The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture

The Word of God is a collection of thought-provoking discussions of Mormon canon. In particular, the anthology asks to what extent scripture can be considered historical, revelatory, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0941214931
• ISBN13: 9780941214933
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Signature Books
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Reducing Dissonance a must-read!

Edward Ashment's essay "Reducing Dissonance" in this volume remains, in my mind, one of the most important works in the field of Book of Abraham studies. It is a readable yet scholarly critique of the BoA that bypasses the apologists' objections that there are "missing scrolls" by focusing on the translation manuscripts and the Alphabet and Grammar. He presents evidence that Joseph Smith fancifully and incorrectly translated Egyptian hieroglyphics. George Smith's essay on Isaiah is also a very valuable production. The Word of God contains essays of interest to critics and believers alike, and I highly recommend it to prospective students of Mormon scripture.

The spiritual strength of today

"The Word of God" is as every Signature book a compilation of several essays - the first one I presume! They are easy to read and easy to follow. There is not - of course - one single essay written by LDS traditionalists. This book proceeded the more known "New approaches". Hutchinson, Vogel, Metcalfe, Charles, Thomas and Ashment are authors who appear in both books. The difference between the books is that "The Word of God" does not only analyse the Book of Mormon (BoM), but brings up the discussion on the level of revelation. The scriptures treated are the BoM, the Book of Abraham (BoA), Word of Wisdom (WoWis), Doctrine and Covenants (D & C), Isaiah and bible. I really did fancy the book, I mean, those who will read my utterly weird reviews about the other books, will note that Signature always gets 5 stars! Why? They do not deny divinity, mysticism or revelation, they just propose another way of handling it. They know that people depend on the language setting of their time. They are open for environmentalist explanations of some specific details in the holy scriptures. It is also wonderful that some of the authors come from the Missouri based movement of Joseph Smith. Howard gives us a more complementary view on the propositional revelation, ie. everything comes in a ready-made package from above. He exemplifies with excerpts from D & C and BoA. Spencer continues with problematising the relationship between inspiration, revelation and scripture. There is an interdependence between these concepts, but it is in the end the personal testimony and understanding of these concepts that makes the difference, whether there was an angel with golden plates or not. Both Howard and Spencer rejects literalism that among other things god created the world in 168 hours. Hutchinson and Russell hold on to the anti-literalistic tradition introdued by the former authors. Hutchinson analyses Joseph's prophecy of the American war. It seems that some details of it were changed as time passed, but the core of the prophecy of an approaching war atmosphere is still there. Thomas, Curtis and Lindgren and Lancaster approach the BoM. Lancaster goes thru the sources about the translation process, that in the majority of time, Smith used an egg-shaped stone, which he put in his hat while dictating to his scribes. Thomas wants to relate to BoM as a theological book, avoiding the question of its authorship. A healthy perspective - it is like the creation story in Genesis, a poetic rather than a scientific story! Lindgren's essay is close to Thomas. Curtis compares the societal system and mentality of the BoM-people with the 19th century and draws the conclusion about the modernity of the book. Vogel's and Metcalfe's essay is very thoroughly done. The main point is that the creation story and the system of universe and divinity in BoA are a reflection of the scientific understanding of 19th century scholars. Charles treats the presentism of LDS theology, ie. how latter