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Author Brown, Samuel Morris, author.

Title Joseph Smith's translation : the words and worlds of early Mormonism / Samuel Morris Brown
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 300 pages)
Contents The quest for pure language -- The nature of time -- Human and divine selves -- The task of the Book of Mormon: to save the Bible, first you must kill it -- Rereading the Bible: Joseph Smith's new translation -- The Egyptian Bible and the cosmic order -- The transcendent immanent temple
Summary "Among many remarkable claims, Mormon founder Joseph Smith reported that he had translated ancient scriptures. He dictated the Book of Mormon, an American Bible from metal plates associated with Native antiquity; directly rewrote the King James Bible; and produced a scripture, derived from Egyptian funerary papyri, which he called the Book of Abraham. Smith and his followers used the term translation to describe the genesis of these English texts, which remain canonical for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most commenters see these scriptures as merely linguistic objects; the central and controversial question has been whether Smith's English texts are literal translations of extant source documents. On closer inspection, though, his translations are far more metaphysical than linguistic. These translations express a non-ordinary power of language to connect people across barriers of space and time. Within these metaphysical scriptures, Smith expounded a theology of human deification that he also termed "translation." This one word thus referred to a scripture capable of mediating between the living and the dead and to the transformation of humans into divine beings. Joseph Smith's projects of metaphysical translation place Mormonism at a productive edge of tense transitions later associated with secular modernity, a modernity challenged by the very existence of the Latter-day Saints. Smith's translations and the theology that supported them illuminate the power and vulnerability of his critique of American culture in transition as they set the stage for two more centuries of cultural change"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on July 06, 2020)
Subject Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Sacred books -- History and criticism
SUBJECT Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fast
Bible -- Translating. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85013724
Book of Mormon -- Translating
Pearl of Great Price. Book of Abraham -- Translating
Bible fast
Book of Mormon fast
Pearl of Great Price. Book of Abraham fast
Subject Translating and interpreting -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Latter Day Saint churches -- Sacred books -- History and criticism
Latter Day Saint churches -- Sacred books
Sacred books
Translating and interpreting
United States
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020001438
ISBN 9780190054267
0190054263
9780190054243
0190054247
0190054255
9780190054250