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Seven Gospels: The Many Lives of Christ in the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon bears witness of Christ’s divinity and atonement. On nearly every page, the core of the gospel―the “good news”―is Jesus Christ was sent by the Father to save the human family through his suffering, death, and resurrection. This powerful testament results, in part, from the wide chorus of diverse voices in the Book of Mormon that witness of the Savior. In Seven Gospels , disciple-scholars Adam S. Miller and Rosalynde F. Welch draw on both their academic study and their personal experience to explore the accounts of seven witnesses in the Book of Mormon who, from unique circumstances and perspectives, testify of the good news of Jesus Christ through a narrative of his mortal life. Showcasing that unique insights come from discussion and collaboration, the authors develop and present their ideas through letters to one another. Through their conversations, the authors demonstrate that, considered collectively, these seven gospels bear remarkable witness that, regardless of his disciples’ personal differences, Christ is willing and able to show himself to all of us.
160 pages, Paperback
Published October 30, 2023
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254 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
December 21, 2023
1st Reading - 3 Stars. I guess I'm just not smart enough for this? It was fine. Did just what they said in the intro they would do. They wrote letters to each other about their insights from different accounts of the Savior's life found in the Book of Mormon. But, I just didn't get all that much from it. I was motivated to go study closer, but otherwise it was just a nice little sit-in on two academics speaking about the scriptures. To be honest, I just don't connect with this type of writing. I have struggled with much of Adam Miller's writing.
2nd Reading - 3.5 Stars. When I finished it the first time I immediately felt like I needed to re-read it. I did not want to, but I felt like I should. I'm glad I did, but this should maybe be read rather than listened to. There are lots of major points the authors take, but they are not really emphasized, they just slide into new conversations and topics. It makes it tricky to follow their point. I loved some of the ideas and topics they chose. I think there is more for me to learn from this one.
3rd Reading - 4.5 Stars. I LOVE this little gem of a book. I don’t quite know how I got to this rather contrasting view through this last reading, but I’ll try to convey how the author’s works came to mean something to me.
First, it helped that I got to know the authors a little bit more. I happened to already have an article by Rosalynde Welch I was meaning to read. That helped me understand a little more on how she thinks, how she plays with ideas, and presents them (I loved “How to do things with Doubts”).
I also ended up going to some of the scriptures passages and reading them along with the authors. This helped me put their interpretations into proper intellectual and faithful context. These were not declarations of truth or interpretations of scripture by any definitive, objective standards.
Second, by having read the book twice already I felt like I knew the theology points I was going to get. I was, again, not looking forward to re-listening to it. But, because I was essentially bored, my mind naturally started to pay attention to the manner of presentation and the reasoning behind their choices of elaboration.
I think through this I found the real meanings of their texts. I found what Adam Miller talks about in the introduction, quoting Elder Maxwell, of doing a form of worship through academic study. Here we have a philosopher approaching his religion through his faithful eyes, wrestling with each idea to be able to more fully place it in the mosaic of practical and theological understanding. Here we have a literary academic, approaching well-worn stories with a critical eye for voice, setting, and form to unveil new interpretations, new perspectives, and new applications of the heart.
I don’t think either would claim they are breaking new ground, in the traditional sense of interpreting doctrine for the sake of ready-to-apply for our salvation. It is a consecration of skills and desire and effort. It is something that now, astonishingly, draws me back in and gets me excited to revisit to see how else I might become more through their works. I love it.
I don’t know if I’ll read it for a fourth time. I’m tempted to. It feels there is more worship to experience with them. There is more of me to be found in the study of the gospels of the Book of Mormon. I hope to get back into it soon and see what I find in the scriptures for myself.
2nd Reading - 3.5 Stars. When I finished it the first time I immediately felt like I needed to re-read it. I did not want to, but I felt like I should. I'm glad I did, but this should maybe be read rather than listened to. There are lots of major points the authors take, but they are not really emphasized, they just slide into new conversations and topics. It makes it tricky to follow their point. I loved some of the ideas and topics they chose. I think there is more for me to learn from this one.
3rd Reading - 4.5 Stars. I LOVE this little gem of a book. I don’t quite know how I got to this rather contrasting view through this last reading, but I’ll try to convey how the author’s works came to mean something to me.
First, it helped that I got to know the authors a little bit more. I happened to already have an article by Rosalynde Welch I was meaning to read. That helped me understand a little more on how she thinks, how she plays with ideas, and presents them (I loved “How to do things with Doubts”).
I also ended up going to some of the scriptures passages and reading them along with the authors. This helped me put their interpretations into proper intellectual and faithful context. These were not declarations of truth or interpretations of scripture by any definitive, objective standards.
Second, by having read the book twice already I felt like I knew the theology points I was going to get. I was, again, not looking forward to re-listening to it. But, because I was essentially bored, my mind naturally started to pay attention to the manner of presentation and the reasoning behind their choices of elaboration.
I think through this I found the real meanings of their texts. I found what Adam Miller talks about in the introduction, quoting Elder Maxwell, of doing a form of worship through academic study. Here we have a philosopher approaching his religion through his faithful eyes, wrestling with each idea to be able to more fully place it in the mosaic of practical and theological understanding. Here we have a literary academic, approaching well-worn stories with a critical eye for voice, setting, and form to unveil new interpretations, new perspectives, and new applications of the heart.
I don’t think either would claim they are breaking new ground, in the traditional sense of interpreting doctrine for the sake of ready-to-apply for our salvation. It is a consecration of skills and desire and effort. It is something that now, astonishingly, draws me back in and gets me excited to revisit to see how else I might become more through their works. I love it.
I don’t know if I’ll read it for a fourth time. I’m tempted to. It feels there is more worship to experience with them. There is more of me to be found in the study of the gospels of the Book of Mormon. I hope to get back into it soon and see what I find in the scriptures for myself.
January 24, 2024
Such a great book on careful reading and thoughtful exploration of scripture. It had a similar feel to the website their theology group had in the beginning. I was a budding amateur scriptorian then, and reading their posts on the website helped me read scripture better. This book is less chaotic than the posts and far more devotional, but it still packs a great punch. Your personal reading of the scripture will greatly benefit from a reading of this book. The benefit is not so much from some insights they share (though there are gems), but from the tools they equip you with to read the scriptures. Definitely give it a spin!
April 28, 2024
I really enjoyed this book and learned new things in the scriptures in ways that I hadn’t thought of before. I appreciated the way it was narrated by both Rosalynd and Adam. It was like they were having a conversation back and forth with their findings in the scriptures. The idea of 7 gospels by Mary, Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma, Abish, Samuel and the Brother of Jared was extremely insightful. My favorite sections were Mary, Abish and the Brother of Jared.
November 6, 2023
Adam Miller and Rosalynde Welch frustrate me in the sense that they seem so amazing in person, but I can never quite keep up with them intellectually. I always feel like I need a dummies version of their work, but I can appreciate their knowledge and testimonies. Every now and then they say something and I’m blown away, and other times (okay, most of the time) I’m scratching my head thinking “huh?” This is one of those books. If theology is your thing then you will love them.
July 21, 2024
If Adam Miller is involved, then I find myself a fan. To just “sit” with these scriptures like Rosalynde and Adam do is truly faith-promoting. The scriptures have so much to give us if he want to spend the time and effort. Sure there are moments where you are like “is that really in there???” but it is difficult to say it isn’t and that it isn’t in there for others. I really enjoyed the closer look at how Christ is represented by various scripture authors.
