Mormon Inquiry

Mormon Inquiry

Translation and Apologetics

posted by Dave Banack | 12:47am Saturday January 24, 2009

There is a lot of Mormon apologetics out there, perhaps because there is a lot of Mormon criticism. It has gotten better over the years, but one still sees both good apologetics and bad apologetics. A post from a few weeks ago at Faith-Promoting Rumor that points up one difference between the good and bad sort is “Translation Styles and Book of Mormon Apologetics and Exegesis.” The observation made in the post is that an author cannot shift between tight and loose translation styles to enhance her arguments as she moves from chapter to chapter or point to point.

What, for you, makes the difference between good and bad apologetics? For me, an author’s willingness to acknowledge and cite contrary arguments and scholars is important. I read apologetic footnotes and endnotes as carefully as I read the main text. I think the footnotes say more about an apologist’s (or a critic’s) credibility than does the evidence or the argument.



Previous Posts

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This is the third post on Richard L. Bushman's Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2008). [See Part 1 and Part 2.] In Chapter Three, Bushman reviews the several meanings of the term "Zion" in LDS doctrine and thinking. The Mormon sense of Zion has no real parallels in Protestant though

posted 11:00:37pm Jul. 29, 2009 | read full post »

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The Pew Forum recently issued a detailed summary of survey information about Mormons gathered as part of a much larger survey of religious life in the United States. It is a very readable summary, noting that Mormons comprise 1.7% of adults in the US; 35% of Mormon adults live in Utah and 13% live i

posted 12:33:08pm Jul. 29, 2009 | read full post »

July 24th: Pioneer Day in Utah
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posted 5:38:50pm Jul. 23, 2009 | read full post »

Finding heretics in strange places
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posted 6:27:09pm Jul. 22, 2009 | read full post »

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This is a second piece on Bushman's Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2008). [See Part 1.] Every faith and denomination has an approach for balancing faith and reason. In Chapter Two of the book, Bushman briefly outlines the LDS approach. The context, of course, is how a faith or den

posted 12:46:47am Jul. 17, 2009 | read full post »

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