Item Detail
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25897
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144
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113
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English
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Understanding the Book of Mormon : A Reader's Guide
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New York, NY
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Oxford University Press
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346
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[2010 Association for Mormon Letters Winner for Best Criticism]
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 For believers, it is an actual historical document, transmitted from ancient America.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.
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A Dream, a Rock, and a Pillar of Fire : Reading 1 Nephi 1
"After the Body of My Spirit" : Embodiment, Empathy, and Mormon Aesthetics
After Whose Order?: Kingship and Priesthood in the Book of Mormon
Alma's Experiment in Faith : A Broader Context
Alma's Prophetic Commissioning Type Scene
Alma's Wisdom-Poem to Helaman (Alma 37:35-37)
Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon
American Proto- Zionism and the "Book of Lehi" : Recontextualizing the Rise of Mormonism
American Zion: A New History of Mormonism
'America Reads' and the Book of Mormon
An Apologetically Important Nonapologetic Book
A New Witness to the World
An Other Testament : On Typology
A Pentecostal Reads the Book of Mormon : A Literary and Theological Introduction
Appropriation and Adaptation of J Material in The Book of Mormon
“Arise From the Dust, My Sons, and Be Men” : Masculinity in The Book of Mormon
Arno Schmidt among Comic Commentators on the Book of Mormon
A Study in Seven : Hebrew Numerology in the Book of Mormon
A View from the Outside-An Appreciative Engagement with Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon : A Reader's Guide
Bare Record : The Nephite Archivist, The Record of Records, and the Book of Mormon Provenance
Beyond Understanding : Narrative Theory as Expansion in Book of Mormon Exegesis
Boundary Maintenance that Pushes the Boundaries : Scriptural and Theological Insights from Apologetics
Comprehending the Book of Mormon through Its Editors
Confronting and Condemning 'Hard Doctrine,' 1978–2013
Contrasting the Leadership Styles of Moroni and Amalickiah
Curiously Unique : Joseph Smith as Author
of the Book of Mormon
Defend Your Families and Love Your Enemies: A New Look at the Book of Mormon’s Patterns of Protection
Early Mormonism and the Re-enchantment of Antebellum Historical Thought
Emboldened and Embarrassed: The Tenor of Contemporary Book of Mormon Studies and the Role of Grant Hardy
Envisioning Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Revelations in Their Early American Contexts
Et Incarnatus Est : The Imperative for Book of Mormon Historicity
Evaluating the Interaction between the New Testament and the Book of Mormon : A Proposed Methodology
Even unto Bloodshed : An LDS Perspective on War
Experiment Upon the Word
First Visions and Last Sermons : Affirming Divine Sociality, Rejecting the Greater Apostasy
Fleeing the Garden : Reading Genesis 2–3
"For a Wise Purpose in Him": Alma 37's Implications for Future Generations
For Zion: A Mormon Theology of Hope
From King Ahaz's Sign to Christ Jesus : The "Fulfillment" of Isaiah 7 : 14
Glad Tidings from Cumorah : Interpreting the Book of Mormon through the Eyes of Someone in Hell
“Great Cause to Mourn” : The Complexity of The Book of Mormon’s Presentation of Gender and Race
Heavenly Ascent in Jacob's Writing in Second Nephi: Addressing the Question of What the Plan of Salvation is in the Book of Mormon
History and the Claims of Revelation : Joseph Smith and the Materialization of the Golden Plates
