Richard Lloyd Anderson

Richard Lloyd Anderson is an emeritus professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. His book "Ivestigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses" is widely considered the definitive work on this subject. ["Church News", November 18, 2006] Anderson is the brother of Karl Ricks Anderson.

Biography

Anderson's prominences in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) dates back to 1946 when he created the "Anderson Plan" one of the earliest organized systems for Mormon missionaries to teach lessons to non-members. He developed this plan while serving as a missionary in the Northwestern States Mission of the church. [R. Lanier Britsch "Missions and Missionary Work" in Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon and Richard O. Cowan ed., "Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History", p. 764]

Anderson served in the United States Naval Air Corps during World War II.

Anderson earned an M.A. in Greek from Brigham Young University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. [http://ourworld.cs.com/mikegriffith1/id131.htm] Anderson received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Besides teaching both church history and doctrine and ancient scripture at BYU, Anderson also taugth courses in Greek.

One of the books Anderson wrote was "Joseph Smith's New England Heritage". Anderson has also written many articles on issues relating to early Latter-day Saint history. He was a contributor to both the "Encyclopedia of Mormonism" and the "Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History".

Although his main specialty is the early history of the LDS Church, Anderson has also written about early Christianity. Among his works on this subject is "Understanding Paul" (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983). He also wrote an article on crucifixion. [http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/daily/holidays/easter/crusifixion.html]

In 2006 Anderson was given the Junius F. Wells Award by the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation.

Notes

References

* [http://farms.byu.edu/authors/?authorID=3 FARMS bio]
* "Church News", September 27, 1997
* [http://www.allbookstores.com/author/Richard_Lloyd_Anderson.html partial list of works by Richard Lloyd Anderson]
* [http://mormonlit.lib.byu.edu/lit_author.php?a_id=1266 Mormon literature database entry]