Mormon Hermeneutics

Five Approaches to the Bible by the LDS Church

Jeffrey S. Krohn

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781666716139
  9781666716146
• eBook ISBN:
  9781666716153
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Crítica e interpretación bíblicas

Bible readers are often preoccupied with themselves. At times they neglect the original, ancient context of the biblical writings. The novelty of the modern is leveraged to trump the ancient. Mormon hermeneutics seems to say more about the modern LDS church than any ancient biblical meaning. Positively, the LDS is to be applauded for their emphasis on the living out of their faith. However, through various approaches to the Bible, the LDS Church seems to neglect the ancient horizon of the biblical text. Any interpretation of the Bible, LDS or otherwise, should be held accountable. This book is an attempt to categorize Mormon hermeneutics and utilizes numerous hermeneutical voices from the field of philosophical hermeneutics.

1

Mormon Hermeneutics

1.1. Brief Description of the LDS

LDS thinkers argue that a pervasive apostasy occurred after the death of the apostles in the first century, and the church of Jesus Christ needed a complete “Restoration.” When Joseph Smith Jr. (hereafter Joseph Smith), purportedly received a personal visit from God in 1820, the Restoration occurred. This divine visitation, referred to as the First Vision, inaugurated the revelatory focus of the Mormon church. Their teaching is based upon the reception of “continuing revelation,” with individual as well as prophetic aspects of this revelation. The modern books of the Book of Mormon (at times referred to as BoM), the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C), as well as the Pearl of Great Price (PGP), supplement the Bible as LDS scriptures. Although the church warns against the hazards of a confining creed or statement of faith, basic parameters of their thinking are contained in thirteen “Articles of Faith.” These Articles were written by Joseph Smith and are found in the Pearl of Great Price. The church states that in 1971 there were three million members, yet today there are more than sixteen million members worldwide. Thus, there has been an “accelerating growth pattern” with “a million new members added every several years.”1 The Association for Religious Data says, however, that in 2010 (the latest date for data) membership in the LDS Church was at six million, while in 1970 there were two million members.2 Regardless of the exact figures, there has been significant growth in the LDS Church. Decades ago, based on then-current growth rates, non-LDS sociologist Rodney Stark projected exponential growth for the LDS—estimating as many as 265 million members by the year 2080.3 Some observers are beginning to speak of the LDS as a world religion.4 In view of such growth, an investigation into their uses of the Bible is warranted.

1.2. Challenges in the Investigation of LDS Hermeneutics

1.2.1. Oversimplification

In some publications, non-LDS authors have succumbed to the temptation of evaluating the LDS with simplistic reductions, caricatures, stereotypes, distortions, and misinformation.5 Opponents have occasionally pigeonholed their teachings,6 and given “outdated and inaccurate portraits of Mormon doctrine.”7 Dangers to be avoided in this book, then, include a narrow mindset,8 a simplistic methodology that fails to do justice to the totality of the evidence,9 or an oversimplification that presses the evidence to fit a prior theory.10 My goal is to give the church a fair hearing and avoid a simplistic, reductionistic evaluation of their hermeneutical activity. Although their uses of the Bible are not monolithic, there are patterns of hermeneutical behavior that can be evaluated with some clarity.

1.2.2. The Complexity of the LDS

According to LDS author Philip Barlow, “Mormonism is extraordinarily complex.”11 Jacob Baker claims that the complexity of their church inhibits straightforward classification.12 For example, according to one outside observer, “One cannot even be sure if the object of our consideration is a sect, a mystery cult, a new religion, a church, a people, a nation, or an American subculture; indeed, at different times and places it is all of these.”13 Others have concluded that the LDS is “neither a church nor a sect, but rather a near nation, or a ‘quasi-ethnic’ group in the isolated Intermountain West.”14 Too ofte...

Table of contents

• Title Paage
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Mormon Hermeneutics
• Chapter 2: Two Foundational Presuppositions
• Chapter 3: Literality and the LDS Church
• Chapter 4: Interpretation by Allegorization
• Chapter 5: A Sociological Approach
• Chapter 6: Emendatory Practices
• Chapter 7: Re-Authoring
• Chapter 8: LDS Interpretive Practice in Light of Philosophical Hermeneutics
• Appendix: Five Categories of Uses of the Bible by the LDS
• Bibliography