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Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon

John L. Sorensen, Salt Lake City, Utah: The Foundation for Ancient Research & Mormon Studies and Deseret Book, 1996 2nd ed., 6x9" softbound, 415 pages, 13 maps.

"Where did the Book of Mormon events take place?" Ever since the publication of the Book of Mormon, its readers have asked this question. And the book itself provides some intriguing clues. But only recently has enough information come to light to make it possible to place the book in a plausible geographical, historical, and cultural setting.

In An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, Dr. John L. Sorenson, chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Brigham Young University, presents a credible model for an ancient American background for the Book of Mormon. This model takes notice of extensive details given in the Book of Mormon descriptions of the land southward and of the land northward, of battle movements, of cities built and abandoned, of population and demographic data. Hundreds of geographical, historical, and cultural facts fall into place as his model is carried to its logical conclusions.

How does Dr. Sorenson proceed? In a word, he asks more questions than he answers. His words are probing and carefully weighed. The results are great surprises and rewarding insights on every page. He asks questions like "Who were these people?" "What might they have looked like?" "Who were their neighbors?" "How many of them were there?" "How did they live, eat, speak, work, or fight?" He finds plausible answers to these questions by matching specific data from reliable archaeological and anthropological studies of Mesoamerica with the entire spectrum of cultural and historical information from the Book of Mormon.

An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon is a thorough work of scholarship, a book that must be read by every serious student of the Book of Mormon.

Review Excerpts:

"This book is fun to read. Do not try to read this book as proof of anything, but as a book to help you imagine what the setting for the Book of Mormon *might* have been like. While it does offer evidence and support of the Book of Mormon's authenticity, it doesn't try to prove anything, but to educate and inspire imagination. I found by reading this book that many of my own assumptions about the Book of Mormon setting were probably wrong, and that they were just that- my own assumptions. For instance, many people assume that the Lehi party landed on a basically deserted continent. But really that isn't implied anywhere in the Book of Mormon. In fact, it mentions several times about others in the land around them; nevertheless the fact that the scripture is more concerned with their immediate group than other tribes causes many, myself included, to assume that they were basically alone. This book made me rethink a lot of these types of assumptions, and helped me to associate the characters, traditions, customs and geography of the Book of Mormon with realistic models to better understand what they were all about." --Kent Turner, Colorado, 2000

"This book: An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, by John L. Sorenson, brings to life the events, places, and names of the Book of Mormon. Sorenson names Mesoamerica (southern Mexico, and Guatemala) as the most probable place for the Book of Mormon to have taken place. He backs his thesis with archeaological and anthropoligical evidence that support the Book of Mormon. As a missionary in the Guatemala, Quetzaltenango mission I was able to witness for myself a few of the places named by Sorenson as possible locations for Book of Mormon events. I reccomend this book to anyone longing for a strengthened testimony of the Book of Mormon." --Amber & Joe Isaksen, 2000

John L. Sorenson, professor of anthropology and chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Brigham Young University since 1971, holds bachelor's and master's degrees in archaeology from BYU, master's degree in meteorology from the California Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Title: Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon

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