BYU Studies
Alphabetical by Authors

Teachings about grace in the Book of Mormon are more at home in the worlds of the Bible and the ancient Mediterranean than in the modern understanding that grace is a free, unearned gift. The Book of Mormon teaches that grace is part of a covenant that places requirements on the receiver. Grace manifests God’s goodness to humankind and is closely aligned with mercy and Christ’s Atonement to meet the demands of justice and make salvation possible. It parallels the meanings of hesed (mercy) from the Old Testament and the concept that all gifts give rise to reciprocal obligations, which prevailed in the ancient world.

Faith is a precious doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ancient prophets and apostles clearly taught that faith is relational: faith is trust, loyalty, obedience, and devotion to God and his Son, and it encompasses God’s blessings to us. In the language and culture of ancient Greece, pistis (faith) meant faithfulness and trust, and when New Testament writers taught about faith, their ancient readers understood its relational nuances. An apostasy regarding the meaning and doctrine of faith occurred, and the word faith came to have many varied meanings. Some theologians have taught that faith is a passive belief in a creed or a statement of belief in God that would guarantee one’s salvation. Theologians such as Augustine, Aquinas, Wyclif, Hus, Luther, Calvin, and Bultmann went off course in their understanding of faith. The restoration of the gospel that came through Joseph Smith and living prophets has revived the correct understanding of faith as a reciprocal relationship between people and God. For Latter-day Saints, faith is a principle of action, knowledge, understanding, trust, obedience, and faithfulness. Faith once again motivates disciples to trust in Jesus Christ, repent, and follow his straight and narrow covenant path leading to salvation and exaltation. Review of Relational Faith by Jeff Lindsay at his website “Arise from the Dust”

In ancient Greece and Rome, charis was a system in which one person gave something of value to another, and the receiver gave service, thanks, and lesser value back to the giver. It was the word used to describe familial gifts, gifts between friends, gifts between kings and servants, and gifts to and from the gods. In Rome, these reciprocal transactions became the patron-­client system. Orderly gift exchange is a key building block in the development of societies. Charis (grace) is the word New Testament authors, especially Paul, sometimes used to explain Christ’s gift to people. But what is the nature of the gift? Since the fifth century, a number of Christian scholars have taught that grace is something bestowed by God freely, with little or nothing required in return. This book sets out to show that “free grace” is not what Paul and others intended. The practice in the ancient world of people granting and receiving favors and gifts came with clear obligations. Charis served New Testament authors as a model for God’s mercy through the atonement of Jesus Christ, which also comes with covenantal obligations. LDS scriptures make it clear that being saved comes through grace accompanied by forsaking sin and making and keeping covenants. For Latter-day Saints, being saved by grace means coming to Christ, being baptized and joining the community of saints, and continually living with thanks and praise for God’s gift. All of these expressions of grace are found both in the Greek and Pauline use of the word. Knowing what charis means helps us understand what God expects us to do once we have accepted his grace.

Game theory has been applied to a number of disciplines, including economics, law, politics, sociology, and Bible studies, but this article is the first serious attempt to apply it to the Book of Mormon narrative. One particularly important model in game theory is known as the Prisoner’s Dilemma, which emphasizes the possibility and benefits of cooperation in the face of conflict. The Book of Mormon account is an almost constant narrative based on conflict, first within the family of Lehi and then between two warring factions that arise from a split in that original Book of Mormon family. These conflicts tend to fit the Prisoner’s Dilemma model extremely well. In a final estimation, the Prisoner’s Dilemma and its application in the Book of Mormon provide another way of looking at the Book of Mormon’s core messages of atonement, redemption, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is a continuation of the comprehensive bibliography of LDS writings on the Old Testament published in BYU Studies 37, no. 2 (1997–98), available at byustudies.byu.edu. This bibliography includes publications from 1997 to the end of 2005 as well as a few older publications that were not included in the first bibliography. Since that bibliography, there has been a Sperry Symposium dedicated to the Old Testament; all of those printed proceedings (Covenants, Prophecies, and Hymns of the Old Testament) are included in this bibliography. Published in 2005 is the volume Sperry Symposium Classics, a collection of papers from previous symposia; since many of those articles were revised for the 2005 volume, they are included here. Also relevant to the Old Testament is a volume published by FARMS entitled Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem. Of note but not included in this bibliography because of space considerations are the many Old Testament topics discussed in encyclopedic form in The Book of Mormon Reference Companion, edited by Dennis Largely (Deseret Book, 2003).

