Mosiah: A Brief Theological Introduction

"Whosoever should believe that Christ should come . . . might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy." 

The prophet Mormon faces the monumental task of abridging Nephite history for future generations. He looks back hundreds of years to discern God’s hand amid the people’s divisions and conversions. Multiple records recount multiple migrations to lands where different kings organize competing societies. A righteous monarchy ends, and a reign of judges begins. 

In this brief theological introduction to the book of Mosiah, philosopher and theologian James E. Faulconer untangles a complicated timeline. Mormon transports readers back and forth through time—King Benjamin’s sermons provide a backdrop for the earlier speeches of the prophet-martyr Abinadi and the later conversion of the renegade Alma. What might we learn about covenant and community from a history of Nephite division? 

Faulconer presents the book of Mosiah as a fragmentary history about a fragmented people, written by a record keeper obsessed with unity. According to Mormon, destruction can be avoided only if we understand the mysteries of Christ’s atonement and perform the service God calls us to do together.

My grandparents on both sides of the family were tenant farmers in Missouri. My father quit school in the 8th grade to support the family but joined the Army during WWII and eventually made a career of it, retiring as a Lt. Col. and needing only one year in college to receive his B.A. My mother almost graduated from high school but quit one semester early to marry my father. They moved around a lot. By the time I was 18, I'd spent more than half of my life outside the US—in Japan, Germany, and Korea. I married Janice K. Allen during my fourth year of university and took a job as a prison guard while she finished her M.Ed. in school psychology and psychometrics. After she received her degree, I took a year to finish mine and graduated the next year. We went to the Pennsylvania State University, where I did a Ph.D. in philosophy. In 1975 I started teaching philosophy at Brigham Young University. While working at BYU I spent 6 months in Austria with Study Abroad students; 1 year in Leuven, Belgium, as a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Leuven; a year in Paris, France, doing research at the library of the École normale supérieur; 2 1/2 years in London, UK, as the Academic Director of BYU's London Centre; and from 2 weeks to a month in Italy each of seven or eight years taking part in symposia on contemporary European philosophy. I retired as of July 1 2022, after 5 years as a fellow at BYU’s Wheatley and Maxwell Institutions, but I continue to do research and to write. While at BYU, I served administratively as a department chair, the Undergraduate Dean, the associate director of the Faculty Center, and the Adademic Director of BYU’s London Centre. In philosophy, my primary interest has been 20th and 21st century German and French thinking, especially the work of Martin Heidegger and French thinkers influenced by him, in particular Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Luc Marion. Though I taught philosophy rather than religion or theology, and have written a few philosophy pieces, most of my writing has been the result of thinking about what my philosophical study has taught me about religion. I believe that I should strive to write in such a way that my grandmother, who was very bright but not well-educated, would be able to understand what I am saying. I doubt that I have ever succeeded, but that's the goal. I am especially interested in scripture and helping others to read it in a more engaged way as well as showing that philosophy and religion are not necessarily inimical to one another.