“How the Book of Mormon Counters Anti-Semitism,” and etc.

New, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:

“Teachings and Testimony of the First Vision: Some Doctrinal Teachings about the First Vision: Part Two of a Series Compiled by Dennis B. Horne”

Occasionally, when the first vision is reviewed by church leaders, they may state some doctrinal insights, interpretations, defenses, or positions about various particulars. The below items mention some of these. The first is a comment (from a memo) from Elder Bruce R. McConkie, then a member of the First Council of the Seventy, about some wording in relation to the first vision, found in a book written by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. 

The third is self-explanatory and is Elder Bangerter using President Hinckley’s comments to illustrate his own views. The others contain further doctrinal insights.

Also now available at no charge via the website of the Interpreter Foundation:

“Part 1: A New Approach to Studying the Book of Mormon, with Bradley J. Kramer”

About the Interview: The Book of Mormon contains a multitude of short, impressive statements, which Latter-day Saints often memorize and even “master,” so they can repeat them as the occasion requires. . . .  

Nevertheless, despite the obvious utility of these statements, Bradley J. Kramer asserts that “the Book of Mormon is simply too much of a book to be approached simply as a source of quotations. It is a sophisticated literary work where ideas do not exist in isolation, but where wording, characterization, setting, description, plot, as well as their placement in the canon relative to other scriptures must be considered in order to be fully understood and appreciated. The Book of Mormon consequently demands a comprehensive, in-depth literary approach.”

“Part 2: How the Book of Mormon Counters Anti-Semitism, with Bradley J. Kramer”

About the Interview: Horrified by the Holocaust and fearful that the New Testament, as it has been traditionally understood, may have contributed to this tragedy, Christian scholars and ministers of all stripes have, in recent decades, proposed several, “extra-textual” ways of altering that understanding. . . .

In this episode of Latter-day Saint Perspectives Podcast, Laura Harris Hales interviews Bradley J. Kramer about his new book, Gathered in One: How the Book of Mormon Counters Anti-Semitism in the New Testament. In this book, Kramer reviews how Fisher, Salmon, Spong, as well as other Christian scholars and ministers have attempted to deal with such anti-Semitic elements as the “blood curse” in Matthew (27:25) and John’s claim that the devil is the father of the Jews (8:44), and he contrasts their efforts with the approach employed by the Book of Mormon.

***

Incidentally, I’ve established a tradition for each New Year’s Day of remembering the confident prophecy that was issued nearly seven years ago by a pseudonymous critic about the impending doom of the Interpreter Foundation.  It was posted on an internet message board that is, to a significant degree, dedicated to chronicling and lamenting my many deeds of abject buffoonery and mean-spirited viciousness.  Alas, though, I completely forgot about it the other day.  But I value tradition, so here it is:

“By Jan. 1, 2014 Interpreter will be dead. . . .  Either totally dead or down to token ‘blog’ style postings.” (Bond James Bond, 25 January 2013)

Mr. Bond’s prediction appears to have been mistaken.