Terryl Givens examines the Book of Mormon first and foremost in terms of the claims that its narrators make for its historical genesis, its purpose as a sacred text, and its meaning for an audience that shifts throughout the history it unfolds. The author traces five governing themes in particular-revelation, Christ, Zion, scripture, and covenant-and analyzes the Book's central doctrines and teachings. Givens also provides samples of a cast of characters that number in the hundreds and analyzes representative passages from a work that encompasses tragedy, poetry, sermons, visions, family histories, and military chronicles. Finally, this introduction surveys the contested origins and production of a work held by millions to be scripture and reviews the scholarly debates that address questions of the record's historicity.
Here then is an accessible guide to what is, by any measure, an indispensable key to understanding Mormonism. But it is also an introduction to a compelling and complex text that is too often overshadowed by the controversies that surround it.
