Dave's Mormon Inquiry

Joseph Spencer's "An Other Testament: On Typology"

Here is a casual review of Joe Spencer's An Other Testament: On Typology (Salt Press, 2012). Short summary: I like Salt Press. I like Joe Spencer. I like the book. I don't like typology.

Salt Press

On its website, Salt Press describes itself as "an independent academic press dedicated to publishing books that engage Mormon texts, show familiarity with the best contemporary thinking, remain accessible to non-specialists, and foreground the continuing relevance of Mormon ideas." The editorial board is a mix of prominent LDS bloggers and LDS academics. The publisher promotes "independent and open publishing," notably by making PDF copies of books available for free download. These are the right people doing the right sort of thing to upgrade the quality of scriptural commentary and discussion available to the general LDS audience. And this is a great publishing model; I hope it continues to thrive. Christmas is coming: buy all three of their books for someone you love.

The Real World of the Book of Mormon

This is the fourth in a series of posts taking a broad look at the Book of Mormon. This post continues the discussion of the prior post, The Book of Mormon as Narrative, by considering verisimilitude. This term refers to how faithfully a text represents the real world or, to various degrees, depicts events that do not conform to the readers' view of the real world.

The Book of Mormon as Narrative

This is the third post in a series taking a broad view of the Book of Mormon (first, second). In this post I will discuss aspects of narrative encountered in the text. Not all scripture is narrative: consider the lengthy legal codes in the Torah and the moral exhortation found in James. Not all historical accounts are in the form of a narrative, although most history books written for the popular market are narrative histories. Most novels are in the form of a narrative, including historical fiction, which adds authorial speculation to large chunks of authentic history, often mixing fictional characters with actual historical figures and events.

The Book of Mormon: What has it done for you lately?

Julie is posting detailed commentary and Kent is providing literary reflection; I'm afraid all I have to offer on the Book of Mormon is general observations. This week let's talk about situating the book as a whole, not so much in terms of content and form (which I'll address in later posts) but in terms of function and use. How does the Church use the Book of Mormon? How do you use the Book of Mormon?

Which Book of Mormon?

The flurry of posts at T&S and elsewhere around the Bloggernacle is a reminder that 2012 is Book of Mormon year in Gospel Doctrine class. Which Book of Mormon are you going to read?

An Unsettling Book: Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon

This is the fourth in a series of reviews of Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide (OUP, 2010) that we are posting this week at Times and Seasons. It says something about the book that there is still a lot to talk about.

Scriptural Skills: What Are They and Can They Be Taught?

So I'm skimming through one of those unexpected books that you stumble across and somehow end up reading: Why Don't Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means For the Classroom (Jossey-Bass, 2009) by Daniel T. Willingham. In the second chapter he discusses teaching facts versus teaching skills. They are complementary, of course, and both must be taught. How does this relate to what we do in gospel settings? What are scriptural skills and how can they be taught in Sunday School or other church classes?

A Very Short Introduction to the Book of Mormon

I just finished reading Terryl Givens' The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction, a recent addition to Oxford University Press's wildly successful VSI series. It gives 125 informative pages on the content, structure, origin, and reception of the Book of Mormon. The book does a fair job of balancing competing views, no easy task for such a controversial subject.

Parsing Elder Holland's "Safety for the Soul" Talk

The transcript of Elder Holland's talk "Safety for the Soul" has been posted at LDS.org, so it's time to take a closer look at it. By parsing, I don't mean twisting the meaning or presenting the speaker as saying something he did not say or did not intend. I simply mean reading the talk closely: the dictionary definition of "parse" is "to analyze critically." To whom was his talk addressed? What did he say? And what did he not say?

BMAF Conference on Book of Mormon Geography

Per the Mormon Times, the Book of Mormon Archeological Forum is holding a conference on Saturday October 25 in Salt Lake City, uh, promoting the Limited Geography Hypothesis. It is interesting that if you Google "limited geography hypothesis" what you get is mostly Bloggernacle blogs. What does everyone else call it?

