Foundational Text of Mormonism – Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen, Sharalyn D. Howcroft (editors) – 3 Stars

Foundational Text of Mormonism – Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen, Sharalyn D. Howcroft (editors) – 3 Stars

Title: Foundational Text of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources

Author: Mark Ashurst-Mcgee (Editor), Robin Scott Jensen (Editor), Sharalyn D. Howcroft (Editor),  Richard Lynn Bushman, Grant Hardy, Thomas W. Wayment, Grant Underwood, David W. Grua, Jennifer Reeder, William W. Smith, Alex D. Smith, Andrew H. Hedges, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Jeffrey G. Cannon, Ronald O. Barney

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Year: Hardcover 2018

Rating:  3 Stars

Price and Purchasing Options: This book is probably most readily available online and through Amazon.  I don’t expect to see this in second hand options or through most LDS bookstores.  You may see it at Barnes and Nobel if they have a local LDS section.

Review: This is a different book.  Great for their preferred market (academic minded), but not for the general LDS crowd.

This is one book that is a 4 star book for those who are academically minded, and will truly appreciated the dialogue that happens in reviewing this material; but on the other hand, it will be boring for most of the general LDS population.  In this light I would like to give it 4 stars for one crowd, and 3 stars for the other crowd – but will settle with 3 stars.

First of all let me start with why I liked it.  For anyone who has done any really significant research on the church or LDS community, you begin to learn inherently just how critical to the narrative our LDS texts are.  These early Mormon sources define our doctrine, and understanding of history, and even our ability to interpret history.  Within each of these sources  there is a distinct narrative that is worth having, and for those of us who love books and boring stuff – it is fascinating.  I was extremely appreciative that they had a forum to discuss much of this material – and so I applaud the forum itself.

The one thing that I had a challenge with was the content itself, and whether it was cohesive enough to make into a fully dedicated book.  With all of the various contributors, and their direction, there wasn’t any underlying theme outside them being papers that taught about early Mormon text – and very specific element of them.  For the most part, each of these papers or essays are probably more suited for individual submission to stand on its own and to be reviewed as such, rather than part of a larger work.  There were some that seemed somewhat “phoned in”, and didn’t seem to contribute anything new to the conversation – and some were fascinating. 

That is one thing that I struggle with on these “essay” collections – is the varied value of all of the conversations.  Some of the greatest essays and contributions I have ever read, gets lost because it is stuck in the middle of two terrible essays, and is therefore never read or never appreciated.

As for the conversation, as this would relate to the general LDS reader – stay away.  Not only does this not really focus on the text it is referring to holistically, which is the best way to start studying the text, they focus on really microscopic elements (which again, are worth looking at in some context), but for most is way beyond the mark.

The book contains a canned essays on the Golden Plates by Bushman – whish is typical of his essays.  I feel like his published books are great! But his essays are always canned, and he is used as the “we got Bushman in our book” to give it credibility.  

An essay by Grant Hardy, who is becoming one of my favorite scholars, on the Book of Mormon.  Wayment’s work on the JST is actually one of the essays I found had the greatest insight and contribution – worth the read for those studying a fairly ambivalent “standard work” and it contribution.

More essays on the revelations, the relief society, Joseph and Willford’s journals, etc. A worthy conversation on Lucy Mack’s biography, etc.

But another one of my favorites in this book is the essay on Smith and Joseph’s sermons – the insight he shares as to the “standard operating procedure” for sermons at that time is so interesting, and insightful as to why we have so little documented in what he actually said when and where.  I loves this.

Again, there are some really great gems, but as a whole a hard book for most LDS readers, and even for the academic, probably wondering why they were all compiled in this formatted rather than just submitted to journals for publication.

Suggestions:  If you are serious not only about LDS culture, but the textual structure of some of the early literature  – you should get it.  For the rest of us… feel free to skip.

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Review #52

Tags: 3 Stars, Foundational Text of Mormonisn, Parley P. Pratt, Academic, Mark Ashurst-Mcgee, Robin Scott Jensen, Sharalyn D. Howcroft,  Richard Lynn Bushman, Grant Hardy, Thomas W. Wayment, Grant Underwood, David W. Grua, Jennifer Reeder, William W. Smith, Alex D. Smith, Andrew H. Hedges, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Jeffrey G. Cannon, Ronald O. Barney, LDS Book Review, Ryan Daley