An Imperfect Book: What the Book of Mormon Tells Us about Itself

by Earl M. Wunderli

 A major theme in the Book of Mormon is the depiction of Native Americans as descendants of ancient Hebrews. Other prominent ideas are the restoration of pure Christianity to an apostate world, the visit of Jesus to the western hemisphere, and recurring cycles of ruin and renewal. All of this begs the question: “Is all of this true?” Wunderli has made an avocation of examining this and related questions by digging deeply into the Book of Mormon and surveying the large body of research that has been generated by scholars of various disciplines. He succinctly summarizes his own findings and this mass of often conflicting information, then adds his own trenchant analysis to the mix. Fascinating reading due to how Wunderli has structured the book as his own personal quest for answers, An Imperfect Book is an accessible but thorough overview of major controversies involving authorship, use of idiom, anachronisms, contrived names, borrowed passages, and prophecies made and fulfilled within the book’s own narrative frame. Wunderli includes a discussion of dozens of “curiosities” such as the presence of a solitary polygamist, Amulek, in the book. Wunderli has examined the arguments and reduced the data to a collection of informative observations and reasoned arguments in an altogether readable work. 

Genres: Mormonism

400 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2013

Reviews

[Jake]

This is an insightful new look at the Book of Mormon (BOM). Although it regurgitates internal issues raised by other researchers against Book of Mormon historical claims, it does add new insights. It pays little attention to external BOM issues (DNA, archaeology), and focuses instead on an analysis of internal issues presented by the BOM (vocabulary, use of the bible, anachronisms, population growth, etc.). It raises a number of very important questions about the historical claims this book of scripture. The author tries to take a balanced approach in his tone. His conclusions clearly and convincingly paint the Book of Mormon as a product of the 19th century, and not an ancient history of American Israelites who are the "principal (or among the) ancestors of the American Indians." This book will be interesting to devoted Mormons and skeptics alike. It will challenge spiritual claims of devoted Mormons.

[Vaughn]

Oops - guess the facts aren't so evident as this author would have us believe.....

http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-...

[Tom Jenson]

I highly recommend reading An Imperfect Book, by Earl Wunderli, to anyone interested in focusing in on what the text of the Book of Mormon says about its own origins.

Wunderli uses the text of the Book of Mormon itself as his evidence to explore its origins by looking at character/place names, word-use distribution, idioms, prophesies, subject matter, concepts, etc. He also does a great job at surveying the extensive history of scholarship on the Book of Mormon's authorship, geography, translation, and historicity, comparing it to what the BoM text actually says; letting the evidence speak for itself in relation to both apologists and critics alike, with little need for additional commentary.

While this book covers a lot of the typical questions regarding the Book of Mormon, it is by no means comprehensive. Wunderli notes that in making this book, his editor asked him to cut his content in half. This has allowed for a very concise book that focuses on the essentials and engages a wider reading audience without belabouring his points. Personally, I would have welcomed another hundred pages or so —because of my intense interest in the subject matter— but alas, I will have to track down and read his previous essays for a more detailed analysis.

His writing style and approach is very easy to read, academic, and neutral, in that his tone shouldn't offend or discourage anyone with an open mind to the evidence. If you are a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is willing to take your study of the Book of Mormon to a deeper level, you too will come to understand what makes it An Imperfect Book.

[Austin Archibald]

This book loses the forest by focusing on so many insignificant trees. Clearly I'm biased, but I felt like so many arguments are dispelled by just properly understanding Joseph's 'translation' process. Of course the book will have its imperfections, but so many of these were exaggerated, and the author made leaps to make anything fit his paradigm. He tries to throw a wet blanket on any and every BoM strength or evidence which ultimately backfires and challenges his objectivity. I also did not find his arguments consistent. In one chapter he tries to prove the BoM has no divine origin by showing how similar it is to the Bible, and in another he tries to prove it has no divine origin by showing how dissimilar it is to the Bible. The words and phrases chapter was particularly weak. I just didn't find many compelling arguments in the book. You can certainly find 'oddities' in any long, complex book. Nevertheless, I had never seen some of these analyses before, so I was moderately interested. Some good arguments were made that I'm not sure we'll ever have answers to. I could see this book being quite popular with critics of Mormonism.

[Wesley Morgan]

I read this book over the summer, and I planned to do more detailed research into the questions he poses, but I've been busy with a Master's. So I'll just post some initial thoughts. This is basically a compilation of criticisms against the Book of Mormon. It is much more well-researched and academic than you'll find from blog and social media posts like the "CES Letter".

He raised some points that I don't have great answers for, which is why I was hoping to do my own research. That being said, on the topics I do know a lot about, I felt that he was unnecessarily critical and sometimes just wrong. He would claim he was being unbiased by sharing research by scholars who do and don't believe in the Book of Mormon, but he would often wave away the pro-LDS points and say much better things about the critics.

When it was published, the Interpreter Foundation wrote two thorough reviews by LDS scholars: https://interpreterfoundation.org/tag...
If I ever have the time, I may come back and do my own write-up of the points he makes, identifying which ones I think are or are not valid criticisms.