November 27, 2023
This is a great book full of thought-provoking testimonies of Jesus Christ as found in the Book of Mormon. Here are some favorite quotes:
The Book of Mormon is "more important than any of the inventions that have come out of the industrial and technological revolutions" (Ezra Taft Benson, p. 1).
"Like the New Testament, the Book of Mormon bears witness of Christ's divinity and atonement through a variety of overlapping perspectives that use a range of similar, but not identical, images and vocabularies... The core of the gospel is this joyful announcement: God the Father has sent into the world his Son, Jesus Christ, who is both human and divine. The Son has come to glorify the Father and to save the human family through his suffering, death, and resurrection (p. 3)."
"In this book, when we speak of 'seven gospels' within the Book of Mormon, we are speaking of narratives of Christ's mortal life. The core gospel announcement is always the same, and it appears everywhere... But we've focused especially on those places where this core announcement comes wrapped in the story of Christ's life, including accounts of his birth, his ministry, his death, and his resurrection (p. 4)."
"Considered collectively, the Book of Mormon bears powerful witness that, regardless of his disciples' personal differences, Christ is willing and able to show himself to all of us (p. 5)."
"Nephi is caught away in the Spirit to a high mountain, where he is shown the things his father Lehi saw... Nephi asks for the interpretation of the shining tree, and an angel shows him Mary of Nazareth. She is presently carried away in the Spirit and reappears with a child in her arms. Nephi is taught by the angel about the condescension of God, the divine love that bears fruit in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ (p. 9)."
"What if Mary were 'carried away in the Spirit' in the same way Nephi was? What if Mary, too, were given a vision of the meaning of her son's life? And what if Nephi, for a time, prophetically saw what Mary saw in vision? Could there be traces of Mary's gospel in Nephi's record (p. 11)?"
"A mother's relationship to her child is a delicate thing, an everchanging dynamic of coming and going, approach and rebuff, departure and return (p. 11)."
"There's no mention of a manger here: this is a child borne in arms. I imagine that Mary would have held her son close... The image of the Christ child in his mother's arms, unique to Mary's gospel, emphasizes the intimacy between the mother and her holy child, and thus it also heightens the poignancy of the sacrifice they both made in submitting to his atoning mission. This is the rhythm of motherhood: after coming is going; after nearness is distance (p. 12)."
"Jesus leaves Mary's arms to be among his people. He goes out among the crowds who visit John to be baptized at the River Jordan; there he is baptized with them, and like them, buried in the water in a rehearsal of their future burials in the earth... Nephi and the angel see these scenes as manifestations of the condescension of God. God's condescension is the love of Father and Son for their children: a love so great that a Father would send his own Son down to a world lying in wait; so great that a Son would descend from his place at the Father's side to die among his people, first in baptism and then on the cross (p. 13)."
"'He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable,
And his cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.'
This is condescension (p. 14)."
"Mary's motherly perspective, if we can find it in this text, adds an important nuance to our understanding of God's condescending love... We think of condescension as primarily an up-down or vertical movement. But I wonder if condescension looked and felt slightly different to Mary. She would have sensed that her son's direction was also a horizontal out and into: out of her arms and into the world, going forth among the people (p. 14)."
"Christ's vertical return, his resurrection and ascension, are not directly described. This gospel ends on Friday. As I read it, that unexpected endpoint underscores both the importance of Christ's morality and the gravity of his death. Christ took no shortcuts through mortal life in fulfilling his mission among humankind (p. 15)."
"God's love is expressed through acts of self-shedding at Christ's birth and death... and transmitted through the hearts of all people (p. 16)."
"What kinds of things are shed? Skins are shed. Tears are shed. Light is shed. And blood is shed. This sounds like the scene of a birth, the messy and dangerous path by which Christ and his mother Mary agreed to bring the son of God bodily into the world so that he could live fully among us, one of us in every way except sin... The love of God 'sheds itself' through the willing birth and willing death of the child borne in Mary's arms (p. 17)."
"Mary understands, as only a mother can, the personal cost at which the Savior, her babe in arms, will go into the world to spread the love of God through his ministry and his atonement (p. 17)."
"Like an expert audio engineer working at her soundboard, you've succeeded in dialing up the strength of Mary's voice, shifting it from the background to the foreground of Nephi's vision (p. 18)."
"I love the idea that Nephi's vision of Mary's love opens onto Mary's vision of God's love. I love the idea of visions nested insides of visions, of voices nested inside of voices, all of them seeing and speaking through a shared experience of God's eyes and God's voice (p. 18)."
"In my estimation, there are a number of quilting points between 1 Nephi 11 and Luke 1-2 that, as we try to bring the gospel of Mary into sharper focus, might be worth our attention (p. 19)."
"What specific shape does the good news take? What unique aspects of Christ's life and atoning work are manifest in Mary's life, from Mary's point of view (p. 21)?"
"Mary is linked with the tree of life. And as the 'mother of the Son of God,' she will bear in her womb... the fruit of that tree, the man who will, after the manner of her flesh, descend from heaven to be with us and heal us and save us (p. 23)."
"If Mary is one meaning of the tree, then what would it feel like to be the tree? What would it feel like to be the love of God (p. 23)?"
"Benjamin reports that an angel brought him glad tidings on the previous night: the time is not far distant when the Lord will come down from heaven and dwell among the children of men in a mortal body like theirs. The angel speaks to Benjamin of Christ's healing ministry and of his bodily temptation, pain, hunger, thirst, and fatigue (p. 27)."
"Benjamin's gospel, his capsule account of Christ's life from cradle to tomb and beyond, is delivered to him by an angle and then reported to his people from high atop a tower as part of a famous address... Benjamin tells them that their true king will come down and reign among them (p. 29)."
"Benjamin's good news... is the promise of something that will happen, not the story of something that has happened... whether the gospel looks forward or backward to Christ, the truth of his life is given in the language of those who will speak and hear it. This language isn't merely the particular dialect of a people, but it also encompasses the images, ideas, and relationships that they understand... King Benjamin stands before his people as a powerful king who has nevertheless been ambushed by his own mortality (p. 29)."
"Is it any wonder that Benjamin tells his people of Christ's healing of the deaf and blind? That he shows them Christ's pain and fatigue? Benjamin knows viscerally of age's encroachment: perhaps he knows its deafness and blindness. He knows viscerally a shadow of the affliction Christ will suffer. He teaches his people, not only with his words but with his trembling frame, of the King who will inhabit a tabernacle of clay (p. 30)."
"Could it be that the most important message of the angel to Benjamin and his people is, likewise, where and how to find the Savior (p. 31)?"
"In presenting Christ's great power as a central theme of his life, Benjmain's gospel stands apart from Mary's. Mary is a young mother; Benjmain is an aged king. Both are shown the Savior in images and conditions that resonate in their own lives (p. 32)."
"The message of Benjamin's gospel seems to be... the power of the Lord Omnipotent, the Father and Creator of heaven and earth... linked with the extremity of his suffering (p. 33)."
"Both... the Savior and the beggar are wrapped in a ragged cloak of suffering that, for the Christ-blind, disguises the essential nature they share as beggar and Lord. Christ came to his people in a body, the site of their own suffering, and for that they considered him a man and condemned him as they would a beggar (p. 35)."
