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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley #13
Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints
Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints presents Hugh Nibley's reflections on the thoughts of Brigham Young on politics, education, leadership, and the environment. The timeliness of Brigham's counsel on these topics will quickly become apparent to readers, as will the unique insights that Nibley adds. This volume will amuse, provoke, and challenge — and, above all, educate.
541 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1994
3 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Nibley
152 books95 followersHugh Winder Nibley was one of Mormonism's most celebrated scholars. Nibley is notable for his extensive research and publication on ancient languages and culture, his vigorous defense of doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and for frankly discussing what he saw as the shortcomings of the LDS people and culture.
A prolific author and professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, he was fluent in over ten languages, including Classical Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic, German, French, English, and Spanish languages. He also studied Dutch and Russian during World War II.
In addition to his efforts as a scholar, Nibley was well known for writings and lectures on LDS scripture and doctrinal topics, many of which were published in LDS Church magazines. His book “An Approach to the Book of Mormon” was used as a lesson manual for the LDS Church in 1957.
A prolific author and professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, he was fluent in over ten languages, including Classical Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic, German, French, English, and Spanish languages. He also studied Dutch and Russian during World War II.
In addition to his efforts as a scholar, Nibley was well known for writings and lectures on LDS scripture and doctrinal topics, many of which were published in LDS Church magazines. His book “An Approach to the Book of Mormon” was used as a lesson manual for the LDS Church in 1957.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 2, 2014
Dr. Nibley's approach to the history, scriptures and teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is always fascinating and challenging. This was no exception. I learned a lot about Brigham's life and teachings, and found I had to revise my earlier views on the man. Recommended.
January 27, 2019
I love reading Hugh Nibley's writing. I love his wit, his humor, his penchant for criticism and for praise. He is, as far as I'm concerned, the most talented Latter-day Saint scholar I have ever read, and he is also one of the most engaging, perceptive, and shrewd scholars I have ever read, regardless of religious affiliation. And it is because of my love for Nibley that I found Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, volume 13 of the collected works series, to be the least enjoyable I have read thus far.
I don't want to be misunderstood. There is plenty of great and interesting content to be found here, but it's not Nibley's. Nibley is prone to excessive quotations in some of his other writings, and this weakness reaches egregious levels in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints. In fact, some of the chapters are probably 95% quotations from Young's Journal of Discourses with a stingy 5% being commentary and opinion from Nibley. There is nothing wrong with the Journal of Discourses, but if I wanted to read it then I would just read it! I wouldn't pick up another book expecting it to be a redundant regurgitation of it. Nibley does make it perfectly clear and obvious that his intent in many of his speeches is to let Brigham speak for himself. Nibley is extremely deferential to the prophet-leader. All of this is perfectly reasonable from Nibley's point of view, but from a reader's I was deeply disappointed.
When Nibley does take ownership of his writing and speeches in this volume, he is as erudite and poignant as ever. His essay on Latter-day Saints' perspective on education and professional success is searing and provocative. It's because of essays like Mediocre Meditations on the Media that I decided to read all of the volumes of his collected works. Nibley is able to straddle the line between being a critic of the Saints and the culture they create and being loyal to the Church they belong to. So very few are able to do this successfully. His critiques have caused me to ponder and reflect on how I'm applying the gospel and whether my own viewpoints are affiliated enough with the scriptures. (See The Prophetic Book of Mormon). Yet, when it comes to criticizing the brethren, the Lord's anointed, he remains extremely respectful and obsequious, especially for a man of such intellectual talent and ability. He seems to have internalized Jacob's warning: "O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God . . . But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God" (2 Nephi 9:28-29). I admire Hugh Nibley a great deal for his devotion and conviction.
