Mosser intro

Subject: Re: AR-talk FYI: "Evangelicals Fear Losing Debate With LDS"
Date: 01/29 11:50 PMReceived: 01/29 9:12 PM
From: Carl Mosser, ar-talk@xc.org
To: AR-talk, ar-talk@xc.org
Originally from: Carl.Mosser@bubbs.biola.edu (Carl Mosser)
Originally dated: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 15:51:34 -0800

>Can anyone tell me who are Carl Mosser and Paul
>Owen? Where do they work and is the paper on Evangelical
>scholarship published?
>Let me add that the conclusions on the paper seem to me to
>be essentially correct and, in my view, apply to many, not
>all, other evangelical apologetics.
>Irving Hexham

I believe that I can answer this one.

Carl Mosser and Paul Owen are both graduates of Talbot School of
Theology. Currently Paul Owen is a Ph.D. student at the University of
Edinburgh (Scotland) and Carl Mosser will be completing additional
master's programs at Talbot this Spring. The paper being referred to
was originally presented at the 1997 Far West Regional meeting of the
Evangelical Theological Society. A version is available on microfiche
through TREN at most theological libraries. There does exist a revised
version that would be worth seeing. I can forward an electronic copy
in MS Word via e-mail to any who request it. The revised version of
the paper is currently being considered for publication by Trinity
Journal in Deerfield, IL and we are awaiting word of its status. From
the title used in the posts to AR-talk it is evident that the unrevised
version of the paper is being circulated (a slight change has been made
to the title). Those with the older version may (or may not) want to
see the revised version when it is published.

A point of clarification: Neither my colleague Paul nor myself "fear
losing the debate with the LDS." We are quite confident that truth
will prevail. However, the fact of the matter is that at the present
time the LDS are winning this debate. As our paper amply demonstrates,
there is a plethora of scholarly and apologetic literature produced by
Latter-day Saints that remains unrefuted and for the most part
unmentioned in Evangelical criticisms of Mormonism. In our opinion
this is an intolerable state of affairs. The paper was written to make
the community of Evangelical scholars aware of this growing body of LDS
literature. The sophistication of argumentation and the breadth of
sources cited by the LDS in this literature is simply more than the
education and training of many cult apologists affords them to
adequately deal with. The paper was written as a call to arms fo
rEvangelical scholars who do have the needed training, skills and
specialization. Again, we do not fear losing the debate ultimately.

What we fear is that, like with the Modernist controversy earlier in
the century, the Christian community will ignore LDS scholarship so
long that we will have found ourselves in quite a hole that requires a
lot of energy to get out of that would be better spent on other
matters.

From what I can tell most members of AR-talk became aware of our paper
through Eric Pemment's citation of Noel Reynold's quotations of it in
a Forum Lecture at BYU published on the FARMS web page. At the time of
Pemment's posts I was not on the AR-talk list and was unable to clarify
matters (which I intended to do once I received a publisher's letter of
acceptance for the paper). But, as is clear to anyone who has read the
paper, Reynold's paraphrases portions of the paper's introduction and
does so in a manner favorable to Mormonism. If all one has read is
Reynold's paraphrases he or she might get the wrong impression about
the scope and intent of the paper.

It was also brought to my attention that some mention was made on the
list about a review of How Wide the Divide? by Paul and myself. Our
review is scheduled to be published in the FARMS Review of Books in
March. FARMS was quite generous in allowing us all the space we wanted
and the freedom to write whatever we wanted as long as we were civil
and fair. It is some 60-75 pages long (depending on how it is
formatted) and includes over 200 footnotes of substance. With the risk
of sounding arrogant (which I do not intend), I believe that this
review, along with our paper, is the most extensive Evangelical
interaction with LDS scholarship available today. The review was
written primarily with LDS readers in mind, but in it we also have an
aside directed at the Evangelical apologetics community. I would
encourage everyone with an interest in Mormonism, HWTD or Evangelical
apologetics in general to read it. There will also be two other
reviews of HWTD from the LDS perspective in the same edition of the
Review. If anyone questions our choice to publish this review with
FARMS I am willing to discuss this off the list.

In Christ,Carl Mosser
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