How the Book of Mormon Reads Ancient Religious Texts
How the Mormons Became White : Scripture, Sex, Sovereignty
Improvisation and Extemporaneous Change in the Book of Mormon Part 1 : Evidence of an Imperfect, Authentic, Ancient Work of Scripture
I, Nephi
Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-making Heresy
"It is not an easy task, but it cannot be avoided": On the Contribution of Royal Skousen
John 11 in the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith's Gold Plates: A Cultural History
Josiah to Zoram to Sherem to Jarom and the Big Little Book of Omni
Kingship, Democracy, and the Message of the Book of Mormon
Know Brother Joseph : New Perspectives on Joseph Smith's Life and Character
Knowing Why: 137 Evidences that the Book of Mormon is True
Labor Diligently to Write : The Ancient Making of a Modern Scripture
Line Within Line : An Intertextual Analysis of Mormon Scripture and the Prologue of the Gospel of John
Make Yourselves Gods : Mormons and the Unfinished Business of American Secularism
Manipulating Text to Reinforce the Message: Content Informs Form in the Bible and Book of Mormon
Mexicans, Tourism, and Book of Mormon Geography
Mixing the Old with the New : The Implications of Reading the Book of Mormon from a Literary Perspective
More Than Meets the Eye : How Nephite Prophets Managed the Jaredite Legacy
Mormon Hermeneutics: Five Approaches to the Bible by the LDS Church
Mormonism
Mormonism and its Historians: The State of the Field
Mormonism and Violence : The Battles of Zion
Mormon, Moses, and the Representation of Reality
Mormon’s Narrative Strategies to Provide Literary Justice for Gideon
Mormon's Sources
Mormon Studies as an Academic Discipline
Moving Beyond the Historicity Question, or a Manifesto for Future Book of Mormon Research
Nephi: A Postmodernist Reading
Nephi’s Eight Years in the “Wilderness”: Reconsidering Definitions and Details
Nephite Secularization ; or, Picking and Choosing in The Book of Mormon
On Being the Sons of Moses and Aaron : Another Look at Interpreting the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood
On the Poetics of Self-Knowledge : Poetry in Parley Pratt's Autobiography
On Things Still to Come: Whole-Book Readings of the Book of Mormon
Open Canons: Sacred History and American History in The Book of Mormon
Orson Scott Card's 'Artifact or Artifice' : Where It Stands After Twenty-five Years
Plain and Precious Things Lost: The Small Plates of Nephi
Poesy and Prosody in the Book of Mormon
Poetry in and about the Book of Mormon: A Review of Literature
Precept upon Precept: Joseph Smith and the Restoration of Doctrine
Proclaim Peace: The Restoration's Answer to an Age of Conflict
Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith's Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity
Prolegomena to Any Future Study of Isaiah in the Book or Mormon
Prophets and Prophecy in the Qur'an and the Book of Mormon
Race and the Making of the Mormon People
Reading from the Gold Plates
Remnant or Replacement? Outlining a Possible Apostasy Narrative
Repicturing the Restoration: New Art to Expand Our Understanding
Rethinking Alma 36
Rewriting Eden With The Book of Mormon : Joseph Smith and the Reception of Genesis 1-6 in Early America
Samuel the Lamanite: That Ye Might Believe
Scriptural Theology
Scripture and Gender
Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks
Small Means, Great Things
Standing Apart : Mormon Historical Consciousness And The Concept Of Apostasy
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Future of Comparative and Historical Approaches
Subjective Objects : "The Book of Pukei" and Early Critical Response to The Book of Mormon
Terrible Revolution : Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse
Textual Similarities in the Words of Abinadi and Alma's Counsel to Corianton
The Bible and the Book of Mormon : A Review of Literature
The Bible and the Latter-day Saint Tradition (book)
The Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon and Its Redaction of the King James New Testament : A Further Evaluation of the Interaction between the New Testament and the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon and the Bible
The Book of Mormon as Amerindian Apocalypse
The Book of Mormon as Amerindian Apocalypse
The Book of Mormon as Post-Canonical Scripture
The Book of Mormon Translation Process
The Book, the Words of the Book : What the Book of Mormon Says about Its Own Coming Forth
The Brief History and Perpetually Exciting Future of Mormon Literary Studies
The Dance of Reader and Text: Salomé, the Daughter of Jared, and the Regal Dance of Death
The Deuteronomist Reforms and Lehi’s Family Dynamics : A Social Context for the Rebellions of Laman and Lemuel
The Expanded Canon : Perspectives on Mormonism and Sacred Texts
The Ghost and the Machine : Plates and Paratext in The Book of Mormon
The Great and Spacious Book of Mormon Arcade Game : More Curious Works from Book of Mormon Critics
The Last Nephite Scribes
"The Lord Hath Made Bare His Holy Arm": Nephite Treatments of Isaiah 52:7-10
The Lost 116 Pages : Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories
The Many Bibles of Joseph Smith : Textual, Prophetic, and Scholarly Authority in Early- National Bible Culture
The Midrashic Imagination and the Book of Mormon
The Mormon Church and Blacks : A Documentary History
The Mormon Jesus : A Biography
The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism
The Pearl of Greatest Price : Mormonism's Most Controversial Scripture
The Prophet's Remnant Theology : A Latter-day Saint Perspective
The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender
The Secular Syllabus and the Sacred Book: Literary Scholars Approach the Book of Mormon
The Structure of the Book of Alma
The Triangle and the Sovereign : Logics, Histories, and an Open Canon
“The Writing of the Fruit of Thy Loins” : Reading, Writing, and Prophecy in The Book of Mormon
“This Great Mystery”: Gathering Still Other Sheep through the New Covenant of Peace
To Fill up the World : Joseph Smith as Urban Planner
“To Read the Round of Eternity” : Speech, Text, and Scripture in The Book of Mormon
"To Seek the Law of the Lord": Essays in Honor of John W. Welch
Visions in a Seer Stone : Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon
What Can We Do? Reflections on 2 Nephi 25:23
What Has Moroni to Do with John?
What is Mormonism? A Student’s Introduction
“Wherefore, for This Cause”: The Book of Mormon as Anti-type of the Brass Serpent
Yet to Be Revealed: Open Questions in Latter-day Saint Theology -
Alma's Enemies : The Case of the Lamanites, Amlicites, and Mysterious Amalekites
American Apocrypha : Essays on the Book of Mormon
Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon
An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon
An Approach to the Book of Mormon
An Hypothesis concerning the Three Days of Darkness among the Nephites
An Insider's View of Mormon Origins
An Introduction to Mormonism
Another Testament of Jesus Christ : Mormon's Poetics
'A Plainer Translation' : Joseph Smith's Translation of the Bible : A History and Commentary
Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity
Believing History : Latter-day Saints Essays
B. H. Roberts and Book of Mormon Scholarship : Early Twentieth Century : Age of Transition
B. H. Roberts and the Book of Mormon
B. H. Roberts's Studies of the Book of Mormon
B. H. Roberts : Studies of the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited : The Evidence for Ancient Origins
Book of Mormon Usage in Early LDS Theology
By the Hand of Mormon : The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion
Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon
Copyright Laws and the 1830 Book of Mormon
Defense of the Faith and the Saints
Did B. H. Roberts Lose Faith in the Book of Mormon?
