The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies was established in 1979 as a clearinghouse to reprint and distribute articles written about the Book of Mormon, and to promote more academic-minded studies of this foundational Restoration scripture. Early reprint articles included FARMS founder John W. Welch’s landmark BYU Studies piece detailing his discovery of chiasmus—a Hebrew literary gesture—in the Book of Mormon. ((John W. Welch, 'Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon,' BYU Studies 10/1 (1969): 69–84.)) After moving the non-profit group from California to Utah’s Brigham Young University, Welch emphasized that FARMS aimed to perform rigorous research to achieve a better understanding “both intellectual and spiritual” of the Book of Mormon text. Welch emphasized the importance of analyzing the book as an ancient text and issued a call for an interdisciplinary approach:
'The more you understand about the ancient world, the more the Book of Mormon makes sense and the more meaningful it becomes. . . . A great number of diverse disciplines needed to be brought together. The Book of Mormon should be studied with literary, historical, religious, political, military, legal, social, economic, and just basic textual concerns in mind.' ((n.a., 'Scholars Seek Understanding of Book of Mormon,' California Intermountain News, Thursday, November 22, 1984, n.p.))
Within a few years, FARMS grew from issuing reprints via catalog order form to facilitating and publishing original scholarship in a variety of books and journal articles. In the pre-Internet days it served as a magnet attracting interested Latter-day Saints who could enjoy the offerings or pitch in their own research. FARMS began publishing a newsletter, eventually named Insights: An Ancient Window, to highlight research developments for interested subscribers. It included a series of “Updates” consisting of one- or two-page summaries of ongoing research projects, such as recent archaeological or cultural discoveries that seemed to support the Book of Mormon as an ancient record or Hebrew-like constructions in the Book of Mormon text. ((The first Update, “F.A.R.M.S. Update December 1983, Inauguration of the Cornerstone Club,” was released December 1983. Welch cites the December 1984 Update as the first in Re-exploring the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, FARMS, 1992), xi.)) FARMS also began compiling 'Working Papers,' 'Preliminary Reports,' 'Study Aids,' and other materials. As increasingly sophisticated articles came in, the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies was established as the premier venue for scholars studying this Latter-day Saint scripture. All of this was done to stimulate more Book of Mormon research, to better appreciate the text's richness, understand its origins, and comprehend its messages. ((See this description on the back cover of Reexploring the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992).)) Some of the reports led to honed publications. All of this was also done in the pre-word processor days, which blows my mind.FARMS was formally brought into Brigham Young University in 1997. BYU combined it with several other important academic initiatives in 2006, thereby creating the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Following a generous donation from the Laura F. Willes family, FARMS was eventually absorbed by the Institute's Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies—one of a number of important research initiatives currently housed under the Maxwell umbrella. Although the FARMS name is no longer in active use, the Willes Center continues to support approaches to the Book of Mormon with 'literary, historical, religious, political, military, legal, social, economic, and just basic textual concerns in mind,' just as FARMS-founder Welch described back in 1984. ((See footnote 2.)) Also, as the latest issue of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies demonstrates, the Book of Mormon's translation and reception contexts will also receive closer attention in order to flesh out the life of the its inception, transmission, and reception—from the ancient world through the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.This 35th anniversary year is a fine time to celebrate the work of FARMS, the Willes Center's predecessor, and one among several forerunners to today's Maxwell Institute. As a way to honor the devoted students of the Book of Mormon who've worked for decades to bring the scripture into greater light through academic research, we've been working to make more classic FARMS materials more widely available than ever.To that end, the PAST PUBLICATIONS page on the Institute's website has been updated with a new PRELIMINARY REPORTS section. It features over two hundred Papers, Study Aids, Transcripts, and other ancient-but-not-that-ancient documents.FARMS Preliminary Reports were said to consist of 'tentative papers reflecting substantial research not yet ready for final publication.' Although some of them have never been publicly released until now, FARMS made most of them available via catalog order 'to be critiqued and improved and to stimulate further research.' ((Prelim. Report coversheets in my possession.)) The Willes Center offers them now in that same spirit. Some are very outdated—having been surpassed or still awaiting update by subsequent researchers (see a few anti-evolution pieces, for instance)—while other inclusions will prove just as useful today as they were when they were first created (such as John Tvedtnes's exhaustive survey of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon). Although their quality is uneven, they represent the energy and zeal of those who sought to enrich understanding of LDS scripture over the past several decades.And even more documents and ephemera will be made available on the site in coming months.I express my gratitude to Caitlyn Ainge and Sarah Skriloff who assisted me in this project and to Matthew Roper for contributing ideas for this blog post. The Willes Center dedicates this new section of the Maxwell Institute website to all those who've contributed their insights over the past thirty-five years.