"Where Nephi is carried off 'into an exceedingly high mountain' and granted a sweeping vision of global salvation history, Benjamin is only asked to sit on the edge of his bed and hear--not see--the angel's much more local message about how a 'natural man,' despite being an enemy to God, can still be saved (p. 37)."
"Benjamin's gospel is backlit by death (p. 38)."
"Blood is life (p. 38)."
"The life in that flesh belongs to God. The life in that flesh is his to give and his to take (p. 39)."
"My heart beats without me... my blood is indifferent to me... my life doesn't belong to me (p. 40)."
"The natural man is the fleshy, animal dimension of a human being... the natural man is the dying man (p. 41)."
"We can yield our lives to God and be filled with his life. Or we can claim our lives as our own and be cut off from his life... As always, Jesus shows the way. His willingness to shed his blood on eternity's altar--his willingness to suffer 'more than man can suffer' and bleed from every pore--enables him to transfigure death into sacrifice (p. 42)."
"Children are the model, here, for the same reason as the elderly. Those who are very young, just like those who are very old, can't sustain the sinful fantasy that their lives are their own, that their bodies are their own, that their blood is their own... Christ's power to save is a product of his power to submit. He's able to save our lives because he yields to the necessity of losing his own life (p. 43)."
"Filled with the bowels of mercy, Abinadi teaches, Christ will break the bands of death and redeem his people (p. 45)."
"Abinadi undertakes to interpret the meaning of the prophecy. It is through interpretation of poetry... reprising the Law and the Prophets and reviewing the Bible from Exodus to Isaiah, that Abinadi... arrives at his gospel: 'I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people' (p. 48)."
"Like Abinadi, the unknown Christ manifests miraculous power with and in his human body. Both are bound, scourged, and led before a hostile tribunal. And both are delivered up to 'suffer even until death' (p. 48)."
"Christ's stillness is, among other things, an aspect of his passive acceptance of others' actions along the road to crucifixion (p. 49)."
"Book of Mormon gospels are preludes (or occasionally postludes) to sermons on salvation (p. 51)."
"Abinadi shows me that better way, urging me to swallow my howls. Or, failing that, teaching me not to let my howls swallow me (p. 52)."
"Rather than being a king, Abinadi is an outsider... Abinadi's gospel isn't delivered by an angel. Abinadi's gospel comes in the form of an impromptu--and inspired and messianic--reading of Isaiah's poetry (p. 54)."
"I love everything about Abinadi. I love that he's not someone special or important or powerful. I love that he doesn't care one whit about Noah's anger or threats (p. 54)."
"God's reign looks like a servant willing to suffer for his people (p. 59)."
"Christ is willing to die, but his willingness to die doesn't mean he's willing to let death win. Rather, Christ's willingness to die--to sacrifice his life for us--transfigures that death into a new life. Christ's atonement transfigures his death into a victory over death (p. 61)."
"Christ's bodily afflictions fill his bowels with mercy. Alma invites his listeners to be born again in baptism and to have faith in the Lamb of God (p. 63)."
"Hands embracing and protecting, laboring and serving, actively teaching and passively bound: each image adds a different brushstroke to the Book of Mormon's portrait of Christ (p. 65)."
"The kingdom of heaven is 'at hand' because Jesus brings something of heaven with him wherever he goes. Where the King is, there is the kingdom (p. 67)."
"Though they are wounded, they are nevertheless made in the image of God (p. 70)."
"As crucial as it is... to understand the plan of salvation, to study the scriptures and the words of living prophets, and to seek for a perfect knowledge enriched by faith--none of that knowledge can be a substitute for practical knowledge of how to comfort, mourn with, and stand by my brothers and sisters... To learn of Christ is to engage our hands alongside our hearts and our minds (p. 71)."
"Alma the Younger is a preacher... he stops at all the places in between, apparently delivering some version of the same sermon again and again, doubtless shaping and sharpening it each time (p. 72)."
"The gospel of Abish is a birth story. It's the story of God doing a new thing in the world... the birth story of Lamanite Christianity (p. 82)."
"Her testimony-in-action is the crucial catalyst for the harvest of souls that occurs in the Lamanite palace (p. 83)."
"Sometimes gospels are shown, not told (p. 84)."
"The gospel of Abish is a gospel in action. The events of Christ's life are enacted in the founding story of the Lamanite church: in the queen's miraculous faith and miraculous gifts, in the king's rising, in Abish's raising of the queen, and in her extraordinary compassion and service (p. 86)."
"I think the gospel of Abish brings some theological rigor to the idea of joy... it tells us that joy comes from reseeing our life's movement toward death as the image of Christ himself (p. 87)."
"We practice Christlike death and resurrection in every act of godly self-sacrifice (p. 88)."
"The kingdom of God isn't always visible from the outside: once inside, we go about our lives among the same people and places that defined our previous lives (p. 89)."
"Joy is what it feels like to live under the new King, a servant-king who defeated his enemies, sin and death, by embracing them. Joy, in other words, is what happens when, following Christ and his disciples, like Abish and Ammon, we exercise power with disarming love rather than overpowering force. Joy is what is produced when the first makes itself last and the last is thereby made first (p. 89)."
"Something happened to Abish. It happened many years before the events related in Alma 19... as a result, she was 'converted unto the Lord.'... I want to know what it means to be 'converted' (p. 91)."
"Abish's conversion left her hungry for the fullness of the gospel... Abish may be a good example of... 'anonymous Christian' or... an 'unconscious Christian.' An anonymous Christian is someone who, like Abish, has been 'converted unto the Lord' without knowing how to name it. Something decisive has happened to her and she's faithful to it, but she lacks the Church's ready-made tools... She keeps it to herself because she doesn't know how to share it (p. 93)."
"I'm inclined to see the vision as her own. I'm inclined to see her as an agent in her own story... it would only be natural for her unconscious conversion to be catalyzed by a vision... of her father (p. 94)."
"To be converted, we must be reconciled to the fact that we didn't make ourselves; that we depend on others for who we are, what we want, and what we have; and that true joy is always shared. To be converted we must be reconciled to the fact that we cannot be made perfect without them, nor they without us (p. 94)."
"Conversion 'lights up the mind'... changes the heart (p. 97)."
"Abish started out with God and eventually found the Church (p. 99)."
"The sword of justice is set to drop, and nothing can save the Nephites except repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (p. 105)."
"When the Nephites hear from the mouth of a Lamanite these sacred archaic words for Christ, long neglected in the disarray of the Nephite church, I can imagine that the syllables pierce to the core (p. 106)."
"Samuel teaches that there's a counterpart to the signs of Christ's birth. The sign of his death, the extended night of nights during which all the lights of the sky hide their faces (p. 107)."
"I think he wants us to see Jesus Christ as the instrument of God's justice hanging over the world, about to descend from heaven to earth to do his Father's work (p. 108)."
"God's response, to good and to evil alike, is always love (p. 108)."
"As sinners, we suffer from this inability to read the signs and see what's real. We continually misinterpret evil as good and good as evil... What, though, could be more predictable than sinners refusing responsibility for their own actions (p. 115)?"
"Different people have faith in Christ for different reasons at different times in their lives (p. 117)."
"God's presence in our world isn't limited to the span of Christ's mortal life (p. 119)."
