Review
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Title: Mormon’s Record: The Historical Message of the Book of Mormon
Author: Gregory Steven Dundas
Publisher: RSC BYU and Deseret Book Company
Genre: Religious Non Fiction
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 472
Binding: Hardcover, eBook
ISBN-13:
Hardcover: 978-1-9503-0453-0
Price: $29.99 (hardcover) /$14.99 (ebook)
Reviewed by Richard Ji for the Association for Mormon Letters
Mormon’s Record: The Historical Message of the Book of Mormon written by Gregory Steven Dundas, is a scholarly work focused on showing how Mormon’s writings in The Book of Mormon are consistent with the writings of his contemporary peers. While it is commonly known that Mormon abridged the Book of Mormon, Dundas gives Mormon credit for authorship; the argument being that Mormon utilized information recorded on the metal plates as source material. Therefore, the scope of this book includes all material in The Book of Mormon as comparative information versus the material written by Mormon in the first person. This book seeks to discuss the ‘broad traits common to a wide variety of civilizations of antiquity (p.32). The scope of civilizations includes the ancient Near East (e.g. Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, ancient Israel) and Egypt. He also shares examples from ancient Greece and Rome. The focus is on sacral comparisons, perhaps in a similar vein as Hugh Nibley’s works.
Mormon’s Record begins with a Foreword by Kent P. Jackson, who articulates the rationale of declaring Mormon as the author of The Book of Mormon, followed by an Introduction outlining how Mormon’s record is to be viewed as history. Next are the three sections: The Ancient Sacral Worldview, Sacral Histography, and Mormon’s Record as Sacral History. There are 12 chapters in these parts. The book ends with a Conclusion, Bibliography, Index, and an About the Author section. As one might expect from the RSC BYU, the book is complete with extensive notations that draw from a wide range (breadth and time of publication) of source material.
I am not a scholar, but I enjoy consuming what scholars produce. I was immediately drawn into the book with the Foreword, Introduction, and early chapters. The point of view is a refreshing lens to view The Book of Mormon through. I am also highly interested in ancient civilizations, so that was another attractive feature of this work for me. In the earlier chapters, I found that there are several parallels from the sacral histories of these ancient civilizations with the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a whole and not necessarily with The Book of Mormon alone. I was particularly enthralled with the discussion on sacral kingship and the parallels between Egyptian views with kingship in the modern-day United Kingdom and Latter-Day Saint temples.
The consistency of sacral kingship in The Book of Mormon with the ancient civilizations in the scope of Mormon’s Record, by Gregory Steven Dundas, is well documented throughout. I was impressed with the breadth of sources Dundas draws from to make his arguments. For me, the first two Parts of the book are more compelling than Part III. Whereas the first two parts were lighter in connecting sacral themes in ancient civilizations to The Book of Mormon specifically, Part III focused almost exclusively on The Book of Mormon with little ties to ancient civilizations. Instead, Dundas builds upon the foundation laid in the earlier Parts to discuss high-level themes in The Book of Mormon consistent with themes in the earlier Parts. While I understand the logic of this approach, I found it the be dilutive to the main thesis. To me, the thesis would carry more strongly if direct ties to the in-scope ancient civilizations were incorporated. Chapter 12: A Historical and Thematic Reading of Mormon’s Record is an outstanding synopsis of the Book of Mormon, but I found it be to highly disconnected from the earlier Parts. This chapter could stand separately and be a valuable self-contained work, but one that did not advance the book’s thesis. The Conclusion likewise lacked a hard-hitting narrative on the thesis versus the overriding concept of The Book of Mormon as a moral work, which of course, virtually all Latter-Day Saints already accept.
Despite the misgivings of Part III, I found Mormon’s Record: The Historical Message of the Book of Mormon, written by Gregory Steven Dundas, to be a worthwhile read. Dunda’s references to the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) works inspires me to consult those works, especially Hugh Nibley’s. I regret not reading those works prior to this one so as to compare the state of knowledge today versus two to three decades ago. Mormon’s Record is a book I not only value in my collection but one that I would like to re-read to extract unrealized benefits from the first read. This is a wonderful contribution to the scholarly canon on The Book of Mormon. I hope to see more scholarship along these lines from scholars in the future.