1st Nephi, a Brief Theological Introduction / Joseph Spencer ( Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2020). 148 pages. Paperback, 978-0-8425-0007-4, $9.99

Joseph Spencer has written a book about theology in the Book of Mormon. In and of itself, that is not a remarkable statement. After all, Spencer has written other books and articles of a theological nature. Writing theology, though, implies theologians, people who spend their time doing systematic study and applying the tools of scholarship and reason to doctrine and scripture. In churches with a hierarchical structure, like the Roman Catholic or Anglican churches, theology is formalized in the idea of a magister, a group of ministers and scholars dedicated to codifying and defining essential theology and doctrine. Lacking such a magister, it could be argued that the General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fulfill that role, despite being made up primarily of professionals and businessmen. That hasn’t prevented an ad hoc magister of LDS scholars from emerging through academic institutions and independent publications. Such an informal LDS theology, mostly done by scholars outside the Church’s hierarchy, has the potential to generate tension in some church members. Resistance to the ideas of higher criticism and close textual readings of scripture has recently waned, however, in parallel with a more open approach to the Church’s history.

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Candy Moulton, The Mormon Handcart Migration: “Tounge nor pen can never tell the sorrow.” University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. 272 p., hardback, ISBN 978086162614, $29.95 ($20.04 on Amazon)

There is no more iconic symbol of the Mormon overland trek than the handcart pioneers. Each year, Church youth groups reenact the trek by pulling replica handcarts over short distances for a few days in an effort to recreate the experience and build faith and empathy for the sacrifices of pioneers. Visitors to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints historic site at Martin’s Cove in Wyoming can also pull carts over prepared paths for a few minutes. Similarly, there is also no more cautionary tale than the tragic story of the Willie and Martin handcart companies of 1856, where two to three hundred individuals died of starvation and exposure. It would be hard to find a member of the Church who doesn’t know something about the handcart expeditions.

In the Mormon culture, we are susceptible to allowing our stories about history and faith to take on epic proportions. Ordinary events can become more heroic, coincidence takes on the patina of the miraculous, and faith-promoting rumors become accepted as fact. This seems particularly true in the case of the 1856 Willie and Martin handcart companies. BYU-I religion professor John Thomas shared his experience teaching the reality of some of the events surrounding the rescue of the 1856 handcart pioneers to skeptical students who pushed back when faced with historical truth. We confuse heritage, or what we wish had happened, with our actual history. ((John C. Thomas, “Sweetwater Revisited, Sour Notes, and the Ways of Learning,” Religious Educator 10, no. 2 (2009): 97–110. Also, “17 Miracles,” a film by T.C. Christensen, Excel Entertainment, 2011, as an example of hagiography writ large. Many of the “miracles” portrayed in this dramatic film have no foundation in historical context. While dramatic license in a fictionalized film allows for such things, many individuals that I have spoken with assume that all are based on actual events. ))

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Cross-posted from Dawning of a Brighter Day, the blog of the Association for Mormon Letters

Philosophy of Religion: A Very Short Introduction by Tim Bayne. New York City: Oxford Uiniversity Press, 2018. ISBN: 9780198754961. Softbound. $11.95 (currently $11.09 at Amazon)

This is my first experience with the “Very Short Introduction” series from Oxford University Press, and I have to be honest in saying that my first impression was one of confusion. The book’s physical format is small, a pocket-sized 4 ½” by 7”. If you need a pocket size reference on religious philosophy to carry around with you, I thought, either you are being somewhat pretentious, or else you are doing it wrong.

First impressions certainly are not final judgments, however, and I have to admit that I quite liked Tim Bayne’s concise overview of philosophical approaches to religion and theology. My previous exposures to religious philosophy have been both insightful and at other times incomprehensible. At the most basic level, religious philosophy can be perceived as an intellectual game, positing arguments for certain viewpoints, and then reviewing all the arguments as to why that particular viewpoint is wrong. At its most incomprehensible, vocabulary and the worst kind of academic writing seem designed to frighten off all but those already steeped in the discipline. This short book seemed to hit the sweet spot for me, not steeped in jargon nor overly detached from reality.

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