Terryl Givens

Terryl Givens
Born	Terryl Lynn Givens (1957-04-27) April 27, 1957
Residence	Richmond, Virginia
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Brigham Young (comparative literature, 1981) University of North Carolina (Ph.D., comparative literature, 1988)
Occupation	James A. Bostwick Professor of English and Religion , University of Richmond
Spouse(s)	Fiona Givens
Website	TerrylGivens.com

Terryl Lynn Givens (born 1957) is professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, where he holds the James A. Bostwick Chair in English. Givens teaches courses in 19th century studies and literary theory, and focused his early research and publications there, but he is best known for his books and articles on Mormon history, culture, and theology.

His book By the Hand of Mormon was the first critique of the Book of Mormon and its relationship to Mormonism to be published by a major academic press (Oxford University Press).

Biography

Terryl Givens was born in rural upstate New York on April 27, 1957, but spent his childhood in Arizona and then Virginia. He served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in São Paulo, Brazil. He received his bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Brigham Young University in 1981 and his PhD in comparative literature from the University of North Carolina in 1988. He accepted a position to teach English literature at the University of Richmond in the same year, and has lived near Richmond with his family since then.

Givens wife, Fiona Givens, is a Latter-day Saint who was raised as a Catholic. She has co-authored some of his books and been involved in some theologically related work on her own, such as discussing the possibility of fully developing a theology of Heavenly Mother in a Neal A. Maxwell Institute Podcast.

Early work

Givens's early work focused on literary studies and specifically romanticism. His dissertation and early publications were on the classical theory of mimesis and its dissolution in the 19th century. He also published with Putnam a children’s book, Dragon Scales and Willow Leaves.

Later work (Mormon history)

Givens published his first book - The Viper on the Hearth - in 1997. His second book is By the Hand of Mormon. In 2011 a third book by Givens, this time co-authored with Matthew J. Grow, Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism was published by Oxford University Press. This is a biography of Parley P. Pratt, one of the first 12 apostles of Mormonism.

Critical response

The New York Times referred to his work as “provocative” and Harper’s praised him for being “fair-minded and unbiased.” Givens is a practicing Mormon who served as bishop in a local congregation for some years.

Publications

Books

• Dragon Scales and Willow Leaves Putnam Juvenile, 1997. ISBN 978-0399226199
• The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-510183-6
• By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-19-513818-4
• The Latter-day Saint Experience in America Greenwood Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-313-32750-6
• People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-516711-5
• The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-536931-1
• When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence in Western Thought. Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-19-531390-1
• Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism (with Matthew J. Grow) Oxford University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-19-537573-2
• The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life (with Fiona Givens) Ensign Peak, 2012. ISBN 978-1609071882
• The Crucible of Doubt: Reflections On the Quest for Faith (with Fiona Givens) Deseret Book, 2014. ISBN 978-1609079420
• Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0199794928

Edited volumes

• Joseph Smith, Jr.: Reappraisals After Two Centuries (with Reid L. Neilson) Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0195369762
• The Columbia Sourcebook of Mormons in the United States (with Reid L. Neilson) Columbia University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0231149426

Articles and papers

• Mimesis and the Limits of Semblance. Ph.D. Diss. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1988
• "Os Maias: Incest, Dilettantes, and the Ethics of Realism." Hispanofila 34.1 (1990).
• "Blind Men and Hieroglyphs: The Collapse of Mimesis." European Romantic Review 2.1 (1991): 61-80.
• "Aristotle's Critique of Mimesis: The Romantic Prelude." Comparative Literature Studies 28.2 (1991): 121-136.
• "Caricature as Containment: Orientalism, Bondage, and the Construction of Mormon Ethnicity in Nineteenth-century American Popular Fiction." Nineteenth-Century Contexts 18.4 (1995): 385-403.
• "Romantic Agonies: Human Suffering and the Ethical Sublime." Romanticism Across the Disciplines (1998): 231-53. ISBN 978-0761811039
• "'This Great Modern Abomination': Orthodoxy and Heresy in American Religion." Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to an American World Religion (2001). ISBN 978-0252026096
• "Joseph Smith: Prophecy, Process, and Plenitude." in BYU Studies 44.4 (2005): 55-68.
• "'Lightning Out of Heaven': Joseph Smith and the Forging of Community." BYU Speeches 24 (2005).
• "Mormons." in American History Through Literature 1820-1870 v. 2 (2006): 759-61.
• "New Religious Movements and the Orthodoxy: The Challenge to the Religious Mainstream." FARMS Review of Books 19.1 (2007): 201-221.
• "'There Is Room for Both': Mormon Cinema and the Paradoxes of Mormon Culture." BYU Studies 46.2 (2007): 188-208.
• "'Common Sense' Meets the Book of Mormon: Source, Substance and Prophetic Disruption." Revisiting Thomas F. O'Dea's The Mormons: Contemporary Perspectives (2008): 79-98. ISBN 978-0874809206
• "Joseph Smith's American Bible: Radicalizing the Familiar." Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 18.2 (2009): 4-17.
• "Paradox and Discipleship." Religious Educator 11.1 (2010): 142-155.
• "Fraud, Philandery, and Football: Negotiating the Mormon Image." International Journal of Mormon Studies 4 (2011): 1-13.
• "Letter to a Doubter.", self published (2012).
• "The Prophecy of Enoch as Restoration Blueprint" Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture Series, No. 18 : Utah State University Press, 2013.

External links

• Professional web site
• Works by or about Terryl Givens in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Featured extensively in the PBS Frontline documentary The Mormons
• Biography at Joseph Smith Papers Project website (accessed May 4, 2012)