Even with its excessive quotations, Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints does illuminate the type of leader Brigham Young was. Nibley was convinced he was unparalleled in his abilities and accomplishments. Any reader, regardless of religious affiliation, has to admit Young accomplished an inordinate amount as a leader. (The same has to be admitted of Joseph Smith, regardless of your personal feelings toward him). Some of the Saints' most soul-expanding and challenging doctrine comes from the writing of Brigham Young. He thrived in spirituality and doctrine; yet, he was an intensely practical man. He was a settler, a city-builder, and temple-builder; a man of temporality as well as eternity, for he saw no difference between them. His view of the Saints was one of, as far as I can tell, admiring disappointment, probably much like Moses. He knew they could receive more from the God they worshiped but their stubbornness and spiritual sluggishness kept them from a fullness. On the other hand, considering the early history of the Latter-day Saints, there are very, very few people, if any, which could have accomplished what they did to become the people they are today. I suppose it's good we have leaders like Brigham Young to challenge us to be something more than what we are.
If you're hoping to read more of what Nibley had to say about topics ranging from education, leadership, and environmentalism, you'll get small doses of that in this large volume. If you're hoping for long passages of quotations from Brigham Young, you're in luck and Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints is for you. I wanted the former but can appreciate the value of the latter. This volume is not without merit, of course, but it's not what I want from these collected works. I have two more volumes currently on my shelf, and I'm hoping they'll read more like Temples and Cosmos or The Prophetic Book of Mormon. Put simply, when I pick up a volume of Hugh Nibley's writing, I want hear from him and enjoy his unique and provocative insights and not those of another.
https://thethousanderclub.blogspot.com/
I don't want to be misunderstood. There is plenty of great and interesting content to be found here, but it's not Nibley's. Nibley is prone to excessive quotations in some of his other writings, and this weakness reaches egregious levels in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints. In fact, some of the chapters are probably 95% quotations from Young's Journal of Discourses with a stingy 5% being commentary and opinion from Nibley. There is nothing wrong with the Journal of Discourses, but if I wanted to read it then I would just read it! I wouldn't pick up another book expecting it to be a redundant regurgitation of it. Nibley does make it perfectly clear and obvious that his intent in many of his speeches is to let Brigham speak for himself. Nibley is extremely deferential to the prophet-leader. All of this is perfectly reasonable from Nibley's point of view, but from a reader's I was deeply disappointed.
When Nibley does take ownership of his writing and speeches in this volume, he is as erudite and poignant as ever. His essay on Latter-day Saints' perspective on education and professional success is searing and provocative. It's because of essays like Mediocre Meditations on the Media that I decided to read all of the volumes of his collected works. Nibley is able to straddle the line between being a critic of the Saints and the culture they create and being loyal to the Church they belong to. So very few are able to do this successfully. His critiques have caused me to ponder and reflect on how I'm applying the gospel and whether my own viewpoints are affiliated enough with the scriptures. (See The Prophetic Book of Mormon). Yet, when it comes to criticizing the brethren, the Lord's anointed, he remains extremely respectful and obsequious, especially for a man of such intellectual talent and ability. He seems to have internalized Jacob's warning: "O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God . . . But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God" (2 Nephi 9:28-29). I admire Hugh Nibley a great deal for his devotion and conviction.
Even with its excessive quotations, Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints does illuminate the type of leader Brigham Young was. Nibley was convinced he was unparalleled in his abilities and accomplishments. Any reader, regardless of religious affiliation, has to admit Young accomplished an inordinate amount as a leader. (The same has to be admitted of Joseph Smith, regardless of your personal feelings toward him). Some of the Saints' most soul-expanding and challenging doctrine comes from the writing of Brigham Young. He thrived in spirituality and doctrine; yet, he was an intensely practical man. He was a settler, a city-builder, and temple-builder; a man of temporality as well as eternity, for he saw no difference between them. His view of the Saints was one of, as far as I can tell, admiring disappointment, probably much like Moses. He knew they could receive more from the God they worshiped but their stubbornness and spiritual sluggishness kept them from a fullness. On the other hand, considering the early history of the Latter-day Saints, there are very, very few people, if any, which could have accomplished what they did to become the people they are today. I suppose it's good we have leaders like Brigham Young to challenge us to be something more than what we are.