"Repentance restores us to the presence of God... Repentance is about our willingness to confess that God is already present (p. 119)."
"Signs do not stand in place of God's presence but rather are a part of God's way of being present with us (p. 122)."
"When we banish God from our world and look for him only with a telescope, expecting that he is far away, he appears threatening and angry. When we instead look for him close by... we see that his hand is extended in blessing (p. 124)."
"'Do you understand more about me?' (p. 125)"
"The brother of Jared personally sees and experiences the Christ-who-will-come-in-flesh, rather than learning about his life from an angel (p. 127)."
"The Nephite gospels give us a Jesus Christ who is among us, like us, for us, with us, and in us (p. 128)."
"The brother of Jared is defined by his relationship to someone else (p. 134)."
"The man himself is defined by his relationships and the space he makes for them (p. 137)."
"Each gospel gives us a picture, a promise, and an invitation (p. 139)."
"He calls us to open our hearts and minds to commune with him (p. 142)."
"'Do you love the Lord? Spend time with Him. Meditate on His words. Take His yoke upon you. Seek to understand and obey' (Joseph B. Wirthlin, p. 143)."
The Book of Mormon is "more important than any of the inventions that have come out of the industrial and technological revolutions" (Ezra Taft Benson, p. 1).
"Like the New Testament, the Book of Mormon bears witness of Christ's divinity and atonement through a variety of overlapping perspectives that use a range of similar, but not identical, images and vocabularies... The core of the gospel is this joyful announcement: God the Father has sent into the world his Son, Jesus Christ, who is both human and divine. The Son has come to glorify the Father and to save the human family through his suffering, death, and resurrection (p. 3)."
"In this book, when we speak of 'seven gospels' within the Book of Mormon, we are speaking of narratives of Christ's mortal life. The core gospel announcement is always the same, and it appears everywhere... But we've focused especially on those places where this core announcement comes wrapped in the story of Christ's life, including accounts of his birth, his ministry, his death, and his resurrection (p. 4)."
"Considered collectively, the Book of Mormon bears powerful witness that, regardless of his disciples' personal differences, Christ is willing and able to show himself to all of us (p. 5)."
"Nephi is caught away in the Spirit to a high mountain, where he is shown the things his father Lehi saw... Nephi asks for the interpretation of the shining tree, and an angel shows him Mary of Nazareth. She is presently carried away in the Spirit and reappears with a child in her arms. Nephi is taught by the angel about the condescension of God, the divine love that bears fruit in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ (p. 9)."
"What if Mary were 'carried away in the Spirit' in the same way Nephi was? What if Mary, too, were given a vision of the meaning of her son's life? And what if Nephi, for a time, prophetically saw what Mary saw in vision? Could there be traces of Mary's gospel in Nephi's record (p. 11)?"
"A mother's relationship to her child is a delicate thing, an everchanging dynamic of coming and going, approach and rebuff, departure and return (p. 11)."
"There's no mention of a manger here: this is a child borne in arms. I imagine that Mary would have held her son close... The image of the Christ child in his mother's arms, unique to Mary's gospel, emphasizes the intimacy between the mother and her holy child, and thus it also heightens the poignancy of the sacrifice they both made in submitting to his atoning mission. This is the rhythm of motherhood: after coming is going; after nearness is distance (p. 12)."
"Jesus leaves Mary's arms to be among his people. He goes out among the crowds who visit John to be baptized at the River Jordan; there he is baptized with them, and like them, buried in the water in a rehearsal of their future burials in the earth... Nephi and the angel see these scenes as manifestations of the condescension of God. God's condescension is the love of Father and Son for their children: a love so great that a Father would send his own Son down to a world lying in wait; so great that a Son would descend from his place at the Father's side to die among his people, first in baptism and then on the cross (p. 13)."
"'He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable,
And his cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.'
This is condescension (p. 14)."
"Mary's motherly perspective, if we can find it in this text, adds an important nuance to our understanding of God's condescending love... We think of condescension as primarily an up-down or vertical movement. But I wonder if condescension looked and felt slightly different to Mary. She would have sensed that her son's direction was also a horizontal out and into: out of her arms and into the world, going forth among the people (p. 14)."
"Christ's vertical return, his resurrection and ascension, are not directly described. This gospel ends on Friday. As I read it, that unexpected endpoint underscores both the importance of Christ's morality and the gravity of his death. Christ took no shortcuts through mortal life in fulfilling his mission among humankind (p. 15)."
"God's love is expressed through acts of self-shedding at Christ's birth and death... and transmitted through the hearts of all people (p. 16)."
"What kinds of things are shed? Skins are shed. Tears are shed. Light is shed. And blood is shed. This sounds like the scene of a birth, the messy and dangerous path by which Christ and his mother Mary agreed to bring the son of God bodily into the world so that he could live fully among us, one of us in every way except sin... The love of God 'sheds itself' through the willing birth and willing death of the child borne in Mary's arms (p. 17)."
"Mary understands, as only a mother can, the personal cost at which the Savior, her babe in arms, will go into the world to spread the love of God through his ministry and his atonement (p. 17)."
"Like an expert audio engineer working at her soundboard, you've succeeded in dialing up the strength of Mary's voice, shifting it from the background to the foreground of Nephi's vision (p. 18)."
"I love the idea that Nephi's vision of Mary's love opens onto Mary's vision of God's love. I love the idea of visions nested insides of visions, of voices nested inside of voices, all of them seeing and speaking through a shared experience of God's eyes and God's voice (p. 18)."
"In my estimation, there are a number of quilting points between 1 Nephi 11 and Luke 1-2 that, as we try to bring the gospel of Mary into sharper focus, might be worth our attention (p. 19)."
"What specific shape does the good news take? What unique aspects of Christ's life and atoning work are manifest in Mary's life, from Mary's point of view (p. 21)?"
"Mary is linked with the tree of life. And as the 'mother of the Son of God,' she will bear in her womb... the fruit of that tree, the man who will, after the manner of her flesh, descend from heaven to be with us and heal us and save us (p. 23)."
"If Mary is one meaning of the tree, then what would it feel like to be the tree? What would it feel like to be the love of God (p. 23)?"
"Benjamin reports that an angel brought him glad tidings on the previous night: the time is not far distant when the Lord will come down from heaven and dwell among the children of men in a mortal body like theirs. The angel speaks to Benjamin of Christ's healing ministry and of his bodily temptation, pain, hunger, thirst, and fatigue (p. 27)."
"Benjamin's gospel, his capsule account of Christ's life from cradle to tomb and beyond, is delivered to him by an angle and then reported to his people from high atop a tower as part of a famous address... Benjamin tells them that their true king will come down and reign among them (p. 29)."
"Benjamin's good news... is the promise of something that will happen, not the story of something that has happened... whether the gospel looks forward or backward to Christ, the truth of his life is given in the language of those who will speak and hear it. This language isn't merely the particular dialect of a people, but it also encompasses the images, ideas, and relationships that they understand... King Benjamin stands before his people as a powerful king who has nevertheless been ambushed by his own mortality (p. 29)."
"Is it any wonder that Benjamin tells his people of Christ's healing of the deaf and blind? That he shows them Christ's pain and fatigue? Benjamin knows viscerally of age's encroachment: perhaps he knows its deafness and blindness. He knows viscerally a shadow of the affliction Christ will suffer. He teaches his people, not only with his words but with his trembling frame, of the King who will inhabit a tabernacle of clay (p. 30)."
