Encyclopedia of Mormonism

by Brigham University

Book Overview

no writing or highlighting. no water damage. no pages missing. overall good condition. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0028796020
• ISBN13: 9780028796024
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company
• Length: 452 Pages
• Weight: 3.38 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful glimpse into official LDS doctine

LDS doctrine is really hard to pin down. Book like "Mormon Doctrine" from the 1960s and "Doctrines of Salvation" are often considered to be non-doctrinal these days. As this book was authored by insiders and carefully reviewed by the higher-ups in the LDS church prior to publication, it is a rare glimpse into what the LDS church considered to be doctrine in 1992. The entry on evolution for example was ghost written by Gordon B. Hinckley himself it has been rumored. After the re-definition of doctrine by the Mormon Newsroom in 2007, we may never know what official LDS doctrine is, so relying on resources like this is the closest we can do.

great resource, flawed

This is an excellent resource with information pulled from scriptures, modern prophets, and scholarly research of those both in and out of the church where it adds to overall understanding. As for the self-declared keeper of Mormon scholarship that stated "Also, we see that the Mormon church has not yet come to terms with the Book of Abraham" above, the folly of statement is that the writer assumes that this "scholarly" conclusion is beyond debate. He basically starts with the answer and works his way backwards. The assumption is that all conclusions are final from the world of LDS skeptics. I would suggest he read Jeff Lindsay's excellent review on the book of Abraham and the scholarship of the so-called scholars at [...]. First and foremost, no serious LDS scholar claims that the scrolls found are the scrolls containing the Book of Abraham, nor that all the scrolls possessed by Joseph Smith are in our possession now (evidence shows there were more). The reviewer's approach is myopic at best. More interesting are the incredible parallels found in the Book of Abraham to other Abrahamic sources that were not available to Joseph Smith. These are more impressive as the "absence of evidence" argument (don't have the original scrolls) is always contingent on never finding anymore, always a tentative position. See "Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham" by John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, John Gee for more about parallels. Of course, this would require that you actually _read_ the Book of Abraham, which I'm sure the previous reviewer has never done.