{"id":42445,"date":"2022-01-25T07:54:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T12:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=42445"},"modified":"2022-01-25T11:58:15","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T16:58:15","slug":"lets-talk-about-the-book-of-abraham-a-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2022\/01\/lets-talk-about-the-book-of-abraham-a-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk about the Book of Abraham–a Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kerry Muhlstein\u2019s Let\u2019s Talk about the Book of Abraham<\/a><\/em> Is the latest entry in a series that Deseret Book has been publishing to address controversial or touchy topics in the Church.\u00a0 Based on my experience with Brittany Chapman Nash\u2019s Let\u2019s Talk About Polygamy<\/em><\/a> (the previous volume in this series of books), I had expected something like the Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University Press, with a scholarly discussion of the topic.\u00a0 Muhlstein\u2019s work does indeed follow this pattern, presenting a concise, readable, and informative in discussing the Book of Abraham.\u00a0 Unlike the Very Short Introduction series, though, it is written from an overtly faithful perspective and is apologetic in its orientation.\u00a0 It is a good, fast-paced introduction for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the ongoing discussion of this controversial entry in the Pearl of Great Price.<\/p>\n

The book is divided into three sections.\u00a0 The first explores the history of the Book of Abraham, looking at Abraham, the papyrus scrolls that Joseph Smith would later purchase, the translation project, and eventual publication of the book.\u00a0 The second section explores a series of questions about the Book of Abraham, including questions about the process of translating the Book of Abraham, the facsimiles and explanations offered in the published Book of Abraham, and historical evidences that align with the contents of the Book of Abraham.\u00a0 The final section is small (less than 10 pages) and briefly explores some of the content of the Book of Abraham. At 144 pages (106 of pages text), it\u2019s a very fast read and it\u2019s also highly affordable at $11.99 for the paperback.<\/p>\n

I felt like there were a lot of good things going for Let\u2019s Talk About the Book of Abraham.<\/em>\u00a0 It\u2019s engaging, informative, and covers a lot of ground in a little amount of space.\u00a0 It also briefly discusses several possible ways to interpret the information and presents prevalent theories at most junctures in the book.\u00a0 I was left with a lot to think about when it came to the Book of Abraham that I hadn\u2019t known or thought about before.\u00a0 For example, the detailed explanation of why it\u2019s unlikely the surviving fragments are the sections Joseph Smith studied while working on the translation project was something that made a lot of sense to me that I wasn\u2019t familiar with before.\u00a0 Some of the information about Egyptian studies that support the Book of Abraham were really neat to become more acquainted with.\u00a0 The details about the ancient owner of the papyrus (Hor) was also fascinating.\u00a0 The author has an extensive background in both Egyptology and the history of the Book of Abraham that shows throughout the book.<\/p>\n

My main complaint has to do with the writing style rather than the information covered.\u00a0 When I reviewed Chapman\u2019s book, I noted that:<\/p>\n

It is written by a believing Latter-day Saint with believing Latter-day Saints as the primary audience.\u00a0 Because of this, there are apologetic elements woven into the fabric of the book.\u00a0 I appreciated, however, that it didn\u2019t feel like it was being crammed down my throat while reading.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Muhlstein\u2019s book is likewise written by and for believing Latter-day Saints, but this time around, I frequently felt like the testimony and apologetic elements were being crammed down my throat.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure some people will find the constant restatements of Muhlstein\u2019s belief that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that Smith translated the Book of Abraham by the power of God, that we are blessed to have the Book of Abraham, that revelation is the only way to really learn the truth about the Book of Abraham, and discussions about epistemology to be comforting.\u00a0 I personally found it tiring and distracting.\u00a0 To me, this was a detriment to an otherwise engaging and informative book.<\/p>\n

My only other complaint was that I would have loved more discussion on a lot of topics.\u00a0 It\u2019s meant to be a brief introduction to the general topic, so it\u2019s understandable that the book wasn\u2019t able to explore every detail about the Book of Abraham.\u00a0 Still, it felt like there were a lot of topics that were mentioned in passing that warranted further discussion.\u00a0 For example, it\u2019s mentioned in passing a couple times that Joseph Smith may have had more involvement in creating the text we have today than we\u2019ve traditionally thought and that his study of Hebrew was connected to the Book of Abraham translation project. \u00a0There wasn\u2019t a lot of detail shared about the implications of or reasoning behind those statements.\u00a0 One facet of this that could have been explored more deeply is Matthew Grey\u2019s work<\/a> on exactly how Joseph Smith\u2019s Hebrew studies connect with the text of the Book of Abraham.\u00a0 Grey\u2019s work is referenced in the endnotes, but not really used extensively in the discussion about translation.\u00a0 Another area that could have had more detail is the interpretation of the facsimiles.\u00a0 Muhlestein mentions that Egyptologists have different interpretations but rarely shares what those interpretations are, choosing instead to focus on ways to dismiss those Egyptologists\u2019 interpretations and discussing interpretations that do align with how the facsimiles are presented in the Book of Abraham.\u00a0 There are a lot of areas that I would have liked to see more details and discussion with, though that is most likely due to the nature of the book and its size than anything else.<\/p>\n

Thus, overall, I have a positive impression of Kerry Muhlestein\u2019s Let\u2019s Talk About the Book of Abraham<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a quick read, but also very informative.\u00a0 I learned a lot that I hadn\u2019t been introduced to before. \u00a0My only complaints were relatively minor ones (writing style is personal preference and wanting to have more of the book is an indication that I found what we do have to be good enough to warrant more), so I would say it is worth picking up and reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kerry Muhlstein\u2019s Let\u2019s Talk about the Book of Abraham Is the latest entry in a series that Deseret Book has been publishing to address controversial or touchy topics in the Church.\u00a0 Based on my experience with Brittany Chapman Nash\u2019s Let\u2019s Talk About Polygamy (the previous volume in this series of books), I had expected something like the Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University Press, with a scholarly discussion of the topic.\u00a0 Muhlstein\u2019s work does indeed follow this pattern, presenting a concise, readable, and informative in discussing the Book of Abraham.\u00a0 Unlike the Very Short Introduction series, though, it is written from an overtly faithful perspective and is apologetic in its orientation.\u00a0 It is a good, fast-paced introduction for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the ongoing discussion of this controversial entry in the Pearl of Great Price. The book is divided into three sections.\u00a0 The first explores the history of the Book of Abraham, looking at Abraham, the papyrus scrolls that Joseph Smith would later purchase, the translation project, and eventual publication of the book.\u00a0 The second section explores a series of questions about the Book of Abraham, including questions about the process of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,1312],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-mormon-review"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42460,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42445\/revisions\/42460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}