Book of Mormon lecture: Structure and content
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Terryl Givens, author and University of Richmond professor spoke during the first biennial Laura F. Willes Center Book of Mormon Lecture in the Gordon B. Hinckley Center at Brigham Young University Oct. 8.
In his remarks, Brother Givens spoke of two ways — the structure and content of the Book of Mormon — that took familiar Christian themes and reconstituted them in radically new ways.
"The 19th century saw repeated calls for an authentic American Bible," Brother Givens said. "But when the century's dust had settled the Book of Mormon had emerged as the century's foremost claim for that title."
Drawing ideas from his most recent book, "The Book of Mormon: A Very Brief Introduction," and examples from the Book of Mormon, Brother Givens explained the importance of the provenance and Christian themes in understanding the divine source of scripture.
First, the Book of Mormon emphasizes its own provenance, or its own sacred genealogy.
With a record unlike the gospels found in the New Testament, the Book of Mormon begins with Nephi identifying himself as the author of the scripture passage. This identification is crucial to understanding the purposes of the Book, Brother Givens said.
All of the authors in the Book of Mormon are identified, mainly by the name of the book they wrote. Although the length and substance of an author's work varies, the fulfillment of a commandment to keep a continual record passed down generation to generation was kept.
"Why is this unbroken chain of transmission so important?" Brother Givens asked. "Because that is how the narrator … describes an uninterrupted connection to the divine that transcends centuries and continents."
Second, the content of the Book of Mormon includes themes that reinterpret the idea of scripture acting as sacred contact with the divine.
"This meaning of scripture … this spiritual identity explores ideas based upon creatively structured biblical elements," he said. "That is what I mean by the referencing radicalizing the familiar."
Brother Givens used four motifs found in the Book of Mormon showing how a familiar doctrine is further developed in new ways.
Revelation
Referencing visions Lehi experienced in the Book of Mormon, Brother Givens spoke of the importance of personal revelation as found in the Book of Mormon.
"What we do have is the sheer fact of a revelation," he said. "Apparently containing images and words comes as a result of a petitionary prayer and profoundly impacts the recipient. This definition of revelation as propositional or content bearing, will become one of the dominant themes of the Book of Mormon."
In contrast to many revelations received by a prophet for entire nations recorded in the Bible, the Book of Mormon shows personal revelation given to individuals for their family.
"In the Book of Mormon God is not mystery," he said. "He is fully knowable, accessible and susceptible to petitionary prayer."
Christology
"The most striking claim within the Book of Mormon is undoubtedly its insistence that Jesus Christ was worshipped in the western hemisphere by way of anticipation six centuries before His birth," he said.
The people of the Book of Mormon knew of the Savior's purpose, and established a chronology of His coming, Brother Givens said.
"Christology in the Book of Mormon is not an occasional intrusion, but it is the narrative backbone of the whole story and the dramatic point of orientation," he said. "All of Book of Mormon history pivots on the moment of Christ's coming."
Zion
"The Book of Mormon is a record of a people's repeated quests for a land of promise and their anxiety of their covenantal status with God," he said.
The Book of Mormon begins with people leaving the land of Jerusalem to live in the wilderness and later travel longer in order to find the land of promise. The theme of reaching "Zion," or the promised land occurs so many times in the Book of Mormon that it becomes a light motif, Brother Givens said.
This theme is one that not only repeats in the scriptures, it also repeats today as individuals experience their spiritual search for Zion, Brother Givens said.
Scripture
"The dynamic, vibrant light of scripture is something that is generated, assimilated, transformed, transmitted in endless ways in an ever new context," said Brother Givens.
The Book of Mormon is a complement and support to the Bible, and although the doctrines expressed in the Book of Mormon are not different than those that are in the Bible, they are expounded upon more fully creating greater understanding.
"The Book of Mormon undermines its own pretensions to simply reenact or supplement the Bible by situating itself along with that Bible as one in an endless series of scriptural productions," he said.
By looking at the truths found in the Bible and Book of Mormon, a synergy of strength comes as each record compliments the other, he noted.
Through his analysis of the Book of Mormon and its effect on Christianity today, Brother Givens shared the importance of expounding upon the divine relationship with God, and the importance of the "new chapter in God's conversation with man."
"I hope to have shown … the Book of Mormon's place as canonical scripture that cannot be separated from the particular ways in which it has portrayed itself as a literal historical creation," Brother Givens said.