Digging in Cumorah : Reclaiming Book of Mormon narratives
Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon
Doctrines of Salvation : Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith
Early Mormon Documents : Volume I
Early Mormon Documents : Volume II
Early Mormon Documents : Volume III
Early Mormon Documents : Volume IV
Early Mormon Documents : Volume V
Equal Rites : The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture
Evangelical America and Early Mormonism
Exiles in a Land of Liberty : Mormons in America, 1830-1846
Finding Biblical Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon
From Jerusalem to Zarahemla : Literary and Historical Studies of the Book of Mormon
Historical Criticism and the Book of Mormon : A Personal Encounter
Historical Narrative, Literary Narrative-Expelling Poetics from the Republic of History
Historical Parallels to the Destruction at the Time of the Crucifixion
Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures
How the Guide to English Pronunciation of Book of Mormon Names Came About
Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon : Religious Solutions from Columbus to Joseph Smith
'In Plain Terms that We May Understand' : Joseph Smith's Transformation of Hebrews in Alma 12-13
Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith : Psychobiography and the Book of Mormon
In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist's View
of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi
Isaiah in the Book of Mormon : Or Joseph Smith in Isaiah
'Is There Any Way to Escape These Difficulties?' : The Book of Mormon Studies of B. H. Roberts
Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism
Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith : Inspired Author of the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Joseph Smith's Interpretation of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible
Joseph Smith : The Making of a Prophet
Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
Legal Perspectives on the Slaying of Laban
Lehi's Altar and Sacrifice in the Wilderness
Literature of Belief : Sacred Scripture and Religious Experience
Lucy's Book : A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir
Mormon Answer to Skepticism : Why Joseph Smith Wrote the Book of Mormon
Mormon as Editor : A Study in Colophons, Headers, and Source Indicators
Mormonism and Islam through the Eyes of a 'Universal Historian'
Mormonism and the American Experience
Mormonism : The Story of a New Religious Tradition
Mormonism Unvailed : Or, a Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion From Its Rise to the Present Time
Mormons and Jews : Early Mormon Theologies of Israel
Mormons and the Bible : The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion
Mormon's Literary Technique
Mormon's Map
Mormons, Scripture, and the Ancient World : Studies in Honor of John L. Sorenson
Moroni : The Final Voice
Nephi's Psalm : 2 Nephi 4 : 16-35 in the Light of Form-Critical Analysis
Nephite Feminism Revisited : Thoughts on Carol Lynn Pearson's View of Women in the Book of Mormon;Could Feminism Have Saved the Nephites? [by] Pearson, Carol Lynn
New Approaches to the Book of Mormon : Explorations in Critical Methodology
No Man Knows My History : The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet
Rediscovering the Book of Mormon Remnant Through DNA
Reexploring the Book of Mormon
Reflections on Mormonism : Judaeo-Christian Parallels
Second Witness : Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon
Secret Things, Hidden Things : The Seer Story in the Imaginative Economy of Joseph Smith
Some Family : The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself
The Book of Mormon : A Blueprint for Organizing the Church
The Book of Mormon : A Reader's Edition
The Book of Mormon as a Modern Expansion of an Ancient Source
The Book of Mormon as Translation English
The Book of Mormon Authorship : New Light on Ancient Origins
The Book of Mormon in a Biblical Culture
The Book of Mormon in Early Mormon History
The Book of Mormon in the English Literary Context of 1837
The Book of Mormon Reference Companion
The Book of Mormon Text Reformatted According to Parallelistic Patterns
The Book of Mosiah : Thoughts about Its Structure, Purposes, Themes, and Authorship
The Charge of 'Racism' in the Book of Mormon
The Dark Way to the Tree : Typological Unity in the Book of Mormon
The Democratization of American Christianity
The Gentle Blasphemer : Mark Twain, Holy Scripture, and the Book of Mormon
The Geography of Book of Mormon Events : A Source Book
The Jewish/Nephite Lunar Calendar
The Lamanite View of Book of Mormon History
The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism
The Mormons
The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon : Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text
The Origin and History of the Mormons : With Reflections on the Beginnings of Islam and Christianity
The Political Dimension in Nephi's Small Plates
The Priority of Mosiah : A Prelude to Book of Mormon Exegesis
The Prophetic Laments of Samuel the Lamanite
The Structure of the Book of Mormon : A Theory of Evolutionary Development
Translating the Book of Mormon : Evidence from the Original Manuscript
Translating Time : The Nature and Function of Joseph Smith's Narrative Cannon
View of the Hebrews : 1825 2nd Edition
Voices From the Dust : New Insights into Ancient America
When Lehi's Party Arrived in the Land, Did They Find Others There?
Women in the Book of Mormon : Inclusion, Exclusion, and Interpretation