BOM Alma 54

In my judgment, today’s reading, Alma 54,  offers significant evidence for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

Why?  Because it’s so humanly plausible.

In his Republic, Plato famously divides the ψυχή (psyche) into three parts — the λογιστικόv (logistikon, or “logical”), the θυμοειδές (thymoeides, or “spirited”) and the ἐπιθυμητικόν (epithymetikon, or “appetitive”). These three parts of the ψυχή or soul also correspond to the three classes of a society and, thus, of his ideal society.  It contains three classes of people:  producers (craftsmen, farmers, artisans, etc.), “auxiliaries” (warriors), and what he calls “guardians” (rulers).

Above all else, the producers seek material well-being and material goods, the goods of appetite (desire and emotion) such as safety, comfort, food, drink, and sex.  They love the fruits of their labor and, with their labor, they provide society’s (or the state’s) basic needs.

The “guardians,” whose passion is for knowledge, truth, and wisdom, are devoted to reason.  In Plato’s ideal polity, they govern society or the state.

I’m particularly interested here, though, in Plato’s “auxiliaries.”  These are the people whose passion is for courage and honor and, even more, for the love of their homeland.  Plato describes them as the “spirited” element within the state or the society.  They defend the state.

Moroni, in these chapters, is a perfect exemplar of the ideal virtues (and also, perhaps, of the defects) of the “auxiliary” or warrior class.  The word spirited describes him perfectly.

Notice that, at the beginning of Alma 54, Moroni is delighted at Ammoron’s proposal of a prisoner exchange.  But his indignation at the unjust and murderous actions of Amalickiah and Ammoron, and of the Lamanites whom they have provoked into aggression, is absolutely palpable in the letter that he sends to Ammoron.  (His explanation that “I am in my anger” is scarcely needed.)  Ammoron, too, responds angrily, and the exchange that both had wanted collapses.

The virtues of the ancient warrior aren’t necessarily those that we would seek in a diplomat.

For yet another example of a case where Moroni’s passion for justice — and his temper — get the upper hand, and for an example of a politician’s contrastingly diplomatic response, see Alma 59-61.

To me, Moroni comes across as a real, flesh and blood person, not a figure from a stained-glass window or an idealized stereotype.

Posted from Newport Beach, California