My theme this month has been the relationship Latter-day Saints have with their formative scripture, the Book of Mormon. I believe the book exerts a powerful, culture-forming influence on every aspect of Mormon life. For instance, young LDS men are named Alma and Moroni after Book of Mormon characters. Thousands of Latter-day Saints have grown [...]

I’ve been wondering how long it would take for my book to be noticed by the professional LDS apologists, and what they would say about it. I just found the review by FARMS today. Here’s the link to FARMS Review of books. Scroll to the bottom of the page. The reviewer seems to completely miss [...]

In my latest series of posts, I’ve been discussing how the Book of Mormon is used in Mormon life and culture – an expansion of chapter eight of my book Understanding the Book of Mormon. Previously I described the Book of Mormon’s evidential function: how the Book of Mormon catalyzes a self-validating spiritual experience that [...]

My book, Understanding the Book of Mormon, provides an overview of the content of the Book of Mormon and explores the claims Latter-day Saints make about the book as an ancient record and divine scripture. But chapter eight breaks new ground by evaluating how the Book of Mormon is used in LDS life. This is [...]

This month I am reposting a series of reflections I wrote that appeared last summer on the Koinonia blog, which explore the multi-faceted relationship Latter-day Saints have with the Book of Mormon. In 2006, Mark D. Thomas presented at paper at the Sunstone Symposium, entitled “Marketing Research and the Book of Mormon.” Thomas surveyed 57 [...]

Last summer I wrote a series of blog posts for Koinonia, a blog featuring biblical and theological conversations for the Christian community. I posted the links, but in case you did not take the time to go over to the Koinonia site, I am re-posting those articles here. Joseph Smith called the Book of Mormon [...]

The Utah Church Multiplication Summit, co-sponsored by Utah Advance, was featured in the print version of the Salt Lake Tribune on November 28. The same article featured by book “Understanding the Book of Mormon”. The book was made available to Utah church planters and leaders at the Summit. To read the article, go to “New [...]

Janis Hutchinson is a well-respected writer, author of the ground-breaking book Out of the Cults and Into the Church. Today on her web site (www.janishutchinson.com), she posted a very positive recommendation of my book Understanding the Book of Mormon. Recommended: Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Quick Christian Guide to the Mormon Holy Book by [...]

This week I am the guest blogger at a site called Koinonia.  The theme there is biblical-theological conversations for the community of Christ.  I’m posting reflections drawn from my presentation at the Compassionate Boldness Conference, on the multi-faceted relationship Latter-day Saints have with the Book of Mormon.  I will eventually post those articles at this [...]

So far I’ve found 5 reviews that mention my book, Understanding the Book of Mormon.  All of them are positive.  I haven’t seen any negative reviews yet.  I’m curious about how the LDS apologists will receive it, since the tone is different from what they’re used to seeing from evangelical Christians.  But the content and [...]