It is published by the University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship with funding from the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies.

The journal was established in 1992 as a biannual publication of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) at Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah).

[2][3] According to American religious historian John-Charles Duffy, the journal took an approach of orthodox scholarship, without an emphasis on polemics or responding to critics of Mormonism.

[7][8] In 1998 the format changed from a plain academic journal style into a glossy magazine, intended to make its work more accessible to general LDS readers in addition to scholars.

It went from biennial to annual, adopted an academic printing format, and announced a new mission within the larger field of religious studies for both "Mormon and non-Mormon scholars.