The Keystone Metaphor

This is my first post on this year's Book of Mormon curriculum. LDS.org posts the course manual. Lesson 1 includes material on the keystone metaphor, as well as handy links to most of the scriptures referred to in the lesson. I'll try to post once a week on a topic related to the lesson for the week. The topic of this post is the keystone metaphor, based on a statement by Joseph Smith: "The Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion" (HC 4:461). My main point is this: It's just a metaphor!

Book of Mormon Word Counts

Gospel Cougar has posted a list of Book of Mormon word counts ... in a single blog post. Yes, it is a list of about 3500 words found in the Book of Mormon (just eyeballing it), along with the number of occurences. There are actually two lists, one alphetical and one sorted by frequency. This entry alone saved the Gospel Cougar blog from my end-of-year sidebar culling (sorry, these things must be done from time to time). The word "and" appears 16,321 times. "Lamanites" appears 693 times, while "Christ" appears 382 times. The most popular z-word is "Zarahemla" at 148. You can have a lot of fun with this tool.

The Revised Introduction

Interesting how an editorial change of just one word in the one-page Introduction now printed in the Book of Mormon can generate so much discussion. Old wording: "... the Lamanites ... are the principal ancestors of the American Indians." New wording: "the Lamanites ... are among the ancestors of the American Indians" (emphasis added in both quotes). The Deseret News article on the change mentions Thomas Murphy and Simon Southerton, but provides quotes only from John L. Sorenson, an emeritus BYU anthropologist. The SL Trib article includes a quote from Southerton as well as a statement from a Doubleday editor that the change (made to the Doubleday edition of the Book of Mormon) was specifically requested by "LDS leaders." The SL Trib article also includes a quote from BCC's Kevin Barney. Interestingly, the Introduction accessible at LDS.org retains the "principal ancestors" phrase.

Millet on Historicity

I stumbled onto the following article, which I'll make this week's online essay, a few weeks back: The Book of Mormon, Historicity, and Faith by Robert Millet of BYU. It is from Volume 2, No. 2 (Fall 1993) of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, a production of the Maxwell Institute. Millet takes a more ecumenical view of some issues than other LDS scholars, so I was curious what new views he would bring to the historicity discussion.

Mummified Indians

Here's a link to a news story sent to me by a reader: When Terror Came to the Mummies of the Amazon. Sounds like a grade-B horror flick, but it actually reports the archeological discovery of mummified Indians from pre-Inca Peru of about 600 years ago, likely from a group known as the Chachapoyas. Interesting bunch, these Chachapoyas:

The Chachapoyas were a tall, fairhaired, light-skinned race that some researchers believe may have come from Europe. Little is known about them except that they were one of the more advanced ancient civilisations in the area. Adept at fighting, they commanded a large kingdom from the year 800 to 1500 that stretched across the Andes.

I wonder if they dug up any mummified horses with them? Now that would be something to write home about.

Ancient American Writing Discovered

The NYT reports the discovery of "3,000-year-old writing previously unknown to scholars" in Mexico, in an article entitled "Writing on Stone May Be Oldest in the Americas." The article reports that "62 distinct signs" were found inscribed on a stone slab, initially dated to around 900 BC and apparently linked to the Olmecs. The National Geographic site has a similar article, entitled "Oldest Writing in New World Discovered, Scientists Say."

Nephite DNA

In yet another skirmish in the continuing debate over DNA and the Book of Mormon, the Signature Books website recently posted a Ron Priddis response to Blake Ostler's reply (here and here) to Tom Murphy's article "Lamanite Genesis, Genealogy, and Genetics," chaper 3 in American Apocrypha (2002, Signature). [An earlier version of Murphy's paper is available online here. Also, Ostler has now replied to Priddis here and here, with some additional exchanges between the two later in the thread.] I will summarize these articles and add some commentary.