"Could it be that the most important message of the angel to Benjamin and his people is, likewise, where and how to find the Savior (p. 31)?"
"In presenting Christ's great power as a central theme of his life, Benjmain's gospel stands apart from Mary's. Mary is a young mother; Benjmain is an aged king. Both are shown the Savior in images and conditions that resonate in their own lives (p. 32)."
"The message of Benjamin's gospel seems to be... the power of the Lord Omnipotent, the Father and Creator of heaven and earth... linked with the extremity of his suffering (p. 33)."
"Both... the Savior and the beggar are wrapped in a ragged cloak of suffering that, for the Christ-blind, disguises the essential nature they share as beggar and Lord. Christ came to his people in a body, the site of their own suffering, and for that they considered him a man and condemned him as they would a beggar (p. 35)."
"Where Nephi is carried off 'into an exceedingly high mountain' and granted a sweeping vision of global salvation history, Benjamin is only asked to sit on the edge of his bed and hear--not see--the angel's much more local message about how a 'natural man,' despite being an enemy to God, can still be saved (p. 37)."
"Benjamin's gospel is backlit by death (p. 38)."
"Blood is life (p. 38)."
"The life in that flesh belongs to God. The life in that flesh is his to give and his to take (p. 39)."
"My heart beats without me... my blood is indifferent to me... my life doesn't belong to me (p. 40)."
"The natural man is the fleshy, animal dimension of a human being... the natural man is the dying man (p. 41)."
"We can yield our lives to God and be filled with his life. Or we can claim our lives as our own and be cut off from his life... As always, Jesus shows the way. His willingness to shed his blood on eternity's altar--his willingness to suffer 'more than man can suffer' and bleed from every pore--enables him to transfigure death into sacrifice (p. 42)."
"Children are the model, here, for the same reason as the elderly. Those who are very young, just like those who are very old, can't sustain the sinful fantasy that their lives are their own, that their bodies are their own, that their blood is their own... Christ's power to save is a product of his power to submit. He's able to save our lives because he yields to the necessity of losing his own life (p. 43)."
"Filled with the bowels of mercy, Abinadi teaches, Christ will break the bands of death and redeem his people (p. 45)."
"Abinadi undertakes to interpret the meaning of the prophecy. It is through interpretation of poetry... reprising the Law and the Prophets and reviewing the Bible from Exodus to Isaiah, that Abinadi... arrives at his gospel: 'I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people' (p. 48)."
"Like Abinadi, the unknown Christ manifests miraculous power with and in his human body. Both are bound, scourged, and led before a hostile tribunal. And both are delivered up to 'suffer even until death' (p. 48)."
"Christ's stillness is, among other things, an aspect of his passive acceptance of others' actions along the road to crucifixion (p. 49)."
"Book of Mormon gospels are preludes (or occasionally postludes) to sermons on salvation (p. 51)."
"Abinadi shows me that better way, urging me to swallow my howls. Or, failing that, teaching me not to let my howls swallow me (p. 52)."
"Rather than being a king, Abinadi is an outsider... Abinadi's gospel isn't delivered by an angel. Abinadi's gospel comes in the form of an impromptu--and inspired and messianic--reading of Isaiah's poetry (p. 54)."
"I love everything about Abinadi. I love that he's not someone special or important or powerful. I love that he doesn't care one whit about Noah's anger or threats (p. 54)."
"God's reign looks like a servant willing to suffer for his people (p. 59)."
"Christ is willing to die, but his willingness to die doesn't mean he's willing to let death win. Rather, Christ's willingness to die--to sacrifice his life for us--transfigures that death into a new life. Christ's atonement transfigures his death into a victory over death (p. 61)."
"Christ's bodily afflictions fill his bowels with mercy. Alma invites his listeners to be born again in baptism and to have faith in the Lamb of God (p. 63)."
"Hands embracing and protecting, laboring and serving, actively teaching and passively bound: each image adds a different brushstroke to the Book of Mormon's portrait of Christ (p. 65)."
"The kingdom of heaven is 'at hand' because Jesus brings something of heaven with him wherever he goes. Where the King is, there is the kingdom (p. 67)."
"Though they are wounded, they are nevertheless made in the image of God (p. 70)."
"As crucial as it is... to understand the plan of salvation, to study the scriptures and the words of living prophets, and to seek for a perfect knowledge enriched by faith--none of that knowledge can be a substitute for practical knowledge of how to comfort, mourn with, and stand by my brothers and sisters... To learn of Christ is to engage our hands alongside our hearts and our minds (p. 71)."
"Alma the Younger is a preacher... he stops at all the places in between, apparently delivering some version of the same sermon again and again, doubtless shaping and sharpening it each time (p. 72)."
"The gospel of Abish is a birth story. It's the story of God doing a new thing in the world... the birth story of Lamanite Christianity (p. 82)."
"Her testimony-in-action is the crucial catalyst for the harvest of souls that occurs in the Lamanite palace (p. 83)."
"Sometimes gospels are shown, not told (p. 84)."
"The gospel of Abish is a gospel in action. The events of Christ's life are enacted in the founding story of the Lamanite church: in the queen's miraculous faith and miraculous gifts, in the king's rising, in Abish's raising of the queen, and in her extraordinary compassion and service (p. 86)."
"I think the gospel of Abish brings some theological rigor to the idea of joy... it tells us that joy comes from reseeing our life's movement toward death as the image of Christ himself (p. 87)."
"We practice Christlike death and resurrection in every act of godly self-sacrifice (p. 88)."
"The kingdom of God isn't always visible from the outside: once inside, we go about our lives among the same people and places that defined our previous lives (p. 89)."
"Joy is what it feels like to live under the new King, a servant-king who defeated his enemies, sin and death, by embracing them. Joy, in other words, is what happens when, following Christ and his disciples, like Abish and Ammon, we exercise power with disarming love rather than overpowering force. Joy is what is produced when the first makes itself last and the last is thereby made first (p. 89)."
"Something happened to Abish. It happened many years before the events related in Alma 19... as a result, she was 'converted unto the Lord.'... I want to know what it means to be 'converted' (p. 91)."
"Abish's conversion left her hungry for the fullness of the gospel... Abish may be a good example of... 'anonymous Christian' or... an 'unconscious Christian.' An anonymous Christian is someone who, like Abish, has been 'converted unto the Lord' without knowing how to name it. Something decisive has happened to her and she's faithful to it, but she lacks the Church's ready-made tools... She keeps it to herself because she doesn't know how to share it (p. 93)."
"I'm inclined to see the vision as her own. I'm inclined to see her as an agent in her own story... it would only be natural for her unconscious conversion to be catalyzed by a vision... of her father (p. 94)."
"To be converted, we must be reconciled to the fact that we didn't make ourselves; that we depend on others for who we are, what we want, and what we have; and that true joy is always shared. To be converted we must be reconciled to the fact that we cannot be made perfect without them, nor they without us (p. 94)."
"Conversion 'lights up the mind'... changes the heart (p. 97)."
"Abish started out with God and eventually found the Church (p. 99)."
"The sword of justice is set to drop, and nothing can save the Nephites except repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (p. 105)."
