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Mormon's Map
Mormon general, geography.
154 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 1, 2023
Read this years ago. It was ok.
Read
July 23, 2021John L. Sorenson should abandon the Mesoamerican model and start looking in the real Book of Mormon lands in ancient America--a land choice above all other lands!
October 26, 2026
A POPULAR PRESENTATION OF THE ‘MESOAMERCIAN’ THESIS
John Leon Sorenson (1924-2021) was a professor of anthropology at BYU.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 2000 book, “Geography… is an essential feature of life’s problems… Some may contend that we know enough about this topic already, but the actual extent of our knowledge is limited and unsystematized. Our copies of the Bible include a superb set of maps… After many years of doing without maps to inform us about key events and places mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants, we finally received help in that regard with the 1981 edition of the scriptures. But our copies of the Book of Mormon still lack even the most basic map to clarify the complicated goings and comings reported in our keystone scripture. It appears that there is much yet to learn about the topic of Book of Mormon geography.” (Pg. 3-4)
He states, “We must discover as many of the geographical clues [Mormon] included as we can. But … we need to spell out some assumptions that will undergird our search through his record: 1. The expressions ‘up,’ ‘down,’ and ‘over,’ when used in a geographical context, refer to elevation… 2. Nature worked the same anciently as it does today… 3. Ideas in the record will not necessarily be familiar or clear to us… 4. Book of Mormon terminology will not necessarily be clear to us… because language and cultural assumptions change… 5. Finally, when we are combining fragments of geographical information from the text into sensible wholes, we should avoid needlessly complicated synthesis.” (Pg. 13-14)
He summarizes, “The Nephites, including Mormon, conceived of the lands of concern to them as centered in the isthmian zone that connected two larger territories, the land northward and the land southward. The land southward was ‘nearly surrounded’ (Alma 22:32) by ocean waters, and the land northward was also bounded by oceans; the original immigrant parties arrived from the Old World across these waters. The Nephite writers did not see their land of promise as merely a segment within and surrounded by a continental land mass, and we shall establish later that the dimensions of their geographical picture were far smaller than those of any continent.” (Pg. 30)
He suggests, “Important geographical facts that Mormon knew about the land northward fail to come through clearly in his record for what seems to me three reasons: (1) While Mormon produced the Book of Mormon in the land northward (see Mormon 6:6) his last few years were highly stressful, so he paid minimal attention to geography… (2) He may have had a limited supply of unused metal plates and may thus have been reluctant to discuss such details. (3) He was a native of the area where he then lived (see Mormon 1:1-6), and natives of an area are inclined to feel it unnecessary to explain what is obvious to them about that area.” (Pg. 46)
He argues, “the ‘day’s journey,’ whatever it measured… had nothing to do with the width across the entire neck, for that did not begin until farther northward, on the other side of Bountiful… In any case, the actual distance a person can go in one day varies greatly… Such variables prevent us from establishing a definite length for the ‘line’ at the neck, but a range of figures between 60 and 125 miles can be argued for the ‘day and a half’s journey.’” (Pg. 70-71)
He observes, “We may be tempted to think automatically that ‘northward’ and ‘southward’ label directions that are the same as ‘north’ and ‘south. But ‘northward’ signals … something like ‘in a general northerly direction.’” (Pg. 80)
This book will appeal to those studying the questions about BOM geography and archaeology.
John Leon Sorenson (1924-2021) was a professor of anthropology at BYU.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 2000 book, “Geography… is an essential feature of life’s problems… Some may contend that we know enough about this topic already, but the actual extent of our knowledge is limited and unsystematized. Our copies of the Bible include a superb set of maps… After many years of doing without maps to inform us about key events and places mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants, we finally received help in that regard with the 1981 edition of the scriptures. But our copies of the Book of Mormon still lack even the most basic map to clarify the complicated goings and comings reported in our keystone scripture. It appears that there is much yet to learn about the topic of Book of Mormon geography.” (Pg. 3-4)
He states, “We must discover as many of the geographical clues [Mormon] included as we can. But … we need to spell out some assumptions that will undergird our search through his record: 1. The expressions ‘up,’ ‘down,’ and ‘over,’ when used in a geographical context, refer to elevation… 2. Nature worked the same anciently as it does today… 3. Ideas in the record will not necessarily be familiar or clear to us… 4. Book of Mormon terminology will not necessarily be clear to us… because language and cultural assumptions change… 5. Finally, when we are combining fragments of geographical information from the text into sensible wholes, we should avoid needlessly complicated synthesis.” (Pg. 13-14)
He summarizes, “The Nephites, including Mormon, conceived of the lands of concern to them as centered in the isthmian zone that connected two larger territories, the land northward and the land southward. The land southward was ‘nearly surrounded’ (Alma 22:32) by ocean waters, and the land northward was also bounded by oceans; the original immigrant parties arrived from the Old World across these waters. The Nephite writers did not see their land of promise as merely a segment within and surrounded by a continental land mass, and we shall establish later that the dimensions of their geographical picture were far smaller than those of any continent.” (Pg. 30)
He suggests, “Important geographical facts that Mormon knew about the land northward fail to come through clearly in his record for what seems to me three reasons: (1) While Mormon produced the Book of Mormon in the land northward (see Mormon 6:6) his last few years were highly stressful, so he paid minimal attention to geography… (2) He may have had a limited supply of unused metal plates and may thus have been reluctant to discuss such details. (3) He was a native of the area where he then lived (see Mormon 1:1-6), and natives of an area are inclined to feel it unnecessary to explain what is obvious to them about that area.” (Pg. 46)
He argues, “the ‘day’s journey,’ whatever it measured… had nothing to do with the width across the entire neck, for that did not begin until farther northward, on the other side of Bountiful… In any case, the actual distance a person can go in one day varies greatly… Such variables prevent us from establishing a definite length for the ‘line’ at the neck, but a range of figures between 60 and 125 miles can be argued for the ‘day and a half’s journey.’” (Pg. 70-71)
He observes, “We may be tempted to think automatically that ‘northward’ and ‘southward’ label directions that are the same as ‘north’ and ‘south. But ‘northward’ signals … something like ‘in a general northerly direction.’” (Pg. 80)
This book will appeal to those studying the questions about BOM geography and archaeology.
December 17, 2009
An interest look at how the juxtaposition of Book of Mormon cities and sites. The author does not attempt to identify where precisely on the American continent the Nephites and Lamanites live; he simply suggests how the cities and sites might have been situated in relation to each other.
April 3, 2014
The book makes a lot of seemingly good approximations of where the Book of Mormon predominately took place. It's too bad the author's (John L. Sorenson's) geographical model in his other books point to Mesoamerica.
January 1, 2009
nice concise book
October 12, 2008
pretty good--short version of his theories on BoM geography
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews