Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life [Hardcover]

Boyd Jay Petersen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2002

Winner of Mormon History Association Best Biography Biography.As one of the LDS Church's most widely recognized scholars, Hugh Nibley is both an icon and an enigma. Through complete access to Nibley's correspondence, journals, notes and papers, Petersen has painted a portrait that reveals the man behind the legend. Starting with a foreword written by Zina Nibley Peterson (the author's wife and Nibley's daughter) and finishing with appendixes that include some of the best of Nibley's personal correspondence, the biography reveals aspects of the tapestry of the life of one who has truly consecrated his life to the service of the Lord.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hugh Nibley is generally touted as one of Mormonism's greatest minds and perhaps its most prolific scholarly apologist. Just as hefty as some of Nibley's largest tomes, this authorized biography is delightfully accessible and full of the scholar's delicious wordplay and wit, not to mention some astonishing war stories and insights into Nibley's phenomenal acquisition of languages. Introduced by a personable foreword from the author's wife (who is Nibley's daughter), the book is written with enthusiasm, respect and insight. It is organized into chapters alternating between chronological biography (childhood, mission to Germany, military service in WWII, etc.) and topical themes in Nibley's life (social criticism, faith, scholarship, Scripture and so on). A particularly powerful and timely chapter addresses Nibley's rather surprising views on war; he opposed the Vietnam War when it was very unpopular in LDS culture to do so. Although this format often results in repeated information, it also makes it easy to approach the book as a collection of stand-alone essays. Occasionally the author falls into the archival researcher's trap of including unnecessary information simply because he has access to it, but on the whole, Petersen is a careful scholar who provides helpful historical context. Although Petersen married into Nibley's family, and sometimes defends Nibley and his inconsistencies from his many critics, this project is far from hagiography. It fills an important gap in LDS history and will appeal to a wide Mormon audience.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...this authorized biography is delightfully accessible and full of the scholar's delicious wordplay and wit. . ." -- Publishers Weekly

"Well written and thoroughly researched, Petersen's biography is a must have for anyone struggling to reconcile faith and reason." -- Greg Taggart, Association for Mormon Letters

Petersen's biography is an outstanding and stunning achievement...it is equal to the life it portrays... -- Fred Pinnegar, Association for Mormon Letters

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 450 pages
• Publisher: Greg Kofford Books Inc (November 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589580206
• ISBN-13: 978-1589580206
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fair-Minded Biography of a Great LDS Scholar, August 11, 2003

By 

R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life (Hardcover)

If you are interested in the work of Hugh Nibley, this book is an excellent introduction and overview. Nibley is probably the most famous living Mormon intellectual. He is the most elequent and convincing defender of the LDS world-view. The author of this biography is Nibley's son-in-law, but he is an impressive historian in his own right. This book is respectful and sympathetic, but also independent in judgement. Petersen challenges Nibley when he thinks it is appropriate. Petersen says in his preface that he doesn't believe in "objectivity", but in candor and balance. This searching approach, combined with exhaustive information gleaned from interviews and Nibley's personal archive of letters and documents, make this book a very satisfying read. It really is a model biography, an example of honesty and fairness that other LDS writers should follow. Petersen alternates chapters that narrate Nibley's life story with chapters that are really essays on different facets of Nibley's career--his defense of the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price, his environmental views, his criticism of militarism and capitalism. One bit of information that struck me during my reading was that Nibley, as a soldier, visited the German concentration camp Dachau shortly after it was liberated in 1945. Nibley has never written about the horrors he saw there. He refuses even to discuss the experience. Petersen speculates that perhaps Nibley was unable to fit these terrible events into his theology of pacifism. Maybe Nibley couldn't acknowledge that there are things worse than a self-defensive war. This is an absorbing, thought-provoking book that you shouldn't miss.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Insightful Account of a Fascinating Man, August 21, 2005

By 

Kevin M. Christensen (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life (Hardcover)

With Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life, author Boyd Peterson has produced of the most fascinating biographies I have ever read. I had been an avid reader of Hugh Nibley's writings ever since 1975, when a LDS member in a branch in Kendall, England, loaned me a copy of his 1957 work, An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Nibley's astonishingly wide ranging erudition, brilliant prose, fascinating insights, and blew me away, and I have continued to read and draw on his work and example for 30 years. I looked forward to reading the biography for many years, and enjoyed the publication of several chapters in a variety of LDS academic journals, and I talked with Peterson for a few moments after he had given a presentation on Nibley's WWI experiences at a symposium in Salt Lake City. The long wait for the book was worth it. The book is a clear-eyed labor of love, and a masterpiece in its own right.

Peterson's introduction to Hugh Nibley came via his marriage to Zina Nibley, Hugh's youngest daughter. He began working on the biography over a decade ago, gathering correspondence, diaries, conducting interviews with family, friends, acquaintances, over many years. He documents everything, footnoting his sources for everything, obviously influenced in this approach by the man himself. (In contrast, Martha Beck's recent book footnotes nothing, and the difference in commitment shows. At one point Beck refers to the biography of her father, but it is clear that she only read the page that mentions her accusations against her father-in Peterson, page 400. All of the key claims that she makes about Hugh's state of mind, financial situation, beliefs, and scholarship, are contradicted and amply documented in Peterson's biography. For example, when she claims that he couldn't job outside of BYU, Peterson records several occasions when Hugh was offered much more money to go elsewhere.)

Daughter Zina, Peterson's wife, includes a fascinating introduction, consisting of 12 vignettes designed show what it was like to grow up as Hugh Nibley's daughter. Considering the hoopla over the recent publication of Martha Nibley Beck's expose, Leaving the Saints, Zina's chapter here offers a fascinatingly different portrait of Hugh Nibley as a father, from one was only 18 months younger than Martha, who slept in the bottom bunk under where Martha slept until she was a teenager. For instance, in vignette 10, on page xx, "She comments that "Daddy bought the big colorful French comics at BYU's bookstore, and read them to Martha and me as bedtime stories. He would point to the words and illustration details and talk about them; not just the story plots and the history, but also the language, explaining French pronounciation, and how much more regular the spelling is in Latin languages that are conservative, compared to English, which since it borrows words from so many sources, has an irregular spelling system. When I got to first grade, I couldn't read very well, but I sure could misspell." And she concludes, building on a memory of her daddy pushing her in a swing hanging from a tree limb, "Growing up with Hugh Nibley as a father, I learned this: the world, with all its exhilaration, giddiness, and danger, is actually pretty safe, as long as you are on a course that strong ropes and sturdy knots and unmovable, unshakable faith pushing you higher. Then all you have to do is hang on tight."

The biography proper continues with accounts of Hugh Nibley's Scottish ancestry, and his early life in Oregon. From there, Peterson begins to alternate biographical chapters with thematic chapters. For example, there are chapters on "Hugh Nibley as a Social Critic" and "Hugh Nibley as a Naturalist", "The Clown of Professions: Hugh Nibley and Scholarship", "Hugh Nibley and War" and "The Home Dance: Hugh Nibley Among the Hopi," "Taking Himself Lightly: The Wit of Hugh Nibley." All of these are fascinating in themselves, even though this approach brings some repetition, the different focus adds to the flavor of the volume, and shows the range of Nibley's interests, influence, and thought.

The biographical chapters all contain rich details, observations, and interesting stories. We get the account of Hugh's NDE, his LDS mission to Germany in the 1930s, his six weeks alone in the Oregon forests, his UCLA education, his joining the army in WWII, experiences in intelligence, and in combat with the 101st Airborne Division at Utah Beach, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and his experience of the war's aftermath.

