Jan Shipps: A Social and Intellectual Portrait: How a Methodist Girl from Hueytown, Alabama, Became an Acclaimed Mormon Studies Scholar

by Gordon Shepherd, Gary Shepherd

How did Jo Ann Barnett—a Methodist girl born and raised in Hueytown, Alabama, during the Great Depression and World War II—come to be Jan Shipps, a renowned non-Mormon historian and scholar of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? In Jan Shipps: A Social and Intellectual Portrait, authors Gordon Shepherd and Gary Shepherd tell the story of how Shipps not only became an important and trusted authority in a field that was predominantly made up of Mormon men, but also the crucial role she played in legitimizing Mormon Studies as a credible academic field of study.

Genres: History

254 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2019

Reviews

[Max Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I heard about this book I was very excited to get it and read it. I've been a fan of Dr. Shipps ever since I read about her in a book about/by Leonard Arrington (I think it was Reflections of a Mormon Historian). I went right out and bought the book, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition which was a great testimony builder for me. I can't say that I've read everything by Jan, especially after seeing the "Publications" section of the Appendix, but I've always enjoyed what I have read.

I really liked the first 5 chapters of this book that was the biography. Chapter 6 “Major Intellectual Influences and Turning Point Events” seemed like a rehash and very repetitive. Chapter 7 “Career Comparisons with Fawn Brodie and Juanita Brooks” was, as the title says, a comparison of Fawn Brodie, and Juanita Brooks. Chapter 8 “Personal Views on Religion and Feminism” is self explanatory as well.

As I said I really enjoyed The first 5 chapters that were the biography of Jan. I've always thought she was a great lady and it seems like she is very interesting lady as well. She thought it was important to be a wife and mother, and these were very important to her, although she did not want to have another child while she was working on her masters degree. There was a story about her her telling some friends that she would give up her career for her husband and they didn't believe her. I really thought it was great that when she couldn't find a teaching job after getting her doctorate she dusted off her piano playing so that she could accompany her son Stephen during his violin recitals during high schools. She said that her son was surprised at how well she could play. I'm sure this was a great experience for mother and son. There is a picture of Jan at the piano during this time and she looks very happy. There were some events that really stand out to me. One was after she had presented a paper at the Chicago OAH meeting someone had been so impressed with her paper that they had convinced Case Western to offer her a tenured position. IUPUI came up with their own "speedy" full time tenured "counter offer" for her the same week. It's always good to see that hard work and dedication to excellence works out the way it should. Another time a dean from IU was having dinner with Jan and asked her why she was at IU and Jan answered with the exact words the dean had told her when he turned her down. She said that he just hung his head after her response. She pointed out, that during the time she was working on her master/PhD, that Western American History was written like a donut. All history was written around the Mormons like there was a giant donut hole right in the middle of American History because historian studiously ignored the Mormons.

Chapter 5 is called "Becoming a Renowned Mormon Studies Scholar, 1974-1985". It covers a lot of territory. Discussing how Jan was a bridge between the Reformed Latter Day Saints (RLDS now Community of Christ) and LDS scholars. From the book it sounds like she was a real benefit for Mormon Scholarship as a whole since both sides saw her as and honest arbitrator and was able to bring people together. The highlight of this period is the publication of her book Mormonism. It really is an impressive book and it surprised her associates at IUPUI, her son Stephen and especially Tony, her husband. Tony collected all of the positive reviews about the book and shared them with all of his associates at IU. Jan, and Tony would socialize with some other couples in the English department IU and they were all impressed. Apparently no one in her personal life realized the scholarship she was doing or the reputation that she developed and were taken by surprise by the book and the acclaim that it earned. There is a subsection in the book about Mitt Romney. It was only slightly related to Mitt. It was mainly about the "Mormon Moment" that was talked about surrounding Mitt's two campaigns for president. Jan was the go to expert as a non-LDS LDS expert that many sources turned to during this time. After that I was thinking that the authors would present more of her life but they abruptly end the book right there saying that it showed how she had developed as a Mormon Scholar. I mean this lady is still alive. It was surprising.

To me this book seems almost like two books. The first 5 chapters were straight biography and I enjoyed them a lot. Had the authors stopped there, or continued with her biography, I think they would have had a first-rate book. Maybe that wouldn't have been a long enough book or maybe the authors wanted to try and make the book controversial, which is what I think they tried to do. The last three chapters seem like the authors are trying their hand a psycobiography.

Chapter 6 is mostly a rehash of the first 5 chapters but with the authors input on how the turning points affected Jan. It could easily have been skipped in my opinion, unless you really want to hear about how the events in Jan's life effected her.