The Prophet Joseph Smith described the Restoration as a bringing forth of treasures of “things new and old,”1 and indeed modern revelation has shed great light on ancient truths. From Oliver Cowdery’s commentary on Zephaniah published in The Evening and the Morning Star in 1833 to the present outpouring of publications in preparation for the Sunday School course of study on the Old Testament in 1998, Latter-day Saints have generated a wealth of writings on the Old Testament which examine anew this ancient book of scripture in light of the Restoration. Through the spectacles of the Restoration we are able to remember the patriarchs Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and the great things the Lord has done for our fathers. We are able to understand the covenants the Lord has made in past dispensations and in the latter days. We are also able to better comprehend the writings of ancient prophets such as Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and to discern from them the timeless message of repentance, the themes of scattering and gathering, and the prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah—first in the flesh to atone for the sins of the world and again at the end of time. Just as the Old Testament provides a foundation for reading the rest of the scriptures, the light of the Restoration can reveal hidden treasures in the Old Testament. This bibliography is an attempt to guide readers to this treasury of “things new and old.” Criteria for Inclusion. This bibliography is meant to be a comprehensive listing of books and articles written by Latter-day Saints to Latter-day Saints about the Old Testament from 1830 through 1997. To be included, a book or an article must be primarily on an Old Testament topic. Consequently we have not included New Testament, Book of Mormon, or Pearl of Great Price topics unless they are specifically related to the Old Testament.2 Nor have we included writings on apocryphal or pseudepigraphical books unless they are relevant to the Old Testament. We have included general conference addresses published in the Ensign (1971–), but we have not included conference talks before this time. We have included a few articles by non-Latter-day Saints aimed at an LDS audience, but have not included biblical studies presented by LDS scholars in non-LDS settings. The Old Testament has been the course of study in Sunday School from September 1972 to August 1974 and September 1980 to August 1982, and from January to December in 1986, 1990, 1994, and 1998. Numerous Old Testament items have been published in those years. The articles that appear weekly in the Church News and coordinate with Sunday School lessons have not been included in this bibliography. The following periodical or recurring sources were surveyed for this bibliography: BYU Studies (1959–); Church Educational System symposia and manuals; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints manuals; Contributor (1879–1896); Dialogue (1966–); Encyclopedia of Mormonism; Ensign (1971–); The Evening and the Morning Star (1832–34); Improvement Era (1897–1970); Millennial Star (1840–1970); New Era (1971–); Sperry Symposia; Sunstone (1981–); theses and dissertations at BYU; and Young Woman’s Journal (1889–1929). Three Lists. The entries are organized in three overlapping lists. First, all entries are listed by author’s names with complete bibliographic information and a very short abstract in cases where the contents of the publications are not adequately described by their titles. This is followed by a list of the entries organized by canonical books of the Old Testament. A third listing is divided into subject categories. All the entries are found in the author list and are found again listed either in the canonical or the subject categories. Many entries are found both in the canonical listing as well as in one or more subject listings. Gaining Access. Most, if not all, of the entries in this bibliography are available at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU. Many of them are readily available on the shelves, but some are kept in Special Collections. The bibliography itself can be accessed electronically at http://humanities.byu.edu/BYU Studies/homepage.htm. Acknowledgments. This bibliography began with a work by Dane Robertson entitled Index of Mormon Literature on the Old Testament, compiled for the History and Religion Library at BYU, which included entries up through 1981. Originally we intended to simply update that index, but in the course of our work we adopted somewhat different criteria for collecting and organizing the entries, and we ended up surveying the corpus of LDS writings again. We remain indebted to this earlier work. Many have worked in various capacities on the bibliography over the last several years: Eryn Johnson Gibson, Brian Jones, Jennifer Hammond Merrill, Becky Schulthies, and Luke Todd have worked through Religious Education on compiling, typing, abstracting, and checking the entries. Daniel B. McKinlay helped with the compilation. Jennifer Hurlbut, David Allred, and the interns and staff at BYU Studies rechecked and formatted the entries. We invite corrections and additions. A master list is kept in electronic form and can readily be expanded and reorganized. Hopefully, a supplement can someday be issued including future publications and additions to this bibliography. This work is one of collection and description. We have not attempted to evaluate the entries in terms of scholarly accuracy or doctrinal correctness.

