Bookstore Home > Scripture Studies > Book of Mormon

By The Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (softbound)

Terryl L. Givens, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 6x9.4" softbound, 336 pages; 26 halftones.

This book received the highest rating (four stars) in the Volume 15, Number 1 issue of The FARMS Review which indicates it is: "Outstanding, a seminal work of the kind that appears only rarely."

The first major study of the Book of Mormon's meaning and impact on American religion.

With over 100 million copies in print, the Book of Mormon has spawned a vast religious movement, but it remains little discussed outside Mormon circles. Now Terryl Givens offers a full-length treatment of this highly influential work, illuminating many facets of this uniquely American scripture.

Givens examines the Book of Mormon's role as a divine testament of the Last Days and as a sacred sign of Joseph Smith's status as a modern-day prophet. He assesses its claim to be a history of the pre-Columbian peopling of the Western Hemisphere, first by a small Old World group in the era of Babel, and later by tribes from Jerusalem in the age of Jeremiah. Givens explores how the Book of Mormon has been defined as a cultural product, the imaginative ravings of a rustic religion-maker more inspired by the winds of culture than the breath of God. He also investigates its status as a new American Bible or Fifth Gospel, displacing, supporting, or--in some views--perverting the canonical Word of God. Givens also probes the Book's shifting relationship to Mormon doctrine and its changing reputation among theologians and scholars. Finally, in exploring what Martin Marty refers to as the Book of Mormon's "revelatory appeal," Givens highlights the Book's role as the engine behind what may become the next world religion.

The most wide-ranging study on the subject outside Mormon presses, By the Hand of Mormon will fascinate anyone curious about a religious people who, despite their numbers, remain very much strangers in our midst.

Review Excerpts:

"This outstanding book investigates the history and theology of the Book of Mormon, which Givens calls 'perhaps the most religiously influential, hotly contested, and, at least in the secular press, intellectually underinvestigated book in America.' Givens persuasively demonstrates how the Book of Mormon was trumpeted by early Latter-Day Saints more for the fact of its existence--which to them indicated an imminent apocalypse--than for its content per se. He notes that it was only during the late 20th century that Mormons began to regard the Book of Mormon as a cultural and spiritual 'keystone.' Givens's well-argued, engagingly written book takes the emerging field of Book of Mormon Studies to a new level." --Publishers Weekly

_____

By the Hand of Mormon, Terryl L. Givens's study of the Book of Mormon, is vastly informative, particularly to the general reader who seeks for insight into this extraordinary work. There are enigmatic splendors in the Book of Mormon, whether it was revealed to Joseph Smith or whether it emerged from his indubitable religious genius." --Harold Bloom, author of The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation

_____

"This is an exceptional study. Terryl Givens has written an important work that increases our understanding of both the Book of Mormon and of Mormonism generally. He demonstrates how a single literary work gave rise to an enduring community, a theology, a religion, and a culture, and helps to explain not only the book's history but also the persisting success of Mormonism as an enduring belief system and worshipping community. By the Hand of Mormon is an achievement of real distinction." --Jan Shipps, author of Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years Among the Mormons and Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition

_____

"Until now, the Book of Mormon has not been on anyone's list of canonical literary works, but it may be added soon as Mormonism assumes the dimensions of a budding world religion. Thus far no one has been able to situate this much-contested work in our intellectual history. Givens does, and offers a striking appraisal of just what the Book of Mormon means to our culture." --Richard Lyman Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor of History Emeritus, Columbia University, and co-author of Mormons in America

