Earlier, I recommended The Expanded Canon: Perspectives on Mormonism and Sacred Texts (Greg Kofford Books, 2018) for your Christmas list. Let me renew that recommendation with comments on a few chapters from the second half of the book. Most essay collections are of fairly uneven quality, with a couple of excellent pieces and several ho-hum entries. I’d say that every single essay in this collection is top-notch.
Chapter 9, “The Ascendancy and Legitimation of the Pearl of Great Price,” is a short, informative, and fairly candid essay on what has become a very controversial topic in Mormon Studies. The author notes that Joseph Smith had no apparent intention of canonizing material now in the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham; that the 1851 publication of that material in England was not approved by the President of the Church; and that Orson Pratt’s editing of the Book of Moses for the LDS 1878 edition of the Pearl of Great Price relied heavily on RLDS manuscripts of the “Inspired Version” (the RLDS title for what LDS call The Joseph Smith Translation). The author tries to stick to the facts with as little commentary as possible. For example: “We know that examining the three Facsimiles strictly from the perspective of Egyptology creates serious problems for Joseph Smith” (p. 156).
Chapter 13, “The Art of Scripture and Scripture as Art: The Proclamation on the Family and the Expanding Canon” — I sort of avoided this chapter at first because I thought it was going to talk about art. No, it’s all about the Proclamation on the Family, which has somehow attained scriptural authority despite not being canonized. The gist of the chapter might be summarized as, “What the heck is a proclamation?” My answer: It is a very useful uncanonized non-revelation.
Chapter 12, “Spiritualizing Electronic Scripture in Mormonism,” reviews the love-hate relationship the Church has had with the online world. Initially there was resistance to the idea of electronic scriptures on your phone or iPad displacing the printed scriptures you used to lug around church on Sunday. The 2013 edition of the LDS scriptures, which was first released only in digital form, really marked the full acceptance of electronic scriptures. The essay also discusses the larger issue of the LDS view of technology, in which technological advances are welcomed as God’s gift to the modern world and the Church, while at the same time being leery of other things the Internet provides easy access to. Consider, for example, the fraught issue of giving cell phones or iPads to missionaries. Yes, we want them to have a cell phone like every other adult in America. But we don’t want them to be able to email friends or family members, or watch, you know, videos. Technology is either a blessing or a threat, depending on what day it is.
So expand your mind with The Expanded Canon.
Wheat & Tares 
Are you sure the 2013 edition is digital-only? I was under the impression it wasn’t.
Dylan, it was initially released in digital format only. About six months later hard copy scriptures with the new changes (fairly minor) were available for purchase.
“Joseph Smith had no apparent intention of canonizing material now in the Book of Moses……I don’t understand that, as it is part of the “new translation of my holy word” (D&C 124:89) commanded to be published.
Chapters 2 through 8 of the Book of Moses are placed as Genesis chp. 1 through chp. 8 verse 18 in the Inspired version. Chapter 1 is given as an introduction and is found in the RLDS D&C section 22.
What his views on canonization of Abraham and Moses are isn’t clear but he published them in the Church newspaper so clearly he wanted people to read them. Had he not died and had more time I’d have to imagine he’d have revised the canon.
Sorry, this is a tangent, but the technology to missionaries fear just frustrates me.
I’m a mom with two missionaries serving right now. One uses google hangouts on pday, and it’s the best thing that ever happened on his mission. All siblings can participate in texting for a brief time, and the family dynamics are wonderful and uplifting, feels real, and we all leave the chat SO happy and connected compared to the limited communication we had before with him.
The other missionary, once he leaves the mtc, will have a strict email rule.
For heavens sakes. These missionaries give up everything. Ease up on the scare tactics of giving missionaries some communication freedom. The more we restrict access, the more they feel the church has to hide. To my nonmember friends, this is the cultish-type behavior that does nothing to entice them to hear a message. They feel pity for the kids with such limited freedom.
If we’re so scared of them suddenly morphing into bad people because of technology, what does that say about our faith and trust of them as missionaries?
