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University of Richmond

2008

Mormon church

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

[Introduction To] Joseph Smith Jr.: Reappraisals After Two Centuries, Terryl Givens, Reid L. Nielson Dec 2008

[Introduction To] Joseph Smith Jr.: Reappraisals After Two Centuries, Terryl Givens, Reid L. Nielson

Bookshelf

Mormon founder Joseph Smith is one of the most controversial figures of nineteenth-century American history, and a virtually inexhaustible subject for analysis. In this volume, fifteen scholars offer essays on how to interpret and understand Smith and his legacy. Including essays by both Mormons and non-Mormons, this wide-ranging collection is the only available survey of contemporary scholarly opinion on the extraordinary man who started one of the fastest growing religious traditions in the modern world.


"Common Sense" Meets The Book Of Mormon, Terryl Givens Jan 2008

"Common Sense" Meets The Book Of Mormon, Terryl Givens

English Faculty Publications

Thomas O'Dea's opinion of the Book of Mormon's importance in Mormonism is evident in his choice to make it the first chapter following his introduction. He spends little more than a page summarizing the Book of Mormon before he immediately turns to the question that seems inevitably to impose itself at the forefront of so many Book of Mormon discussions: how do we explain its origin? Such a preoccupation does not self-evidently present itself; one would not expect to find, and in fact does not find, that accounts of the Qur'an, for instance, typically exhibit the felt burden of "explaining" …