Book of Mormon scholar Grant Hardy knows that there are lots of different views about what The Book of Mormon is—how it came to be, how credible its origin story and originator are, and what its value is to Latter-day Saints, and to the world.
Though he himself falls firmly on the side of belief, he believes the approach of the Book as sacred text asks its reader to consider that “every word or phrase may hold existentially significant meaning” — regardless of exactly how one views the Book’s origins and historical value.
That’s the perspective that he brings to a newly produced work, The Annotated Book of Mormon, a remarkably thorough and rich exploration of The Book of Mormon which is the first “fully annotated, academic edition of the Book… in its 200-year history,” and which was published by Oxford University Press.
We loved talking with Grant, and for us, some of the most powerful moments of the conversation were his reflections on how the Book of Mormon is calling us, as a people, to hold up the mirror and ask what we can do better. You’ll hear Grant specifically bring up the topic of how we as a church use and disclose our financial resources. We want to note that this part of the conversation is challenging—and while the views Grant shares, like those of all guests we have, are his own, we really appreciate his vulnerability and willingness to engage these tough issues. We know not everybody’s going to agree on this, and we’re very aware of our inadequacy in navigating difficult topics. We hope that one thing we can do at Faith Matters is to help keep conversations going in good faith, and that’s what we tried to do here, however imperfectly.
We really encourage you to pick up the Annotated Book of Mormon, which does an amazing job of making this text easier to study and understand by reformatting it with headers, punctuation markers, and paragraph styles in line with modern bible translations. Grant is donating all royalties for the book to the Humanitarian Aid Fund of the LDS Church.
Grant is a Professor of History & Religious Studies at UNC Asheville, where he’s taught since 1994. We think that this is a special episode with a remarkable person and message, and we really hope you enjoy this conversation with Grant Hardy.
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160. Reckoning with Marriage — A Conversation with Rachel Rueckert
159. How to Celebrate Holy Week — A Conversation with Eric Huntsman
158. The Other Side Academy: "Zion with F-Bombs" — Joseph Grenny at Restore
157. Using Your Gifts for Good — A Conversation with Liz Shropshire
156. Friendship in Faith — A Conversation with Andrew Teal
155. A Year of War and Miracles — Svitlana Miller and Nancy Cadjan
154. Every Needful Thing — Melissa Inouye and Kate Holbrook
153. Developing Sexual Wholeness — Jennifer Finlayson-Fife
152. The Richard Bushman Interview
151. When Faith is Hard — A Conversation with Terryl Givens
150. How Are We Like the Ancient Christians? — A Conversation with Kristian Heal
149. Don't Let a Good Faith Crisis Go to Waste — Jared Halverson
148. Equal Partnership in Marriage — McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding
147. Bittersweet - A Conversation with Susan Cain
146. Savior of the World - A Conversation with Esther Candari
145. Envisioning the Restoration's 3rd Century — Patrick Mason
144. The Art of Transformation — A Conversation with Makoto Fujimura
143. The Sin of Certainty — A Conversation with Peter Enns
142. The Truth Will Set You Free — A Conversation with Jason Portnoy
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