![\"The](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/07\/ISS-38_Hawaiian_Island_chain.jpg\")
<\/a>(NASA public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Two new items have appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Brant A. Gardner<\/a>, \u201cGiving the Book of Ether its Proper Due\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of Daniel\u00a0L.\u00a0Belnap, ed.,\u00a0Illuminating the Jaredite Records<\/em>\u00a0(Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham\u00a0Young University \/ Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2020). 320 pages. Hardback, $27.95.<\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Illuminating the Jaredite Record\u00a0collects ten papers by different Book\u00a0of\u00a0Mormon scholars. This is the second publication from the Book\u00a0of\u00a0Mormon Academy at Brigham\u00a0Young University, a\u00a0collection of scholars interested in the Book\u00a0of\u00a0Mormon. As with the first volume, the authors approach the text from different perspectives and thereby illuminate different aspects of the text.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Louis C. Midgley<\/span><\/a>, \u201cHonoring Hugh Nibley \u2014 Again\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of\u00a0Hugh Nibley Observed<\/em>, edited by Jeffrey\u00a0M.\u00a0Bradshaw, Shirley\u00a0Ricks, and Stephen Whitlock (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation, 2021). 820 pages. $45.00 (hardback), $35.00 (paperback).<\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Hugh Nibley Observed\u00a0is the third assembly of essays honoring Nibley by his friends and admirers. It differs from the other two in many ways. It is packed with photographs, observations by his children about their father, and many other similar and related items that are often deeply personal reflections on Nibley as well as the influence he has had on Latter- day Saint intellectual life and also the faith of the Saints. Its contents are far more accessible than the strictly scholarly works written by the academic friends and colleagues of Nibley. There is some of that in this book, but it contains information and reflections on a\u00a0host of different aspects of the first Latter-day Saint scholar who could and did provide a\u00a0competent defense of the faith and the Saints. This book is very much about Nibley and not merely for him, as were the two previous efforts to honor him.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And here are some annotated links from a prior volume of Interpreter<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Brant A. Gardner, \u201cPerhaps Close can Count in More than Horseshoes\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of Gerald E. Smith,\u00a0Schooling the Prophet: How the Book of Mormon Influenced Joseph Smith and the Early Restoration<\/em>\u00a0(Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2015). pp 305. $19.95.<\/span><\/p>\n Abstract: Schooling the Prophet\u00a0provides a good survey of many early Latter-day Saint doctrines. It suggests that there is a causal link between the Book of Mormon and those doctrines. Sometimes it makes the case; many times it is close but doesn\u2019t quite support the thesis of the book.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Rick Anderson, \u201cMormonism, Materialism, and Politics: Six Things We Must Understand in Order to Survive as Latter-day Saints\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0We are called as Latter-day Saints to be a force for good in the world in every way possible, which necessarily includes active and positive engagement with political and social issues. At the same time, it is essential to our spiritual survival that we never allow ourselves to forget the radical difference between the philosophies of men \u2014 no matter how superficially harmonious some of these may seem with particular principles of the gospel or with some aspects of traditional Mormon culture<\/a> \u2014 and the teachings of the prophets. In a world that constantly entices us with messages designed to lure us away from the eternal truths of the restored gospel and into the embrace of philosophies that are partially and contingently true at best and actively destructive at worst, we must exercise constant vigilance. This essay suggests and discusses six propositions that, if understood and embraced, should help us maintain that vigilance.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A. Keith Thompson, \u201cWere We Foreordained to the Priesthood, or Was the Standard of Worthiness Foreordained? Alma 13 Reconsidered\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0Alma 13:3\u20134 is often interpreted as Book of Mormon confirmation of the doctrine that all those who are ordained to the Priesthood on the earth were foreordained to receive that Priesthood in the pre-existence as a result of their exceeding faith and good works. That interpretation is inconsistent with the 1978 revelation on Priesthood. A contextual reading of the account of Alma2<\/sub>\u2019s ministry to the people of Ammonihah also suggests that Alma2<\/sub>\u00a0was not telling the men of Ammonihah that they (or anyone else) had been foreordained to receive the Priesthood. Rather, Alma2<\/sub>\u00a0was teaching that what we now call worthiness was ordained as the standard for ordination to the Priesthood before the foundations of this earth were laid. If the people of Ammonihah demonstrated their worthiness by repenting of their sins, they could qualify to receive the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood and enter into the rest of the Lord as many of the ancients had done. The manner in which men were ordained to the Priesthood and in which its ordinances were administered was intended to show the people how they should look to Christ for redemption.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Louis C. Midgley, \u201cRemembering and Honoring M\u0101ori Latter-day Saints\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of Robert Joseph, \u201cIntercultural Exchange, Matakite M\u0101ori and the Mormon Church<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0Mana M\u0101ori and Christianity<\/em>, ed. by Hugh Morrison, Lachy Paterson, Brett Knowles and Murray Rae (Wellington, New Zealand: Huia Publishers, 2012), pp. 43\u201372;1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0and of Selwyn K\u0101<\/span>tene, ed,\u00a0Turning the Hearts of the Children: Early M\u0101ori Leaders in the Mormon Church<\/em>\u00a0(Wellington, New Zealand: Steele Roberts Publishers, 2014). 231 pp. Glossary (pp. 220\u201322), Index (pp. 223\u201331). N.Z. $39.99.2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0Dr. Robert (Rob) Joseph\u2019s essay on M\u0101ori\u00a0<\/em>matakite\u00a0(seers) is described and assessed, along with the contents of a book, edited by Dr.\u00a0Selwyn K\u0101tene, consisting of essays on twelve nineteenth-century M\u0101ori Latter-day Saint \u201cleaders.\u201d All these essays are indications that M\u0101ori scholars are setting out and defending the M\u0101ori Latter-day Saint narrative. These essays also make available to future generations the stories of some of the M\u0101ori who subsequently helped set in place a M\u0101ori community of Latter-day Saints in Aotearoa (now the official M\u0101ori name for all of New Zealand rather than merely the name for the North Island). One crucial fact is that there were divine special revelations to M\u0101ori seers that opened the way for the message brought to them by Latter-day Saint missionaries. These essays will help M\u0101ori Saints (and others) remember and honor earlier encounters with the divine that yielded what was for at least a hundred years primarily a M\u0101ori community of Saints in New Zealand.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Stephen O. Smoot, \u201cReading\u00a0A Pentecostal Reads the Book of Mormon\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of John Christopher Thomas,\u00a0A Pentecostal Reads the Book of Mormon: A Literary and Theological Introduction<\/em>, Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2016. 448 pp. + bibliography. $24.95<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n