The Book of Mormon

A Very Short Introduction

De: Terryl Givens

Narrado por: Kevin Pariseau

With over 140 million copies in print, and serving as the principal proselytizing tool of one of the world's fastest growing faiths, the Book of Mormon is undoubtedly one of the most influential religious texts produced in the western world.

Givens examines the Book of Mormon first and foremost in terms of the claims that its narrators make for its historical genesis, its purpose as a sacred text, and its meaning for an audience which shifts over the course of the history it unfolds. The author traces five governing themes in particular - revelation, Christ, Zion, scripture, and covenant - and analyzes the Book's central doctrines and teachings. Givens also provides samples of a cast of characters that number in the hundreds, and analyzes representative passages from a work that encompasses tragedy, poetry, sermons, visions, family histories, and military chronicles. Finally, this introduction surveys the contested origins and production of a work held by millions to be scripture, and reviews the scholarly debates that address questions of the record's historicity.

Here then is an accessible guide to what is, by any measure, an indispensable key to understanding Mormonism. But it is also an introduction to a compelling and complex text that is too often overshadowed by the controversies that surround it.

©2009 Oxford University Press, Inc. (P)2021 Tantor

Informative but a bit apologetic

This book largely relates to the Book of Mormon on its own terms, assuming it's own narrative of how the Book was compiled, etc. A lot of the it is devoted to summarizingvghe contents of the Book of Morman. Discussion of critical attitudes towards the Book's origin tend towards apologetics. It was amusing to hear the author amazed that the Book of Mormon employs ancient Hebrew literary devices, which the Bible makes available to any modern imitator and to hear the praises of a poetic passage that sounded like ChatGBT imitating the Hebrew Scriptures.