Jacob

A Brief Theological Introduction

By: Deidre Nicole Green

Narrated by: Orendia Goodheart

"What could I have done more for my vineyard?"

In one of the Book of Mormon’s most magisterial passages, the lord of a vineyard looks over his beloved olive trees with great sorrow and strives to redeem them. This allegory represents Jesus Christ’s labor to save not only individual souls, but an entire world. Perhaps, more than any other Book of Mormon prophet, Jacob manifests the same divine anxiety, having been born in a “wild wilderness” and inheriting the task of uniting a divided people.

In this brief theological introduction, Deidre Nicole Green presents Jacob as a vulnerable and empathetic religious leader deeply concerned about social justice. As a teacher consecrated by his brother Nephi, Jacob insists on continuity between religious and social life. His personal experiences of suffering, his compassion for those in society’s margins, and his concern for equality are inseparable from his testimony of Jesus Christ.

Because of Christ, Jacob lovingly and mournfully seeks to nurture a faithful and just community, even against all odds of success.

©2020 Alan Smith (P)2020 Alan Smith

“The Lamanites are a revelation”

This mind-opening analysis put Jacob’s words in context.
First it points out that all sin comes from viewing others as unequal. The author goes on to describe all the implications that sentiment has.

Jacob Knew

This is so relatable to the time and culture we live in. The author spends a section on how our culture treats women, specifically how men treat women. We do have a culture today where those teachings might be difficult for some to hear. Jacob also speaks of witnessing how those with means look at those without such means. He mentions using our means to bless the poor, free the captive and relieve the sick and afflicted. Basically, he’s speaking of where Jesus showed us put our energy and means. This book addresses that well. The author used the term “covenant community” so beautifully. It’s the Zion concept or rather covenant. I’ve listened to this book multiple times in a few weeks. Excellent. Thought-provoking.

Jacob Reimagined as Woke Social Justice Warrior

Green’s reading of Jacob imposes on the text the fulness of her woke ideology and she recasts Jacob as the perfect 21st-century social justice warrior. She does not provide insightful readings FROM the text but rather imposes already existing woke social justice categories ON the text. In her book, you will find all the usual buzzwords: justice, injustice, oppression, consent, social justice, equality, inequality, marginalized, right relation, wrong relation, entitlement, privilege, social construction, hierarchy, sexual agency, skin color, etc. It is all right there in the index at the end of the book. What we have here is, following Green’s use of gendered pronouns in her text, the philosophies of this woman, mingled with scripture.

She uses non-standard definitions of terms to fit her ideology, without deriving those definitions from a close reading of the Book of Mormon. For example, she describes charity as “neighbor love,” that having charity is “learning to love as God loves, that is, universally and equitably” (p. 34). But this is not charity in the Biblical or Book of Mormon sense. You don’t "learn" to love as God loves nor do you "appropriate" charity, as Green says (p. 34). Charity is a gift from God, who bestows it upon true followers of Christ (Moroni 7:48) through the power of the Holy Ghost (Moroni 8:26). It is not neighbor love, but the pure love of Christ (Moroni 7:47), love as it exists in the bosom of Christ, that is, redeeming love (Ether 12:33-34). The Book of Mormon is rich with allusions to charity, all of which Green ignores in her rush to impose her social justice categories on the text.

In talking about how Jacob combats racism, she acknowledges that “white vs. black” in the Book of Mormon can be interpreted metaphorically. But then she goes on to ignore that concession and insist that, in the text, white Nephites are oppressing black Lamanites in the Book of Mormon and that it's NOT metaphorical. Further, she claims that whiteness vs. blackness (or light and dark) are evil, oppressive categories even when used metaphorically. I guess Joseph Smith was evil and oppressive (JS-History 1:15-17), to cite one prominent example from LDS scripture.

In a scholarly work, she virtually ignored all of the fine scholarship on Jacob 5. I found it astounding that she didn't reference or tip her hat to the fine research that has been done in the past on this topic.

Even when her interpretations follow the text, as in Jacob’s discussion of the Nephite vs. Lamanite treatment of women, others have made that argument much more forcefully and cogently (Joseph Spencer and Kim Berkey come to mind). I could go on, as Green’s book is full of such problems. But I won’t. This book will not age well. When the other books in this series have proven their worth over time, this one will be loaded with early 21st-century jargon and secular critical ideology that will appear shockingly out of place and dated.

Did I like anything about the book? Did I learn anything from the book? The answer is yes and yes. I liked and learned from her discussion of consent and agency. BUT she did not derive this from a close reading of Jacob. Like a lot of ideas in this book, it was imposed on the text. The cover art was great (and also followed the text more closely than Green's reading). I also liked the voice talent who narrated the audiobook. Orendia Goodheart did an excellent job with the reading. Would I recommend it to others? No. It’s the least impressive book in this most impressive brief theological introduction series.