Episode 85: A Guide to Book of Mormon Studies (Joseph Spencer)

Y Religion

BYU Religious Education

Whyreligion, Religiouseducation, Religion & Spirituality, Brighamyoung, Lds, Education, Mormon, Yreligion, Byu, Religion, Yreligionpodcast, Christianity, Churchofjesuschrist

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Readers often approach the Book of Mormon spiritually, seeking for inspiration and application, or apologetically to know or defend its truthfulness. Those are excellent and needful ways to approach the text. But they aren’t the only ways. The Book of Mormon can also be approached narratively, literarily, theologically, historically, politically, or socially, to name a few. In this episode, Dr. Joseph Spencer guides listeners into the current world of Book of Mormon studies and the myriad ways the inspired text can, and should be, explored.

Publications: Book of Mormon Studies: An Introduction and Guide (RSC/Deseret Book, 2022)

Click here to learn more about professor Joseph Spencer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, my friends, Professor Anthony Swat here from B.O.U. Church History and Doctrine.
0:03.8	Welcome to another great episode of the Why Religion Podcast.
0:07.8	Have you ever seen or approached a piece of visual art in a museum or in a book?
0:13.8	And looked at it and thought, I just don't really get it.
0:18.8	Well, don't worry, I have to.
0:20.8	When that happens, it is because sometimes we might be approaching the art in only one way.
0:27.8	Perhaps we are looking at the piece representationally, like in other words,
0:32.2	how realistic is this painting?
0:35.2	And if that's the only lens that we've ever really known to analyze a piece of art,
0:39.9	suddenly we're a bit stymied and we move away from it when it doesn't fit that.
0:44.8	But there is more than one way to look at and analyze art.
0:48.4	For example, you can look at it didactically.
0:51.1	What's it teaching?
0:52.3	You can look at it emotionally.
0:53.9	What's it leading me to feel?
0:55.6	Compositionally, how are the colors and objects in the image arranged?
1:00.2	Curiously, what questions is this pursuing or causing me to ask?
1:05.3	Symbolically, what indirectly is being represented in this piece?
1:09.9	Suddenly, with just a few more lenses available, you can approach a piece of art like a classic
1:16.0	Rothko, for example, and you can begin to appreciate it and know how to look at it and analyze it more.
1:23.2	Well, sometimes the same phenomenon can happen with scripture,
1:26.6	including great masterpieces like the Book of Mormon.
	...

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