Specific works/Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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Notes

Sandra Tanner and her late husband are certainly among the most prolific anti-Mormon authors. However, non-Mormon scholars of LDS issues have noted that the Tanners display a consistent bias in their work:

[The Tanners] always assume the worst possible motives in assessing the actions of Mormon leaders, even when those leaders faced extremely complex problems with no simple solutions.... Every bit of evidence, even if it could be most plausibly presented in a positive way, is represented as yet another nail in the coffin being prepared for the Mormon Church. There is no spectrum of colors, only blacks and whites, good guys and villains in the Tanners' published writings.... The Tanners have repeatedly assumed a holier-than-thou stance, refusing to be fair in applying the same debate standards of absolute rectitude which they demand of Mormonism to their own actions, writings, and beliefs.
— Lawrence Foster, Dialogue[1]

FAIR Wiki articles

These wiki articles address claims made by this author.

Discussions in New York

Summary: Book of Mormon authorship theories: discussions in New York

Quote mining and textual distortion in the works of Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Summary: The Tanners are well-known for their practice of selective citation, textual distortion, and omission of context. Some examples are available on this dedicated page.


Reviews of author's work(s)

  • Todd Compton's response to Jerald and Sandra Tanners' Review of In Sacred Loneliness off-site
  • Tom Nibley, "A Look at Jerald and Sandra Tanner's Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon," FARMS Review of Books 5/1 (1993): 273–289. off-site
  • L. Ara Norwood, "Review of Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," FARMS Review of Books 3/1 (1991): 158–169. off-site
  • Matthew Roper, "A Black Hole That's Not So Black (Review of Answering Mormon Scholars: A Response to Criticism of the Book, vol. 1 by Jerald and Sandra Tanner)," FARMS Review of Books 6/2 (1994): 156–203. off-site
  • Matthew Roper, "Review of Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," FARMS Review of Books 3/1 (1991): 170–187. off-site
  • Matthew P. Roper, "Review of Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," FARMS Review of Books 4/1 (1992): 169–215. off-site
  • Matthew Roper, "Unanswered Mormon Scholars (Review of Answering Mormon Scholars: A Response to Criticism Raised by Mormon Defenders)," FARMS Review of Books 9/1 (1997): 87–145. [{{{1}}} off-site]
  • John A. Tvedtnes, "Review of Answering Mormon Scholars: A Response to Criticism of the Book, vol. 1 by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," FARMS Review of Books 6/2 (1994): 204–249. off-site
  • John A. Tvedtnes and Matthew Roper, "Joseph Smith's Use of the Apocrypha: Shadow or Reality? (Review of Joseph Smith's Use of the Apocrypha by Jerald and Sandra Tanner)," FARMS Review of Books 8/2 (1996): 326–372. off-site
  • John A. Tvedtnes, "Review of Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon by Jerald and Sandra Tanner," FARMS Review of Books 3/1 (1991): 188–230. off-site


Notes

  1. Lawrence Foster, "Career Apostates:Reflections on the Works of Jerald and Sandra Tanner," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17 no. 2 (Summer 1984), 45–46.