Hugh Nibley Observed: Hugh Winder Nibley: The Man, the Scholar, the Legacy

Gary P. Gillum

“While I was investigating The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints in 1969, after spending seven years studying to be a minister of the gospel, there were two things I was reading: the Book of Mormon and an article a ward member had given me, ‘A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price,’ written by a scholar named Hugh Nibley. I had never heard of the Pearl of Great Price nor of Hugh Nibley, but what really surprised me as I read the article was that a scholar could combine faith and scholarship in such a remarkable manner—especially after I had read so much Protestant theology. Here was a fascinating article on an unknown subject by an unknown author which reflected both scholarly rigor and steadfast faith, together with an attitude of awareness and openness that converted me to the proposition that I could study anything known or unknown, in or out of space and time, from both earthly and heavenly teachers, and from many perspectives.”

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/hugh-nibley-observed/.

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About the Interpreter Foundation Book Chapter Reprint Series

The purpose of this reprint series is to make individual chapters from books published by The Interpreter Foundation more accessible to readers. Although in some instances the formatting and pagination may have been changed, the content of this chapter, like others in this reprint series, is identical to what appeared in its original book publication. It has not been updated to incorporate research that has appeared subsequently nor to reflect the current practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the full name of the Church and to avoid terms such as “Mormon” and “LDS.”

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