In contrast to Martha's scanty gossipy speculations about Hugh's mother, here we get a fully drawn portrait, drawn from interviews and letters. Hugh's wife, Phyllis, also comes across as a fully rounded personality, with her own interests and distinctive strong character compared to the reduction to beehive hairdo, and sock-puppet witness that appears in Leaving the Saints. We get the legendary story of Hugh's courtship (his decision to marry the first girl he met at BYU, who turned out to be Phyllis) and the development of a growing family.

Peterson includes both biographical and survey chapters discussing Hugh Nibley's scholarship on the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Temple in antiquity. All of these chapters show an excellent grasp of Hugh thought and work, as well as the critical responses to it, and the impact it continues to have on the larger LDS community, and beyond.

Every reader will have favorite passages. I was fascinated by the friendship between the Yugoslavian basketball star, Kresmir Cosic and Hugh Nibley, as well as that between Nibley and Egyptologist Klaus Bayer. I have been touched and inspired by his discipleship and commitment as well as his scholarship. Peterson concludes by discussing that "Not only is the private man consistent with the public man, but Hugh's actions have been consistent with his words." A brilliant book. A fine tribute and an important account of a fascinating man.

20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-paced, sometimes choppy, but great overall., September 6, 2003

By 

Mark E. Baxter "Inquirer" (Layton, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life (Hardcover)

I had more fun reading this book than any book I've read in a while. A reader who doesn't have knowledge of The Church of Jesus Christ (Mormon) to which Nibley belongs would probably not find this book interesting.

However, for someone who is familiar with Nibley's many and varied writings this book is very entertaining and informative, much like Nibley himself.

Criticisms of the book are the following: 1. The author alternates chronological chapters with topical chapters and it is sometimes difficult to remember what part of Nibley's life you are reading about. Similarly, this means that many parts are redundant.

2. I would like to have heard more about Nibley's political adventures. As a student at BYU from 1977 to 1988 (nobody ever accused me of being overly bright)you could always count on Nibley to support the Democratic candidate. Usually Nibley would give them permission to hand out a pamphlet he had written that was something about a parable of giving up our birthright. My roommates and I read this thing several times and never could quite figure out what Nibley was getting at. But we always felt vaguely guilty when we were done.
3. The author several times stated as if it were fact things like "conservative extremism continued to characterize BYU and Mormon culture". Having been part of Mormon Culture and BYU for many of those years, this is not true. There were professors like Reed Benson, son of Prophet Ezra Taft Benson, who worked as a Birch society coordinator but most of these people were the ones most likely to agree with Nibley. J. Reuben Clark could not have been more anti-war. Skousen, Reed Benson, H. Verlan Andersen (future general authority, author of "Many are called, but few are chosen", and Utah legislator) and others were among those most likely to agree with Nibley. The Conservatives on campus always complained that the University tilted too far leftward. And as a Biology major, that department's leftish slant was no less prominent than the Department of Religion's rightward slant. Having attended and visited numerous colleges since then I consider BYU the school with the most academic freedom, something Nibley no doubt recognized and benefited from.

Also, I would like to have heard a little more about the travails of Nibley being treated like a Rock Star. Every dubious wacko on campus at one time or another would show up at Nibley's office or home and it was always amazing to me that Nibley not only didn't call the police but would treat everyone well and answer their questions. Nibley was truly a man of the people. At the "One Eternal Round" lecture a few years ago Nibley was almost mobbed afterward with autograph seekers and confidantes who wished to tell Nibley what their latest "research" showed.

The greatest strength of this book is the author's obvious great love and respect for this great man. He shares letters and viewpoints that simply would be unavailable to anyone other than a family member.

The author also does a wonderful job summing up Nibley's articles, ideas and research - something very difficult to do and it shows the author has quite an intellect of his own.

Lastly the author did a wonderful job of getting at primary sources that interacted directly with Nibley - much like Nibley's scholarship.

Overall, this book was simply wonderful, entertaining and thoughtful.