Dwelling in the Promised Land as a Stranger

by Scott Abbott

This is one of those rare books that I couldn’t put down. Part saga, part humor, and part reflection, Scott Abbott, who taught at BYU for more than a decade, chronicles his turbulent encounters with Mormon leaders and Mormon institutions. I found the chapters defending his BYU colleagues from overzealous bureaucrats both amusing and alarming. I also enjoyed his discussions on academic freedom, race, sexuality, and gender equality. Abbott’s sense of justice, unflinching courage, and sheer humanity shine brilliantly throughout this book.
—Matthew L. Harris, author of Watchman on the Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right

Scott Abbott must have questioned authority from his birth. He has spent much of his life speaking truth to power, often to power that didn’t want to hear that truth. He has always defended open, rigorous debate and has always been as willing to consider criticism of his own ideas and actions as to offer criticism of others, particularly when their decisions were destructive to institutions and individuals Scott cared about, including Brigham Young University, intellectuals, feminists, and homosexuals. This compilation of Scott’s essays, letters, and articles, spanning over thirty years, demonstrates many significant That reason and intellectual inquiry do not oppose faith but, rather, are necessary for authentic faith to flourish. That coercion kills growth and agency. That an eccentric individual is most likely not dangerous to an institution but rather the source of vital ideas that will help renew it. That individuals who are harmed by shortsighted policies matter as much as the empowered who make and carry out those policies. Reading this book will help administrators consider how to be more kind and farsighted. It also offers a model of how to speak out against the damaging and dishonest policies rampant in our contemporary culture, however they are disguised.
—Susan Elizabeth Howe, Emerita Professor of English, BYU, and author of Salt and Stone Spirits

In these essays, Scott Abbott has sketched his personal odyssey. A boy from a Four-Corners oil town went away to college, became an ascendant academic, then pivoted, poignantly. A stirring in his deep parts pointed him toward the transcendent prospect of a consummate community, lustrous in its interweaving of humane quest with tokens of godliness. Eventually, contesting the interweave brought embroilment and sundering, an uneasy reality to which Professor Abbott has borne witness in ways heartrending and cautionary.
—Hal Miller, Jr.
Professor, Cognitive and
Behavioral Neuroscience, BYU

Genres: Religion, Essays

294 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2022

About the author

Scott Abbott likes to think of himself as an architect, builder, and custodian of prosperous companies, leadership, and growth. He has 35+ years of credentialed experience and expertise launching, operating, buying, and selling great companies. Along the way, Scott has worked with hundreds of startups, small, midsize, and Fortune 1000 companies. He has raised over $35M+ in venture capital, with several successful exits (and some not so successful). In total, Scott has led teams and organizations that generated billions in sales, serviced thousands of clients, and hired hundreds of employees. He is a finalist for the E&Y Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award, a former Entrepreneur in Residence at Indiana University Kelley School of Business, Inc. 5000 Winner, Fast Company Executive Board Member, hosts a top-rated podcast, and is the author of 4 best-selling books, including BOS-UP, BOS-UP Moments, The Co+Factor, and Level-UP to Professional. For the record, Scott likes to emphasis that he’s also learned a lot, through a truckload of failures and mistakes.

As for his current professions and passions: he has the joy and privilege of being the Founder & CEO of BOS-UP, Straticos, and Phase4 Investments. He’s also a Business & Executive Coach, Angel Investor, and Board Member. Most of all, Scott loves helping good and caring people - along with team-centric organizations - effectively learn, implement, and leverage the essential concepts, tools, and disciplines for exceptional leadership, management, teamwork, and accountability: in business, work, and life.

Learn more about Scott at http://www.scottabbottabc.com and connect on social media @scottabbottabc.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book by Scott Abbott reprints a bunch of his essays, mostly from Sunstone, about the academic restrictions on BYU faculty in the 1990s. It goes in-depth into the circumstances around Brian Evanson's resignation. Evanson was a BYU English faculty member who wrote grisly horror. A student complained, and Abbott tried to explain the genius behind Evanson's work to administrators who were initially scandalized by Evanson's work. Abbott's effort was valiant, but ultimately didn't change the outcome--Evanson was unwilling to stop writing horror and resigned. That was the part of the book that I was most interested in.

I was intrigued to find out that Abbott authored the anonymous Sunstone article that gave so many examples of academic "handling" at BYU that I was heretofore not able to cite on Wikipedia (I considered an anonymous article unverifiable). But now that it's published with Abbott's name, do I really want to add that Claudia Bushman was on a rumored campus speaker blacklist to her Wikipedia page?

If that seems spiteful, that was one of the many feelings I felt while reading this book. I felt so upset that I had to take a break and read other books for a while. I work at BYU and sometimes I'm really proud of that, and sometimes I can't believe that I've survived this long. The topic of BYU professors not being "allowed" to publish in Dialogue or Sunstone is one that still makes my blood boil (and is only true of certain departments at BYU). The book goes into detail about how Abbott joined the American Association of University Professors and got them to investigate BYU for academic freedom. The results of that report are used as a source on the Wikipedia page about academic freedom at BYU.

I would have liked Abbott to go and interview the faculty he listed who had resigned or been let go because of their conflict at BYU. Some of them, I know what happened after they left, like with Martha Beck. Others, like Hal Miller, came back and I'm intensely curious about how and why. There is more to the stories of academic censure at BYU in the late 1980s and early 1990s than Abbott has reported on, as we know from Bela Petsco's story. I may have to do some of my own research if I want to find out what else was going on in the English department at the time (and why there were so few women faculty in the department when I went to grad school).

[Hash Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admittedly, I approached this book in search of consolation. I thought it might help parse through the strange reality of living in Utah. It was an intriguing window into the academic world cultivated in the presence of the Latter-Day Saint church. Repetitive at times (unavoidable for the medium). But overall, it delivered as expected.

What I did not expect, however, was the intense humanity I would find in Abbott's writing. He is elegant, passionate, and faithful in the greatest sense of the term. As he walks you through his, frankly, baffling life of occurrences, you are left with the unmistakable impression that no author could have written this, except on the condition that he/she lived life with an incredible sense of character and constant attitude of poignant reflection. Abbott seems to have discovered a way of living and writing that uniquely lends itself to the unassailability of genuine humanity.

I will be reading more of his work.