Me and the Mormons

Ah, the Book of Mormon in Swedish. Very old Swedish. Very hard to read! I ordered the Book of Mormon gratis from the LDS Church already in senior high school, but never managed to finish it. I *did* note (with some surprise) that it prohibited polygamy, and that it argued that the "Lamanites" (American Indians) got their dark skin because of their disobedience to God. And then there was the weird idea that Jesus visited the "Nephites" in person! I think I read the Mormon scripture in its entirety about 15 years ago.

While the book is fascinating, it's obviously a modern document based on the Old and New Testaments in their pre-critical King James versions, interspersed with 19th century theological discourses, anti-Masonry and a kind of White settler romanticism about America being the chosen land á la Israel. Even the seemingly original notions about Indians having a Hebrew ancestry prove to be contemporary with Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. But then, these traits were probably what made the Book of Mormon so successful, in 19th century America. Why it's still going strong in 2013 is a more intriguing question!

The story of how Joseph Smith found and translated the golden plates frankly deserves a kind of "hard to believe award" among religious foundation stories. Curiously, it becomes easier to believe if taken in its original, magic-occult context, as detailed in "Inventing Mormonism" by Marquardt and Walters, or "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View" by D Michael Quinn. The later ideas of Joseph Smith were even more Hermetic, but these are not visible in the Book of Mormon, which still sounds (at least to the uninitiated) main-line Christian, although in an unusual geographic setting.

Of course, Joseph Smith claimed that those who sincerely ask God in prayer whether the Book of Mormon is true will get an affirmative answer, but, alas, I didn't even try. Of course, a Nephite synagogue unearthed in Upstate New York might do the trick...