Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion

Philip L. Barlow

OUP USA, Jun 27, 2013 - Religion - 282 pages

Philip L. Barlow offers an in-depth analysis of the approaches taken to the Bible by major Mormon leaders, from its beginnings to the present. He shows that Mormon attitudes toward the Bible comprise an extraordinary mix of conservative, liberal, and radical ingredients: an almost fundamentalist adherence to the King James Version co-exists with belief in the possibility of new revelation and surprising ideas about the limits of human language. Barlow's exploration takes important steps toward unraveling the mystery of this quintessential American religious phenomenon. This updated edition of Mormons and the Bible includes an extended bibliography and a new preface, casting Joseph Smith's mission into a new frame and treating evolutions in Mormonism's biblical usage in recent decades.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - xuebi - LibraryThing

Barlow writes here a history of the use of the Bible in the LDS (Mormon) Church, starting with how Joseph Smith Jr. read and studied the work and how the use of the Bible changed as different men ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - bibliostuff - LibraryThing

Barlow's work is a great introduction to the position of the Bible in the Mormon Church. He makes some very interesting observations.

Contents

• Preface 1991: ix
• Reinterpreting Joseph Smith and Pondering the TwentyFirst Century: xxv
• Acknowledgments: xlix
• Abbreviations: li
• A Note on Mormon Organization and Nomenclature: liii
• The Bible in Antebellum America: 1
• Joseph Smith and the Bible 18201830: 10
• 2 From the Birth of the Church to the Death of the Prophet: 46
• The Bible Moves West: 80
• 4 The Mormon Response to Higher Criticism: 112
• 5 Why the King James Version?: 162
• 6 Mormons and the Bible in the Late Twentieth Century: 199
• The Ambiguities of a New Religious Tradition: 235
• Select Bibliography: 251
• Select Bibliography since 1991: 263
• Index: 267

About the author

Philip L. Barlow is Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University. His books include The Oxford Handbook to Mormonism (co-edited with Terryl Givens, forthcoming, 2013), The New Historical Atlas of Religion in America (OUP 2000, co-authored with Edwin Scott Gaustad) and, as co-editor with Mark Silk, Religion and Public Life in the Midwest: America's Common Denominator? (2004). He is past president of the Mormon History Association.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion; Religion in America series
• Author: Philip L. Barlow
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: OUP USA, 2013
• ISBN: 019973903X, 9780199739035
• Length: 282 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Biblical Commentary / General; Religion / Christianity / Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon); Religion / Christianity / Denominations