This article illustrates the Nephite notions of priesthood and church in order to show that the Book of Mormon conception of priesthood is based on Judahite notions of kingly priesthood and ideas firmly rooted in the biblical law of Moses and the Sinai Covenant. This is the underlying idea behind Alma2’s discussion of Melchizedek in Alma 13. In this article, I first look at “priest” in the biblical record and tradition. I follow this with a discussion of Book of Mormon “priesthood” notions up to Alma1 and Alma2 (including the interaction with Nehor). Finally, I examine the conflict between Alma2 and the Nehorite people of Ammonihah, where Alma2 draws on a narrative expansion of the Melchizedek tradition in Genesis 14 to make his point about his priesthood order and its superiority to the order of Nehor.

“Iron we need and iron we must have”—so said Brigham Young in 1855. Utah’s pioneers depended on it for survival. Necessities, such as nails, stoves, plows and sawmill bearings, required iron, which had to be shipped from St. Louis at great expense. Brigham Young envisioned a regional iron works that would fill the territory’s need for iron and help make it economically self-sufficient. In April 1850, Church leaders established an Iron Mission in southern Utah, where iron ore, coal and timber were plentiful. Among these first Iron County settlers were experienced iron workers from the British Isles. Between 1851 and 1858, this colony of hard-working Saints tried many smelting techniques, yielding objects such as pots, crank shafts and bells. Despite sustained, even heroic, efforts, the iron missionaries did not succeed. Nature itself worked against them. Droughts, floods and inferior raw materials challenged them at every turn. When the iron works closed its books in 1858, some of the colonists moved away. Yet the pioneers’ legacy is still visible in Parowan and Cedar City—Iron Mission townships that have survived for over 150 years. A Trial Furnace chronicles the lives of people who transcended the practical, finding in their wilderness crucible an inner strength and resilience more durable than the iron they came south to find.

“Iron we need and iron we must have”—so said Brigham Young in 1855. Utah’s pioneers depended on it for survival. Necessities, such as nails, stoves, plows and sawmill bearings, required iron, which had to be shipped from St. Louis at great expense. Brigham Young envisioned a regional iron works that would fill the territory’s need for iron and help make it economically self-sufficient. In April 1850, Church leaders established an Iron Mission in southern Utah, where iron ore, coal and timber were plentiful. Among these first Iron County settlers were experienced iron workers from the British Isles. Between 1851 and 1858, this colony of hard-working Saints tried many smelting techniques, yielding objects such as pots, crank shafts and bells. Despite sustained, even heroic, efforts, the iron missionaries did not succeed. Nature itself worked against them. Droughts, floods and inferior raw materials challenged them at every turn. When the iron works closed its books in 1858, some of the colonists moved away. Yet the pioneers’ legacy is still visible in Parowan and Cedar City—Iron Mission townships that have survived for over 150 years. A Trial Furnace chronicles the lives of people who transcended the practical, finding in their wilderness crucible an inner strength and resilience more durable than the iron they came south to find.

New Scholarship on Latter-day Saint Women in the Twentieth Century opens dialogue on women’s past experiences and analyzes developments for Mormon women from the Progressive Era through civil rights reforms to the emerging women’s movement. This volume of proceedings covers essays by new and seasoned scholars presented at Women’s History Initiative seminars held in 2003 and 2004.

A stray ink drop and a quirk of nineteenth-century script make the difference between retain that wrong and repair that wrong. More than a decade of meticulous research revealed such insights as Royal Skousen prepared transcripts of the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon for publication.

These newest books in The Book of Mormon Critical Text Project analyze every basic type of editorial change or grammatical variation in the Book of Mormon, beginning with the handwritten manuscripts and considering every major printed edition. Each of the sixty-eight grammatical sections in these books describes the usage in the original text and shows how it has been altered, either consciously or accidentally, over time. Each section also compares Book of Mormon usage with biblical usage.

