For decades, Brant A. Gardner has helped shape the landscape of Book of Mormon studies. The Record and the Reading brings together a collection of Gardner's most engaging and significant articles and presentations from his extensive career. Described as a "greatest hits" collection of his research, this volume offers a methodical, text-first exploration for readers looking to deepen their understanding of the scripture.
Gardner insists on viewing the Book of Mormon on its own terms as an ancient text. He refuses to flatten the scripture into modern assumptions, demonstrating instead that when the book is read closely and situated within a plausible ancient context, it yields insights of remarkable depth and coherence.
Inside this collection, readers will explore:
- Methodology and Myths: Gardner sets the record on some popular myths, unraveling the legends of the feathered serpent (Quetzalcoatl) and exposing archaeological forgeries.
- The Mesoamerican Context: Discover historically plausible correspondences between the Book of Mormon and ancient Mesoamerican societies, including the social history of the early Nephites and glimpses into Lamanite culture.
- Ancient Authors and Editors: Gain insights into the authorial intent of the record-keepers. Gardner analyzes Nephi's role as a scribe and unveils Mormon's carefully constructed editorial methods and meta-messages.
- The Text and the Translator: Deepen your understanding of Joseph Smith's translation process. Gardner taps into cognitive linguistics to propose how divine revelation and seer stones operated in bringing the English text to light.
With a foreword by Kerry M. Hull, this book represents the gathered fruits of a lifetime of careful labor and disciplined curiosity. It is an essential read for anyone seeking a rigorous approach to the ancient setting and modern emergence of the Book of Mormon.
Praise for The Record and the Reading
“Brant Gardner has been a major figure in Book of Mormon studies for the last two decades, and this volume demonstrates why. These essays show Gardner at his best, a close reader who again and again mines the Book of Mormon text and excavates profound insight after profound insight. Readers who spend time with this volume will come away with a deeper sense of the world behind the Book of Mormon, a world inhabited by actual Nephites and Lamanites whose stories and experiences Gardner consistently brings to light. Through exploring the contexts (both ancient and modern) of this penetrating record, Gardner ultimately provides his witness to the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.”
Nick Frederick - Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University
"By the time Terryl Givens published his By the Hand of Mormon in 2003, the project of studying the Book of Mormon primarily in conversation with the ancient near east had slowed significantly. In 2010, Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon announced an era of Book of Mormon research that has proven to be especially focused on literary analysis and theological interpretation. The man who carried the torch for Book of Mormon Studies between these two eras was Brant Gardner. With one eye looking backward to the best of historicizing study, and with the other looking forward to literary analysis of the Book of Mormon's shape, Gardner built the bridge between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries of Book of Mormon research. Readers of this wonderful collection of Gardner's 'greatest hits' will walk the length of that bridge and take in some remarkable views."
Joseph M. Spencer, Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University
Brant A. Gardner is a scholar and author specializing in the historicity, cultural context, and translation of the Book of Mormon. He holds an M.S. in Anthropology from the State University of New York at Albany, with a focus on Mesoamerican ethnohistory. This informs his rigorous, text-first approach to scriptural analysis, allowing him to examine the Book of Mormon through the lens of ancient history, linguistics, and culture. Gardner has authored several foundational works in Mormon studies, including the comprehensive six-volume "Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon," "The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon," and "Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History." In addition to his books, he has published widely in the FARMS Review, Sunstone, and for The Interpreter Foundation, and is a frequent presenter at academic and religious symposiums such as FAIR.
