Rating: 
Summary: Useful for anyone wanting to know the history of the B of M
Review: "By the Hand of Mormon" provides a solid presentation of the developing role of the Book of Mormon in the various phases of the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church). Because it is an academic study it does not take sides, but this does not mean the tone of the book is negative towards the Church and its beliefs. Nor does the Church get an automatic pass. The Book of Mormon had a powerful role in the founding and rise of the Church that has varied in emphasis over the past 170+ years until its arrival at the central role it plays today.
Present day members might be surprised to learn how little the content of the Book of Mormon was used in the preaching of early missionaries. They concentrated on Bible scriptures so their arguments would be based on familiar ground. It was the miraculous way the Book of Mormon came forth that was preached. Professor Givens notes the change in emphasis on using the Book of Mormon in gospel teaching since 1960. His discussions of the history of archaeology and the Book of Mormon are fascinating. I also enjoyed his penetrating discussion of (his neologism) "Dialogic Revelation" as a major contribution of the Book of Mormon and one the important differences in its role from that of the Bible.
This book may have the most to offer to people who are not members of the Church, but are curious about the historical events that led to the publishing of the Book of Mormon and of its role in the life of Joseph Smith and the development of the Mormon church. Because this is an academic book, it is not out to convert anyone. It is simply a serious and fair-minded discussion of what happened, what significance those who participated in the event felt and said (pro and con), and analyses of important aspects of the book and the roles it has played since its publication. Anyone who reads this book will be better informed about this very interesting topic and will have the facts rather than rumors and mistaken notions to rely on.
It is only in the past twenty or thirty years that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has become the subject of academic study. Thousands of books have been written by believers and by people who reject the Church, but relatively few by serious scholars. Even the so-called New Mormon History is often driven and overwhelmed by its inherent, but unstated attitudes for or against the Church and its beliefs.
I found this book to be very useful, informative, and skillfully dispassionate. As a believer, I did not sense any of the all too common condescending reporting of my beliefs. And as a person who has lived my life in Michigan where the Church is a small minority, I did not find that the reporting of the arguments against the Book of Mormon or the Church to be tacitly supported or rejected. They were reported fairly and clearly with the strengths of the various arguments noted as were the subsequent replies to them.
Professor Givens writes very well and rewards his readers for the time they spend with his book. Masterfully done!
Rating:
Summary: Fair and Balanced
Review: At last, a discussion of the Book of Mormon that presents both sides of the scholarly debate about its origins! Most previous treatments of the subject have presented only one side of the story, but Givens has taken all that into account and provides the pros and cons surrounding a book that has recently passed 100 million copies in print, rivaling the Bible in popularity. Whether you're a believer or not, you'll find this an interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you!
Review: Finally a fresh air in the midst of the Evangelical-LDS dispute. Many thanks to Givens for his utterly nuanced and deep analysis of the discourse surrounding the Book of Mormon since its beginning and illuminating the book as scripture, as a token and as a book worth respecting.
I recommend the book for anyone who wants to sincerely give the notion of religion or faith a chance in our century. We are brought to believe that prophets and gods had a golden age in the past, but it seems they how come back during the 18th century in Palmyra.
Givens' style of writing is neutral, sometimes difficult to follow but refreshing, because he introduces aspects that both LDS and Evangelicals need to see, in Swedish we says that you can't see the forest because of the trees and Givens has actually succeded in showing the forest, with all its advantages and disadvantages.
Being myself a researcher I recognised the way Givens actually lets the opponents and the believers to "speak" for themselves and he tries to be a fair judge in dismissing fast conclusions from both sides. Being an agnostic, not regarding any book as holy, I appreciate taking part of Givens' conclusions, his pinpointing of seeing
1) a difference between Bible and Book of Mormon
2) showing the specific characteristinc of the latter and
3) proving - yes actually proving - that the Book of Mormon must be taken to be true or false, and therefore he does not welcome the efforts of cultural LDS to create a middle ground. I belive that point 3 is correct in the arguing style of Givens, but can be seen as to much absolute.
Read it, it gives LDS a chance to be taken for seriously and I would love to read more books with the same inspiring approach, a scholarly approach which tries to discern and to draw sound conclusions, distancing itsefl from an "either-or" approach.
Thank you again!
