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Originally Posted by Archaea

Under those circumstances, what's the difference between a faith promoting historian and an apologist? To me, the Packer line is "we don't need historians, we need apologists."

I don't think that was his message. I think his cautions were intended to instruct people not to ignore/factor out the Spirit.

Originally Posted by Solon

It's their church. They're in charge. They do what they want.

...

I want to read to you a most significant statement by President Joseph F. Smith, a statement that you would do well to keep in mind in your teaching and research, and onw which will serve somewhat as a text for my remarks to you:

"It has not been by the wisdom of man that this people have been directed in their course until the present; it has been by the wisdom of Him who is above man and whose knowledge is greater than that of man, and whose power is above the power of man . . . The hand of the Lord may not be visible to all. There may be many who can not discern the workings of God's will in the progress and development of this great latter-day work, but there are those who see in every hour and in every moment of the existence of the Church, from its beginning until now, the overruling, almighty hand of him who sent His Only Begotten Son to the world to become a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

If we do not keep this constantly in mind--that the Lord directs this Church--we may lose our way in the world of intellectual and scholarly research.