The Nature of the Original Language (NOL) continues the analysis of the Book of Mormon text that was begun in Grammatical Variation (GV), parts 1 and 2 of volume 3 of the critical text, published in 2016. In that first work, Royal Skousen (with the collaboration of Stanford Carmack), discussed all the editing that the Book of Mormon has undergone, in its manuscript transmission and in the printed editions from 1830 up to the current edition.

In this part 5 of volume 3 of the critical text, we identify one more use of Early Modern English – in fact, a very specific one – in the original text of the Book of Mormon, namely, quotations from the King James Bible.

For part 6 of volume 3 of the Book of Mormon critical text project, we take up what may seem like a mundane subject, namely, misspellings in the manuscripts and in the printed editions. This brief summary of the book will introduce the reader to three important questions regarding scribal misspellings in the manuscripts: First, did the 1830 typesetter adopt Oliver Cowdery’s misspellings in the manuscript when he set the text for the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon? Second, just how good were the Book of Mormon scribes in doing their copywork? And third, can the misspellings tell us anything important about the Book of Mormon text, or are they just innocuous errors? The answers to all three of these questions turn out to be crucial in doing critical text work on the Book of Mormon.

Note: This is the first edition of this book set. The second edition is available here. Parts 1-6 are offered as a six-book set from BYU Studies while supplies last. Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon gives readers detailed access to the central task of Professor Royal Skousen’s Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, the most comprehensive effort ever undertaken to recover the original English-language text of the Book of Mormon. The books in this set consider every significant textual change that has occurred in the English Book of Mormon over the 187 years since Joseph Smith first dictated it to his scribes; it also considers a number of conjectural emendations for specific words or passages. These six large books total 4,060 pages.

We are pleased to announce the publication of the second edition of volume 4 of Royal Skousen’s Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. This six-book set, entitled Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (ATV), fulfills the central task of the critical text project, to restore the original text of the Book of Mormon to the extent possible using scholarly means. In the six books of ATV, Skousen discusses every substantive change to words or phrases in the text as well as changes in the spelling for about a dozen Book of Mormon names. ATV also includes a brief discussion of every type of grammatical change that the text has undergone over the years. (A complete discussion that lists every individual grammatical change was published last year in the two-volume set Grammatical Variation, also available from BYU Studies.) The changes in the second edition (ATV2) include: 37 new write-ups (34 of these involve suggested changes to the text, nearly all of which have come from independent readers). 8 additional substantive changes to the Book of Mormon text, besides the 606 substantive changes first published in 2009 by Yale University Press in The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. 60 earlier write-ups in ATV1 now thoroughly revised for ATV2. 101 addenda items in ATV1 now in their appropriate place in ATV2, so that everything reads correctly in a single sequence (there is no longer a need to consult any addenda for later corrections or revisions to previous analyses). This second edition is truly a limited edition: only 250 copies of the six-book set have been printed.

During the thirty years Royal Skousen has been working on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, he has discovered certain words and phrases that appear on the surface to be either ungrammatical or stylistically unusual. Some critics have claimed that these phrases are Joseph Smith’s dialect mixed with a crude imitation of the language of the King James Bible. But many of these phrases can be tied to Early Modern English, in use from 1530 to 1730. Skousen also identifies phrases from the King James Bible that are skillfully woven into the Book of Mormon text in unexpected ways as well as numerous issues that Protestants argued over during the 1500s and 1600s, such as infant baptism. Although the Book of Mormon contains elements from Early Modern English, it is not an Early Modern English text. It is unique. This article summarizes examples and discussion found in parts three and four of volume three of the Critical Text publications, titled The Nature of the Original Language (NOL).

Royal Skousen has been working on the critical text project of the Book of Mormon since 1988. He has concluded that there are three important findings resulting from the critical text project of the Book of Mormon. The first is that Joseph Smith received an English-language text word for word, which he read off to his scribe. The second is that the original English-language text itself was very precisely constructed; where textual error has occurred in its transmission, the earliest reading is usually the superior reading. The third is the identification of 256 changes in the text that make a difference in meaning or in the spelling of a name, changes that would show up in any translation of the book. This article presents thirty of the most significant of these 256 changes. All of the thirty changes discussed in this paper make a difference in meaning. Nearly all of them would show up when translating the text into a foreign language. The author has grouped the changes according to various types of change. In each case, he provides a brief summary of the evidence for the change and why it is significant for serious study of the text.

