William Bennett’s Reviews > Alma 1–29: a brief theological introduction > Status Update

The section I just read, talking about how Alma 29’s famous “O that I were an angel” speech, commonly interpreted as a celebration of missionary work, was transformative in my understanding of the Book Mormon. Turley’s close reading reveals a perfectly parallel chiastic structure and clues that Alma’s rhetoric is weak from disuse, possibly leaning on his friend Ammon’s language, and redolent of trauma.