Gutjahr - The Book of Mormon : a biography

LIVES OF GREAT RELIGIOUS BOOKS

The Book of Mormon

LIVES OF GREAT RELIGIOUS BOOKS

The Book of Mormon, Paul C. Gutjahr

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Donald S. Lopez, Jr.

Dietrich Bonhoeffers Letters and Papers from Prison, Martin E. Marty

The I Ching, Richard J. Smith

Augustines Confessions, Garry Wills

FORTHCOMING:

The Book of Revelation, Bruce Chilton

Confuciuss Analects, Annping Chin and Jonathan D. Spence

The Dead Sea Scrolls, John J. Collins

The Bhagavad Gita, Richard H. Davis

Josephuss Jewish War, Martin Goodman

John Calvins Institutes of the Christian Religion, Bruce Gordon

The Book of Genesis, Ronald S. Hendel

The Book of Common Prayer, Alan Jacobs

The Book of Job, Mark Larrimore

C. S. Lewiss Mere Christianity, George Marsden

Thomas Aquinass Summa Theologiae, Bernard McGinn

The Greatest Translations of All Time: The Septuagint and the Vulgate, Jack Miles

The Passover Haggadah, Vanessa Ochs

The Song of Songs, Ilana Pardes

Rumis Masnavi, Omid Safi

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, David Gordon White

A BIOGRAPHY

Paul C. Gutjahr

Copyright 2012 by Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,

Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,

Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 ITW

press.princeton.edu

Jacket photograph: Angel Moroni Salt Lake Temple. 2008 Thomas Simpson | Focal-Point Photography

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gutjahr, Paul C., author.

The Book of Mormon : a biography / Paul C. Gutjahr.

pages cm (Lives of great religious books)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-691-14480-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Book of MormonHistory. 2. Book of MormonCriticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title. II. Series: Lives of great religious books.

BX8627.G88 2012

289.32dc23

2011044063

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For

Robert Eric Brown

(a.k.a. Bob)

A great scholar, but an even greater friend

Luke 8:15

This book must be either true or false.

If true, it is one of the most important

messages ever sent from God to man.

If false, it is one of the most cunning,

wicked, bold, deep-laid impositions

ever palmed upon the world, calculated

to deceive and ruin millions who will

receive it as the word of God.

ORSON PRATT, speaking of the

Book of Mormon

My journey to writing this book has been a long one. The Book of Mormon first captured my attention in the eighth grade when an immensely kind and intelligent literature teacher by the name of Giles Florence Jr. introduced me to it. Neither of us could have predicted that that introduction would initiate my nearly forty-year quest to understand what was once described to the early Mormon apostle Parley Pratt as a strange book, a VERY STRANGE BOOK!

While Giles Florence may have been the first Mormon who befriended me, he certainly has not been the last. Countless others have followed in his footsteps, and many of those have done me great service in helping me write this book. Grant Smith, who suffered through graduate school with me, has been instrumental in bringing this book to completion. He carefully read and edited the entire manuscript before I submitted it to the Press. Not only is the book better because of his wisdom, but I am a better writer because of his unstinting generosity. Paul Westover also carefully read the manuscript, caught dozens of errors, made countless suggestions on how to improve the manuscript, and taught me a great deal I did not know about contemporary Mormon beliefs and practices. Also of help almost too great to measure was Grant Hardy, a scholar of such insight and generosity that I stand in awe of how much time and effort he put into this manuscript. Grant may not agree with all that fills the pages that follow, but I am convinced that it is a better book, and I am a better scholar, because of the time he invested in my work. These are debts I doubt I will ever be able to repay. These three scholars are living testimonies to the precious gift of academic fellowship and friendship.

In the course of my research, I was aided by countless members of the LDS Church in Utah. Rob Jex was a model of kindness and professionalism. Without his help, important sections of this book could not have been written. Others also offered invaluable aid: Gerald Argetsinger, Berne Broadbent, Tod Harris, Mark Jarman, Michael Landon, and Michael vonRosen. Jack Welch and David Whittaker at Brigham Young University proved invaluable in helping me find source and illustrative material. Even with all this help, I wish to in no way imply that the views in this book, or any mistakes therein, might be attributed to anyone but myself.

Friends outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helped as well. I had a terrific editor in Fred Appel, who offered me the chance to write this book and then patiently supported me throughout the entire process. He enlisted two wonderful reviewers to read my manuscript. Their comments made the book much better. Jonathan Elmer, Christoph Irmscher, Richard Nash, Steve Stein, and Nick Williams all lent a hand at various times to help improve this book. Madeleine Gonin, Cordah Pearce, and Alex Teschmacher patiently helped me get the illustrations in order. Alex Van Riesen, as always, was there as a friend offering humor and encouragement along the way. In countless ways, my life is richer because of Alexs presence in it.

This book also benefited from the financial generosity of several funding sources. The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies awarded me their Fellowship in Western American History, which allowed me to make two research trips to the L. Tom Perry Special Collections of the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. Indiana University also supported this project with two separate grants: a Research Grant-in-Aid from the College of Arts and Sciences to help with the costs of illustrations, and a Summer Research Fellowship from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, which enabled me to dedicate a summer to writing this book.

While other individuals and institutions have shown great kindness in helping bring this book to completion, my family continues to be my greatest source of support. My wife, Cathy, and my two sons have all had to make sacrifices to help me complete my research on this book, and my gratitude and love for them exceed my every ability to put into words. My parents, and my sister, Karen, have also always been stalwart pillars of support. They continue to be my lifes greatest models of generosity and unconditional love.

Finally, I dedicate this book to Bob Brown. Bob has been a close friend since our graduate school days together at the University of Iowa. For over two decades, he has been a listening ear, an insightful critic, and a faithful friend. We have suffered together through bad graduate seminars, terrible movies, not-so-festive strawberry festivals, and various office-remodeling projects completed under the cover of darkness. We have also shared dreams, moves, home improvement projects, vacations, as well as rounds of golf on some of the most run-down courses in the Midwest. True friends in life are rare. Rarer still are friends as kind, intelligent, and encouraging as Bob. Even as I type these words, I cannot help but smile. That is what Bob brings out in people: peace and joy. May this slender volume stand as a token of gratitude for a treasured friend who has enriched my life, the lives of my family, and my scholarly work in ways too numerous to count.