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Bookstore Home > Scripture Studies > Book of Mormon
Feasting on the Word:The Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon
In Feasting on the Word, author Richard Dilworth Rust shows that the Book of Mormon is a treasury of literary riches as well as a bounteous doctrinal storehouse. The literary richness is one reason that the Book of Mormon is so pleasurable to read. Rust, shows powerfully and concretely how the Book of Mormon speaks to us intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. With its doctrinal content so plain and precious, the book fulfills both our spiritual and our artistic longings. This interconnection of truth and goodness is explored with sensitivity and intelligence in a way that enhances our awareness and appreciation of the truth and beauty of the Book of Mormon. Review Excerpt: "Professor Richard Dilworth Rust, gifted scholar and teacher at the University of North Carolina, needs no introduction to AML-List members, who have been blessed by his many columns and contributions to the list over the past few years. Some of this wonderful book appeared on the list as a column by the same title. Nevertheless, a brief overview of the book is in order. Rust believes that the many literary qualities of the Book of Mormon, its poetic language and various of modes of rhetoric, add further testimony to the book's truthfulness. Therefore, knowledge of how language functions in the text will increase our testimonies of Christ. It will enhance our ability to celebrate the Saviour by Feasting on the Word. The book contains, therefore, chapters on narrators and narratives, epic, poetry, sermons, letters, imagery, and typology. Each of these chapters is highly informative but also clearly and straightforwardly presented. The book is not cluttered with literary critical jargon. Instead, Rust presents each chapter as an argument that literary merit is an additional testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. But the chapters provide an additional gift, as well. By reading the Book of Mormon as a literary critic, Brother Rust plumbs the depths of the text. His explorations reveal deeper insights into the personalities of the writers and into the qualities of righteousness and wickedness their writings reveal. I will not discuss each chapter, but I would like to focus for a moment on chapter six. Chapter six is a strong addition to our knowledge of an important part of the Book of Mormon, the variety of letters and autobiographical passages Mormon chose to include in the book. Rust's incisive intelligence is apparent as he describes the purposes of autobiographical passages: They give us, the readers, "moving and searching confessionals or cries of the soul. They individualize the processes of redemption" (145). The Book of Mormon is unique in its ability to bring to our remembrance personal moments that remind us of God's individual attentions to us. Powerful autobiographical moments, like Enos's prayer in the wilderness or Alma's account of his conversion, enliven our own memories of God's condescension and sweet moments of forgiveness and clarity of purpose. The bulk of the chapter, however, focuses on letters. Rust follows the scholar Ronald Corthell in asserting that letters naturally "reveal the character or soul of the writer" (149). Each letter analyzed in the chapter reveals important insights into the wickedness of righteousness of its writer. We learn a great deal about Captain Moroni (apparently one of Mormon's personal heroes) from his correspondence with Ammoron. As Rust puts it, the letters reveal the "irreconcilable conflict between the powers of God and Satan, with Moroni appearing as the Christian champion" (150). Moroni is reveled through his letter as a man of deep faith and firm resolve that must result in the defeat and destruction of God's enemies. Ammoron's response reveals just the opposite. He is "bloodthirsty and brazen" (153), driven by blood lust and motives of revenge. Equally bold to Moroni, this warlord promises to wage eternal war on the Nephites. Moroni, through brilliantly inspired strategy, defeats Ammoron and the Lamanites. But Rust reminds us that although "Moroni unleashes his anger in words, afterwards he shows mercy in deeds" (154). The contrast between the two leaders teaches us the difference between bold adherence to the cause of righteousness and equally bold adherence to the cause of wickedeness. Rust continues these explorations of character through analysis of other letters, offering us much insight about men like Pahoran, Giddianhi, and Lachoneus in addition to Mormon's personal hero, Captain Moroni. Rust's account of Moroni's character offers us much room for meditation on Mormon's choice of Moroni as the name for his own precious son, the last surviving