A View from the Outside—An Appreciative Engagement with Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide

This review by Pentecostal New Testament scholar John Christopher Thomas examines Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon. The essay begins with autobiographical reflections on the reviewer’s journey toward engagement with the Book of Mormon and in turn with Hardy’s monograph. The review next focuses on Hardy’s proposal and the success of his effort to approach the Book of Mormon by means of its literary characteristics. The review concludes with an extended dialogue with representative issues from Hardy’s volume by means of narrative analysis. Specifically, the issues of structure, narrative function of the editors, and imaginative reconstruction of characters are considered. Hardy’s work is the most significant engagement of the literary dimensions of the Book of Mormon to date and perhaps the most important study of the Book of Mormon currently available.