"When the Nephites hear from the mouth of a Lamanite these sacred archaic words for Christ, long neglected in the disarray of the Nephite church, I can imagine that the syllables pierce to the core (p. 106)."
"Samuel teaches that there's a counterpart to the signs of Christ's birth. The sign of his death, the extended night of nights during which all the lights of the sky hide their faces (p. 107)."
"I think he wants us to see Jesus Christ as the instrument of God's justice hanging over the world, about to descend from heaven to earth to do his Father's work (p. 108)."
"God's response, to good and to evil alike, is always love (p. 108)."
"As sinners, we suffer from this inability to read the signs and see what's real. We continually misinterpret evil as good and good as evil... What, though, could be more predictable than sinners refusing responsibility for their own actions (p. 115)?"
"Different people have faith in Christ for different reasons at different times in their lives (p. 117)."
"God's presence in our world isn't limited to the span of Christ's mortal life (p. 119)."
"Repentance restores us to the presence of God... Repentance is about our willingness to confess that God is already present (p. 119)."
"Signs do not stand in place of God's presence but rather are a part of God's way of being present with us (p. 122)."
"When we banish God from our world and look for him only with a telescope, expecting that he is far away, he appears threatening and angry. When we instead look for him close by... we see that his hand is extended in blessing (p. 124)."
"'Do you understand more about me?' (p. 125)"
"The brother of Jared personally sees and experiences the Christ-who-will-come-in-flesh, rather than learning about his life from an angel (p. 127)."
"The Nephite gospels give us a Jesus Christ who is among us, like us, for us, with us, and in us (p. 128)."
"The brother of Jared is defined by his relationship to someone else (p. 134)."
"The man himself is defined by his relationships and the space he makes for them (p. 137)."
"Each gospel gives us a picture, a promise, and an invitation (p. 139)."
"He calls us to open our hearts and minds to commune with him (p. 142)."
"'Do you love the Lord? Spend time with Him. Meditate on His words. Take His yoke upon you. Seek to understand and obey' (Joseph B. Wirthlin, p. 143)."
June 21, 2024
Such a beautiful discussion of Christ between friends. I feel like I know Christ better from reading this book and it did make me want to dive more deeply into my scriptures.
December 23, 2023
Friends and scholars, Adam Miller and Rosalynde Welch, explore seven “gospels” (testimonies/witnesses/the “good news” of Christ) in the Book of Mormon through a series of insightful letters. They chose to discuss the gospel of Mary, Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma, Abish, Samuel, and the Brother of Jared. As they converse back and forth, we hear about personal experiences and academic insights from their studies (as a side note, I like that they consider academic scholarship a form of worship). My favorite chapter was on the Brother of Jared as we learn about Christ with respect to body, relation, and place (more on that in the quotes below). Overall, this book (and the Book of Mormon as a whole) bears powerful witness that “Christ is willing and able to show himself to all of us, despite our vast differences.” With its focus on Jesus Christ, this was a good book to read right before Christmas, and has left me feeling even more excited about studying the Book of Mormon next year.
Notes and Quotes:
-Adam’s example of listening more than speaking in his prayers
-I would love to be a spectator to the theology seminar they are a part of--a lab for dissecting scriptures, phrase by phrase; 8 scholars with different expertise, 2 weeks, 20 scriptures, 5 hours a day with 2-3 verses
-“In Alma’s telling, Christ goes forth not to take away affliction, but to share in it. We don't see Christ’s mighty miracles, miraculous healings, or cosmic signs of divinity. Instead we see His sickness, death, infirmity suffering. In short, we see the very things of which this life is made.”
-“Here the logic of atonement is straightforward: to save us where we are, Christ must come to where we are. To save us from our suffering, Christ must suffer with us and take that suffering upon himself. And, like Alma, he can't do either of these crucial things from the safety of a judgment seat. ‘I came not to judge the world, but to save the world,’ Christ emphatically tells his disciples…As powerful as the judgment seat seems, nothing is more powerful than God's promise that He's coming to live and suffer with us.”
-“Jesus…showed himself to the Brother of Jared ‘after the manner and in the likeness of the same body he showed the Nephites.’ Which same body did Jesus show the Nephites? That body is quite specific. Christ showed the Nephites a resurrected body with the prints of the nails in his hands and feet and an open wound in his side…On my reading, Moroni's use of this same description in Ether 3 strongly implies that the Brother of Jared saw in advance this same crucified but resurrected body. And to, I think this description strongly implies that the brother of Jared's manner of witnessing this body involved feeling for himself, just as the Nephites did, those same wounds in Christ's hands, feet, and side…Christ's spirit body already bears the image of his crucified but resurrected flesh…And somehow, even before he was born, Christ had already inscribed his love for us on the palms of his hands.”
-“Christ’s primordial body shows itself as already related and relational, as already wounded and vulnerable, as already entangled across space and time with its own past and future. His body shows itself as already stretched beyond its own borders, as already more than just itself.”
-“Our relationships, together with our loving or fearful responses to those relationships, make us who we are.”
-“The Brother of Jared’s gospel is distinguished by the fact that he meets Christ, but the man himself is defined by his relationships and the space he makes for them. The brother of Jared's life isn't about himself. It's about the people he's with. Perhaps then it's no surprise that he can give place to God. That he can make so much room for God to show so much of himself. And perhaps this is what it always means to be given a gospel and commissioned to bear the good news of God's arrival. The gospel according to Mary, or Nephi, Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma, Abish, Samuel, or the brother of Jared is God's good news as it appears at the unique crossroads of that person's singular life. To be a disciple of Christ is to lean into this same work of being a ‘there’ for God's arrival. To be a disciple is to devote yourself to the work of making space for God, to not only show himself to you, but in you and through you.”
-“We affirm the Apostolic words of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin who asked, quoting 1 John 5:3, ‘Do you love the Lord? Spend time with him. Meditate on his words. Take his yoke upon you. Seek to understand and obey. Because this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.’ Christ stands at the threshold and knocks. He enters to any and all who hear his voice, who reach for the door. If you open, He will come into you.”
Notes and Quotes:
-Adam’s example of listening more than speaking in his prayers
-I would love to be a spectator to the theology seminar they are a part of--a lab for dissecting scriptures, phrase by phrase; 8 scholars with different expertise, 2 weeks, 20 scriptures, 5 hours a day with 2-3 verses
-“In Alma’s telling, Christ goes forth not to take away affliction, but to share in it. We don't see Christ’s mighty miracles, miraculous healings, or cosmic signs of divinity. Instead we see His sickness, death, infirmity suffering. In short, we see the very things of which this life is made.”
-“Here the logic of atonement is straightforward: to save us where we are, Christ must come to where we are. To save us from our suffering, Christ must suffer with us and take that suffering upon himself. And, like Alma, he can't do either of these crucial things from the safety of a judgment seat. ‘I came not to judge the world, but to save the world,’ Christ emphatically tells his disciples…As powerful as the judgment seat seems, nothing is more powerful than God's promise that He's coming to live and suffer with us.”
