By the Hand of Mormon

Terryl Givens' By the Hand of Mormon (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002) is an up-to-date summary of scholarly Book of Mormon commentary and criticism. The book emphasizes the last forty years of scholarship and also provides, almost in passing, a short history of the ever-growing Mormon apologetics industry. That in itself is likely to help some readers place long-running debates in a useful institutional context that might help explain why, for example, a discussion about Signature Books or FARMS is likely to be far more contentious than a discussion about Nephite geography or the Isaiah problem. Givens himself does an admirable job of giving fair summaries and footnote citations to both sides of disputed issues, and he shows some sympathy for the admittedly problematic search for middle ground (see a long discussion at p. 165-84).

Givens groups his discussion under four themes, considering the Book of Mormon alternatively (1) as a sacred sign of Joseph Smith's divine calling; (2) as a record of ancient history; (3) as a cultural product of the 19th century; and (4) as a source of new theology or "plain and precious truths."

A Sacred Sign

In early Mormon preaching and teaching, the significance of the Book of Mormon derived from the mere fact that new scripture was delivered to the world by way of Joseph Smith rather than from any new or restored doctrines taught in the book. In an odd way, the Book of Mormon was (and often is) presented as testifying of Joseph Smith and his work rather than Joseph testifying of the Book of Mormon and its teachings. It's as if, once translated, the book itself should stand or fall on its own. Givens states:

[L]ooking at the Book of Mormon in terms of its early uses and reception, it becomes clear that this American scripture has exerted influence within the church and reaction outside the church not primarily by virtue of its substance, but rather its manner of appearing, not on the merits of what it says, but what it enacts. . . . The Book of Mormon is preeminently a concrete manifestation of sacred utterance, and thus an evidence of divine presence, before it is a repository of theological claims (p. 63-64).

Givens quotes Klaus Hansen's opinion that those who accepted the message of the Book of Mormon found it easy to accept the account of its origins, but points out that "in a very essential way . . . the 'message' of the Book of Mormon was its manner of origin" (p. 84). Intiguingly, he notes that even Joseph himself rarely used the Book of Mormon as a source of doctrine: "During the seven years of the church's Nauvoo period, when Joseph was preaching in public on a regular basis, the hundreds of recorded pages of his sermons contain only a handful of brief allusions to the Book of Mormon---and none of them involve sustained discussion of doctrine or any other content" (p. 85). One gets the impression that Joseph read from the book rather infrequently. It seems somewhat ironic that, while a good deal of contemporarly Mormon criticism and apologetics swirls around the Book of Mormon, Joseph himself hardly seems to have given it a second thought after 1830.

An Ancient History

If the Book of Mormon documents actual historical events, diligent investigation should be able to link the text to real-world sites and artifacts. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? After all, Joseph was not shy about identifying places linked to the Book of Mormon and other scriptural sources. Givens notes several articles from early LDS periodicals highlighting emerging archaeological discoveries in the Americas first coming to light in the 1830s and 1840s. The ruins of Central America were first widely publicized by Stephens' 1841 book, which included stunning illustrations by Frederick Catherwood (p. 99-100). Joseph and his fellow Mormons were impressed and justifiably encouraged by these discoveries, which quickly refocused LDS attention on Central America as a site for many Book of Mormon events (p. 104). Orson Pratt's 1879 edition of the Book of Mormon, which set the text in the chapter and verse format we know today, went so far as to include "some 75 geographical comments and identifications into the footnotes" (p. 106). These were dropped in the 1920 edition (p. 109).

The difficulty in matching up Nephite narrative with American archaeology is illustrated in the summary of B. H. Roberts' work on the topic. Roberts, "the truly dominant Mormon intellectual of the era" (p. 106), published the 3-volume New Witnesses for God between 1895 and 1911 based on his study of American archaeology. But a short letter written by a curious young member 1921 (asking about languages, horses, steel, cimiters, and silk) plunged Roberts back into the whole issue, ultimately leading to a detailed presentation by Roberts to the leadership of the Church in January 1922. His findings were detailed in a 141-page report entitled "Book of Mormon Difficulties" (p. 110). That report, along with other material and a biographical essay, is included in Studies of the Book of Mormon, edited by Brigham Madsen (Signature, 1992). Roberts' candor in presenting criticisms has engendered some debate over the final state of his personal convictions, but he continued to affirm the book's veracity in public and apparently in private until his death (p. 111).

Coming in Part 2: The Rise of FARMS.

Comments

[mike]

i've been meaning to read given's book, but haven't gotten around to it yet. i think that it is interesting that most mormon doctrine (the doctrine that sets us apart from other christian churches) isn't found in the book of mormon. the book of mormon is far more mainstream christian in its teachings than is the D&C or PoGP. i think that it is so important to mormonism because if it is true, it is a sign of the divine calling of JS and lends credibility to the later works that he would bring forth. but if you want to understand why mormons believe the things they do you would still be wondering after reading the book.

looking forward to part ii, and perhaps later you could create a thread about studies of the book of mormon since i've actually read that book and found it fascinating.

[Dave]

Mike, I don't own a copy of Studies of the Book of Mormon, but it's on my list for my next Signature order, along with Southerton's book and possibly Vogel's biography of Joseph Smith. I've promised myself I won't put in a new order until I've finished reading the last batch.

As for B.H. Roberts . . . well, not reading the book wouldn't necessarily stop me from blogging about it. Signature generally posts a chapter from each of their books at their website, by the way. For The Essential B.H. Roberts they posted the editor's introduction, which is a biographical essay on Roberts. You might find it interesting. Maybe I'll read it tonight and make it my online essay of the week tomorrow.

[Clark Goble]

Dave, I confess I've never read Givens, simply because I always assumed it was a very well written summary of apologetic positions. Since I'm already familiar with most of the apologetics it seemed unlikely to say much I was unaware of. (Well, at least to the state of affairs up to a few years ago when I became bored with apologetics) Is this the case?

[Dave]

Clark, it's certainly the case that someone who has been actively reading the apologetic literature or who has read a fair sampling of New Mormon History would find most of the material Givens covers to be familiar. Givens' book, however, is not itself an apologetic work.

I think what he was trying to do was cover much of the BoM topical terrain defined by critical treatments and associated apologetic responses, but present that material (1) in a more digested and synthesized narrative that is (2) directed to the educated reader not familiar with apologetic discussions or even familiar with the Book of Mormon at all. As such, it also makes an excellent review for the interested LDS reader of the whole apologetic debate of the last 40 years, from a perspective that is highly sympathetic to orthodox LDS claims but discusses and references critical viewpoints and articles.

You might consider browsing through the twenty pages in the book that I noted above as a "search for the middle ground," which devoted several pages to Ostler's depiction of the BoM as a modern expansion of an ancient text.