Rating: 
Summary: Good book-- the side of the story that needs to be told
Review: For a long time, people who desire careful analysis of the Book of Mormon have had nowhere to turn. They were required to choose between three types of sources: 1) abrasively anti-mormon polemics; 2) "objective" accounts; and 3) official church accounts.There is no shortage of studies that fall into categorey 1. You can buy many or most of them here on Amazon. They are worse than useless, though, because they are designed to use as much evidence as possible to put Mormonism in a bad light. They are not very choosy about their sources, they ignore positive evidence and stories, and they follow what might be called Ed Decker's razor-- of competing interpretations of disputed historical fact, the one that make Mormons and Mormonism seem most outlandish must be true. Category 2 studies are more helpful. These studies are more (sometimes) selective in their choice of sources. The problem with them is their "interpretative" element. They apply a version of Occam's razor to interpreting facts. However, while this sounds good and scientific, it leads inevitably to one conclusion-- Joseph Smith was not a prophet, the Book of Mormon is not true, etc. To see why this is so, consider that Occam's razor provides no real guidance as to how one goes about deciding which of the competing explanations of a phenomenon is "simpler." These books use a "secular" version of Occam's razor, where non-religious explanations are always more likely to be true, because they are "simpler" in some sense. This is fine as far as it goes, but it perpetuates a lie, in some sense-- the lie is that the secular interpretation is the only plausible one, or worse yet, that the facts as seen through this secular mindset are simply "the facts," with no real interpretation being done at all. Category 3 books are not all that useful for analysis because analysis is not their point-- they are designed to present the SPIRITUALLY RELEVANT portions of a story that is already assumed to be true. That is, they are answering different questions-- not questions about WHAT happened, or WHETHER something happened, but questions about what we should DO in light of what happened. Givens gives us a category 4-- this book is like the books in category two, but its Occam's razor does not discount the possibility of religious explanations in advance. Instead, it priviledges the possibility of religious explanations-- where a plausible one is available, it is assumed to be true. This is no better or worse than category 2. It is only the "other side" of the category 2 story. And it needs to be told, because otherwise the assumption among many in the world will be that believers simply don't know their own history, rather than the truth, which is that they don't see the evidence in the same light as their critics. It is well-told here. Most of the complaints against the book are that it doesn't fit into one of the other three categories mentioned. But it doesn't pretend to. And that shouldn't bother you unless you happen to have already made up your mind that one of the other three categories is the best one. That will be the case if (numbers correspond to the categories): 1) You believe that Mormonism is an evil that must be fought at all costs (usually because it is not in agreement with your own faith); 2) You believe that secular explanations of phenomena are usually or always more reliable than religious/revelatory explanations of those same phenomena; 3) You believe that Mormonism is true and the only remaining question is what to do now. If you are interested in how a believer makes sense of the historical/textual, and other evidence regarding the Book of Mormon, this book is for you. If you really want to get crazy, actually get a copy of the BofM and read it for yourself, trying to evaluate whether this thing is or is not for real, based not just on the history, but on the actual text. Forming an intelligent opinion without reading it all the way through carefully is hard to do, because all of the stuff out there "about" it, has either agenda 1,2, or 3 in mind.
Rating:
Summary: Good book-- the side of the story that needs to be told
Review: For a long time, people who desire careful analysis of the Book of Mormon have had nowhere to turn. They were required to choose between three types of sources: 1) abrasively anti-mormon polemics; 2) "objective" accounts; and 3) official church accounts. There is no shortage of studies that fall into categorey 1. You can buy many or most of them here on Amazon. They are worse than useless, though, because they are designed to use as much evidence as possible to put Mormonism in a bad light. They are not very choosy about their sources, they ignore positive evidence and stories, and they follow what might be called Ed Decker's razor-- of competing interpretations of disputed historical fact, the one that make Mormons and Mormonism seem most outlandish must be true. Category 2 studies are more helpful. These studies are more (sometimes) selective in their choice of sources. The problem with them is their "interpretative" element. They apply a version of Occam's razor to interpreting facts. However, while this sounds good and scientific, it leads inevitably to one conclusion-- Joseph Smith was not a prophet, the Book of Mormon is not true, etc. To see why this is so, consider that Occam's razor provides no real guidance as to how one goes about deciding which of the competing explanations of a phenomenon is "simpler." These books use a "secular" version of Occam's razor, where non-religious explanations are always more likely to be true, because they are "simpler" in some sense. This is fine as far as it goes, but it perpetuates a lie, in some sense-- the lie is that the secular interpretation is the only plausible one, or worse yet, that the facts as seen through this secular mindset are simply "the facts," with no real interpretation being done at all. Category 3 books are not all that useful