Jerald and Sandra Tanner's most comprehensive and revealing work on Mormonism. Writing in the October 1990 Sunstone, book dealer Curt Bench compiled "A list of the books which have had a significant influence on the development of Mormon history, theology, and literature." The Tanners' Mormonism-Shadow or Reality? was listed among the 50 important books on Mormonism in the first 150 years (1830-1980). Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?

As a discussion of doctrinal history of the Mormons, this work is a real achievement in scholarship. A search for truth, no mater of what world, will continue. The Tanners are to be commended whether freely or reluctantly, for having had the courage to assist in that search. A book appealing to Mormons and non-Mormons alike.