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Home :: Book Reviews
by George Weigel
reviewed by Gary P. Gillum
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Deification has been a difficult theological concept for mankind to
accept. St. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin and the depravity of
man helped spur on a deep skepticism to the idea that God’s children
could become anything like God, let alone progressing to the eventual
state of gods or goddesses. Latter-day Saints have often been cautious
about broaching the topic of deification around most Catholics and
Protestants, for fear that our Christian brethren would brand us as
blasphemers and cease any further discussion about Mormonism. But the
climate surrounding deification and other doctrines, such as baptism
for the dead, seems to be changing in some circles—Catholic circles
included.
by B. Carmon Hardy
reviewed by Kathryn M. Daynes
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Joining a significant topic with one of its preeminent scholars is a certain formula for an important book. Such is Doing the Works of Abraham
by B. Carmon Hardy. Polygamy shaped nineteenth-century Mormonism’s
relationship with the remainder of the world, and Hardy has written
numerous articles and books on the topic, including Solemn Covenant,
named Best Book of the Year for 1992 by the Mormon History Association.
The publication of this documentary history of nineteenth-century
plural marriage is thus a major event in the ongoing scholarship on the
topic.
by Richard Bauckham
reviewed by Thomas A. Wayment
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Undoubtedly, Professor Richard Bauckham’s most recent contribution will
add life to an already thriving scholarly discussion on the historical
foundations of the New Testament Gospels, particularly the Synoptic
Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Like others who have contributed to
this field of study, Bauckham (professor of New Testament studies at
the University of St. Andrews, Scotland) sets out to describe the
sources used by the authors of the canonical Gospels, and, in doing so,
provides a viable theory that has been met by exuberant praise and will
certainly encounter significant rebuttals.
by David L. Dungan
reviewed by Carl W. Griffin
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The canon of Christian scripture has received much scrutiny since the
rise of historical criticism in post-Enlightenment Europe.
Nineteenth-century discoveries of new apocryphal gospels and epistles
also fueled academic debate over canonicity, which has reached an even
higher pitch since 1945, with the discovery of a corpus of
Gnostic Christian “scriptures” at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. More recently,
best-selling works by scholars like Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels, as
well as Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, have introduced to a wide nonspecialist audience the historical problems surrounding the formation of Christian scripture.
by W. Paul Reeve
reviewed by Jay H. Buckley
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University of Utah historian W. Paul Reeve has written an intriguing
and engaging monograph examining the dynamic interchange between
Mormons, miners, and Southern Paiutes along the Great Basin’s southern
rim. Broadly covering the last four decades of the nineteenth century,
Reeves focuses his lens most closely on southwestern Utah and
southeastern Nevada during the turbulent 1860s and 1870s when the clash
of cultures reached its zenith.
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