A review by wade117
Mormonism and Early Christianity by Hugh Nibley, Stephen D. Ricks

challenging informative slow-paced

3.0

This collection of published articles from Christian scholar Hugh Nibley is as eye-opening as it is esoteric.  Through these articles, Nibley paints a picture of many doctrinal inconsistencies between the early Christians and the later Catholic church and how the church has struggled to address these problems. Nibley makes the case that the Catholic and Protestant churches’ explanations for these inconsistencies have evolved over time but never adequately. A consistent theme in the articles is that these doctrinal concerns, once hand-waived away, have now become impossible to ignore as research and recovered documents shed further light on the early Christian faith. He concluded that the Mormon (LDS) church’s claim to Gospel Restoration is supported by the increasing parity with the early Christian faith that this newly shed light is revealing. 

Perhaps my 3/5 stars is unfair because these articles are clearly intended for an academic audience with the number of cited references reaching past 100 for many of them. The average Christian, like myself, is easily lost in the scholarly milieu. Despite its inaccessibility, there is still some valuable information to be gleaned, not least of which is a new perspective on the early church and how it has changed over time. The average reader will also gain a window into some of the major doctrinal debates raging within Christian academia.