-“Jesus…showed himself to the Brother of Jared ‘after the manner and in the likeness of the same body he showed the Nephites.’ Which same body did Jesus show the Nephites? That body is quite specific. Christ showed the Nephites a resurrected body with the prints of the nails in his hands and feet and an open wound in his side…On my reading, Moroni's use of this same description in Ether 3 strongly implies that the Brother of Jared saw in advance this same crucified but resurrected body. And to, I think this description strongly implies that the brother of Jared's manner of witnessing this body involved feeling for himself, just as the Nephites did, those same wounds in Christ's hands, feet, and side…Christ's spirit body already bears the image of his crucified but resurrected flesh…And somehow, even before he was born, Christ had already inscribed his love for us on the palms of his hands.”
-“Christ’s primordial body shows itself as already related and relational, as already wounded and vulnerable, as already entangled across space and time with its own past and future. His body shows itself as already stretched beyond its own borders, as already more than just itself.”
-“Our relationships, together with our loving or fearful responses to those relationships, make us who we are.”
-“The Brother of Jared’s gospel is distinguished by the fact that he meets Christ, but the man himself is defined by his relationships and the space he makes for them. The brother of Jared's life isn't about himself. It's about the people he's with. Perhaps then it's no surprise that he can give place to God. That he can make so much room for God to show so much of himself. And perhaps this is what it always means to be given a gospel and commissioned to bear the good news of God's arrival. The gospel according to Mary, or Nephi, Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma, Abish, Samuel, or the brother of Jared is God's good news as it appears at the unique crossroads of that person's singular life. To be a disciple of Christ is to lean into this same work of being a ‘there’ for God's arrival. To be a disciple is to devote yourself to the work of making space for God, to not only show himself to you, but in you and through you.”
-“We affirm the Apostolic words of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin who asked, quoting 1 John 5:3, ‘Do you love the Lord? Spend time with him. Meditate on his words. Take his yoke upon you. Seek to understand and obey. Because this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.’ Christ stands at the threshold and knocks. He enters to any and all who hear his voice, who reach for the door. If you open, He will come into you.”
January 3, 2024
I enjoyed this book about the various “gospels” found in the Book of Mormon, why the authors in the BOM may have written their gospel the way that they did, why it was significant to them and is significant to the modern reader, and so on.
I particularly liked Miller’s discussion on the Brother of Jared and how his testimony of Christ is relational just as our understanding of him as a character is in relation to his brother Jared. His exposition on how the gospel and really all that we are is a summation of relations really stuck out to me as that’s very similar to the Buddhist understanding of the self. I study Buddhism in grad school.
I also loved the points brought up about Mary’s vision within Nephi’s vision. Many poignant ideas were brought up that I won’t spoil here.
I didn’t find this book to be difficult, but I also enjoy theology and read it for fun. Maybe some who don’t have a background in philosophy / religion may find aspects difficult as some other reviews suggest. Regardless, I suggest a read through.
I only took off a star because at some points the “exchanging letters” format didn’t quite get it done for me. I have no qualms with their arguments or ideas though.
I would suggest this book for anyone interested in a perhaps new perspective of the Book of Mormon.
I particularly liked Miller’s discussion on the Brother of Jared and how his testimony of Christ is relational just as our understanding of him as a character is in relation to his brother Jared. His exposition on how the gospel and really all that we are is a summation of relations really stuck out to me as that’s very similar to the Buddhist understanding of the self. I study Buddhism in grad school.
I also loved the points brought up about Mary’s vision within Nephi’s vision. Many poignant ideas were brought up that I won’t spoil here.
I didn’t find this book to be difficult, but I also enjoy theology and read it for fun. Maybe some who don’t have a background in philosophy / religion may find aspects difficult as some other reviews suggest. Regardless, I suggest a read through.
I only took off a star because at some points the “exchanging letters” format didn’t quite get it done for me. I have no qualms with their arguments or ideas though.
I would suggest this book for anyone interested in a perhaps new perspective of the Book of Mormon.
November 18, 2024
In Matthew's account of the Crucifixion, passersby who witnessed Christ’s suffering reacted with mocking irony: “Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40). They
assumed that suffering is incompatible with divinity.
Even after all that Christ did, he suffers and dies. “Even after all this they shall consider him a man” (Mosiah 3:9)… This is the root of Christ’s hiddenness in the
world, the reason why angels are necessary to tell us where and how to find the Savior. The reality of his human suffering becomes a kind of disguise.
Benjamin's gospel shows that the mistaken reasoning employed by the world to condemn Christ is identical to that used by the self-righteous to condemn the beggar.
The beggar's misery is wrongly used to prove his guilt.
This is Christ's sign to us: We find him wherever our fellow beings are cloaked in suffering, wherever they mourn and stand in need of comfort
assumed that suffering is incompatible with divinity.
Even after all that Christ did, he suffers and dies. “Even after all this they shall consider him a man” (Mosiah 3:9)… This is the root of Christ’s hiddenness in the
world, the reason why angels are necessary to tell us where and how to find the Savior. The reality of his human suffering becomes a kind of disguise.
Benjamin's gospel shows that the mistaken reasoning employed by the world to condemn Christ is identical to that used by the self-righteous to condemn the beggar.
The beggar's misery is wrongly used to prove his guilt.
This is Christ's sign to us: We find him wherever our fellow beings are cloaked in suffering, wherever they mourn and stand in need of comfort
February 4, 2024
To be fair I didn't finish the book. So take that with the grain of salt.
I started reading this book, and just couldn't get past the first few chapters. What I didn't like is I didn't feel like they were really getting to points and the points they did talk about seem to be more speculation. I don't enjoy any gospel book that is more speculation than facts. Especially if they presume to guess at what somebody was thinking or feeling in the scriptures. To act like they knew their motivation behind certain things. They did it several times in the beginning so it was hard to take the book seriously when I felt like it was going to be based on speculation for parts of it. I have so many other spiritual books I want to read, I tend to give up on books that have this vibe.
I started reading this book, and just couldn't get past the first few chapters. What I didn't like is I didn't feel like they were really getting to points and the points they did talk about seem to be more speculation. I don't enjoy any gospel book that is more speculation than facts. Especially if they presume to guess at what somebody was thinking or feeling in the scriptures. To act like they knew their motivation behind certain things. They did it several times in the beginning so it was hard to take the book seriously when I felt like it was going to be based on speculation for parts of it. I have so many other spiritual books I want to read, I tend to give up on books that have this vibe.
December 27, 2024
Adam Miller and Rosalynde Welch are two of my favorite thinkers. No matter how many times I read the Book of Mormon, my understanding constantly expands. The letters written back and forth between the two authors expanded my universe even more. Some of my favorite people are written about--Abish, Abinadi, and King Benjamin. Regarding Abish, in the letter from Rosalynde to Adam--this follows the scene where just about everyone in the palace collapses and appears dead: "Who is really dead? Who is really alive in Christ? It takes a certain kind of seer to detect the difference. Ammon sees. The queen sees. Abish sees. These seers perceive by the light of a Son whom others don't yet know. They are already living in the new kingdom."
June 3, 2024
The co-authors send 'letters' back and forth discussing the concept of gospels within the Book of Mormon. The New Testament has four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and the authors discuss seven individuals in the Book of Mormon and their unique perspectives on their testimonies of Christ. They cover Mary (1 Nephi 11), King Benjamin (Mosiah 3), Abinidi (Mosiah 14-15), Alma the Younger (Alma 7), Abish (Alma 19), Samuel the Lammanite (Helaman 14) and Ether (Ether 3). Really a good book with some new insights to deepen one's appreciation of the Savior. I've read Adam Miller's books before and he never fails to take me into deeper doctrinal waters.
