Second Witness

Second Witness PDF Author: Brant Gardner
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books Incorporated
ISBN: 1589580419
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
"This volume, the first of six, devotes serious attention to the foundational questions: (1) What is a useful approach to Book of Mormon geography? (2) What contributions can archaeology, anthropology, and ethnohistory make to Book of Mormon questions? (3) What constituted Nephite theology in these first generations? (4) What were Mormon's sources and how did he organize his work? One of the most exciting insights of this volume is its reconstruction of the politics behind the Deuteronomic reforms of King Josiah. These reforms deemphasized an earlier Messiah-centered theology that more fully acknowledged the council of the gods, the war in heaven, Yahweh's feminine consort, originally worshipped in the temple, and Isaiah, the poet-prophet who foretold the Messiah's coming. Did Lehi's acceptance of this earlier, Christ-centered religion explain the death threats against him in Jerusalem? If Laman and Lemuel accepted those reforms, did this intrafamily disagreement produce a thousand years of hostility between Nephites and Lamanites in the New World? Other contributions of this volume are a fresh look at what the Book of Mormon actually says about skin color, the pressures of local polytheistic culture on Nephite theology, and the Isaiah-based egalitarian ideal of Nephite culture."--Bk. jkt.

Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon

Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon PDF Author: Brant A. Gardner
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
Stop looking for the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica and start looking for Mesoamerica in the Book of Mormon! Second Witness, a new six-volume series from Greg Kofford Books, takes a detailed, verse-by-verse look at the Book of Mormon. It marshals the best of modern scholarship and new insights into a consistent picture of the Book of Mormon as a historical document. Taking a faithful but scholarly approach to the text and reading it through the insights of linguistics, anthropology, and ethnohistory, the commentary approaches the text from a variety of perspectives: how it was created, how it relates to history and culture, and what religious insights it provides. The commentary accepts the best modern scholarship, which focuses on a particular region of Mesoamerica as the most plausible location for the Book of Mormon’s setting. For the first time, that location—its peoples, cultures, and historical trends—are used as the backdrop for reading the text. The historical background is not presented as proof, but rather as an explanatory context. The commentary does not forget Mormon’s purpose in writing. It discusses the doctrinal and theological aspects of the text and highlights the way in which Mormon created it to meet his goal of “convincing . . . the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.”

The Gift and Power

The Gift and Power PDF Author: Brant Gardner
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books, Incorporated
ISBN: 9781589581319
Category : Book of Mormon
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Book length treatment of the wide spectrum of questions about the Joseph Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon. Includes discussion about the role of folk magic, how the English text replicates the original plate text, and the use of seer stones.

A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon

A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190699116
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
The story of the creation of the Book of Mormon has been told many times, and often ridiculed. A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon presents and examines the primary sources surrounding the origin of the foundational text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the most successful new religion of modern times. The scores of documents transcribed and annotated in this book include family histories, journal entries, letters, affidavits, reminiscences, interviews, newspaper articles, and book extracts, as well as revelations dictated in the name of God. From these texts emerges the captivating story of what happened (and what was believed or rumored to have happened) between September 1823-when the seventeen-year-old farm boy Joseph Smith announced that an angel of God had directed him to an ancient book inscribed on gold plates-and March 1830, when the Book of Mormon was first published. By compiling for the first time a substantial collection of both first- and secondhand accounts relevant to the inception of the divine revelation-or clever fraud-that launched a new world religion, A Documentary History makes a significant contribution to the rapidly growing field of Mormon Studies.

Embracing the Law

Embracing the Law PDF Author: Joseph M. Spencer
Publisher: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
ISBN: 9780842528696
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
How ought the Book of Mormon to be read? And does the Book of Mormon have anythign to say about itself? The Book of Mormon has much to say aobut how it should be read.

