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Historicism, Revisionism, Positivism, and the Bible and Book of Mormon

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Historicism, Revisionism, Positivism, and the Bible and Book of Mormon Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1989 A Hermeneutic of Sacred Texts: Historicism, Revisionism, Positivism, and the Bible and Book of Mormon Alan Goff Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, and the Mormon Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Goff, Alan, "A Hermeneutic of Sacred Texts: Historicism, Revisionism, Positivism, and the Bible and Book of Mormon" (1989). Theses and Dissertations. 4719. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4719 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. iv co arg ga I1 frgg3 t 1 A hermeneutic of sacred texts historicism revisionism positivism and the bible and book of mormon A thesis presented to thetiletlletiie department of english brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of arts byb y alan goff june 1989 this thesis by alan goff is accepted in its present form by the department of english of brigham young university as satisfying the thesis requirement for the degree of master of arts eugene eglandeaglandengland comcomnitbeitte chairman akkk elaikaeka 212.1 n L x2samisaxosa jamesaafaulconer committee member MJ noel reynolds committee member 11131.1137 8 date slensaenswenn walker graduate coordinator table of contents introduction i chapter 1 histonhistoryY and its ismsiams 1 positivism 3.3 historicism 2828.28 chapter 2 A text of texts 43 43.43 revisionism the bible and the book of mormon 4343.43 chapter 3 the stealing of the daughters of the lamanitesLamanites 5757.57 revisionism revisited 585.5 8 the benjamin trilogy 66 intrabiblicalIntrabiblical narrative relationships 69gg69.69 the stealing of the daughters of the lamanitesLamanites 7474.74 meaning and narrative 838.8 3 92 chapter 4 bows and broken bows a 92.92 chapter 5 nahom loo100.100 chapter 6 creation and dissemination interpretation and curious workmanshipworkman ship 108108.108 after the manner of men liiill111 methodology 113113.113 historical approach many waters 11515 structuralist approach descents into the grave 122122.122 archetypal approach exoduses in the wilderness 1313313.13 3 formalist approach A righteous nation 155155.155 typological approach A genesis 171171.171 patterns of divinity patterns of interpretation 182182.182 bibliography of works consulted 1818818.18 8 I1introductionn t r 0 d u c t i 0 n when jesus was asked for a simple definition who is my neighbor his response was to tell the parable of the good samaritan his listeners may have wanted a simple definition perhaps even a theological exposition his modern readers may even look for definitions to problems such as neighborliness in quantitative definitions your neighbor lives within threequartersthree quarters of a block of you but jesus gave us a parable a story A story is what I1 want to tell stories make different truth claims on us than do doctrines in the case of the good samaritan jesus story has a universalizing effect your neighbor is anyone you meet even those you may have reason to hate doctrines and quantifications are a form of positivism that tend to narrow to specify what I1 want to do in reading the book of mormon is read it as a narrative not to find a collection of doctrines or to search for possible sources such other activities may be useful in spite of reservations but I1 think the narrative is primordial the narratives I1 want to read are not simple stories they are complexly interwoven texts that would strain the best of readers I1 bring to the task particular interests I1 view the book of mormon as a canonical work which is at the same time an ancient document given such a starting point I1 am prone to analyzing the text using insights from biblical criticism particularly criticism of the hebrew bible within biblical studies two approaches tend to predominate historical criticism attempts to find the historical background of the text and literary criticism tends to focus on the narrative historical biblical criticism approaches the text with the presupposition that the text we have is an accretion of texts the job of the historical critic is to find the time and circumstances that produced i 11 each segment of the text historical criticism tends to fragment the text attempting to find the sitz im Lebenleben of divisions within what have traditionally been accepted as unified works dividing even individual verses into fragments from different centuries literary criticism of the bible is less prone to discuss sources and tends to focus on meaning not that the two ventures are mutually exclusive literary critics may accept historical criticism as a starting point but their approach to the text is much different rather than attempting to reconstruct hypothetical predecessor texts literary critics of the bible accept the text as we have it the text we have is the only text we have they assume a unified text that made sense to some author in its present state what the historical critic sees as a defect in the text and as evidence of a long period of redaction the literary critic is more likely to see as an intentional complication of the text by the author what the historical critic is likely to see as a confused conjunction of disparate sources the literary critic is likely to see as sophistication artistry A historical approach to the bible contains within it a certain ontology and epistemology as does a literary approach I1 prefer the philosophical position that exposes these assumptions to examination by the reader by no means is hermeneutics the only philosophical approach that focuses on the assumptions that produce a particular reading but it is the philosophical position I1 take up those who study either literary criticism or philosophy recognize how closely connected the two fields are not only are these two fields closely connected but they are having a broad impact on all other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences this thesis draws from both fields my project is actually the beginning of a much larger project what I1 here combine in one thesis is two separate but I111 think closely related projects because absolute truth claims are made in contemporary mormon culture about iiiliilililllii the meaning of the book of mormon text both the truth claims and the readinoreadigoreadingsrs are ones I1 question I1 feel the need to explore the philosophical basis of truth claims made while reading the book of mormon text before I1 actually read the text myself what I1 and others term tv revisionist readings of the book of mormon have within the past thirty years attempted to explain the book of mormon as a product of joseph smiths environment as an american frontier novel rather than an ancient document which the book claims to be this attempt to revise the understanding of the book of mormon from within the community of mormons aims to expose the text toff to the scrutiny of reason and empirical research ham 16 all I1 want to do is subject the scrutiny itself to reasoned inquiry the literary position I1 take up is that of a literary approach to biblical texts the philosophical position I1 take up is hermeneutics although what is called hermeneutics in biblical criticism meaning essentially interpretation and what is called hermeneutics in philosophy have common roots the latter is much more fully developed in philosophical circles I1 use the word as it is used by philosophers hermeneutics opposes the truth claims frequently made in revisionist discussions of the book of mormon specifically the claims my hermeneutical approach opposes are those that assert that they can tell us precisely what the text means free of interpretation and bias to establish the position and ideological interests of the commentator is necessary before we grant authority to the interpretation that follows I1 first examine some of these truth claims call them positivism or historicism they are the same to me the theoretical issues I1 discuss in the first chapter I1 apply in the later ones I1 want my own truth claims about what the text means to be exposed to the same criticism that I1 expose others to i1 V in addition to discussing the interpretive issues of positivism historicism and hermeneutics I1 also intended to read particular passages in the book of mormon and subject them to a hermeneutical critique thomas alexander advocates a historichistoricisthistoricismist position I1 intend some time in the future to explore the philosophical difficulties of such a position in more than a theoretical sense by reading his reconstruction of mormon doctrine article I1 intended as part of this project to examine his attempt to explain how contemporaries would have understood what he claims to be a repudiation of the doctrinal content of the book of mormon by joseph smith in his later life I1 intended also to examine michael quinns book which makes similarhistoric historicisthistoricismist claims about the possibilities of seeing things as people in an earlier age did about magic and early mormonism particularly about the book of mormon finally I1 intended to examine anthony hutchinsons claims about the book of mormon and other scripture none of these projects have I1 been able to complete as part of this thesis As part of my own
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