Mormon Studies Review
Keywords
Mormon, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Larry Morris
Abstract
Initially called Mormonites and then Mormons, the most
famous epithet of the followers of Joseph Smith was always about the Book. Without the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith would likely have
become just one more in the far-flung field of nineteenth-century
prophets. Over time, however, a fantastical origin story has often garnered
more outside attention than the book’s content—an impulse that
started with the beginning of the Book itself. Moreover, the origin of
the Book of Mormon is consistently contested ground—albeit a much
more accessible nineteenth-century narrative than the origin stories of
many sacred texts. Smith himself never said much more than that he
had “translated” the Book “by the gift and power of God.” To help flesh
out that spare account, Larry Morris collects a documentary record of
the emergence of the Book of Mormon.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Johnson, Janiece
(2020)
"Review: Larry E. Morris. A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.,"
Mormon Studies Review: Vol. 7:
No.
1, Article 23.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr2/vol7/iss1/23