King Benjamin's Speech

King Benjamin's Speech PDF Author: John Woodland Welch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780934893305
Category : Book of Mormon
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For readers of the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin's speech is a treasure trove of inspiration, wisdom, eloquence, and spiritual insight. King Benjamin's Speech: "That Ye May Learn Wisdom" is the most substantial collection of studies ever to focus exclusively on this landmark address. The contributors examine this speech in the multifaceted contexts in which it was delivered: as a classic speech of a departing leader near the time of his death, as the focus of an annual festival season mandated anciently under the law of Moses, as part of a covenant renewal ceremony delivered within the sacred precinct of the Nephite temple in Zarahemla, and as preparation for the coronation of a new king. Historical and linguistic tools and information are employed in these essays to help the reader to better grasp the speech's historical setting, its doctrinal implications, its literary qualities, its influence then and now, and its overall brilliance.

Going to Ground

Going to Ground PDF Author: Amy Blackmarr
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
A lyrical collection of essays that eloquently depict a city woman's sojourn in the pine woods of GeorgiaUnfulfilled by city life, Amy Blackmarr, then in her mid-thirties, sold her thriving paralegal business and returned to her Georgia roots. She passed five years in her grandfather's remote "old scarecrow of a fishing cabin" beside a South Georgia pond, where she immersed herself in her surroundings and in her writing. With warmth, charm, and humor, Blackmarr mixes vignettes from her past with reflections on the present, describing the surprising generosity of strangers; life without hot water; her two dogs, one a "lush" and the other a cave builder; the occasional visit from an alligator; her days as a two-stepping cowgirl; pheasant hunting with her third ex-husband; and the life and death of her grandmother.In the tradition of Kathleen Norris's The Cloister Walk and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Going to Ground is Blackmarr's ode to romance, to the beauty of nature, to thejoys and fears of solitary life, and to one woman's discovery of herself.

The Joseph Smith Papers

The Joseph Smith Papers PDF Author: Royal Skousen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781629729718
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Mormon's Codex

Mormon's Codex PDF Author: John L. Sorenson
Publisher: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship Deseret Book
ISBN: 9781609073992
Category : Book of Mormon
Languages : en
Pages : 826

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Book Description
The author demonstrates that the Book of Mormon is a native Mesoamerican book (or codex) that exhibits what one would expect of a historical document produced in the context of ancient Mesoamerican civilization. He also shows that scholars' discoveries about Mesoamerica and the contents of the Nephite record are clearly related, listing more than 400 points where the Book of Mormon text corresponds to characteristic Mesoamerican situations, statements, allusions, and history.

Understanding the Book of Mormon

Understanding the Book of Mormon PDF Author: Grant Hardy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199889759
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 627

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Book Description
Mark Twain once derided the Book of Mormon as "chloroform in print." Long and complicated, written in the language of the King James version of the Bible, it boggles the minds of many. Yet it is unquestionably one of the most influential books ever written. With over 140 million copies in print, it is a central text of one of the largest and fastest-growing faiths in the world. And, Grant Hardy shows, it's far from the coma-inducing doorstop caricatured by Twain. In Understanding the Book of Mormon, Hardy offers the first comprehensive analysis of the work's narrative structure in its 180 year history. Unlike virtually all other recent world scriptures, the Book of Mormon presents itself as an integrated narrative rather than a series of doctrinal expositions, moral injunctions, or devotional hymns. Hardy takes readers through its characters, events, and ideas, as he explores the story and its messages. He identifies the book's literary techniques, such as characterization, embedded documents, allusions, and parallel narratives. Whether Joseph Smith is regarded as author or translator, it's noteworthy that he never speaks in his own voice; rather, he mediates nearly everything through the narrators Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. Hardy shows how each has a distinctive voice, and all are woven into an integral whole. As with any scripture, the contending views of the Book of Mormon can seem irreconcilable. For believers, it is an actual historical document, transmitted from ancient America. For nonbelievers, it is the work of a nineteenth-century farmer from upstate New York. Hardy transcends this intractable conflict by offering a literary approach, one appropriate to both history and fiction. Regardless of whether readers are interested in American history, literature, comparative religion, or even salvation, he writes, the book can best be read if we examine the text on its own terms.