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. Written by Terryl
Givens, a leading authority on Mormonism, this compact volume
offers the only concise, accessible introduction to this
extraordinary work.
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. Some of these resonate with familiar
nineteenth-century religious preoccupations; others consist of
radical and unexpected takes on topics from the fall of Man to
Christ's mortal ministries and the meaning of atonement. 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.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and
style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of
life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the
newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about
the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from
philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
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