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Dwelling in the Promised Land as a Stranger
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About Dwelling In The Promised Land As A Stranger
This is one of those rare books that I couldn’t put down. Part saga, part humor, and part reflection, Scott Abbott, who taught at BYU for more than a decade, chronicles his turbulent encounters with Mormon leaders and Mormon institutions. I found the chapters defending his BYU colleagues from overzealous bureaucrats both amusing and alarming. I also enjoyed his discussions on academic freedom, race, sexuality, and gender equality. Abbott’s sense of justice, unflinching courage, and sheer humanity shine brilliantly throughout this book.—Matthew L. Harris, author of Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon RightScott Abbott must have questioned authority from his birth. He has spent much of his life speaking truth to power, often to power that didn’t want to hear that truth. He has always defended open, rigorous debate and has always been as willing to consider criticism of his own ideas and actions as to offer criticism of others, particularly when their decisions were destructive to institutions and individuals Scott cared about, including Brigham Young University, intellectuals, feminists, and homosexuals. This compilation of Scott’s essays, letters, and articles, spanning over thirty years, demonstrates many significant ideas: That reason and intellectual inquiry do not oppose faith but, rather, are necessary for authentic faith to flourish. That coercion kills growth and agency. That an eccentric individual is most likely not dangerous to an institution but rather the source of vital ideas that will help renew it. That individuals who are harmed by shortsighted policies matter as much as the empowered who make and carry out those policies. Reading this book will help administrators consider how to be more kind and farsighted. It also offers a model of how to speak out against the damaging and dishonest policies rampant in our contemporary culture, however they are disguised.—Susan Elizabeth Howe, Emerita Professor of English, BYU, and author of Salt and Stone SpiritsIn these essays, Scott Abbott has sketched his personal odyssey. A boy from a Four-Corners oil town went away to college, became an ascendant academic, then pivoted, poignantly. A stirring in his deep parts pointed him toward the transcendent prospect of a consummate community, lustrous in its interweaving of humane quest with tokens of godliness. Eventually, contesting the interweave brought embroilment and sundering, an uneasy reality to which Professor Abbott has borne witness in ways heartrending and cautionary.—Hal Miller, Jr.Professor, Cognitive andBehavioral Neuroscience, BYU