If you're hoping to read more of what Nibley had to say about topics ranging from education, leadership, and environmentalism, you'll get small doses of that in this large volume. If you're hoping for long passages of quotations from Brigham Young, you're in luck and Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints is for you. I wanted the former but can appreciate the value of the latter. This volume is not without merit, of course, but it's not what I want from these collected works. I have two more volumes currently on my shelf, and I'm hoping they'll read more like Temples and Cosmos or The Prophetic Book of Mormon. Put simply, when I pick up a volume of Hugh Nibley's writing, I want hear from him and enjoy his unique and provocative insights and not those of another.
https://thethousanderclub.blogspot.com/
January 5, 2025
The character of Brigham Young, and his stance on many subjects is completely laid bare in this volume. Very good read.
Read
July 30, 2025better to read journal of discourses
April 2, 2009
Brigham Young is perhaps the modern-day prophet (as opposed to the ancient prophets found in the Bible) with whom I struggle the most. I struggle with his personality. I struggle with his attitude towards a lot of things. Yet here was a man that has been revered and hated by millions. And so I wanted to get to know him a little better because I realized that my prejudices against him were mostly built on a handful of stories I had heard and a shallow understanding of the colonization of the West (you have to understand that I did not grow up in Utah and so did not have Utah history).
Hugh Nibley is one of my favorite intellectually theological authors (for lack of a better term to describe him). I find his writings incredibly deep and insightful. My only major problem with him is that you have to speak or read at least 8, if not closer to 12 or 15, ancient languages to understand even half of what he is talking about. And even if you read those languages, you have to have studied just about every epic poem, script, and tombstone in those languages to know where he is getting his references. Such is the case with another book that I am reading (Temple and Cosmos). Nonetheless, I am amazed at how dedicated he was to his work of understanding theology and melding together ancient religions with modern-day Mormonism.
So, I thought that maybe Dr. Nibley could help me in my journey to understanding Brigham Young a little better. He did and he did it marvelously. Perhaps it was because Dr. Nibley was limited to one language in his analysis of Brigham Young (i.e. English!), but I was very intrigued at how much I learned about Brigham Young and his teachings.
(It is appropriate to mention that I think the book is actually a misnomer. The title should be called Brother Brigham and Joe Smith Challenge the Saints since Dr. Nibley quotes and draws from materials written or spoken by Joseph Smith almost as much as Brigham Young.)
The book is a collection of essays written by Dr. Nibley over a period of about 30 years and is divided up in to categories: Brigham Young on the Environment, on Politics, on Education, and on Leadership. Dr. Nibley quotes extensively from Brigham Young’s teachings, speeches, and first-hand accounts. Dr. Nibley tries, as much as possible, to let Brigham Young do the speaking. Consequently I was amazed at how much I learned about Brigham Young through his own eyes. Here was a man who had a horrible temper and was very forceful in his manner and expressions. Yet, here was also a man who fully recognized his faults, had a very difficult job to lead and guide a stubborn group of people, and had a deep love for and philosophical understanding of people.
Furthermore, and perhaps by accident, Dr. Nibley lets a little bit of his own personality through in a few of his essays. I was a bit intrigued to learn how much Dr. Nibley cared about preserving the environment and how anti-war he was.
Overall, this was a fantastic book in helping me to understand who Brigham Young was and what his teachings really were. Furthermore, most of the things discussed in this collection of essays are untimely and as applicable to our day now as it was 30 years ago. I found the essays on leadership and politics particularly interesting in helping me to develop my own perspective and attitude towards two areas. I suspect that this will be a reference book that I will turn back to for these two subject areas quite frequently.