Multiplying Miracles

I received an email from a reader concerned about how to respond to some stories he was hearing about the printing of the Book of Mormon in 1830. Specifically, there's a book and a speaker out there claiming the actual printing of the book, at Grandin's print shop in Palmyra in 1829-30, could not have been accomplished by the normal printing technology of that time and that it must, therefore, have been miraculous, in some unspecified way. Here's an article at Meridian Magazine that summarizes and responds to the book and its claims. I'll summarize my response, then invite your comments and feedback.

Horsing Around

I haven't posted an online essay of the week for some time now. So let's try Horses in the Book of Mormon, a popular take on the horses question directed to a general Mormon audience, posted at Meridian Magazine. Meridian got the article from the Ancient America Foundation, whose About page explains: "AAF publications provide evidence for authenticity of the Book of Mormon." As long as you have a testimony of Mesoamerica, that is. Otherwise, you are one of the "uninformed Latter-day Saints [who] continue to promote other areas."

The Shadow of Abraham

I received an email from a reader who is a member "in good standing" with a devoutly Mormon wife, but he is puzzling over the Book of Abraham (BoA). After some research into its origins and status, he finds it to be "not at all related to the Egyptian writings" from which it was supposedly translated. He's wondering how I deal with the BoA issue. While many Mormons are largely ignorant of the whole BoA issue, I think most bloggers have some familiarity with it and have come to some settled opinion, so I'll just throw that out as a general question to everyone: How do you deal with the Book of Abraham issue? I'll give some links and add my own response below.

Punctuation Matters

The original 1830 "as dictated" English text of the Book of Mormon was entirely devoid of punctuation, it seems. That is sort of odd: punctuation is not some optional decoration, it is an essential component of clear written text, establishing the proper relations between various sentences, clauses, phrases, and words that make up the text. If the Urim and Thummim didn't do punctuation, it was a faulty or incomplete translation instrument. So where did the punctuation come from? Meet John H. Gilbert, punctuator and thus unacknowledged "co-translator" of the Book of Mormon.

Mr. Living Bible Dies

RNB reposts that Kenneth Taylor, the author of The Living Bible, died last week. The Living Bible was the first plain language Bible to really hit it big; it was wildly popular with the Bible-reading public from its first appearance in 1971, especially among youth. The LDS Church never embraced this movement; instead, the Church regularly rededicates itself to archaic language in the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon; in the thee's and thou's of our prayer language; even in our titles, such as the Relief Society or the Mutual Improvement Association. If you just can't shake the idea of a Living Book of Mormon, go find a copy of the Easy-to-Read Book of Mormon (see this FARMS review of the book for a few sample excerpts). It will give hours of fun to the entire family.

Pearl of Great Price

I had a reader send me an inquiry about the Pearl of Great Price (PoGP), a short collection of canonized LDS scripture which offers translated writings from Moses and Abraham, as well as an enhanced version of Matthew 24 and a short history of Joseph Smith's early experience through the publication of the Book of Mormon. Specifically, the reader is looking for additional details on the publication history of the PoGP. Here's my best link: the Encyclopedia of Mormonism article on the PoGP, by Kenneth W. Baldridge. Anyone with other good sources, please note them in the comments.

Descendants of Lehi

In Sunday's Gospel Doctrine class, the instructor asked in relation to Mormon 7, "Who are the latter-day descendants of Lehi, and where are they to be found?"  Recall that Mormon 7 invites the Lamanites of the latter days to believe in Christ, accept his gospel, and be saved (from the chapter heading).  After a couple of class comments, the instructor noted that the manual identified the native people of North America, Central America, South America, and the Pacific Islands as "the latter-day descendants of Lehi."  This summary by the instructor, of course, corresponds to the traditional LDS understanding of the question.  Later, I checked the instructor's manual, which actually states the following: "You may want to explain [to the class] that latter-day descendants of Lehi are found among the people of North, Central, and South America and the Pacific Islands" (italics added).

