President Samuelson accompanied BYU religious research experts to the Vatican this week to present finished CDs of digitized historical material to the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome.

This is just one example of the research projects BYU's Institute for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts facilitates to shed light on the ancient religious world, demonstrating the value of religious research for a variety of audiences.

"Religion research in general is a really important field," said Daniel Peterson, co-director of research at the Institute and a professor of Islamic and Arabic studies at BYU. "For a long time there weren't many people working in it and now we've begun to realize, in some painful ways, that religion is still a really important factor in human history. The world trade center, for example, or Afghanistan kind of brings that home."

Peterson said recent world events emphasize the continuing presence of religious issues and the need for scholars to consider religion's impact on the cultures of the world.

"Religion isn't dying out," Peterson said. "It was dying out among the academics who were claiming that, but they were a small little world and they weren't paying attention to what was going on around them. Religion is more alive in the US than it's been in a long time and certainly alive in the Middle East and in India. It has to be watched. In that regard, it doesn't matter if you believe it or not. The fact is it's out there."

The Institute furthers this watchful process with its focus on research projects dealing with the religious traditions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Established in 2001 to promote study of the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham, the Institute continues the work of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. The Institute publishes reserach about ancient religious texts and related topics under the FARMS name.

The Institute also works to preserve and digitally publish ancient manuscript texts and mural material in an ongoing effort. Through its Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, the Institute also produces 3 bilingual publication series focused on translation of Arabic philosophical and religious texts.

"We have a whole lot of irons in the fire," Peterson said.

But even with all these diverse projects, Peterson said the fundamental purpose of religious research at the Institute is simple.

"It's to help understand what a text would've meant to its audience," he said. "Sometimes we think we understand. That's very dangerous sometimes."

Peterson said there are many ways to increase religious understanding using secular methods.

"You can approach religious issues with a view to try and decide whether a religious claim is true or not, but there are other ways of studying religion too," he said. "One of them is to bracket the question of truth. Simply set it aside and say, 'All right, I want to look at this religion just as a historical issue.' There are all sorts of questions that can be asked that really don't go to the question of truth or falsity, just as religions are really important human things and they have immense historical and social consequences."

Peterson said this bracketing process encourages objective religious discussion among scholars.

"In big gatherings of religious scholars, the way we get along is by bracketing the truth claims," he said. "If you had every group advocating their position and denouncing every other you'd have fights."

But Peterson said this academic approach to understanding scriptural texts does not undermine his faith.

"Especially as a believing Latter-day Saint, which I am, I believe the gospel will survive academic scrutiny really well," Peterson said.

The Institute's forerunner, FARMS, was founded in 1979 by Jack W. Welch, a Robert K. Thomas professor of law at BYU. The organization was run by BYU professors.

Peterson said FARMS gained prominence as it received generous donations and got the opportunity to work with projects like the Dead Sea Scrolls. After more than 20 years of operation as a private non-profit organization, FARMS accepted President Hinckley's 2001 invitation to become officially affiliated with BYU as part of the Institute.

Peterson said the new official connection with BYU gives the Institute's research an aura of respectability in comparison to its old FARMS days.

"There were members of the church out there who worried about [FARMS], who thought maybe we were some bunch of renegade intellectuals who were going to try to take the church down or something," Peterson said. "At least they feel more comfortable with us [now]."

M. Gerald Bradford, co-director of research at the Institute, said the Institute's success still depends on BYU scholars.

"The Institute would not survive if not for the voluntary work of scholars at BYU and elsewhere," Bradford said.

Bradford said that even with the many people involved in the Institute's projects, it aims to mainly facilitate scholars' areas of interest and act as a source of support for them.

But its BYU roots do not limit the Institute's sphere of influence, Bradford said.

"All of the work is inherently worthwhile, so we're sensitive that there's a wide variety of audiences," he said.

Lynne Shumway, the Institute's archival resources manager, said the Institute's electronic preservation and publishing process opens doors for scholars around the world.

"It makes manuscripts available to so many people so much more readily," Shumway said.

Shumway said papyri are damaged by excessive handling, and this process removes that traditional limitation. It also increases scholars' ease of access to the information.

"It's just a matter of sending the relevant CDs to people or sending them to the web," she said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 30 Oct 2003