{"id":111971,"date":"2025-07-18T13:07:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=111971"},"modified":"2025-07-18T13:07:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:07:40","slug":"the-plates-of-gardner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/07\/the-plates-of-gardner.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Plates of Gardner”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Grandin<\/a>
A shelf in the restored Grandin Print Shop in Palmyra, New York, loaded with replica copies of the Book of Mormon\u2019s first edition (LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This new review-essay appeared today in the never-changing Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>: \u201cThe Plates of Gardner,\u201d<\/a> written by\u00a0Kimberley Heuston<\/span><\/span><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Review of Brant A. Gardner, <\/em>The Plates of Mormon: A Book of Mormon Study Edition, and its companion volume, <\/em>Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2023). Study edition 598 pp.; $34.95 (paperback). Commentary 485 pp.; $24.95 (paperback).<\/em><\/p>\n

Abstract:<\/strong> This paper addresses the reasons for a recent spurt in Book of Mormon study editions and contextualizes the unique contributions of Brant Gardner\u2019s <\/em>The Plates of Mormon: A Book of Mormon Study Edition. Unlike other study editions, which cater to the needs of believing Church members, prospective missionaries, or the (secular) scholarly community, Gardner writes that <\/em>The Plates of Mormon is an attempt to understand the book in terms of the ancient Mesoamerican culture that produced it, something for which he, a trained Mesoamericanist, is uniquely qualified. To do so, he must first peel away the layers superimposed upon its current version by Joseph Smith\u2019s translation for his Early American frontier community. That complicated process is detailed in a companion volume, <\/em>Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon, which receives the bulk of this review\u2019s attention. Gardner\u2019s discoveries and conclusions are briefly rather than comprehensively summarized in this review.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019re interested in other writing by Kimberley Heuston, you can find some of it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"mklkmflmklsmls\"<\/a>
Political map of Africa (public domain, Central Intelligence Agency). \u00a0Lesotho is embedded within the Republic of South Africa, near the southern end of the continent.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a very sad story: \u00a0\u201cMemorial Held for Victims of Tragic Accident in Lesotho:\u00a0The identities of the members and friends of the Church who lost their lives have been released; a funeral is set for Saturday, July 19\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 The little Latter-day Saint community in Lesotho needs our prayers and support.<\/p>\n

\"lawn<\/a>
This photograph of the Fairview Texas Temple, taken just after its dedication in 2075 \u2014 having recently seen a live-theatrical version of \u201cBack to the Future,\u201d I\u2019ve added time travel to my toolkit \u2014 shows part of the final solution (the \u201cEndl\u00f6sung,\u201d as it were) to the problem that had been posed by that temple. The temple is located fifty feet below the surface of the building site. The entrance tunnel for it opens across the street, in the much more frinedly town of Allen, Texas. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From to time, I\u2019ve looked in on the still raging controversy about a proposed Latter-day Saint temple in Fairview, Texas<\/a>. \u00a0Here is the latest news item to emerge from it, which was published yesterday (Thursday) in The Dallas Morning News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cFairview mayor: A call for compromise with LDS church<\/a> reflecting shared values:\u00a0<\/span>A temple built through collaboration can become a symbol of unity and reverence.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to contrast the sheer quantity of news links about the proposed temple in Fairview<\/a> with the paucity of news links about the Fort Worth Texas Temple<\/a>, which is also located in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. \u00a0(In their current designs, the Fort Worth Texas Temple and the Fairview Texas Temple are essentially identical in size.) \u00a0The temple in Fort Worth was announced a full year before the announcement of the temple in Fairview, and its construction is well underway. \u00a0Yet this friendly piece is the only news story that appears about it: \u00a0\u201cConstruction underway for Fort Worth Latter-day Saints temple, expected to open in 2026.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

From what I\u2019ve seen, the comment following the Fairview mayor\u2019s article, written by \u201cTimothy,\u201d which is (at least currently) the first reader comment, accurately summarizes the history of the dispute over the proposed Fairview Texas Temple. \u00a0The Church has made all the concessions. \u00a0Repeatedly. \u00a0And it\u2019s now being asked to make yet more<\/em> concessions. \u00a0However, I\u2019m inclined to differ with \u201cTimothy\u201d on one point: \u00a0I don\u2019t think that I would go back to the original (larger) temple design and \u201csee \u2019em in court.\u201d \u00a0Rather, if it\u2019s all possible, I would lean toward simply yanking the temple from Fairview and seeking to build it somewhere else in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that\u2019s more welcoming. \u00a0Honestly, it doesn\u2019t seem to me that the politicians in Fairview have been acting in good faith on this issue, and it appears unlikely to me that they\u2019ll be acting in good faith at any time soon.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>
This is a modern reconstruction of the Peter Whitmer home in Fayette, New York, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> was organized, with six members, on 6 April 1830
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This came in yesterday from a reader: \u00a0\u201cMatt Martinich, a prominent researcher on LDS church growth and a faithful member, has put out a survey to ask LDS people about convert baptisms in their area. It takes five minutes to do, and it will hopefully help him gauge what church growth looks like worldwide. He asked for the link to be shared widely, so here it is: https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/r\/P8VCFSL<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>
The Port Moresby Papua New Guinea Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is well along its way to completion. It is shown here as it appeared on 25 May 2025, in a photograph taken by Josephine Vauro. A building to lodge temple missionaries and patrons, which also includes a residence for the temple president and matron and a distribution center, stands in the foreground. I hope that Josephine Vauro won\u2019t mind my using her photograph here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I close, as I\u2019m wont to do, with a story \u2014 or, in this instance, with a group<\/em> of stories \u2014 that I\u2019ve recovered from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122: \u00a0\u201cLatter-day Saints Around the World: July 2025: Children clean shelter in Peru, and projects in the Marshall Islands seek to improve safety and sustainability\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n
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\n

Newsroom features stories from its dozens of websites worldwide to show what members and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are doing to serve their communities. Today, we feature news from\u202fChile, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines and Togo.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s almost as if these theists feel no shame<\/em> about such crimes against humanity but, instead, positively revel<\/em> in them. \u00a0And now<\/em> they\u2019re coming for innocent children<\/em>, coercing them<\/em> into slaving for their wicked schemes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 This new review-essay appeared today in the never-changing Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: \u201cThe Plates of Gardner,\u201d written by\u00a0Kimberley Heuston: Review of Brant A. Gardner, The Plates of Mormon: A Book of Mormon Study Edition, and its companion volume, Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":111974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,7524,2905,38966,788,1615],"class_list":["post-111971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-brant-gardner","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-lesotho","tag-mormon","tag-plates"],"yoast_head":"\n"The Plates of Gardner"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  This new review-essay appeared today in the never-changing Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: "The Plates of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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