Scott Harry Faulring (August 11, 1956 - June 29, 2018) is an American historian and document editor connected with the early history of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church). He has published with both the

Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) was an informal collaboration of academics devoted to Latter-day Saint historical scholarship. ThFoundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS)was established in 1979 as a ...

and Signature Books.

Biography

Faulring was born in the vicinity of Niagara Falls, New York. He joined the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

as a young man. While in the Air Force he became a member of LDS Church. Faulring received his bachelor's degree in history from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

in 1983. He then continued with the Air Force where he spent much of his time in

Vogelweh Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

, Germany and then in Izmir, Turkey. Also during this time he received a

MPA MPA or mPa may refer to: Academia Academic degrees * Master of Performing Arts * Master of Professional Accountancy * Master of Public Administration * Master of Public Affairs Schools * Mesa Preparatory Academy * Morgan Park Academy * Mou ...

degree from Troy State University. He later returned to BYU as an instructor with the Air Force ROTC there. After retiring from the Air Force, Faulring became a research historian with the

Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History The Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History (later renamed to Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History) was an academic research organization at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 1980 to 2005 that sought to promo ...

Writings

One of his earliest projects was the publication of the journals of Joseph Smith, Jr. His commentary at times has been faulted for poor and misleading readings of the text, and his summary provided by Signature Books has been criticized for being overly harsh on Smith. On the other hand, Faulring later wrote with

Richard Lloyd Anderson Richard Lloyd Anderson (9 May 1926 – 12 August 2018) was an American lawyer and theologist of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was a professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University (BYU). His book ''Inve ...

a review of

Todd Compton Todd Merlin Compton (born 1952) is an American historian in the fields of Mormon history and classics. Compton is a respected authority on the plural wives of the LDS Church founder, Joseph Smith. Biographical background Compton is a member of ...

's ''In Sacred Loneliness'', in which they jointly affirmed their faith in Smith as a prophet of God and criticized Compton's use of second-hand sources and even more heavily his use of the term ''polyandry''. Faulring has also edited a collection of documents on

Oliver Cowdery Oliver H. P. Cowdery (October 3, 1806 – March 3, 1850) was an American Mormon leader who, with Joseph Smith, was an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836. He was the first baptized ...

and a book on the

Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible The Joseph Smith Translation (JST), also called the Inspired Version of the Holy Scriptures (IV), is a revision of the Bible by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, who said that the JST/IV was intended to restore what ...

. Faulring has also published material with the

Mormon Historic Sites Foundation The Ensign Peak Foundation (formerly the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation) is an independent organization that seeks to contribute to the memorialization of sites important to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The o ...

Notes

References

Signature Books report on Joseph Smith papersFARMS bioBio from Faulring's papers in the University of Utah archives

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Faulring, Scott H. 1956 births 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American Latter Day Saint writers Brigham Young University alumni Brigham Young University faculty Converts to Mormonism Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement Living people People from Niagara Falls, New York Troy University alumni Latter Day Saints from New York (state) Historians from New York (state) 21st-century American male writers