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Mormon's Map

John L. Sorenson, Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research & Mormon Studies (FARMS), 2000, 6x9" softbound, 168 pages, 17 maps illustrating geographical features mentioned in the text, 54 endnotes, and scripture/subject indexes. ISBN:0934893489

As Mormon edited the Book of Mormon, he must have had a map in his mind of the places and physical features that were the setting for the events described in that book. In Mormon's Map, John L. Sorenson attempts to reconstruct that mental map - "Mormon's Map"; using information in the text.

Mormon's Map provides a comprehensive map of the entire area in which Lehi's descendants lived in the promised land, as well as 18 other helpful maps of smaller areas and clear discussion of the maps' features. The maps are all internal, meaning that they are constructed based only on textual information. They are not pinned to any real-world location. Sorenson uses stories in the record, such as accounts of wars and journeys, to glean information about distances traveled and the time taken to cover those distances.

Review Excerpts:

This book was "Warmly Recommended" in The FARMS Review, Volume 15, Number 1, 2003.

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"I have always marvelled at the maps printed in books of great literature intended to guide the sometimes overwhelmed reader. Take for instance, the well-known maps drawn of these fictional territories for the following authors' works: (i) Yoknapatawpha (and Jefferson) County, for Faulkner; (ii) Narnia, for C.S. Lewis; and (iii) Middle-Earth, for Tolkien. These maps are not only useful in understanding the narratives contained in these complicated works, but they also attest to their genius. Each map exists as a help-meet to the written word making the artistic creation of their imagined landscapes visible (don't extend this too far -- no Adam/Eve, male/female comparisons, please).

John Sorenson has worked diligently for over 30 years to do the same thing for the Book of Mormon with respect to its historicity. The bulk of his work has focused on making the ancient American setting of the Book of Mormon narrative plausible through sophisticated, although apologetic, anthropological, archeological, and geographical analysis, as contained in his many articles and books, chief among them An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon.

While Sorenson's latest book, Mormon's Map, is a natural extension of his life's work, in this book he has produced a work of much broader appeal. In Mormon's Map he creates a map of Book of Mormon events derived solely from the text itself, what he calls "Mormon's mental map," the geographical construct Mormon made of the world he wrote about that is implied from the text. For anyone considering the Book of Mormon as history or as literature, this book is a must-read.

After reading Sorenson's book, I was astonished at the complexity of the Book of Mormon event structure and the consistency of its mapping. I then compared Sorenson's/Mormon's map to my maps of Yoknapatawpha County, Narnia and Middle-Earth and understood for the first time how astounding the Book of Mormon is as "mere" literature. Those who maintain that the Book of Mormon is simple fiction must now deal with Mormon's Map and acknowledge its beautiful consistency and complexity. The quick dismissal of the Book of Mormon as a rambling mess of bible plagarisms does not withstand the careful scrutiny of Sorenson's study. The Book of Mormon, judged soley by our understanding of its narrative structure and internal map just now coming to light through the efforts of Sorenson and other researchers at FARMS, is greater literature than Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels, Lewis's Narnia books, and Tolkien's Ring trilogy.

I believe Mormon's Map to be the most important book about the Book of Mormon to appear in years. Just as we added maps to the Doctrine and Covenants to assist readers in understanding its message, I predict Sorenson's "internal" Book of Mormon map will one day appear in the pages of the Book of Mormon itself to assist its readers.

As I indicated in a hastily written review on Amazon.com about this book (it was like being in testimony meeting -- I couldn't help standing up on-line and grabbing the microphone!): "X Marks the Spot." I give it 5 golden plates!" --Edgar C. Snow

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". . . Sorenson does address the issue of Latter-day Saint church leaders having already settled questions about Nephite geography. He makes it clear that early suppositions of church members about a hemispheric geography ignored the evidence to be found in the text of the Book of Mormon. Sorenson also quotes church leaders and publications to show that no authoritative map or geography has ever been revealed or adopted, remarking that "what logically would seem to be one of the first steps in a systematic investigation - to construct a map of the American 'land of promise' based solely on statements in [the Book of Mormon] (at least 550 passages are relevant) - seems not to have occurred to anyone during the church's first century". The investigative efforts in the second century have resulted in "tremendous confusion and a plethora of notions that holds no promise of producing a consensus", primarily because most writers fail to take the first step of detailed textual examination. Mormon's Map is Sorenson's most recent effort to provide such a first-step analysis for a general Latter-day Saint audience. . . ." --Randall P. Spackman, Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2003. "Interpreting Book of Mormon Geography", Farms Review, Pp. 19-46

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A review of this book may also be found in the BYU Studies issue below:

Title: Mormon's Map

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