The Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 Volume 23 Number 1 Article 3 2011 The Book of Mormon: Passport to Discipleship Marilyn Arnold Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Arnold, Marilyn (2011) "The Book of Mormon: Passport to Discipleship," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: Vol. 23 : No. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol23/iss1/3 This Lecture is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Title The Book of Mormon: Passport to Discipleship Author(s) Marilyn Arnold Reference Mormon Studies Review 23/1 (2011): 1–12. ISSN 2156-8022 (print), 2156-8030 (online) Abstract Arnold gives personal reflections on the compatibility of scholarship and discipleship, the latter deepened by earnest study of the Book of Mormon. Neal A. Maxwell’s gift for words is illustrated. As an inex- haustible source of insight and delight, the Book of Mormon rewards close reading, as is apparent by a look at even the minor characters in the narrative. The Book of Mormon: Passport to Discipleship This annual Neal A. Maxwell Institute Lecture was originally given on 10 March 2011 at Brigham Young University. Marilyn arnold couple of years ago I was in Rexburg, lectur- countless library archives, conferences, and sym- A ing at BYU–Idaho. As I walked through the posia across the country. I lectured all over (no student center, I noticed a bulletin board featur- surprise there, I fear!), and I wrote books, articles, ing a poster with a catchy heading: “Come and and papers. More significantly, I taught students set sail on the disciple ship.” Student leaders were and enlisted some of them in my work. We grew being invited to sign up for a gathering at Teton together in scholarship and camaraderie and Lodge. I hardly think that a Teton Lodge destina- accomplishment. In a word, it was good. tion was what Elder Maxwell had in mind when It was good, yes, but it was earthbound. And he used the term discipleship, but I have to admire then, at last, I discovered a passport on another the creativity of the student who came up with kind of ship, a ship of the soul. A ship that had that clever bit of wordplay. I suspect he or she been docked right outside my door, waiting for was an English major. (We are known to take lib- me to board it. I had held the passport and board- erties with words.) ing ticket all my life and didn’t know it. That I confess that I boarded the “scholar ship” far passport was the Book of Mormon. It might be too long before I boarded the “disciple ship.” If something else for others, but for me it was, first my destinations in those days were more intel- and foremost, the Book of Mormon. And then— lectually demanding than the Teton Lodge, they it should have been no surprise—I discovered proved to be at least as enjoyable and possibly that the two “ships,” discipleship and scholar- more invigorating. Still, my ship was earthbound, ship, could travel side by side. Far from being and my charts were horizontal and literary two incompatible or mutually exclusive pursuits, rather than vertical. My destinations then were the lesser one, scholarship, could embrace the Mormon Studies Review 23.1 | 1 2 | Marilyn Arnold—The Book of Mormon: Passport to Discipleship greater one, discipleship. I could journey with sional career. Something of greater impor- both simultaneously. tance. Something of eternal consequence. Bringing those two “ships” together wrought I knew it was time to apply my training to nothing short of a miracle in my life. And the a more specific kind of service in the king- older I get, the more I value the treasures aboard dom, something that reached beyond the the “disciple ship,” and the more my goal is an worldly concerns of academia, else why ultimate rather than an earthly destination. This was I blessed to receive such training? is not in any way to diminish the role and value I knew it was time to study the Book of of scholarship. It was that ship, after all, that gave Mormon with, at the very least, the same me a highly satisfying profession, endless oppor- intensity that I had devoted to the study of tunities, and a “family” of friends across the literary texts and lives. I also knew it was country. And it taught me to study and think. But time to raise my life to a higher spiritual more important, and more pertinent to my sub- plane, to cast off anything superficial or ject this evening, the “scholar ship” gave me the maps, tools, and skills that someone like me—a incompatible with pure pursuit of divine word person—needed for steering the other truth in the Book of Mormon. ship, the “disciple ship,” onto a course of blessed I began studying, devouring the Book understanding and unspeakable joy. of Mormon daily, poring over every word In the preface to my new book on the Book of and phrase. As I read the early chapters, I Mormon, titled From the Heart: Charity in the Book was overwhelmed with a desire to write of Mormon, I describe the night of soul-searching, about the book.1 decades ago, that impelled me to begin earnest That night brought me to my knees and to the study of the Book of Mormon. What I say there realization that “the Book of Mormon was the is pertinent to my subject here, and I decided to key to my testimony” (xvi). I add that “writing quote briefly from it: the book that had its genesis in that first night My academic training, which was long and of soul-searching and divine guidance was a life- rigorous, was in the study of the written altering experience” (xvii).2 And indeed it was. word. I had learned how to read and under- The Book of Mormon became then, and still stand literary texts—narratives, essays, is, my passport to discipleship. It is the instru- poetry, journals, drama. And what was ment the Lord used to change my heart and the Book of Mormon but literature of the bring me to him with new commitment, and it highest caliber, literature from the mind of is the instrument he still uses as I stumble along the Lord, recorded through his chosen ser- on my imperfect journey. But I am aboard that vants. And in English, translated only once ship, growing, changing, celebrating with every and that directly from the Lord. I knew then, with a surety I had rarely 1. Marilyn Arnold, From the Heart: Charity in the Book of Mormon experienced before, that it was time to turn (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2011), xv–xvi. 2. The book I allude to is Sweet Is the Word: Reflections on the Book of those years of education and experience Mormon (American Fork, UT: Covenant, 1996). It was many wonderful to serving something beyond my profes- years in the making. Mormon Studies Review 23.1 | 3 reading. And every reading brings new insights in his sermon to the Zoramite castoffs. There he, and increased faith. too, employs metaphor in likening the word of I recognize, too, that important as my schol- God to a seed that we must plant in our hearts arly work has been to my study and teaching and nourish to a fulness of faith (Alma 32:28–43). and writing about the Book of Mormon, such Jacob reminds us that “by the power of [God’s] preparation is insufficient when brought alone to word man came upon the face of the earth” (Jacob a sacred text. The guidance of the Spirit is abso- 4:9). No fewer than three columns in the Book lutely essential. With that guidance, the humblest, of Mormon index are devoted to “word” entries, least educated among us can read and understand and the list is far from complete. and love the Book of Mormon. I am the first to One of the remarkable things about the man in admit that I am not a scholar of ancient religious whose memory we assemble tonight is his obvious history, nor of ancient writings. What I have love for, and skill with, words. That special gift is is what all of us have—the book itself. Perhaps, enhanced by his love for Jesus Christ, the Word however, as an English teacher and a writer for made flesh, and the church and gospel restored many years (I won’t say how many), I have devel- by that divine Son. Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s writ- oped a special relationship with written words, a ings attest to his utter delight in language. He love that has found its fullest expression in the experiments with word combinations and care- Book of Mormon. fully structures phrases and sentences to make I write about the Book of Mormon because words say a great deal in very little space. In just I have to; it compels me. It is the tangible force one address, we find such stunning images and behind my faith. The second Alma knew that alliterated phrases as “rhythm of the Restoration” power. He said that “the preaching of the word (twice), “trail of testifying tombstones,” “slit-eyed .

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