The purpose of this paper is not only to review the FARMS Book of Mormon Critical Text, but also to discuss some of the general problems that arise when trying to establish a critical text of the Book of Mormon. In this review article I will discuss the need for a critical edition of the Book of Mormon, consider the issue of Joseph Smith’s“bad grammar,” review the FARMS Book of Mormon Critical Text, and propose an alternative critical edition for the Book of Mormon.

The New Rendition of the Gospel of Mark provides a modern English translation of Mark’s earliest known Greek texts. It is excerpted from The Gospel according to Mark by Julie M. Smith. There is no such thing as perfect translation, even theoretically. This Rendition reflects Julie Smith’s deliberate choice to translate as literally as possible in order to aid the reader in appreciating the literary features of Mark’s text. These include purposeful repetitions, awkward constructions, intentional word choices, and similar features. One exception to the principle of strictly literal translation is that the Greek idioms in Mark are translated with comparable English idioms. A second exception is for culturally specific expressions. For example, “the fourth watch” is translated as “when night was ending,” and “over three hundred denarii” is rendered as “over a year’s wages.” But aside from these two exceptions, the quest for authentic literalism is the overriding concern—even at the cost of smoothness and elegance. There is no doubt that this Rendition will strike the reader as infelicitous at first. But hewing closely to the source text outweighs, in this context, the benefits of attempting to improve the source. This New Rendition will sound a little foreign to LDS readers accustomed to the distinctive register of the King James Version—which strikes the modern reader as elegant, formal, and magisterial. But because the New Rendition more closely reflects the original tone of Mark’s text, readers soon experience this dynamic Gospel more as it would have sounded to a first-century audience: not antiquated, lofty, or reverent but rather common, plain, and impressive. This Rendition is part of the BYU New Testament Commentary series. This scholarly project aims to create a faithful modern English translation together with a full, in-depth, carefully researched commentary for each book on the New Testament. More of the New Rendition and commentary volumes will be added in coming months and years. As of 2019, volumes have been published on Mark, Luke, First Corinthians, and Revelation.

The Gospel of Mark is an undiscovered gem, hiding in plain sight. Mark’s story—at least from the vantage point of a twenty-first-century audience—is virtually unknown. Following broader trends in Christian history, Latter-day Saints have focused on the other Gospels. Mark’s Gospel gets very little attention and, when it does, it is usually read through the lenses of the other Gospels, with the result that Mark’s distinctive voice is muted. But the Jesus presented in Mark’s Gospel is worthy of study: He is a man of action and few words. He is witty, warm, and wise. He’s also the Son of God. He has power which leaves people in awe, and he uses that power to help the people most people don’t like. He hugs little kids. He listens to and learns from women. He banishes demons and reminds parents to feed their children. He doesn’t know everything, but he does know how to end chaos. His disciples usually misunderstand him, but he teaches them continually and patiently. This Jesus is betrayed and abandoned and alone and humiliated, but he still chooses God’s will over his own—even though he didn’t want to. Mark tells an amazing story. The overriding goal of this commentary is to recover Mark’s unique voice. Special attention is given to five areas: An examination of the differences in ancient texts of Mark is used to make conjectures about how the text read in its earliest versions. Basic cultural knowledge is supplied to help the modern reader bridge the gap to the ancient world. Biblical allusions in Mark’s text are explored and explained. Literary structures, both large and small, are considered. The traditional neglect of women’s stories is corrected. The result is a commentary that answers the question, “What would Mark’s story of Jesus have meant to its first audiences?” in a way that informs and inspires Mark’s readers twenty centuries later. No other biblical commentary directed specifically to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints eclipses the quality of Julie Smith’s accomplishment with the Gospel of Mark. It is informed, gracefully composed, accessible, and, most importantly, trustworthy. It opens a range of possible interpretations of key and challenging passages but is not guilty of imposing extraneous meaning on the text. The volume’s preoccupation—“What would this story have meant to Mark’s earliest audiences?”—is judiciously chosen and frees Smith from distractions and diverse thickets. A superb example of what light may emerge from scripture in the company of a competent, faithful, and honest guide. — Philip L. Barlow, Leonard Arrington Professor of Mormon History & Culture, Utah State University Julie Smith’s new commentary on the Gospel of Mark represents an important addition to Latter-day Saint scholarship on the New Testament. Mark is a book that has been somewhat neglected by Latter-day Saints, and Smith’s commentary goes a long way towards correcting that neglect. With its numerous explanatory notes, this commentary takes the Gospel of Mark seriously, both as scripture and as a witness of the mission of Jesus. Where this commentary is especially welcome is in Smith’s thoughtful and thought-provoking treatment of women’s issues in the Gospel and in the scriptures generally. — Avram R. Shannon, Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University Among Latter-day Saints, the Gospel of Mark has often been overshadowed by the other Gospels. This volume aims to restore Mark’s distinct voice so that latter-day audiences can better understand and appreciate his unique testimony of Jesus Christ. By focusing on issues of translation, cultural knowledge, biblical allusions, literary interpretation, and the significance of women’s stories and concerns, this volume impressively narrows the gap between the expectations of modern readers and Mark’s ancient, yet vibrant, testimony of Jesus. — Jacob Rennaker, John A. Widtsoe Fellow of Latter-day Saint Scholarship and Life, Chapman University

