Five Questions that B. H. Roberts Could Not Answer Appendix 4NOTES
(^1) Hal Boyd, “Top 10 LDS ‘Intellectuals,’” Deseret News, June 10, 2011, Deseret Media
Companies, 10 Oct. 2011 http://www.deseretnews.com/top/168/1552/Top-10-LDS-
6Intellectuals7-BH-Roberts.html. “In 1969 Leonard Arrington asked 50 prominent Mormons to
identify the “five most eminent intellectuals in Mormon history.” The following list is taken from
his list first published in the LDS journal Dialogue. ...# 10 - E. E. Ericksen; # 9 - Parley P. Pratt; # 8
- Hugh W. Nibley # 7 - Lowell L. Bennion; # 6 - John A. Widtsoe; # 5 - James E. Talmage; # 4 -
Sterling M. McMurrin; # 3 - Joseph Smith, Jr.; # 2 - Orson Pratt; # 1 - B. H. Roberts.”
Roberts was ranked the greatest intellectual in Mormon history in surveys by LDS scholars
Leonard Arrington in 1969 and Stan Larson in 1993—see Leonard J. Arrington, “The Intellectual
Tradition of the Latter-day Saints,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 4.1 (Spring 1969): 13–26;
and
Stan Larson, “Intellectuals in Mormonism: An Update,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon
Thought 26.3 (Fall 1993): 187–9.
(^2) See, e.g., “The Disappointment of B. H. Roberts,” CephasMinistry.com, 2011, Cephas Ministry
Inc., 31 Jul. 2011 http://www.cephas-
library.com/mormon/mormon_b.h.roberts_disappointments.html.
(^3) Daniel C. Peterson, “Yet More Abuse of B. H. Roberts,” FARMS Review, 9.1 (1997): 69–87,
Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2011, Brigham Young University, Maxwell Institute,
9 Oct. 2011 http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=9&num=1&id=248.
Peterson was more recently mentioned in a Deseret News article concerning the LDS Church’s
attempts to address a growing tide of inquiries submitted to “many other scholars...from members of
the LDS Church,” based on information they have discovered about the Church on the Internet. In
part, it reads, “some Mormons are being blindsided by information about the church. Richard L.
Bushman...heard that many other scholars were also being beset with queries from members of the
LDS Church who had encountered something on the Internet that had shaken their faith. he began to
hear the same thing from ordinary Mormons who had friends or family who were having problems.
He also heard from people at BYU how it was a problem there as well. People were encountering
things about church history and losing their faith—not just in Mormonism, but in God.” See Michael
De Groote, “Mormons opening up in an Internet world,” Deseret News, 1 Feb. 2012, Deseret Media
Companies, 27 Feb. 2012 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/print/700220941/Mormons-
opening-up-in-an-Internet-world.html.
(^4) See n.1 above.
(^5) James R. Spencer, “The Disappointment of B. H. Roberts,” Through the Maze, 1991, James Spencer, 11 Jan.
2012 http://www.mazeministry.com/mormonism/newsletters_articles/mantimailing/pdf/bhroberts.pdf,
bold added. A PDF of the entire brochure is available at the link above, the content of which is
given below in entirety:
The Disappointment of B. H. Roberts
Five Questions that Forced a Mormon General Authority to Abandon the Book of
Mormon
Brigham H. Roberts is revered in Mormon history as one of the Mormon Church’s
greatest theologians and historians. His six-volume Comprehensive History of the
Church is still one of the most respected works of Mormon history. Roberts was a
General Authority, member of the Mormon Church’s First Council of the Seventy, a
group which is second only to the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles. In 1898 he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, although he
was never seated because he was a polygamist.