Anne,
I think the lack of communication is a problem too. Particularly when the technology is readily available. I believe the church gives too much latitude to mission presidents to set restrictive rules. Some MPs, stuck in a different age or mentality, do a lousy job of it.
During my mission in the early 80’s all correspondence with my family was done by mail. In my case, my younger brother’s mission overlapped mine by two months. It meant the two of us went 40 months without talking to each other. His mission was during the time missions were 18 months, otherwise we would have gone almost four years without talking. When I look back at that, I now wonder how was that right.
Ironically, one of the elders in my Sweden mission was Swedish. When this elder was in my district, his father would periodically come up and attend sacrament meeting at the branch we attended. Its not like the sky fell in when that happened.
Exactly, Dave. It will be 43 months for my sons. It’s brutal as a mom, seeing everything they’ve developed in their relationship for 18-19 years be so tightly controlled now. Brothers communicating freely with each other should be encouraged, not used as an obedience test. These are still very formative years for missionaries and their relationships.
I guess I fail to see the harm in missionaries knowing current events, reading/responding to a text, or using technology to be more efficient.
Anne, I had two sons serving simultaneously, they emailed each other all the time and had a great relationship as they shared problems and successes with each other. How is that not “communicating freely?”
I’m glad that you’re fine with them emailing all the time. That’s exactly what I’d like for us. Or a quick phone call on a Monday evening (if they have no appointment) for FHE or joining us in a family prayer over the phone once in awhile would be so welcomed! A text once in awhile, not limited to pday, doesn’t feel like a horrible sin to me. It feels like love. For this particular son newly out, having an hour to do all communicating with family/friends on pday just feels pretty restricted to me. (Of course they’re free to write snail mail, but nobody does that much anymore.)
I realize that most people think this a really unfaithful way of thinking. But I call my parents who are serving their 2nd mission out of the country, and they can read the news, talk to their family and siblings and grandkids, even see an occasional non-church produced movie, and guess what? They’re still fabulous missionaries who can teach the gospel and feel the spirit like nobody’s business! ❤️
Again, apologies for that tangent….This book is added to my list, I like your thoughts on the essays, especially pointing out that JS never intended Abraham to be canon. I would also think missionaries would appreciate perspectives like this. It helps me tremendously.
You misunderstand. They obeyed mission rules, they emailed on their pday, not a running conversation but single emails as long as they wanted to make them. They communicated freely within the bounds of their rules. Their missions didn’t stunt or inhibit their relationship as brothers, their shared experiences enhanced it.
I just watched that scene on A Christmas Carol, where Ebenezer’s Dad pronounces a 3 day visit home after being away all year to boarding school as “more than sufficient for us all!” and I couldn’t help but notice how we proclaim the same (much less though) as sufficient for our missionaries.
Again, I’m really glad your sons feel very fulfilled and were really obedient to rules, and that you felt an email a week was enough. It doesn’t to me sometimes, and I’m okay with that opinion. I wonder if it would be a blessing to those thinking about serving a mission to not be restricted to an hour of email on Pday, to have access to tools they need, and to be treated more like the senior missionary couples who faithfully serve.
Anne, it’s not faithless to express how a policy causes hardship. The church is known to adjust policies to help avoid hardship. I don’t think 2-hour church was contemplated without considering member feedback. My wife once participated in a church sponsored focus group about improving women’s garments. The church employed facilitators were very much interested in feedback and problems. Despite this, one sister in the focus group stated no matter the problems, she was blessed to have the garments so she would be content the way they were. My wife told me the facilitators didn’t spend much time with this sister the rest of the focus session. They wanted to know about the problems so they could help improve things and not acknowledging them wasn’t helpful to them. Sort of the point for our ministering too.
Regardless the hardship, your sons have still decided to go out on a mission. It’s a bit much that members would not regard that sacrifice alone as a demonstration of their and your faith.
The whole missionary communication question is an example of how the Church struggles to keep up with changing technology and changing culture. I say “struggles” because most of the time the Church seems to be well behind the curve on cultural changes like racial equality, women’s rights, and now child protection. In technology, the unwillingness to provide missionaries with current technology is a symptom of the current LDS tendency to view technology as more of a threat than an opportunity. Increasingly, the same with science. It’s modern Mormon anti-intellectualism, which becomes fideism when applied to theology.
