Book of Mormon Musings
Our family finished reading the Book of Mormon together for the first time this week. Hooray! It's been a long process. I think we started this family attempt at the Book of Mormon before J was born. But hey, when you only read 5 verses a night, it does take several years. Five verses a night is about as long of an attention span as the kids can manage. Even still, some nights I feel like I am reading to myself with chaos going on all around me. However, the habit has been formed, and the kids always remind me that we need to read scriptures before bed. At least that's something.
I've been studying the Book of Mormon on my own every morning, and seeing as how I read the Lord of the Rings nearly every evening right now, I've been comparing the two on occasion. OK, so one is scripture and one is a lengthy fantasy. (For those who are not LDS, maybe there might not seem to be any difference.) It's not my first time reading either, so sometimes the writer in me takes over, instead of being purely caught up in the narrative.
Of all the fantasy books I have read, the Lord of the Rings is probably the most detailed creation of another world and multiple cultures. I have never read anything that did so well at creating numerous races, giving them in-depth backgrounds and histories, inventing realistic languages for them to use, and placing the whole story in a somewhat believable battle of good against evil, where the characters were acting consistently in line with the background he had created for them. From what I understand, JRR Tolkien spent some 30 years writing the story alone. Long before that, he had begun creating the languages and the historical backgrounds for the people of Middle Earth. It was truly the work of a lifetime.
Contrast the Book of Mormon. For those who are not believers, Joseph Smith (or some accomplice) wrote the entire 500-odd pages in a matter of months, while still in his early 20's. He would also had to have created numerous different cultures, with different languages, customs, literary forms, backgrounds and histories, as well as providing a believable storyline. On top of that, he had to fill the book plum full of religious doctrine. When you read the two books side-by-side, the differences in tone are painfully clear. The voices of the different writers and perspectives of the Book of Mormon are noticeably unique, something that Tolkien couldn't quite manage except for a few of his characters. Also, Tolkien's attempt at the religious realities of Middle Earth (their doctrines, if you will) are also so murky and muddled that you can barely guess at what the true motivations of the characters must be. Not that I'm knocking Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings truly is a masterpiece-- of fiction.
As someone who has attempted to write fantasy myself, I simply cannot imagine any writer, even in the work of a lifetime, coming up with the Book of Mormon out of his own head. Especially not in such an astonishingly short period of time. In that way, I guess I could argue that the Book of Mormon proves its own truth.
If my belief that the Book of Mormon is scripture was based on this alone though, I would probably be able to find ways around it. I'm not one for publicly sharing my spiritual side very often, but I do want to share my feelings about this very wonderful book. I know that it is a true book of writings of ancient prophets, that it teaches me the truths I need to reach my eternal potential. I feel the power when I read it, anchoring me to something solid in this life, when everything else seems so insecure and changing. The Book of Mormon is truly the foundation of my faith in God, and I will be forever grateful for it.
I've been studying the Book of Mormon on my own every morning, and seeing as how I read the Lord of the Rings nearly every evening right now, I've been comparing the two on occasion. OK, so one is scripture and one is a lengthy fantasy. (For those who are not LDS, maybe there might not seem to be any difference.) It's not my first time reading either, so sometimes the writer in me takes over, instead of being purely caught up in the narrative.
Of all the fantasy books I have read, the Lord of the Rings is probably the most detailed creation of another world and multiple cultures. I have never read anything that did so well at creating numerous races, giving them in-depth backgrounds and histories, inventing realistic languages for them to use, and placing the whole story in a somewhat believable battle of good against evil, where the characters were acting consistently in line with the background he had created for them. From what I understand, JRR Tolkien spent some 30 years writing the story alone. Long before that, he had begun creating the languages and the historical backgrounds for the people of Middle Earth. It was truly the work of a lifetime.
Contrast the Book of Mormon. For those who are not believers, Joseph Smith (or some accomplice) wrote the entire 500-odd pages in a matter of months, while still in his early 20's. He would also had to have created numerous different cultures, with different languages, customs, literary forms, backgrounds and histories, as well as providing a believable storyline. On top of that, he had to fill the book plum full of religious doctrine. When you read the two books side-by-side, the differences in tone are painfully clear. The voices of the different writers and perspectives of the Book of Mormon are noticeably unique, something that Tolkien couldn't quite manage except for a few of his characters. Also, Tolkien's attempt at the religious realities of Middle Earth (their doctrines, if you will) are also so murky and muddled that you can barely guess at what the true motivations of the characters must be. Not that I'm knocking Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings truly is a masterpiece-- of fiction.
As someone who has attempted to write fantasy myself, I simply cannot imagine any writer, even in the work of a lifetime, coming up with the Book of Mormon out of his own head. Especially not in such an astonishingly short period of time. In that way, I guess I could argue that the Book of Mormon proves its own truth.
If my belief that the Book of Mormon is scripture was based on this alone though, I would probably be able to find ways around it. I'm not one for publicly sharing my spiritual side very often, but I do want to share my feelings about this very wonderful book. I know that it is a true book of writings of ancient prophets, that it teaches me the truths I need to reach my eternal potential. I feel the power when I read it, anchoring me to something solid in this life, when everything else seems so insecure and changing. The Book of Mormon is truly the foundation of my faith in God, and I will be forever grateful for it.
Comments
Hugs, Pete