Listen as Grant Hardy discusses the Book of Mormon as Literature in an LDS Perspectives Podcast.
Grant Hardy became intrigued with world religions, especially those of the Near East, as a young missionary. He has researched and written widely on various topics, but his study of the Book of Mormon led him to publish two landmark books that share important insights.
In his brief overview to Understanding the Book of Mormon, Hardy gives us ten observations about the Book of Mormon:
- It is a long book.
- It is written in a somewhat awkward, repetitious form of English.
- It imitates the style of the King James Version.
- It claims to be history.
- It presents a complicated narrative.
- It is a religious text.
- It is basically a tragedy.
- It is very didactic.
- It is a human artifact.
- Its basic structure is derived from the three narrators.
It is this last observation that forms the thesis for the majority of his work. Hardy contends that “If you’re not seeing the narrators at every turn, you’re not really reading the Book of Mormon–because that’s how the book is constructed, regardless of who the author(s) may have been.”
The three main narrators (Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni) each had distinct approaches as they presented history and revelation in their writings.
Join Laura Harris Hales as she has an enjoyable back-and-forth with an outstanding Book of Mormon scholar.