Nephite. Chapter six is a very powerful reminder of the depth of the Book of Mormon. But it is also evidence of the spiritual preparation and careful scholarship, in conjunction with genuine testimony, that delineate the character of the author, Richard Dilworth Rust. Having praised the book, which it richly deserves, I now reserve the right to offer two quibbles about Rust's argument. My first quibble is with Rust's rhetorical analysis of King Benjamin's sermon in Mosiah 2-4. Drawing on categories derived from the work of the eminent scholar on classical rhetoric, George A. Kennedy, Rust discovers two different forms of speech in king Benjamin's sermon: the "covenant speech" typical of Old Testament rhetoric and the "proclamation . . . based on authority and grace" typical of the New Testament (105). Rust is correct to highlight the combination of these two forms in the text, because they demonstrate at a very deep level Benjamin's commitment to the idea that the Old Testament can only be read correctly when the reader is aware of types and shadows. The law is only a shadow of the gospel, a fundamental and crucial aspect of the testimony of all the early Book of Mormon prophets. But the presence of "proclamation rhetoric" is somewhat problematic. I believe Kennedy distinguishes proclamation rhetoric from covenant rhetoric to highlight the difference between the Testaments, arguing for their historical and rhetorical separateness rather than the continuity of their testimony. This raises the specter of anachronism in the Book of Mormon. If proclamation rhetoric is a historical phenomenon associated with the rise of Christianity, then how can it be present in a text written about B.C. 124 in America? Since I believe, with Rust, that the Book of Mormon itself provides the best available antidote to this kind of thinking, strongly linking the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments via typology, I would have hoped for a note to this effect. But this is only a quibble, after all. My second quibble is with the following statement from the concluding chapter, "Larger Perspectives": "the Book of Mormon is designed by Jesus Christ for our day, just as he is responsible for continuing revelation. I believe that though individual authors wrote with distinctive styles and concerns, the final shape of the book is what God intended" (245-6). Earlier in the text, Rust says "the primary author [of the Book of Mormon] is Jesus Christ" (9). These constructions strike me as a little too Calvinistic for my taste. They remove agency from testimony in ways that make me uncomfortable. A statement by Orson F. Whitney clarifies my quibble: It may be objected that these revelations are God's utterances, and therefore, not the words nor the works of Joseph Smith. I answer that they are God's and Joseph's combined. The Prophet was not a mere machine, a mere speaking trumpet, in the process of receiving and giving the word of God. He still had his agency, and was an intelligent, self-acting being, though the inspired instrument and mouthpiece of Deity. The word of God that came to him was independent of his own mind, and yet his mind was the mold in which it was formed; his vocabulary the earthly vehicle of expression. That which is divinely begotten may have human conception and delivery. ("Joseph Smith in Literature," Improvement Era Vol. IX No. 2, 142) One of my pet peeves (well, more than a peeve) is the current Mormon penchant for denying the need for us to be "self-acting" agents. We seem sometimes to be selling our glorious birthright of agency for the promise of God doing all the hard things for us. To me, that always smacks of giving in to the fundamentalists and evangelicals whose creeds were an abomination to Christ when he first spoke to Joseph Smith. And yes that does make me just a little intolerant of Southern Baptists. These quibbles aside, I found Feasting on the Word to be a very engaging book. It is a fine addition to the nearly fifty-year tradition of reading the Book of Mormon as literature. It is, with Elder Holland's Christ and the New Covenant, one of two best books on the Book of Mormon this year. As I said above, the book is strong evidence not only of professor Rust's considerable talent as a literary scholar and critic but also of his deep commitment to the gospel and his personal character. Needless to say, I recommend this book very highly. Christmas is coming soon." --Neal W. Kramer, Brigham Young University, 1997 Title: Feasting on the Word:The Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon Retail Price: Your Price: Only $10.95
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Richard Dilworth Rust, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book and the Foundation for Ancient Research & Mormon Studies (FARMS), 1997, 6x9" hardbound, 280 pages.