Biography
Urrutia lived in Ecuador until 1968, and has since been a resident of the United States of America, except for the period from May 1974 to July 1977, when he lived in Israel. At Brigham Young University, he studied under Hugh Nibley. Learning from Nibley that the Book of Mormon names Shiblon and Shiblom may be derived from the Arabic root shibl, "lion cub," Urrutia connected this to the "Jaguar Cub" imagery of the Olmec people.
Urrutia has also elaborated on Nibley's argument that the word Makhshava, usually translated as "thought," is more correctly translated as "plan." Urrutia has made some contributions to the study of Egyptian Names in the Book of Mormon.
Over the years, Urrutia has written and published a number of articles, letters, poems and reviews on matters related to the work of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Benjamin Urrutia contributed stories to every volume of the LDSF series - anthologies of Science Fiction with LDS Themes. He edited the second and third volumes of the series.
Urrutia has been a book reviewer since 1970 and a film critic since 1981. As of 2012, he is a book reviewer and the principal film critic for The Peaceable Table. He is a strong advocate of Christian vegetarianism.
Urrutia has the condition known as Anosmia: a total lack of a sense of smell.
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