_____

"I am minded to propose a whole-hearted community "thank-you" to Terryl Givens for giving us this most recent book, By the Hand of Mormon. The closing chapters were even better than the first, confirming my early suspicion that it would be one of the most informative and stimulating books I had read in some time. In a single stroke, Terryl Givens has produced the first full-length account of the Book of Mormon and its changing roles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as in American religion, has shown faithful Latter-day Saints how to speak intelligently to the educated public at large about their unique scriptural tradition and the widespread attacks on that tradition, and has broken through the publishing barrier that has prevented other related manuscripts from being brought out by leading academic presses. The magnitude of this achievement will be most evident to the scores of faithful LDS scholars who have been writing on these topics for the last few decades and on whose work Givens builds." --Noel B. Reynolds, The FARMS Review, Volume 15, No. 1

_____

"Givens provides a succinct summary of the historical and doctrinal content of the Book of Mormon, but he also makes a number of acurate observations that those who have thought themselves familiar with the Nephite scripture will probably not have noticed for themselves. ...Givens writes in language that is clear and attractive. To be sure, the presentation is more demanding of the reader than the language of a seminary manual, for example, but only occasionally does the author's expository style leave the serious reader struggling to penetrate the complexities at issue and wishing for simpler phrasing. ...In my opinion, the combination of Givens's careful scholarship, felicitous writing, and wide scope combine to make By the Hand of Mormon one of a handful of must-read, must-own volumes for serious students of the Book of Mormon." --John L. Sorenson, The FARMS Review, Volume 15, No. 1

_____

. . ."Givens' introduction sets the scene: how does one understand the admittedly-fantastical story of the boy Prophet unto whom the Gold Plates were delivered, and from which came the Book of Mormon? Are they the ravings of a religious lunatic, or are they authentic scripture?

After describing the changing role of the Book of Mormon within the Church itself, Givens notes the following:

Meanwhile, skeptics are forsaking the facile scenarios of the nineteenth century (that Smith plagarized accounts by Ethan Smith or Solomon Spaulding) and are searching for new sources of and explanations behind the scripture. (p. 5)

One evidence of this trend might very well be the existence of Givens' own book, and its publication by the University of Oxford Press. But is his statement largely true? Has the anti-Mormon polemic really advanced beyond the name-calling stage? I haven't seen much evidence of this. I read widely in both Mormon and anti-Mormon literature, and I really haven't seen a great deal of growth on the part of the anti's.

Givens seems to be making a point -- that the world at large is finally taking the Book of Mormon seriously. Likewise, I fail to see this trend. Perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong places." --Jeffrey Needle, Reviewer, The Association for Mormon Letters

____

"By the Hand of Mormon makes a fine contribution to Book of Mormon studies; Terryl Givens deftly surveys the twists and turns of the debate over the truth of the book. Givens, a Latter-day Saint scholar, has now made two extraordinary contributions to Mormon studies. If one wishes to understand the complex of interests and motivations-pecuniary, personal, and ideological-that fuel both sectarian and secular anti-Mormonism, Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy, published in 1997, is the book to consult. In By the Hand of Mormon, Givens examines the roles the Book of Mormon has played for both believers and detractors. He describes its coming forth, and the debate over its historical authenticity. This book is an extraordinary accomplishment.

With subtle understatement and exceptional skill in analysis and argumentation, Givens examines how the Book of Mormon has served for some as a kind of barometer of gullibility and for others as solid evidence of blasphemy, while for the faithful it has served primarily as a sacred sign that the heavens are once again open, that Joseph Smith is God's prophet, that the end time is approaching, and that the world is again pulsing with divine powers. The most original chapter describes "dialogic revelation"-the special divine revelations in the Book of Mormon that result from a kind of dialogue with God and that are radically different from traditional concepts of revelation. This revelatory process was exemplified by the way in which the Book of Mormon was recovered, and the Joseph Smith story. And the Book of Mormon its readers to experience it for themselves.

Givens shows why it has been impossible to understand Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon by finding some "new middle ground" between or beyond the polarities of authentic ancient history or fraudulent composition-and hence between Joseph Smith as seer or charlatan, prophet or blasphemer, kingdom builder or disturber of the peace. He shows that both the book and the story of its recovery work together to force those who receive it to choose between these different alternatives. Those who encounter the book are also invited to enter into a world not unlike that described within its pages, a world in which the heavens are open and God communicates in ways entirely unlike the vagaries and obfuscation found in mystical intuition or in subtle theological speculation. Givens explains why such controversial book has been such a successful conversion tool even though its contents have been virtually ignored for long periods.