for analysis because analysis is not their point-- they are designed to present the SPIRITUALLY RELEVANT portions of a story that is already assumed to be true. That is, they are answering different questions-- not questions about WHAT happened, or WHETHER something happened, but questions about what we should DO in light of what happened. Givens gives us a category 4-- this book is like the books in category two, but its Occam's razor does not discount the possibility of religious explanations in advance. Instead, it priviledges the possibility of religious explanations-- where a plausible one is available, it is assumed to be true. This is no better or worse than category 2. It is only the "other side" of the category 2 story. And it needs to be told, because otherwise the assumption among many in the world will be that believers simply don't know their own history, rather than the truth, which is that they don't see the evidence in the same light as their critics. It is well-told here. Most of the complaints against the book are that it doesn't fit into one of the other three categories mentioned. But it doesn't pretend to. And that shouldn't bother you unless you happen to have already made up your mind that one of the other three categories is the best one. That will be the case if (numbers correspond to the categories): 1) You believe that Mormonism is an evil that must be fought at all costs (usually because it is not in agreement with your own faith); 2) You believe that secular explanations of phenomena are usually or always more reliable than religious/revelatory explanations of those same phenomena; 3) You believe that Mormonism is true and the only remaining question is what to do now. If you are interested in how a believer makes sense of the historical/textual, and other evidence regarding the Book of Mormon, this book is for you. If you really want to get crazy, actually get a copy of the BofM and read it for yourself, trying to evaluate whether this thing is or is not for real, based not just on the history, but on the actual text. Forming an intelligent opinion without reading it all the way through carefully is hard to do, because all of the stuff out there "about" it, has either agenda 1,2, or 3 in mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Scholarly Work
Review: I wrote quite a long review concerning this book which resided on these pages for months. When I checked back recently, I noticed it had been removed. But here it is in a nutshell:
This book is not in any real sense a scholarly treatment of the Book of Mormon or it's origins. Givens is an apologist for the traditionally accepted LDS view of the origin of the Book of Mormon, and he has marshalled his considerable intellect (and prodigious writing skills) to prove the wisdom of this view. The fact that he supposedly presents counter-arguments to the book's historicity should not obscure this central fact; indeed, these arguments are consistently shown to be flawed (or at least open to serious doubts), while arguments that support the BOM's divine origins are constructed with the most fantastical interpretations of both history and archeology. His book masquerades as a scholarly work, but it is mostly useful as an insight into the lengths some LDS "scholars" will go to prove their holy book is something more than a wonderfully inventive novel written by a charismatic young man in the 19th Century.
As a side note, this book should make excellect reading for intelligent LDS devotees who wish to engage Gentiles (non-believers) in a discussion of the Book of Mormon's origins. It will provide them with apparently cogent arguments with which they can astound thier interlocutors, who - without sufficient information at their fingertips - will be unable to detect the fundamental absurdity beneath.
I gave the book 2 stars (rather than 1) because it is illuminating as an insight into the phenomenon of Mormonism and, more specifically, what passes for Mormon scholarship.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tightrope Walk
Review: In this book, Terryl Givens, a professor of English at the University of Richmond and an LDS scholar, walks a tightrope between apologia and scholarly analysis. Mormons and Gentiles will differ as to how successfully he manages these disparate aims, but publication by Oxford University Press rightly suggests that this book is not simply a tract for the faithful. Givens wants the Book of Mormon (BOM) to be taken seriously by secular academics, and he agreeably assimilates and cites many non-Mormon authorities.
Givens rightly emphasizes that the BOM was less important for its doctrinal novelties than for the prophetic recognition it provided Joseph Smith. He correctly dismisses any notion that the BOM was Calvinistic, and he appropriately scoffs at LDS liberals who would prefer to abandon supernaturalism and interpret the BOM symbolically.
Nevertheless, specialists in Mormon studies will surely note the many areas in which Givens slides over inconvenient evidence in the interest of apologetics. Neither are Givens' parallels between the BOM and ancient eastern documents very convincing because Smith was clearly permeated by the poetic idiom of the Bible. As for the phenomenal speed at which Smith dictated the book to Oliver Cowdery, the fact that no average person could do it doesn't mean that no one could. (I'm not able to score a touchdown for the Steelers, record a convincing performance of the Mendelssohn violin concerto, or play fifty simultaneous games of chess blindfolded. But some people have done those things and continue to do them.) Givens attempt to move the geography of the BOM, with its giant cities and mammoth populations, to relatively uninvestigated areas of Central America is a stopgap that may eventually prove even more embarrassing to the LDS Church, especially now that written Mayan has been translated. Nor will making "steel" bronze and such like do much towards eliminating the many anachronistic howlers in the Book of Mormon.