Interesting choice of words.  The vast majority of instructors and class members read the statement in the manual and think it is simply restating and endorsing the traditional view.  Yet one can parse the words to include the Limited Geography Hypothesis (LGH).  Anyone suggesting the statement is misleading as to what the "official" LDS position is would quickly be met by the apologetic riposte that the statement is perfectly consistent with LGH, with Asian origins of Native Americans, with DNA and linguistic evidence, and so on.  The statement strikes me as a fine job of telling the people what they want to hear while retaining deniability, but isn't an official manual of instruction supposed to give clear and accurate doctrinal statements?

Alma 1 - The Nephite State Church

It has been about five months since my last entry in the Sunday School category, so I'll try and catch up a bit.  Alma 1 shows the attitude of the Nephite theocracy toward religious dissenters.  Nehor taught that "all mankind should be saved at the last day" and that the clergy "ought to be supported by the people" (v. 3).  So universal salvation and a professional clergy were preached among the Nephites--I know that sounds a lot like what people were talking about in 19th-century America, but there it is among the diaspora Jews of Nephite America.

Defending the Traditional View

For the online essay of the week, go read On Wagging the Dog by Kevin Christensen, from the May 2004 Sunstone. It's short, only four pages! Christensen is responding to several articles in the March 2004 Sunstone grouped around the theme "Reframing the Book of Mormon." Christensen refers sympathetically to other instances of bottom-to-top inspiration in the Church as the tail wagging the dog, but argues that buying into this more radical reframing effort "would amount to their not only wagging the dog, but also stuffing and mounting it as well." Hats off to Sunstone for publishing a "rebuttal" view--not a practice followed by all Mormon Studies publications.

The Limits of 'Most Correct'

For the online essay of the week, go read 12 Answers From Royal Skousen, the latest and one of the best from the T&S 12 Questions series. In his comments, Prof. Skousen provides details and some preliminary results from the critical text project, which is designed "(1) to recover the original English-language text of the Book of Mormon, and (2) to determine the history of the text (namely, how it has changed over time)" (Q1). Skousen notes that the project began as an "independent scholarly project," and he has protected that independence despite a significant degree of cooperation from the LDS and RLDS (now Community of Christ) churches, which together control many of the manuscripts that are the focus of much of the research (Q6). Here are a couple of the more interesting points from the fascinating discussion.

Mosiah

I've fallen behind in my "Sunday School" category--this post will try to catch up a bit. Mosiah is the first book of the original, intended Book of Mormon narrative that we have--1 Nephi through Omni plus the Words of Mormon are really replacement material for the original Book of Lehi material which was lost. Metcalfe's essay The Priority of Mosiah is a detailed summary of the thesis (not original to him) that the material in Mosiah through Moroni was actually dictated before the replacement material in 1 Nephi through Omni. As noted by Metcalfe, that ordering of the text also sheds light on several thematic inconsistencies which otherwise emerge. In addition, inspection of the original manuscripts suggests the original first chapter of Mosiah was lost (recapitulated, one would think, by the summary material in Omni and Words of Mormon) and the present "Mosiah 1" was actually the second chapter.

New Quiz on Jacob 7

Back to the Sunday School curriculum: Jacob 7 narrates the encounter between Jacob, Nephi's brother and the keeper of the holy record, and Sherem, the first of three Antichrists featured in the Book of Mormon.

As you recall, Sherem just showed up and started "to preach among the people, and to declare unto them that there should be no Christ" (v. 2). He was smart and a smooth talker, and "he could use . . . much power of speech, according to the power of the devil" (v. 4). Jacob stood firm against Sherem's arguments, his convictions secured by his own supernatural experiences of seeing angels and hearing the actual voice of the Lord from time to time (v. 5).

