Recent years have seen the rise of a Mormon intellectual movement I call “progressive orthodoxy.” Exemplified most prominently by the limited geography model for the Book of Mormon, progressive orthodoxy seeks to affirm LDS faith claims in ways that are credible by scholarly standards. Progressive orthodox scholars thus seek to balance two opposing forces that shape religious movements: assimilation and separation. How does that balancing effort compare with analogous efforts by scholars in other American religious groups, especially evangelical Christians? And how does the rise of progressive orthodoxy complicate the model for Mormon assimilation put forth by Armand Mauss in his classic study The Angel and the Beehive?

John-Charles Duffy, Armand L. Mauss