Millennial Star posted links to a podcast discussion with Patrick Mason on the development of Mormon History since the formation of the LDS Church and the recent emergence of academic Mormon Studies programs over the last ten years or so. Well worth listening to. The episode is also available at the LDS Perspectives Podcast site.
Both professionalization of the discipline and the new academic programs are positive steps. But some tension, even conflict, with traditional LDS approaches to history and with LDS leadership (which rarely welcomes constructive criticism) is likely. I see that tension and conflict as growing pains, a transitional phase that will, after a time, make the Church a stronger and better institution. In any case, it is a necessary and inevitable change, so it might as well be embraced. As Mason notes in the podcast, "The Internet changed everthing." Transparency is unavoidable. Transparency is the new institutional reality.
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