexander.{{rp|44}} Bohn's essay, "No Higher Ground," was published in the May–June 1983 issue of Sunstone.{{cite journal |last1=Bohn |first1=David Earl |title=No Higher Ground |journal=Sunstone Magazine |date=May–June 1983 |volume=8 |issue=3 |url=https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/039-26-32.pdf |accessdate=21 March 2019}} Scott C. Dunn, an editor at Sunstone, stated that "a number of historians had gone to great lengths to discourage the publication of this manuscript [...] they sought to prevent distribution of ideas contrary to their own."{{cite journal |last1=Dunn |first1=Scott C. |title=So Dangerous it Couldn't be Talked About |journal=Sunstone Magazine |date=November–December 1983 |issue=42 |url=https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/042-42-49.pdf}}{{rp|10;28}} Midgley described the editorial interventions as censorship, which Alexander described as "intentional misrepresentation and obtuseness."{{cite journal |last1=Alexander |first1=Thomas G. |title=Historiography and the New Mormon History: A Historian's Perspective |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |date=Fall 1986 |volume=19 |issue=3 |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V19N03_27.pdf |accessdate=20 March 2019}}{{rp|44}} Alexander also accused Midgley of intentionally "misrepresenting the views of others."{{rp|44}}

Midgley was a frequent defender of Hugh Nibley and published a bibliography of Nibley's complete works.{{cite book |last1=Midgley |first1=Louis |editor1-last=Lundquist |editor1-first=John M. |editor2-last=Ricks |editor2-first=Stephen D. |title=By Study and Also By Faith: Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday |date=1990 |publisher=Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |isbn=0875793398 |chapter=Hugh Winder Nibley: Bibliography and Register|volume=1|pages=lxiv–lxv; lxxii}} He contributed the article on theology to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. In 2005-2006 Midgley served as editor of the FARMS Review.{{Cite web|url=https://rsc.byu.edu/|title=Midgley, Louis {{!}} Religious Studies Center|website=rsc.byu.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-03-13}} Other topics Midgley has studied included the abandonment of a belief in the Book of Mormon as an ancient document by members of the Community of Christ.{{Cite web|url=https://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/|title=Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 6/2 (1997)|access-date=2019-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512150404/https://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/|archive-date=2019-05-12|url-status=dead}}

Midgley has criticized both the writings of Grant H. Palmer and his representations of his career.[http://farms.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=15&num=2&id=514 "Prying into Palmer" in FARMS Review Vol. 15, Issue 2]

Following his retirement Midgley and his wife Ireta served as Church Educational System missionaries in New Zealand 1999–2000.

{{Reflist|2}}

• [https://mormonarts.lib.byu.edu/people/louis-c-midgley/ Louis C. Midgley] at the Mormon Literature and Creative Arts Database
• [http://archives.lib.byu.edu/repositories/14/resources/39 Louis C. Midgley papers], MSS 2806, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

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