{"id":48301,"date":"2024-11-10T06:20:51","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T13:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=48301"},"modified":"2024-11-10T06:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T13:16:02","slug":"book-review-the-book-of-mormon-for-the-least-of-these-helaman-moroni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2024\/11\/book-review-the-book-of-mormon-for-the-least-of-these-helaman-moroni\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review — “The Book of Mormon for the Least of These: Helaman-Moroni”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe lessons we learn from scripture depend on the questions we ask\u2026 The Book of Mormon\u2026warrants the most challenging questions we can throw at it. This book attempts to ask those difficult questions.\u201d So opens this third and final volume of The Book of Mormon for the Least of These<\/a>, focusing on the books of Helaman through Moroni. Specifically, this commentary asks what the Book of Mormon says \u201cabout genocide, bigotry, environmental destruction, poverty, and inequality? What can it offer a world that is broken, full of hatred and unfettered greed?\u201d The Book of Mormon and this commentary have lots to say on these (and many other) crucial topics for this day and age.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Olsen Hemming and Salleh bring myriad insights. (I counted more than 40 notes or highlights in my copy.) From underlining the unfairness of the justice system that locked up five innocent men in Helaman 9 (\u201chow many times in the Book of Mormon do innocent people go to prison?\u201d), to drawing attention to the failures of Nephi the prophet (\u201ca promise from God that your work is right is not a promise of ease and safety\u201d), to inviting readers to reflect on the likely fate of women and children carried away into the wilderness by robbers (\u201cvulnerable bodies are frequently a casualty of men\u2019s wars\u201d). Again and again, the authors point to themes often largely neglected in discussions of these books. Olsen Hemming and Salleh provide questions for meditation or discussion related to many passages, making this an ideal volume to integrate into a class.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019ve had the privilege of discussing each volume in this trilogy with the authors, Fatimah Salleh and Margaret Olsen Hemming. If I\u2019ve taken one thing from each of those conversations, it\u2019s how much they love the Book of Mormon and how much they love the prophets in this book. They don\u2019t give the prophets a pass, as one or another of them \u201csometimes engages in ideas of prosperity gospel, racism, sexism, and the justification of abuse and oppression.\u201d But their critiques come from a place of respect and deep affection. I unreservedly recommend this entire series.<\/span><\/p>\n

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