Keyness and Collocation Distinctions in How Latter-day Saint Communities Relate to God: Implications for Mental Health Professionals

Multicultural competence includes understanding how spirituality informs client worldview. This corpus linguistics study examines the worldview of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through analysis of the Book of Mormon as a sacred text. Keywords of the Book of Mormon text are identified by using the Hebrew Bible and New Testament as reference corpuses, and the Book of Mormon is used as a reference corpus to identify biblical keywords as well. Collocates of deity within the Book of Mormon text are identified and examined. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.

The Topic Structure of the Book of Mormon: Worldview Insights for Mental Health Professionals

This study examined the spiritually informed worldview of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through exploration of the topical structure of the Book of Mormon sacred text. Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) was used to identify the latent topical structure of the Book of Mormon. The two research questions were (RQ1): What is the topical structure of the Book of Mormon?, and (RQ2): How do the level of topics vary by individual subcorpuses within the Book of Mormon? This effort produced a 30- topic model. The levels of 30 topics among the sections of the Book of Mormon were detailed. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for further study were presented. In addition, a discussion on how the worldview structures produced by this study can inform the practice of mental health professionals takes place.

“All the Precious Trees of the Earth”: Trees in Restoration Scripture

In Hebrew scripture and the New Testament, trees play a prominent role, most obviously in the first chapters of Genesis and the last chapter of Revelations. Trees also serve as messianic heralds, as life-giving resources, as aesthetic standards of beauty, as exemplars of strength and fame, and as markers and instruments of salvation. Like the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Mormon and other Latter-day Saint scriptures feature prominent references to forests, trees, branches, roots, and seeds. What is unique about the spiritual and cultural landscape invoked by Latter-day Saint scripture? More specifically, what is said about trees and their accoutrements in restoration scripture? While numerous studies have focused on the major thematic tree scenes in the Book of Mormon, the tree of life in the visions of Lehi and Nephi, Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree, and Alma’s discourse on the seed of faith and the tree of righteousness, this paper aims at a broader look at trees in Latter-day Saint scripture. Taking cues from Robert Pogue Harrison’s Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, this paper takes a wide-ranging look at how trees in restoration scripture can help us rhetorically address the ecological dilemmas of our time. When the Gods built us a home, they did so with trees, and when God called on Their people to build a house, God told them to “bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth” to build it (see Abraham 4:11–12 and D&C 124:26–27). Another revelation declares bluntly: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees” (D&C 77:9). As eaters of sunshine and exhalers of oxygen, trees have much to teach us about how to live, and trees in restoration scripture specifically contribute to a broader vision of ecological living.

The Earth as “Mother of Men” in Latter-Day Saint Theology

Following the completion of work on the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith began his work on expanding the Bible’s scope. Unlike many of his contemporary Bible thinkers who were also working on translations of the Bible, Smith expanded the text in unique ways, breathing life into archaic and mysterious figures and developing themes far beyond the Biblical scope. Within the first year of the Church of Jesus Christ, Smith introduced significant information concerning a vision of the pseudepigraphical character of Enoch and additional information concerning the creation narrative. These additions give insight into Smith’s understanding of his theology and his views on the environment. These additional writings connect environmental care and social injustice. The unique theological implication is that the treatment of the marginalized and downtrodden is closely related to the environment.

‘Do Mormons think The Book of Mormon is funny?’

Public ridicule of a minority typically predicts a defensive response from the target of that humor. This is because public ridicule provides a polarizing spectacle, where the majority enjoys a humorous face reward, and solidarity, at the expense of that minority. Logically, we could expect a faith-based minority to be especially sensitive to public ridicule, since their face investment is greater, in inverse proportion to their social position and power, and because their group (and personal) identity is linked inextricably to what would normally be inviolable: a sacred text, a prophet, or deity. However, the official response from the LDS Church to the musical comedy The Book of Mormon defies this expectation. This paper analyses this response, in order to understand why a religious minority chose to creatively engage with what should have been a highly face-threatening satire.

Religion and Revolution: Joseph Smith, Abraham Lincoln, and the Book of Mormon

The name Joseph Smith, b. 23 December 1803, d. 27 June, 1844 invokes words like heretic, false prophet, con artist and fruitcake. No stranger to con artistry or the interior of a prisoner cell, Smith was arrested numerous times on legitimate charges, he also accomplished something no other Prophet did: developed the character and strategies for First Citizen of Humanity, Abraham Lincoln and helped start a War Between the States that enslaved men might be free. Though he never lived to see his Book of Mormon accomplish its ends, he, along with the Latter Day Saints were never given recognition, not even informally for this, humankind’s the most important task. The most important in human history. In this paper I detail important elements of Smith’s and his Church’s work and also illuminate his ties to Mr. Lincoln, and mourn the wayward Church of today. Perhaps revisiting Mister Smith’s Vision will reignite all of us and cause us to rise up and wage one more War against tyranny, weaponry, waste, abuse, neglect, and utter ignorance of our innate spiritual principals.

Revelation and the new Atheism

This chapter contains a critical discussion of what three New Atheists—Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens—presuppose about divine revelation. Though none of these authors discusses this concept directly, their explicit remarks about alleged divinely authored texts are based on presuppositions about what a genuine divine revelation would be like if God existed. These explicit remarks are contained in their content- and origin-based arguments for the conclusion that no book (Bible, Qur’ān, or Book of Mormon) was authored by God. The former arguments emphasize allegedly problematic textual inclusions and omissions and the latter arguments stress the allegedly problematic role of humans in the production of these texts. Criticism of their presuppositions focuses on problems with their hermeneutical assumptions and exegetical practices and also on their failure to consider the possibility of progressive revelation, dual (divine–human) authorship of the Bible, and alternative divine purposes and strategies for communicating with humans.