Chapter 7 is "Career Comparisons with Fawn Brodie and Juantia Brooks". The authors compare the three women, Fawn Brodie, Juanita Brooks and Jan, because as the authors said, the books they wrote (Brodie "No Man Knows My History", Brooks "Mountain Meadows Massacre" and Jan's "Mormonism") are "...indisputably the most important or impactful that have ever been written about Mormons...”. They lay down a challenge to bring forth your own picks and to make your arguments for other books that have made as great an impact. I think Leonard Arrington's "Great Basin Kingdom" and Richard Bushman "Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism" would be good contenders but they're not controversial and are written by men. Even though the authors statement might be slightly hyperbolic there is no doubt the books are important Mormon history books and I've always found it amazing that women have played such a big role in Mormon history. I personally think that the authors also picked these books because they felt the books would be controversial. They point out that the women are from different generations, they all have different relationships with the LDS Church, all were devoted to their families. I don't know that the authors stated it but they are all extremely talented writers as well. They also knew each other and it seems like the were friendly.

I had a funny experience with Fawn's book. I'm not sure when I first knew that Fawn's book was a classic anti-LDS book. On my mission in one of my areas (in Australia) there was a member who was a real Joseph Smith history buff. He would fly to the states to participate in Mormon History Association meetings. This was in 80-82 so the MHA was pretty new according to this book. I asked him what his fist exposure was to Joseph Smith was thinking he would say the missionaries, but no. He had heard about Joseph and wanted to learn more and checked a book out from the library. It was Fawn's book. I said it was amazing he had joined the Church. He said he was familiar with biographies and could tell that her book was polemical and so wanted to find out more about Joseph and eventually joined the Church. So I must have heard about Fawn's book before I was 19 unless I heard about it in the first part of my mission, which I guess is possible as well.

If I thought Chapter 7 was forced to be controversial Chapter 8 was even more so. In Chapter 7 one comparison the authors make is that each of these remarkable women had strong woman role models in their mothers and that each was a proto-feminist. As if a strong woman has to be a feminist. It could have been interesting one of the sections was "“Conclusion Regarding Jan Shipps’s Religious Views and Her Understanding of Mormonism". I would really have been interested in Jan's thoughts on how Methodist and LDS beliefs intersect. The book points out that Jan's Methodist commitment became stronger the more engaged in she became in LDS History. Surely Jan's noticed the strong connection between Mormonism and Methodist two of the most famous branches of Arminian Christianity. But no it's all due to her PhD advisors interest in early American mysticism? At least according to the authors?

The last two sections of the chapter dealing with “The Challenge of Women’s Concerns in Twenty-first Century Mormonism” and “Concluding Reflections on Jan Shipps’s Feminism”. I felt that I could almost feel Jan thinking "Why are you asking me this? I don't have a dog in the fight of LDS women being ordained and I don't see myself as a feminist. See those are my concluding thoughts on the book just like the authors did with Jan.

Finally I would give this book an over all rating of 3 Stars. 4 Stars for the first 5 chapters of biography and 2 Stars for the execrable last 3. I would recommend the book for the first 5 chapters though.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an armchair historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and everything else I can get my hands on related to it, the name Jan Shipps is well-known to me. Before reading the biography written by father and son team Gordon and Gary Shepherd, the only thing I knew about her was that she was not a member of the Latter-day Saint faith but clearly had an interest and affection for it and its history.

The authors trace her life from her beginnings to what eventually became a personal passion and mission to chronicle and observe the history and culture of a faith that is not her own. For me the biggest question this book answered—and I will not spoil the discovery—is what led her to Utah and how her professional and personal interest in the religion never brought her to join its membership.

This book is ideal for anyone interested in the history of the historian. I found it engaging—though briefly a bit tedious based on where my personal interests lie—and informative. Because Shipps’ professional pursuits aligned at a time when Mormon history began to really take root as an interest for so many historians, I quite enjoyed learning about her shoulder-rubbing with her contemporary historians.

[Trevor Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about the first female non-Mormon that was an academic in LDS studies. She paved the way along with Juanita Brooks and Fawn Brodie in the Latter-day Saint movement. It was an easy read, and we got to know who Jan is. She has respect in and out of Mormon circles. In this book we got to see how a non-Mormon got into Mormon studies.

[Josiah Ensing · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always fun to get to know someone new. A large section of this book is biographical and guides the learner along the life of Jan Shipps, and you feel like to come to know her a little.

This book will be interesting to anyone who likes biographies in general, and especially interesting to those who like Mormon history so much that they like the history of Mormon history.