After unsuccessfully confronting Jacob, Sherem asks for a sign, whereupon Jacob suggests that God smite him, which immediately occurs (v. 13-15). After being in a coma for several days (or perhaps weeks), Sherem awakens, confesses Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost, admits he had been deceived by the power of the devil and that he was going straight to hell, then promptly dies (v. 15-20). Following this miraculous death, the people are overcome with astonishment and become much more attentive in reading their scriptures, which was mightily pleasing unto Jacob (v. 21-23).

This story is presented in the hightly edited Book of Mormon not as entertainment, but for edification. It is there to teach us something related to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So here's the question:

Question: What exactly are we supposed to learn from the events narrated in Jacob 7:1-23? What lesson, principle, or doctrine is this intended to teach the attentive, pondering reader?

Short essay (even one sentence), easy grading, clever or insightful answers get bonus points. No plagairizing from places like this, this, or this. You can do better.

Quiz on Jacob 2

Short answer, of course. In Jacob 2, the Nephite prophet Jacob condemns polygamy: "Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord" (2:24). The Nephite practices had "broken the hearts of [their] tender wives" (2:35). Yet, the Lord says "if I will . . . raise up seed unto me, I will command my people" (2:30), summarized in the LDS headnote as "Jacob condemns the unauthorized practice of plural marriage." So what exactly is a modern Mormon to make of Jacob 2? Here is your question and (should you find them a useful starting point) four different positions to get your replies started in one direction or another.

Question: Is Jacob 2 at all relevant to the modern 19th-century Mormon practice of polygamy, and if so how?

1. Not relevant. Unlike Nephite women and children, Mormon women and children did not suffer emotional trauma under polygamy, so the Jacobite denunciation is not really applicable to the Mormon case. Only modern revelation is relevant to the modern Mormon practice.

2. Relevant, in that Mormon women and children did suffer, but such is the sacrifice they were called on to make. Jacob 2:30 plainly shows God will command polygamy from time to time, and this was one of those times.

3. Relevant. Mormon women and children did suffer, which is why polygamy is offensive to God and Western sensibilities, and should not be tolerated. Mormon polygamy in the 19th century was simply a mistake, best forgotten and not repeated.

4. Not relevant. Neither Jacob 2, D&C 132, nor any other text is determinative. Independent moral reasoning is sufficient to convince any reasonable person that polygamy is wrong and immoral, and should not be practiced.

2 Nephi 31 - On Baptism

After 12 chapters of Isaiah and Nephi's depressing comments on priestcrafts, apostasy, and the destruction of the wicked, 2 Nephi 31 practically sparkles. It reads like a rousing frontier revival sermon preached by Nephi in 550 BC, urging the faithful listener or reader to commit themselves to baptism. Yes, there are chronology problems with this setting, but let's stress the positive today. He begins in 31:5:

And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfill all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!

He continues, rather oddly in the past tense, in 31:8-9:

Wherefore, after [Jesus] was baptized with water the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove.
And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he having set the example before them.

He then covers repentance, baptism by water, and "a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost" (31:17). I assume that's literal water and figurative fire. He closes with a beautiful challenge to continued faith and striving (31:20, slight edits):

Press forward with steadfastness in Christ,
having perfect brightness of hope and love of God and all men.
Wherefore, press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ and enduring to the end,
and behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

2 Nephi 28 - On Christian Churches

The first 8 entries in this Sunday School series can be found here. Having survived the encounter with 13 chapters of Isaiah plunked down in the middle of 2 Nephi, we come to chapter 28, where Nephi in 600 BC describes at length the false Christian churches of our day. Well, what we actually see in 2 Nephi 28 is a description of the churches of New York in the 1820s. The best summary of 2 Nephi 28 is found at JS-H 1:6, where in the wake of spirited revival preaching a scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued--priest contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions. But times have changed exceedingly; little of the 20th century is apparent in 2 Nephi 28. Evolution, fundamentalism, ecumenicism, religious apathy and secularism, Zen religion and spirituality, the decline of denominations, megachurches, televangelism--none of this shows up in 2 Nephi 28, which seems transfixed on the early 19th century.