Richard Lloyd Anderson
{{for multi|the sound effects editor|Richard L. Anderson (sound effects editor)|other people|Richard Anderson (disambiguation)}}
{{primary sources|date=September 2018}}
Richard Lloyd Anderson (9 May 1926 – 12 August 2018) was an American lawyer and theologist of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who was a professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University (BYU). His book Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses is widely considered the definitive work on this subject.Church News, November 18, 2006 Anderson was the brother of Karl Ricks Anderson.
Biography
Anderson was born in Salt Lake City to Lloyd Anderson and his wife, Agnes Ricks. His father was an advertising executive with local newspapers. His family moved in later years so he attended high school in Provo, Ogden and Pocatello.
Anderson served in the United States Naval Air Corps during World War II.{{cite news | title=A half century of modern Church expansion: 1947-97 | author=Hart, John L. | date=September 27, 1997 | work=Church News | publisher=Deseret News | location=Salt Lake City, Utah | url=https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/1997-09-27/a-half-century-of-modern-church-expansion-1947-97-11382 | accessdate=2009-02-24 | archive-date=2022-03-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319135108/https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/1997-09-27/a-half-century-of-modern-church-expansion-1947-97-129502 | url-status=live }} He was a radio-man because of an overbite that disqualified him from being a pilot. He took a correspondence course from BYU on the New Testament while in the Navy. He also asked LDS Church missionaries about their teaching methods and went to teaching appointments with them, which was the beginnings of his later standardized gospel-teaching plan.
Anderson became known in when he created the "Anderson Plan," one of the earliest organized systems for the church's missionaries to teach lessons to non-members. This was developed with the encouragement of his mission president, Joel Richards (brother of LeGrand Richards). Anderson developed this plan while serving as a missionary in the church's Northwestern States Mission, from 1946 to 1949.R. Lanier Britsch "Missions and Missionary Work" in Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon and Richard O. Cowan ed., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, p. 764 This plan helped his mission be the first to baptize 1,000 converts in a year. By 1951, 11,000 copies of the plan were published and circulated to missions throughout the world, and helped to increase the overall number of converts per missionary. This contributed to the church publishing its own plan in 1952, "A Systematic Program for Teaching the Gospel."{{cite news | title=Monumental success in missionary work | work=Church News | publisher=Deseret News | location=Salt Lake City, Utah | url=https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/1999-08-28/monumental-success-in-missionary-work-16219 | accessdate=2009-02-24 | archive-date=2022-03-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319135047/https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/1999-08-28/monumental-success-in-missionary-work-122418 | url-status=live }} After his mission, Anderson was consulted by Gordon B. Hinckley as he was developing a standardized missionary teaching plan for the use of all missionaries.
In 1949, Anderson began his college studies at Weber College (now Weber State University). Hugh Nibley and Sidney B. Sperry both wrote to Anderson to urge him to come to BYU. He did so, where he studied Early Christian history and Greek under Nibley and Latin under J. Reuben Clark III and M. Carl Gibson.
While studying at BYU, Anderson married Carma Rose de Jong (born 1930), daughter of Gerrit de Jong Jr., the founding dean of BYU's College of Fine Arts. Carma's own historical interests led to a Ph.D. in historic clothing, and work for the church's Historical Department and Museum of Church History and Art.{{cite news | title=From hand-me-downs to history, clothing is a marvel for her | author=Sheffield, Sheridan R. | date=May 15, 1993 | work=Church News | publisher=Deseret News | location=Salt Lake City | url=https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/1993-05-15/from-hand-me-downs-to-history-clothing-is-a-marvel-for-her-6492 | accessdate=2009-02-24 | archive-date=2022-03-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319135039/https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/1993-05-15/from-hand-me-downs-to-history-clothing-is-a-marvel-for-her-142500 | url-status=live }} For nine years Carma taught an early Mormon clothing class at BYU.{{cite web |url=http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=469856381fcad010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=7cecc8fe9c88d010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD |title=article about an exhibit organized by Carma |accessdate=2009-09-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131115212558/http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=469856381fcad010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=7cecc8fe9c88d010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD |archive-date=November 15, 2013 }} She also wrote a book The Cultural Arts of Nauvoo.Carma de Jong Anderson, [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2002/09/in-beauty-and-holiness-the-cultural-arts-in-nauvoo?lang=eng "In Beauty and Holiness: The Cultural Arts in Nauvoo"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319135053/https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2002/09/in-beauty-and-holiness-the-cultural-arts-in-nauvoo?lang=eng&adobe_mc_ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.churchofjesuschrist.org%2Fstudy%2Fensign%2F2002%2F09%2Fin-beauty-and-holiness-the-cultural-arts-in-nauvoo%3Flang%3Deng&adobe_mc_sdid=SDID%3D1722A4B64060811F-7904E4206F71715F%7CMCORGID%3D66C5485451E56AAE0A490D45%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1647697853 |date=2022-03-19 }}, Ensign, September 2002, p. 41