The author tries to stick to the facts with as little commentary as possible. For example: “We know that examining the three Facsimiles strictly from the perspective of Egyptology creates serious problems for Joseph Smith”
Yeah that totally is commentary and more analysis than fact.
If JS interpreted the facsimile translation in the same way that he did Moses e.g. its as close as 2 verses of KJV English translate to chapters about Enoch, than it is not problematic at all.
Through D&C talks about Moses being published as scripture, btw.
The problem of communication of missionaries with family and friends intersects with the question- what is the purpose of a full-time mission? The Monson surge of a 40% increase in the number of missionaries with little significant increase in baptisms indicates that if the primary purpose is baptisms, then it isn’t working and needs drastic change. If it was working then every x number of hours spent by missionaries in communication with family is one less soul saved from the fires of hell. On the other hand, the primary purpose could be re-framed to be about solidifying missionary testimonies into loyal and dedicated future members as the church faces increasing difficulties.
Then the hardship of isolation from family might make sense. The apostasy of one family member jeopardizes others. Or it might not, to the degree that extended family helps keep people in the fold or better negotiate a borderland existence. The primary social issues of late adolescence are independence and identity. A mission clearly requires more independence now that most leave home for the first time when they go (less than college) and usually gives a young adult a strong church identity
Each missionary has their own unique experiences and takes what they will from them. This in spite of enormous attempts to standardize and homogenize the mission experience across the world. I was blessed with a very unconventional first companion from whom I reluctantly learned many crucial life skills. He taught me how to date, something I sorely needed to learn more than most, if I was ever to get married. He taught me how to make money buying and selling blood diamonds on the black market which allowed me to acquire enough cash in 4 months to pay for a year of college. I could never regret giving up my 4 year college scholarship to serve a mission because I could easily get the money back. I could no longer fear my family needing the money I saved to fund the mission and I being faced with the shame of going home early for lack of it. My self confidence probably doubled or tripled with him.
A price was paid in status. I never got beyond being his green bean. The door to advancement in mission leadership was closed. That only meant spending more time with the wonderful Japanese people and less time baby sitting other missionaries as a Zone Lord. The embers of free-thinking were not extinguished. I almost married a cute Japanese girl which was discouraged at the time and would have represented a sea change in my life. Yes, contemporary missionary moms, more than a few missionaries brought a soon-to-be wife home with them or shortly after their return.
I only wrote a one page letter home every week (only positive remarks) and many missionaries did even less.They wrote a few pages in return and some missionaries did not hear from their family for weeks. I talked to my family once on the phone for about 5 minutes at Christmas, it was expensive. Since I went on the mission and returned right after Christmas time, I didn’t do it twice.( Most of the GA’s are about my age or older and something like this was their experience).
I hardly recognized my family at the reunion in the Salt Lake airport. My father seemed less strict and intimidating, more like a friend. My mother of Scottish heritage went from being short (5’3″) to being taller than average for a woman, quite a bit more stocky than I remembered (no wonder we noticed when she took a switch to us) and her hair turned from appearing dark brown to light brown, in my mind only. My kid brother had grown out his hair and a beard and his body was ripped. He looked like he was almost prepared to join the Hell’s Angels more than go on a mission. (He always was a straight arrow, just liked to keep people guessing). I didn’t even recognize my shy, reclusive sister. I thought she was a prank girlfriend courtesy of my brother, she had changed so much. She looked like a movie star and she had become rather outgoing and assertive and very popular in college .The grandparents had aged noticeably and cousins seemed like strangers. It caused me to think what it will be like after we die and meet relatives who have gone to their glory decades before us.
As for the original discussion about Mormon sacred texts, our religion is one in which our spiritual and other experiences make these texts sacred.It is not a generally agreed upon definition. To almost everyone else, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham are preposterous frauds. Our full-time missions are the same. To many of us they are sacred experiences. But to most everyone else, they are a huge waste of time at best and exploitative or boring or developmentally stunting or worse.