Because Givens is a professor of English, I had hoped that he would address Mark Twain's famous charge that the Book of Mormon was "chloroform in print." Givens is honest enough to repeat that jibe, but he doesn't try to excuse the BOM's literary weakness. Its cardboard characters (so unlike those of the Bible and other classic literature) remind me of the ones created by Upton Sinclair--who himself could crank out an astronomical daily word count. It's ironic that Givens' book, which in many places is arcane and overly theoretical, is more thoughtful and interesting than the religious text he attempts to defend.
Rating:
Summary: Scholarly Slight of Hand
Review: Many of the reviews praise Givens for his even handed and erudite treatment of the origins of the Book of Mormon. In its defense, the book is well written. However, the claim that it sheds new light on the Book of Mormon comes up short. Givens wants religious commentators to give new thought to the Book of Mormon which, he argues, has been far too long neglected as a serious contribution to theology. the LDS church now has a large membership and substantial societal acceptance. Hence, both Joseph Smith and his "Gold Bible" deserve renewed attention. Givens is very selective in his treatment of both Smith and the Book of Mormon. He advances the argument that Mormons have relied on for years. History shows Smith to have been extremely clever.Further, the Book of Mormon is no more complicated than countless novels, many written by unknowns. Givens admits that there is no physical evidence to support the Book of Mormon, but he appears hopeful that such evidence will appear any day now, presumably in Central Amercia where new Mormon "scholars" are quite sure the Nephite-Laminite action took place. As for Ethan Smith and his "View of the Hebrews," Givens mentions none of the recent studies that show the unmistakeable connection between the two. (For example, "Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon" by David Persuitte). Rather, he mentions, and dismisses B.H. Roberts' comparison of the two books in a few paragraphs. Givens also seems to accept the "Book of Abraham" as a genuine Smith translation from the Chandler papyri without discussion of the voluminous evidence that it is .... Givens book is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating scholarly study of the Book of Mormon.
Review: The author wrote: "My focus in any case has not been on whether
the Book of Mormon or the account of it given by Joseph Smith is
true. Rather, I have tried to examine why the Book of Mormon has
been taken seriously--for very different reasons--by generations
of devoted believers and confirmed skeptics. ...it has assumed a
number of disputed identities: authentically ancient text,
imaginative masterwork, nineteenth-century cultural product, and
engine behind the growth of the next world religion. It would
seem appropriate at this juncture in its tempestuous career to
attempt an overview of what this "golden bible" has meant, and
might conceivably yet come to mean, to its various readerships."
(Author's Note) In my estimation, Givens succeeds masterfully in presenting such
an overview. Both views, skeptic and devoted believer, are
fairly presented without evangelizing either view. The facts are presented. Conclusions are left up to the reader. Very highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A chink of light into an esoteric subject
Review: The Book of Mormon has never been given the even-handed scholarly attention it deserves and the publication of this book is hopefully a chink of light on a subject that is to say the least esoteric. Prof. Givens courageous attempt to do so deserves a proper airing, and all credit is due to the non-LDS publishers who have taken the risk of collaborating with him. This book is welcome but I am looking forward to the time when non-Mormon scholars, who are not tainted by religious bias, recognise the Book of Mormon to be the work of genius it really is. Most of the objections against the Book of Mormon, i.e. visions and angels, can very easily be levelled at the New Testament, particularly the anti-Semitic Pauline corpus. Do not be taken in by the vitriolic backlash from the Bible belt, Given's book is worth reading even if you are not familiar with the Book of Mormon or the church that publishes it. The Mormon phenomenon is one of sheer determination to survive a hostile Christendom and is truly part of the spirit of America. Givens explains clearly why the Book of Mormon is such a threat to the complacency of the `Born Again' movement. Givens also demolishes the argument that Joseph Smith was simply an adventurer living by his wits. The Book of Mormon is by any stretch of the imagination uniquely individual, and in spite of what you would think, the movement it fosters is resilient and growing into a new World religion.
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