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Volume Five: a cultural history of the book of mormon: Book Fantasia
A fantasia on the Book of Mormon.
This final volume of the cultural history looks into the future,
having seen enough of the past. A collection of related essays
imagining what is possible from the Book of Mormon, it
ponders the book into a fantasia. The collection begins with a
reading of Nephi's Vision which opens a rather different
perspective on the Book of the Lamb, the subject of an
imaginative reconstruction. The third essay of the volume tells
a fantastical and tragical tale of the Remnant, recipients of the
Book of the Lamb, and long waiting with scales over their eyes.
Their role in creating New Jerusalem is explored, a future again
taking us back to the Book of Mormon's scene of at-one-ment,
when Christ glorifies his disciples and they are one with him
and the Father. The relationship between Christ and the one
he calls Father is imagined across the essays, and most clearly in
a new reading of Atonement derived from the pages of the
Book of Mormon. Short fantasias give us guesses about the
book's geography, and provide a reading of the Book of
Moroni, regarded as the preface to the Sealed Writings of that
same author. Finally, a wholly exploratory essay concludes the
volume by pointing to a need to ponder the Name, baptism in
it, calling upon it, and praying in it.
This final volume of the cultural history looks into the future,
having seen enough of the past. A collection of related essays
imagining what is possible from the Book of Mormon, it
ponders the book into a fantasia. The collection begins with a
reading of Nephi's Vision which opens a rather different
perspective on the Book of the Lamb, the subject of an
imaginative reconstruction. The third essay of the volume tells
a fantastical and tragical tale of the Remnant, recipients of the
Book of the Lamb, and long waiting with scales over their eyes.
Their role in creating New Jerusalem is explored, a future again
taking us back to the Book of Mormon's scene of at-one-ment,
when Christ glorifies his disciples and they are one with him
and the Father. The relationship between Christ and the one
he calls Father is imagined across the essays, and most clearly in
a new reading of Atonement derived from the pages of the
Book of Mormon. Short fantasias give us guesses about the
book's geography, and provide a reading of the Book of
Moroni, regarded as the preface to the Sealed Writings of that
same author. Finally, a wholly exploratory essay concludes the
volume by pointing to a need to ponder the Name, baptism in
it, calling upon it, and praying in it.
246 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 28, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 9, 2024
Daymon Smith attempts to read the Book of Mormon free from pre-concieved ideas from Christianity, and also from the interpretation that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has come to have about it over the years.
So its highly speculative and occasionally critical of the church. I cannot generally reccomend it.
As examples he follows an idea that Nephi's man among the Gentiles was not Colombus and that that vision has yet to be fulfilled, and that we are still waiting an uncorrupted bible: "The book of the Lamb of God", to which people will react by saying, 'we have a bible'
Another idea is Elijah, based on some things that are said about John the baptist in the book of mormon. His idea is Elijah was John the Baptist returned from some terresetial world in the Heavens. Elijah, like Moses, was taken up into heaven and appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration. Elijah is also prophesied to come again before the 2nd coming and send out 144,000 high priest-missionaries one last time. He says all the same guy, no spirit of Elijah as we interpret it. He also would have gone before Jesus in the spirit world and prepared it for his advent there.
So its highly speculative and occasionally critical of the church. I cannot generally reccomend it.
As examples he follows an idea that Nephi's man among the Gentiles was not Colombus and that that vision has yet to be fulfilled, and that we are still waiting an uncorrupted bible: "The book of the Lamb of God", to which people will react by saying, 'we have a bible'
Another idea is Elijah, based on some things that are said about John the baptist in the book of mormon. His idea is Elijah was John the Baptist returned from some terresetial world in the Heavens. Elijah, like Moses, was taken up into heaven and appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration. Elijah is also prophesied to come again before the 2nd coming and send out 144,000 high priest-missionaries one last time. He says all the same guy, no spirit of Elijah as we interpret it. He also would have gone before Jesus in the spirit world and prepared it for his advent there.
Displaying 1 of 1 review