Book of mormon gutjahr

Here paul gutjahr traces the life of this book as it has formed and fractured different strains of mormonism and transformed religious expression. Gutjahr employs his sheer intellectual curiosity to produce a lively, enlightening history that deftly circles among joseph smith, mormons, and critics as though they were themselves engaged in an intelligent civil conversation. Eric johnson, christian research journal paul gutjahr has written the perfect book on the book of mormon. No matter whether one considers the book of mormon to be divinely inspired holy writ or the work of one mans impressive imagination, gutjahr writes, it is increasingly hard to argue. We have become acclimated to the idea that mormons are either polygamists or lds, but this is an observation of only the largest and the most extreme. A biography lives of great religious books 10 kindle edition by gutjahr, paul c download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. These groups were led by prophets who recorded their religious and secular histories on metal plates. The book of mormon paul c gutjahr bok 9780691144801. Paul gutjahr has written the perfect book on the book of mormon fascinating, forthright, empathetic, critical, and discerning. The topics covered include joseph smith, the translation of the book of mormon, how the book was used in early church history, the death of joseph smith, the churchs move to utah, missionary work, further. The book of mormon is a religious record of three groups of people who migrated from the old world to the american continents. Devoting surprisingly few pages to the doctrine and narrative of the book of. The discussion of mormonisms various branches was particularly interesting.

A biography takes readers on a quick journey through mormon history from past to present focused on the book of mormon. And if an lds scholar could not have written the book of mormon. Any book about the book of mormon cannot fail to be an introduction to mormonism in general, since the book is the keystone of the mormon religion, according to the religions founder, joseph smith, jr. A biography, paul gutjahr deftly untangles josephs efforts to keep the plates hidden while he translated what he called the reformed egyptian characters that covered them. Though latterday saints have long known that the book of mormon is an important religious text, it is encouraging to see it considered as such by a prestigious american university. Gutjahr in the book of mormon, a biography of the scripture found by joseph smith and believed to be the word of god by 14 million people. Gutjahr gives a great overview of the book s history up through the book of mormon musical. This biography focuses minimally on the actual content of the book of mormon its story line and characters dont receive primary attentionbut instead looks at the life of the book of mormon in its contemporary environs. Gutjahr employs his sheer intellectual curiosity to produce a lively, enlightening.

Gutjahr begins the book with the story of how smith allegedly got the golden plates that contained the book of mormon text from the angel. But gutjahr goes beyond the usual book of mormon stories. A biography is very readable and portrays the mormon position well. The book of mormon records the visit of jesus christ to people in the americas following his resurrection.