“Often thought of being led directionally by “the [Holy] Spirit” to drunken Laban, Nephi first foreshadows the influence of “the spirit” later encountered after unsheathing the sword. The talking spirit comes of the sword itself, carried by Laban and which in voice commands Nephi to slay the man. That sword is also featured in Words of the Faithful.”
WHAT IS THIS WEBSITE?
You’ve arrived at a website created to allow interested parties to collaborate and explore the following texts:
1. The Book of Mormon
2. Words of the Faithful
3. Words of Them Which Have Slumbered
The hope is that this website will help people reimagine the accounts given in the Book of Mormon, and their possible connections with the world described by JRR Tolkien. The bridge between the two is found in Words of the Faithful and Words of Them Which Have Slumbered.
The edition of the Book of Mormon used here is the 3-part edition published by Daymon Smith in 2017.
WHY REIMAGINE?
In the introduction of Daymon Smith’s publishing of The Book of Mormon he states the following:
“Published in 1830 by Grandin Press, a printer established near Joseph Smith’s home in Palmyra, New York, the Book of Mormon was little read, but often pointed to as evidence of Smith’s restoration of the Christian religion’s original powers. Mormons and their religion would emerge within a decade, and quickly that book was buried under dogmas of Restorationists, polygamists, nationalists, and currently, corporate-capitalists masquerading as a religion.”
Daymon’s five-volume Cultural History of the Book of Mormon chronicles that burying of the Book of Mormon and concludes with a “fantasia” re-imagining what the Book of Mormon says if allowed to speak for itself rather than being interpreted through the lens of a corrupted Bible.
If that wasn’t a wild enough of an idea, Daymon claimed in Oct 2017 to have been given some “words” tying the writings of JRR Tolkien to the world described by the writings of Joseph Smith and that both were historically accurate representations of the world we occupy. The words given were at least a partial fulfillment of prophecy given in 2 Nephi 27 promising that “that the words of the faithful should speak as if it were from the dead”.
Daymon claims in the introduction:
“Neither joke nor swindle, I know what it is, and how it was written. I am a scribe, not its author. And if perhaps failing generally as a human, all the more is this tale evidence of a good Father, trusting; and witness to devoted friends in body and spirit. The story is for reading, to open our hearing with a gift before this disenchanted twilight; labels, genres, gossip, and origin stories should not talk over its presence.”
He further states:
“It may somewhat surprise readers to learn that the Book of Mormon and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien complement one another, as cosmologies and histories. From many sources, including the tale told here, Mormon readers perhaps may unlearn many inheritances since proven false, nonetheless institutionalized by a powerful church.”
So…with that bold claim as our backdrop, we offer this website as a collaborative resource for a reimagining of the Book of Mormon.
How to Collaborate
Interested in joining the collaboration? Read more about it here.