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Interpreter (journal)

journal

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 1, 2025
Entity authorityQ16859852 ↗
Source-derived summary

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship (formerly known as "Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture") is a nonprofit, peer-reviewed, and educational academic journal published by the Interpreter Foundation primarily covering topics related to the canon of scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon studies, and Latter-day Saint apologetics.

Background

It was established in July 2012 by the Interpreter Foundation with Daniel C. Peterson as founding editor-in-chief. Peterson had previously been the founding editor of the FARMS Review, which in 2011 had been renamed the Mormon Studies Review (MSR) by the heads of the Maxwell Institute (MI). The MSR launched soon after Peterson's release from MI without direct apologetics as one of their goals. Peterson believed that direct apologetics was a necessary feature of a publication like the MSR while others did not. This philosophical difference between Peterson and the editors of the MSR led to the creation of the Interpreter Foundation, which retained apologetic content.

Activities

The Interpreter Foundation sponsors debates and discussions. These have included two symposia focused on the relationship between science and Mormonism. The journal publishes historical surveys, responses to critics, book reviews, personal essays, and other scholarly literature, all with the primary goals of increasing understanding of Latter-day Saint scripture and religion as well as defending it.

Controversy

In 2013, a critical review of Mormon Stories by Gregory L. Smith was published in Interpreter.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Interpreter (journal)” is journal. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Interpreter and journal, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2012, 2011, 2013—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2012-01-01. For this dossier, Interpreter and journal is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “journal” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16859852. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2011 and 2013.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Interpreter (journal)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Interpreter (journal) primary sources, Interpreter (journal) archive and Interpreter research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Interpreter (journal)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.