Author Description

"Hugh Nibley wrote the essays that make up Approaching Zion between 1971 and the book's publication in 1989. In the quarter century since its publication (and in the four decades since Nibley started this project of social criticism) much has changed. The American economy has endured both recessions and booms. Its details have changed substantially, in ways both obvious (the internet's displacement of brick-and-mortar retail) and invisible (the increased financialization of the U.S. economy). Perhaps more importantly, a generation of Mormon intellectuals have reflected on Nibley's challenging, insightful, and often frustrating thoughts on Zion. The time is right for a reconsideration of his ideas and the place of Zion in Mormon thought. The essays in this book revisit Nibley's ideas in the context of the current world. They engage his observations, his arguments, and his jeremiads in an attempt to drill down on the idea of Zion. The authors come from a number of disciplines, ranging from the law to the humanities, from political science to art, and they bring to bear their disciplines' tools and questions to evaluate what Nibley can tell us about Zion today"--