April 6, 2025
It’s hard to say anything bad about a book on Jesus, but I could not connect with this text. I often am filled spiritually through intellectual discussions on the scriptures, and while one reviewer said this text was a discipline in concentration as opposed to anything exceptionally new discussed, a lot of it was a lot of repetition that could have been said in a more condensed way. A lot of their ideas seemed to be a stretch or as if they themselves thought it was profound. It’s always great to look at the gospel of Christ through a different lens, but it may have been better if they had kept these letters to themselves.
January 28, 2024
I feel incredibly blessed to have read this profound book that explores my favorite book, the Book of Mormon. Because this book is written in the format of the two author’s writing letters to each other, each chapter felt personal and intimate. I admire the way these two scholarly friends can connect gospel principles and articulate their findings in such an intellectual, yet approachable way. I walked away feeling I knew not only the authors, but more importantly, a better understanding of Christ and His gospel contained in the Book of Mormon.
February 14, 2024
This is a scholarly, yet accessible text looking at specifically seven testimonies/gospels or Christ in the Book of Mormon. It is discussed by two of my favorite LDS theologians, Adam Miller and Rosalynde Welch as they write letters to each other looking at these specific scriptures. By limiting the context, they deeply dive into these revelatory passages and see how Christ and His mission are depicted in the Book of Mormon. It will make you look closer at the testament of Christ that is revealed in the Book of Mormon.
February 22, 2024
I loved the intimacy of 2 friends writing letters to one another about their close reading of the Book of Mormon. As thinkers they did considerable “I think”, It can be assumed therefore”, “it seems to me”, “We can picture” type statements, making this book sweet and personal, but full of opinion ( loving opinion) about much of what isn’t necessarily clearly spoken in scriptures themselves. But it certainly accomplished the authors’ shared goal of compelling readers back to this book of scripture
May 22, 2024
A series of letters between Christian scholars Adam S. Miller and Rosalynde F. Welch, as they share their academic studies and their personal experiences, exploring the accounts of seven witnesses in the Book of Mormon who testify of the good news of Jesus Christ through a narrative of his mortal life.
I really liked this book, and I loved thinking about there being more gospels - witnesses to the "good news" of Jesus Christ - and these in the Book of Mormon. Sometimes it was difficult to get into the rhythm of their letters back and forth, but I learned a lot and I enjoyed it.
I really liked this book, and I loved thinking about there being more gospels - witnesses to the "good news" of Jesus Christ - and these in the Book of Mormon. Sometimes it was difficult to get into the rhythm of their letters back and forth, but I learned a lot and I enjoyed it.
September 13, 2024
I wanted to like this. Some of their ideas where brilliant. I especially liked the discussion of Mary and Abinidi but on the otherhand the Gospel of Abish was a big stretch and not justified by the text. I appreciate wanting to include another woman but I think the lamanite queen would have been a better choice.
The content wasn't the problem, however. I simply didn't like the format and it distracted me the whole way through. This book is written as a series of letters (more realistically emails) between Rosalynde and Adam (the two authors) and it just didn't work for me. They were trying to portray themselves as friends but the letters were really just separate essays that barely referenced each other. there was no friendly banter, no professional critiquing. Every letter was "thanks for your thoughts, here are mine". If you are not going to have a back and forth with feedback and interactions, there is no point to the letters. I would have loved hearing Rosalynde say, "I disagree Adam. The text doesn't support that" (or vise versa). People giving talks to each other is just not very engaging. I think this would have worked a lot better had the READER been the intended audience. Because as it stands, it just felt like you were eavesdropping on people giving talks to each other
I will probably return to some of it to enhance my scripture study of Abindadi and Mary etc but it was not an engaging or pleasant read.
p. s. I feel a little bad for this harsh review as I do think the authors are doing great and important work when it comes to LDS scholarship.
The content wasn't the problem, however. I simply didn't like the format and it distracted me the whole way through. This book is written as a series of letters (more realistically emails) between Rosalynde and Adam (the two authors) and it just didn't work for me. They were trying to portray themselves as friends but the letters were really just separate essays that barely referenced each other. there was no friendly banter, no professional critiquing. Every letter was "thanks for your thoughts, here are mine". If you are not going to have a back and forth with feedback and interactions, there is no point to the letters. I would have loved hearing Rosalynde say, "I disagree Adam. The text doesn't support that" (or vise versa). People giving talks to each other is just not very engaging. I think this would have worked a lot better had the READER been the intended audience. Because as it stands, it just felt like you were eavesdropping on people giving talks to each other
I will probably return to some of it to enhance my scripture study of Abindadi and Mary etc but it was not an engaging or pleasant read.
p. s. I feel a little bad for this harsh review as I do think the authors are doing great and important work when it comes to LDS scholarship.
January 20, 2024
I can’t say strongly enough that this is not doctrine of the Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints. The are some real gems of thought but they fade int and quickly fade out. I feel a large chunk of them is personal interpretations with little to no supporting documentation. There is a lot of conclusion jumping. And reaching for very thin lines. I would say use it as inspiration. But leave most of it to the two authors to enjoy in their lives.
March 2, 2024
This is a beautiful conceit. Despite the Book of Mormon being a cornerstone element of my faith I have always struggled to read it and see beyond the primary readings I have collected over the last 40 years. There have been moments of revelation and a handful of books along the way that have challenged these initial and surface-y readings and this book will join those as part of the helpful framework to see beyond myself a little.
May 8, 2024
This book is written in a collaboration/conversation/study guide. I wasn't really excited about it when I started it, but as we went through, both authors shared a lot of insights - as well as reasons for them - as well as appropriate disclaimers. I appreciated all of these things. I think this one is worth reading a second time. It's pretty short and very easy, but really gives a completely different outlook on some BM accounts.
February 17, 2024
It did take a chapter or two to acclimate to the authors' writing voices but combined with my personal journey and current scripture studies, I gleaned so much insight from this powerful little book. It brought me closer to Christ and strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon through the witness of its authors.
February 28, 2024
I really enjoyed the doctrinal correspondence between two friends. It unlocks two different viewpoints of these seven experiences with the Savior in the Book of Mormon. Shows us a great way to ponder and discuss together. We don’t need to be scholars to discover great stories and applications from scripture but I am grateful for scholars that give us a differing look at how to study.
April 15, 2024
Enjoyed this one. The format was different (written as two friends writing letters back and forth) and had many great gospel concepts in the Book of Mormon that I hadn't caught before. There is so much depth to the Book of Mormon and these two authors did a great job showing that!
June 22, 2024
Anything by Adam Miller is deep thinking. But, he has nuggets of thought as does, Rosalynde Welch that are just profound. They just stop you and make you think of something in a different way. You may have read the Book of Mormon countless times, but there is always something new.
November 18, 2024
I read this book as a companion to my study of the Book of Mormon. I read each chapter of this book along with the chapters in the Book of Mormon referenced by the authors. I loved their insights! Their thoughts opened up many new thoughts and ideas for me.
January 4, 2024
Some chapters captivated me, others did not.
January 5, 2024
I really enjoyed the seven different thoughts about the Savior in the Book of Mormon.
January 7, 2024
A very thought-provoking conversation about various voices of the Book of Mormon and the color that they add to what we know about Christ. I loved it.
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