In 1951, not long after his marriage to Carma, Anderson set out to Harvard where he earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School.{{Cite web |url=http://ourworld.cs.com/mikegriffith1/id131.htm |title=Some Notes on Baptism for the Dead in 1 Corinthians 15:29 |access-date=2008-09-18 |archive-date=2008-07-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709014918/http://ourworld.cs.com/mikegriffith1/id131.htm |url-status=live }} He also did studies in Greek while at Harvard and was admitted into their program of Ancient History. However his financial situation was looking down so he took the opportunity to go to Cedar City, Utah and teach for the Church Educational System there. After this Anderson earned an M.A. in Greek from BYU while working full-time as a religion instructor there starting in 1955. Anderson left BYU in 1957 to study for his Ph.D. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He returned to Utah and became a professor at BYU in 1964,{{cite news | title=Leaving the Church — a matter of attitude | date=November 25, 2006 | work=Church News | publisher=Deseret News | location=Salt Lake City, Utah | url=https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/2006-11-25/leaving-the-church-151-a-matter-of-attitude-29625 | accessdate=2009-02-24 | archive-date=2022-03-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319135039/https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/2006-11-25/leaving-the-church-151-a-matter-of-attitude-83802 | url-status=live }} teaching church history and doctrine, ancient scripture, and some courses in Greek.
One of the books Anderson wrote was Joseph Smith's New England Heritage. Anderson has also written many articles on issues relating to early Latter-day Saint history. He was a contributor to both the Encyclopedia of Mormonism and the Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History.
Anderson not only studied the early history of the LDS Church, he also studied the New Testament and the early history of the Christian Church. Anderson has also written about early Christianity. Among his works on this subject is Understanding Paul (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983). He also wrote an article on crucifixion.{{cite journal | author=Anderson, Richard Lloyd | title=Discovery: The Ancient Practice of Crucifixion | journal=Ensign | date=July 1975 | pages=32–33 | url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1975/07/discovery?lang=eng | accessdate=2009-05-11 | archive-date=2021-08-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819144749/https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1975/07/discovery?lang=eng | url-status=live }}
He also wrote studies on various spurious accounts of the life of Christ, including an essay that demonstrated how 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon did not fit the general pattern common to such modern forgeries, lending support to it as an authentic historical record.See "Imitation Gospels and Christ's Book of Mormon Ministry" in C. Wilfred Griggs, ed., Apocryphal Writings and the Latter-day Saints (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1986) p. 53-107 as well as Gerald E. Jones article "Apocryphal Literature and the Latter-day Saints" in this same book which mentions other studies by Anderson on the topic
In 2006, Anderson was given the Junius F. Wells Award by the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation.{{cite news | title=Anderson Pillars: Brothers honored for pivotal work in history, research | author=Lloyd, R. Scott | work=Church News | publisher=Deseret News | location=Salt Lake City, Utah | date=November 18, 2006 | url=https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/2006-11-18/anderson-pillars-29595 | accessdate=2009-02-24 | archive-date=2022-03-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319135050/https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/2006-11-18/anderson-pillars-83864 | url-status=live }}
Notes
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References
- [http://mi.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=46&chapid=242 Biographical essay on Anderson by Stephen D. Ricks]
- [http://farms.byu.edu/authors/?authorID=3 FARMS bio]
- Church News, September 27, 1997{{full citation needed|date=July 2014}}
- [http://mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=4&num=1&id=72 Carma Anderson's reflections on Sperry in which she also tells of her relations with Anderson]
- Church News, Aug 8, 1998{{full citation needed|date=July 2014}}
External links
- {{MormonLit author|1266|Richard Lloyd Anderson}}
- [http://josephsmithpapers.org/projectTeam Biography] at Joseph Smith Papers Project website (accessed May 4, 2012)
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Category:20th-century Mormon missionaries
Category:American Latter Day Saint writers
Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II
Category:American Mormon missionaries in the United States
Category:Brigham Young University alumni
Category:Brigham Young University faculty
Category:Church Educational System instructors
Category:Harvard Law School alumni
Category:Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement
Category:Military personnel from Salt Lake City
Category:Writers from Salt Lake City
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:Weber State University alumni