Because by far the greatest portion of the Book of Mormon is narrative—though admittedly in several different ways—other literary modes embedded in the narrative flow are less obvious and consequently less easily identified and read in terms of their own unique generic conventions. One such passage occurs in the fourth chapter of 2 Nephi, verses 16 though 35, a passage that is often referred to as the “Psalm of Nephi,” at least since Sidney Sperry provided this formulation in his commentary on the Book of Mormon. The question to be discussed with reference to these verses is not whether they are a psalm in the biblical sense of the term but rather the nature and extent of their poetic qualities and some of the most central interpretive implications inextricably connected with their lyricism.

This article focuses on three common English terms—atonement, salvation, and redemption; their usual Hebrew equivalents as rendered in the King James Version of the Bible (KJV); and their associated conceptions found within the Hebrew Bible. In general, ancient Israelites understood redeem primarily in terms of kinship and family law and secondarily as a covenantal term. Salvation was found more often in political or martial contexts. And atonement was primarily a priestly term, dealing with ritual purity and pollution. The semantic lines between these Hebrew terms have been blurred in modern English usage, if not erased entirely; they have also become highly theological, eschatological, and heavenly, whereas their conceptual Israelite linguistic origins are often grounded in the concrete, this-worldly, and practical. The article suggests that recovering the Hebrew sources of the three terms yields more clarity about the theology of atonement.

The question at the heart of the exchange between Korihor and Alma in the Book of Mormon concerns knowledge, what Alma calls the real. This essay probes Korihor’s appraisal of the Nephite’s Christian devotion, sorting out the basic stakes of his argument, and then looks at how Alma slowly and belatedly develops a full response to Korihor. Deviating from traditional interpretations of the parable of the seed of faith, Spencer illustrates that Alma effectively displaces knowledge as a core value, arguing that faith not only is not lesser than knowledge but also goes beyond knowledge and produces something of infinitely more value. Although one can know the truth of Christ and know it perfectly, faith continues beyond knowledge because faith aims not at acquiring knowledge, but at eternal life.

“We live in a world awash with ancient religious texts. Among the most famous discoveries made since the publication of the Book of Mormon are (in order of discovery) the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, the Cairo Genizah, the Oxyrhyncus Papyri, the Ras Shamra tablets, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Nag Hammadi library. What is our responsibility as Latter-day Saints toward these other texts? How are we to read them? To answer these questions, we go back to the beginning, to the first and grandest ancient text of the Restoration, to the Book of Mormon. We look to the Book of Mormon to help determine four fundamental strategies that can guide our future engagement with ancient texts as a community of Saints. The Book of Mormon explains and enacts an ethic of reading that promises not only to enlighten but to redeem us from a misguided sense of sufficiency and to direct us to attend to the outpouring of light that followed in its wake. As we recognize this prompting, we begin to understand that God has spoken, does speak, and will continue to speak to his children through ancient religious texts.” [Authors]