This book cleverly narrates the life of Jan Shipps in a way that invites you to read between the lines and see the social and intellectual underpinnings and developments in her life. For those who don’t read between the lines, chapter 5 states the case more clearly, and not as a narrative. The social side included such things as race relations in the USA, gender norms and roles, finance, and family dynamics. The intellectual side was coupled with the social aspects, including stories of native skill, work ethic, curiosity, mentors, analytic approaches, and more. Some things were familiar (My wife and I came from less affluent backgrounds and both pursued tertiary studies while raising our young family.) and others were strange (We don’t live in the USA, so the racial setting and history are foreign). As a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it was very interesting to read about Jan Shipps religious views and how she pursued her intellectual interest in Mormon history academically and remained content with her Methodist tradition.

The authors argue that Jan Shipps contributions to Mormon studies made the field credible in the eyes of academics. As an amateur reader of Mormon studies publications, I grew a sense of gratitude to Jan Shipps, whom I have never met, and whose work I had never read, but found myself wanting to read Mormonism: The Story of A New Religious Tradition, the further through this book I got.

[Stacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is well-written, and I enjoyed the chance to learn more about Jan Shipps, but it seemed to me that the biographical first part was far too long, and the second part revealed more clearly the agenda of the writers rather than focusing on Shipps and her contributions to Mormon studies. Rather than repeated discussions of whether or not Shipps should be classified as "feminist" or "proto-feminist" I would have enjoyed learning what are some of the particular insights that she has provided to the field of Mormon studies -- particularly since Shipps herself rejects those labels as applied to her academic work. The comparisons to Brodie and Brooks really did not hold up, the differences are far more significant than any similarities. Any, really, isn't it sexist to posit this comparison precisely because these are women authors in this field? They aren't even very close in time and have really very different positions in regard to the LDS Church and to academe. Shipps herself, as quoted in the text, repeatedly emphasizes that her focus is on scholarship, not on politics or on being a woman scholar. It has lots of good research on the various decades of her life, but is repetitive and the theoretical underpinnings of the approach are not clear. It does seem to be trying to make some kind of feminist argument about women scholars, with lots of discussion about how difficult it is to combine childbearing/rearing with an academic career, but that isn't exactly breaking news and does not appear to be something Shipps herself is focused on. Overall, it's worth reading if you're interested, but not a book I would rush to recommend to everyone.

[Ron Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at the leading non-LDS expert on Mormonism

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and an ardent reader of history related to the church, I had been exposed to Jan Shipps and was very interested in how and why a Methodist from the Midwest would be such an expert of the church. While this book did not answer all of the questions, I would like to ask her it did provide an abundance of insight into how she became such a renowned scholar of Mormonism. Gordon B Hinckley (former president of the church) was quoted in the book as saying, “that rather than being focused on criticizing the LDS religion, Jan was instead interested in understanding and explaining the growth and change in the modern church”. I would have liked to understand more of her personal insights in how researching the church has altered her outlook of life. I also enjoyed the first of the book that was more focused on her biography than the second part. As the authors acknowledged they included a significant amount of redundancy in the story. The comparisons with other writers such as Brooks and Brodie were of less interest to me. Overall this book presents a fine example on how a true scholar can keep a fair minded and realistic view of a religion without accepting or becoming a harsh critic.

[Sergio Barrios · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been a pleasant experience and thanks to it I was able to meet Jan Shipps and all her contributions to the Mormon Studies. The narrative is in two parts and I must admit that I enjoyed more the first part, which is written as a biography, than the second part that we could call an "intellectual biography"; learn about the southern environment in which Dr. Shipps grew up as well as her experiences as a young musically gifted girl, studious, young mother, counselor of young girls with problems, graduate student and PhD applicant and finally her triumph in the field of history and erudition. I was amazed by Jan's positive influence on MHA and JWHA as well as the creation of the Religious Studies Department in UIPUI.
A great woman who could overcome the sexism of the time and the constant obstacles of a field governed by men.
We can recognize for jobs like this that more diverse participation is needed in the departments of History, Religious History and research.

[Roxanne Shull · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a scholar by any means, nor am I an expert on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but this book has given me more insight into this wonderful female scholars who broke religious scholarly bounds with new eyes that gave us an angle on our history and her own we’ve never understood before. This is a book I will continue to review.

[Joseph Cosgriff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent biography with many compelling anecdotes. My daughter and I especially enjoyed reading about her initial adjustment to life in the Logan area before her move to Colorado and from supporting her husband's studies to becoming a scholar in her own right.