He explains how this "most religiously influential, hotly contested, and, in the secular press at least, intellectually underinvestigated book in America" has been variously "understood, positioned, packaged, utilized, exploited, presented and represented by its detractors and by its proponents" (p. 6). This effort is necessary because, "in spite of the book's unparalleled position in American religion and its changing meaning for apologists, critics, and theologians, no full-length study has attempted to present to the wider public a study of this book and its changing role in Mormonism and in American religion generally" (p. 6).

Givens shows that the story of the Book of Mormon's recovery and the fact of the book's existence fixed for the Latter-day Saints the prophetic authority of Joseph Smith and his successors. It is the book's role as a sacred sign-more than its teachings-that fuels the hostility of its critics as it continues to shape the identity of the Latter-day Saints and distinguish them from their sectarian neighbors. He shows why and how the Book of Mormon has been read as a factual account of some pre-Columbian peoples, and why its detractors see it as a product of the 19th-century and not as an authentic ancient text and divine revelation.

Givens draws attention to the "artifactual reality" surrounding the Book of Mormon-to the gold plates and the relics found with them. LDS belief on this point diverges from the interiority and subjectivity of much religious discourse and hence away from the nebulous stuff of myth, magic, and mysticism. But having faith grounded on a historical record is a double-edged sword because it subjects the founding text to the scrutiny of scholarship, which has both advantages and disadvantages. These Givens examines in detail.

Givens shows that competent Saints are not trying to discover some dramatic archaeological evidence, as sectarian critics demand, that would "prove" the Book of Mormon. Instead, the increasingly sophisticated efforts of the book's defenders to draw upon literary, historical, and anthropological support for the ancient origin of the Book of Mormon has forced its more honest, better-informed detractors to abandon earlier explanations and to search for explanations of its authorship.

The driving force behind much sectarian theological discourse has been to emphasize the otherness of God and to stress the inability of language to describe divine things with any concreteness or in any detail. Those steeped in traditional theological perspectives are offended because the text Joseph Smith gave us, the story of its recovery, and the relics are difficult to explain away as allegorical, mythical, or merely highly symbolic ways of talking about what is ultimately ineffable and entirely mysterious. Among such hostile professors of religion, either sectarian or secular, is the dogma that angels simply do not bring books of new scripture.

Givens describes in some detail the Cold War taking place along the Wasatch Front over the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon. He argues that the claims made by the Book of Mormon are, as others have already shown, open to critical inspection by scholars using whatever means they have at their disposal. The Book of Mormon does not ask to be shielded from such inspection. Of course, the faith of the Saints does not depend on the apparent results of such debate. This frustrates those who want a final proof one way or another right now." --Louis Midgley, Utah, 2002.

_____

"At last, a discussion of the Book of Mormon that presents both sides of the scholarly debate about its origins! Most previous treatments of the subject have presented only one side of the story, but Givens has taken all that into account and provides the pros and cons surrounding a book that has recently passed 100 million copies in print, rivaling the Bible in popularity. Whether you're a believer or not, you'll find this an interesting read." --John A. Tvedtnes, Utah, 2003.

Terryl L. Givens is Professor of Religion and Literature at the University of Richmond, Virginia and a Latter-day Saint. He is the author of The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy, which won the Chipman Award from the Mormon History Association.

Title: By The Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (softbound)

Retail Price: ~~$19.95~~

Your Price: Only $17.95

FAIR is not owned, controlled by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All research and opinions provided on this site are the sole responsibility of FAIR, and should not be interpreted as official statements of LDS doctrine, belief or practice.

You can send comments/suggestions using our contact page.