Hugh Nibley is one of my favorite intellectually theological authors (for lack of a better term to describe him). I find his writings incredibly deep and insightful. My only major problem with him is that you have to speak or read at least 8, if not closer to 12 or 15, ancient languages to understand even half of what he is talking about. And even if you read those languages, you have to have studied just about every epic poem, script, and tombstone in those languages to know where he is getting his references. Such is the case with another book that I am reading (Temple and Cosmos). Nonetheless, I am amazed at how dedicated he was to his work of understanding theology and melding together ancient religions with modern-day Mormonism.
So, I thought that maybe Dr. Nibley could help me in my journey to understanding Brigham Young a little better. He did and he did it marvelously. Perhaps it was because Dr. Nibley was limited to one language in his analysis of Brigham Young (i.e. English!), but I was very intrigued at how much I learned about Brigham Young and his teachings.
(It is appropriate to mention that I think the book is actually a misnomer. The title should be called Brother Brigham and Joe Smith Challenge the Saints since Dr. Nibley quotes and draws from materials written or spoken by Joseph Smith almost as much as Brigham Young.)
The book is a collection of essays written by Dr. Nibley over a period of about 30 years and is divided up in to categories: Brigham Young on the Environment, on Politics, on Education, and on Leadership. Dr. Nibley quotes extensively from Brigham Young’s teachings, speeches, and first-hand accounts. Dr. Nibley tries, as much as possible, to let Brigham Young do the speaking. Consequently I was amazed at how much I learned about Brigham Young through his own eyes. Here was a man who had a horrible temper and was very forceful in his manner and expressions. Yet, here was also a man who fully recognized his faults, had a very difficult job to lead and guide a stubborn group of people, and had a deep love for and philosophical understanding of people.
Furthermore, and perhaps by accident, Dr. Nibley lets a little bit of his own personality through in a few of his essays. I was a bit intrigued to learn how much Dr. Nibley cared about preserving the environment and how anti-war he was.
Overall, this was a fantastic book in helping me to understand who Brigham Young was and what his teachings really were. Furthermore, most of the things discussed in this collection of essays are untimely and as applicable to our day now as it was 30 years ago. I found the essays on leadership and politics particularly interesting in helping me to develop my own perspective and attitude towards two areas. I suspect that this will be a reference book that I will turn back to for these two subject areas quite frequently.
September 17, 2010
Although Nibley has a great sense of humor, and is extremely well-read in a number of languages, when he starts talking about proof for Mormon scripture he uses shoddy scholarship.
To understand Nibley's approach to scholarship, see:
Salmon, Douglas F. "Parallelomania and the Study of Latter-day Scripture: Confirmation, Coincidence, or the Collective Subconscious? Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 33, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 129-156.
To understand Nibley's approach to scholarship, see:
Salmon, Douglas F. "Parallelomania and the Study of Latter-day Scripture: Confirmation, Coincidence, or the Collective Subconscious? Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 33, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 129-156.
March 3, 2008
Hugh Nibley helped me fall in love with Brigham Young. Brigham Young was absolutely a down to earth realist as well as a Universal thinker.
November 22, 2016
Own it too, just haven't gotten around to it either.
April 7, 2009
A marvelous book. Nibley introduces us to the real Brigham Young.
April 14, 2008
A politically charged book insulting (appropiately) anyone any anything from the Saints to Geneva Corporation
March 27, 2009
We see Brigham as not only colonizer and "autocrat", but as Prophet, challenging his people to live the higher law. These teaching resonate with us today.
October 12, 2012
Great collection of speeches giving a much fuller picture of who Brigham Young was. Highly recommended.
I would recommend reading Approaching Zion over this one if I had to pick one.
I would recommend reading Approaching Zion over this one if I had to pick one.
August 30, 2015
A great reminder of standards and ethics of good men and woman. I'd read it again.
October 17, 2008
the greatest essay's on contemporary LDS cultural issues
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews