UPC: 9780190603861 | The Pearl of Greatest Price : Mormonism s Most Controversial Scripture (Hardcover)

UPC lookup results for: 9780190603861 | The Pearl of Greatest Price : Mormonism s Most Controversial Scripture (Hardcover)

The Pearl of Greatest Price narrates the history of Mormonism s fourth volume of scripture canonized in 1880 as The Pearl of Great Price. The authors track its predecessors describe its several components and assess their theological significance within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From the disputed origins of Smith s Book of Abraham to perceived discrepancies between Smith s canonized visionary account and other versions the status of this text is vital to the church s present health and future prospects. The Pearl of Greatest Price narrates the history of Mormonism s fourth volume of scripture canonized in 1880. The authors track its predecessors describe its several components and assess their theological significance within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Four principal sections are discussed along with attendant controversies associated with each. The Book of Moses purports to be a Mosaic narrative missing from the biblical version of Genesis. Too little treated in the scholarship on Mormonism these chapters produced only months after the Book of Mormon was published actually contain the theological nucleus of Latter-day Saint doctrines as well as a virtual template for the Restoration Joseph Smith was to effect. In The Pearl of Greatest Price the author covers three principal parts that are the focus of many of the controversies engulfing Mormonism today. These parts are The Book of Abraham The Book of Moses and The Joseph Smith History. Most controversial of all is the Book of Abraham a production that arose out of a group of papyri Smith acquired along with four mummies in 1835. Most of the papyri disappeared in the great Chicago Fire but surviving fragments have been identified as Egyptian funerary documents. This has created one of the most serious challenges to Smith s prophetic claims the LDS church has faced. LDS scholars however have developed several frameworks for vindicating the inspiration of the resulting narrative and Smith s calling as a prophet. The author attempts to make sense of Smith s several at times divergent accounts of his First Vision one of which is canonized as scripture. He also assesses the creedal nature of Smith s Articles of Faith in the context of his professed anti-creedalism. In sum this study chronicles the volume s historical legacy and theological indispensability to the Latter-day Saint tradition as well as the reasons for its resilience and future prospects in the face of daunting challenges.