Hugh Nibley
Cumorah Is Cumorah
From the Nibley Corner on the F.A.R.M.S. internet site comes this brief introduction to Hugh Nibley.
"Dr. Hugh Nibley is one of the most gifted scholars in the LDS Church today. He graduated summa cum laude from UCLA and completed his Ph.D. as a University Fellow at UC Berkeley. He taught at Claremont College in California before serving in military intelligence in World War II. Since 1946 he has been associated with and taught at Brigham Young University."
This is but a very brief appraisal of Dr. Nibley and his life of attainments and achievements. One of the most distinguished attainments of Dr. Nibley, in my humble opinion, is to be so trusted by the Lord and the Church as to have provided curriculum for the Church's classes of gospel training. One such text is that entitled, "An Approach to the Book of Mormon." This 'book of a manual' was used as a course of study for the Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums of the Church in 1957. In my opinion, such a 'trusted' undertaking is to present the highest level of the truth of gospel matters before the learning minds of the Lord's Church membership. This 'trust' has not always been maintained by some who have written such manuals for the Church. In some cases an author of such a manual has later denied as truth that which was presented to the membership under the name of the Church's Authorities. Others might not regard such with such high esteem, but I must consider that these publications are presented to the membership of the Church under the name of the Church. In the case of Dr. Nibley's course, it was published by 'The Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.'
In this course manual, Dr. Nibley presented that Cumorah was indeed in western New York. To obtain the full appreciation of Dr. Nibley's finely presented and scholarly supported evidence and logic for this fact, one must at least read the Lesson, lesson 29 in the manual and Chapter 30 in the later printed book of the same name, entitled 'Strategy for Survival.' I will quote but one paragraph of that lesson here. And then I will briefly summarize some relevant additional information from the manual.
The Way to Cumorah
It is often claimed that it is quite unthinkable that the Nephites could have met a military threat in Central America by fleeing to western New York. Such hasty pronouncements are typical of much Book of Mormon criticism, building impetuous conclusions on first impressions and never bothering to find out what the Book of Mormon says actually happened. Any schoolboy of another generation, raised on Xenophon and Caesar, would brush such objections aside with a laugh—apparently these self-appointed archaeologists have no idea of what ancient armies and nations could do and did in the way of marching and retreating. But what does Mormon tell us? That Operation Cumorah was only the culminating phase of many years of desperate shifts and devices to escape a steadily growing Lamanite pressure. The movement that ended at Cumorah was not a single project but the last of innumerable and agonizing hopes and setbacks, a bungling, piecemeal process of retreat that lasted for two generations. In the histories of the tribes many a nation, after being uprooted from its homeland, wandered thousands of miles in desperate search of escape and survival, fighting all the way, only to be eventually exterminated in some last great epic battle. We need only think of the tragic fate of the Visigoths, Burgundians, or any number of Celtic or Asiatic nations (including the Torguts in our own day) to realize that there is nothing incredible or even improbable about the last days of the Nephites. fn The Kirghiz, almost the same size as the Nephite nations, migrated just as fast and as far as the Nephites in attempting to escape their Chinese oppressors through the years—and they never knew just where they were going next.
(Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 3rd ed. [Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1988], 428.)
Here Dr. Nibley presents that Cumorah in western New York was indeed the final retreat to which the Nephites came. Not only in this single paragraph, but in the subsequent information presented Dr. Nibley builds a convincing argument based upon various actual histories that such monumental retreats are both logical, possible, and have happened upon occasion after occasion. To obtain a greater appreciation for what Dr. Nibley has been able to put together, one has to have read and understood the Book of Mormon well. Dr. Nibley has reached deep into the events recorded by Mormon to obtain his understanding which he presents to the members of the Church. The evidence is compelling. In the Preface to the manual, President Joseph Fielding Smith states:
"In these lessons Dr. Nibley has approached the study of the Book of Mormon from a rather unique and very interesting point of view. It will appeal to every sincere student and should be studied by every member of the Church."
That is a grand council, which I believe should be applied even today. And in terms of Cumorah being Cumorah, the Lesson/Chapter entitled 'Strategy for Survival' with should be read and studied with particular fervor. Well done Dr. Nibley. And I would hope that you have been true to the faith of your writings under this sanction of the Church's stamp of approval.
Now from one perspective, and I am welling to claim it as my own personal perspective, those who prepare such manuals as 'Priesthood Manuals,' 'Sunday School Manuals,' and even 'CES Institute Manuals' have a sacred obligation, spoken or not spoken to publich the 'Turth of the Gospel' in those manuals. And to that degree that the Chruch then authorizes the publication of such to be taught in the classrooms of the Church, there is an implied sanction that what is contained in the pages can be relied upon as true. And when any writer of such manuals later changes there personal opinion, it does not change what has been published and taught by the Church it such manuals and in such classrooms of the Church. And it is a violation to an extent of a sacred trust to once 'teach' and 'preach' that which is so sanctioned by the Church in this manner, and then to later of one's own accord without such accompanying sanction change such to something else.
In diverting from what the Dr. Sydney B. Sperry once taught as sanctioned by the Sunday Schools of the Church, I would have to feel that Dr. Sperry did not remain true to such an implied sacred oplication to so maintain his position in the matter. It certainly did not change what was and continues to be that which is held by the Church.
(See 'Book of Mormon Studies' by Sydney B. Sperry, Gospel Doctrine Department
Courses of Study for the Sunday Schools of the Chruch of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, Published by DESERET SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION BOARD, 50 North
Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1947, pages 118 and 119.)
(See also 'Our Book of Mormon' by Sydney B. Sperry, Stevens and Wallis, 1947,
Salt Lake City, Utah, Chapter 1, pages 1-8.)
(Also see my own web page concerning Dr. Sperry's
later reversal of his personal opinion of the matter.)
Hit Counter:
Return to Book of Mormon Geography Home Page
Return to Cumorah is Cumorah Home Page