Skip to main content

“There are Opportunities for Almost Anyone”: Warren Aston on Book of Mormon Research

Warren Aston
Last week, I had the privileged of interviewing Warren Aston, who has been actively researching in Yemen and Oman on the Old World setting of 1 Nephi for longer than I have been alive. His work has led to a presentation at Cambridge University, and publications in the Journal of Arabian Studies and Wildlife Middle East News, in addition to all the LDS venues he has published in (such as BYU Studies Quarterly and Journal of Book of Mormon of Studies).

He has made some of the most significant breakthroughs in all of Book of Mormon research. I got to sit down with for several hours, and got about 2 hours of audio after editing. It was an incredible privilege, which I am truly grateful for. The audio, video, and transcript of the interview will eventually be available online, but for now I just wanted to share a short comment he made while reflecting on his experience.
You see one of the great things about the Book of Mormon is that there are opportunities for almost anyone regardless of their training and background. If your mind is alive … to it, then things [like my experiences] will happen.
This rings true to my own experience. I obviously have not been at it as long as Aston, nor have I made as significant a contribution. But since at least 2009, the Book of Mormon has been a major focus in my life—reading it, reading about it, puzzling over it, and getting to know it better. My experience has taught me to never count the Book of Mormon out. Just when you think you know all there is to know about it, it will surprise and amaze you.

Not only has my study of the Book of Mormon been rewarding, however, but just as with Aston I have had amazing opportunities to contribute open up to me as a direct result of my persistent effort to understand the book.

Now, I don’t believe you have to become an avid Book of Mormon scholar, spending a lifetime traveling to Arabia, or six years in the library, to be able to benefit from this. You just need to read the book with an active mind and chase down some of the questions that come to mind. Don’t panic when answers are not immediately forthcoming. Just keep reading it; good things will happen, answers will come, and you will find your life changed. Changed, I might add, for the better.  
Labels:

Comments

  1. Amen! The Book of Mormon is not called the handbook for our time just because. It truly is a fabulous testament of Jesus Christ, filled with layer upon layer of information, doctrine and guidance. I love it!

    ReplyDelete

  2. It's an incredible book! When I read it consistently, I feel as though I am lead by God to good things all around me, especially when it leads me to Christ.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 15 “Best Books” to Read BEFORE Having a Faith Crisis

Elder M. Russell Ballard recently stressed that it is important for Gospel educators to be well-informed on controversial topics, not only by studying the scriptures and Church materials, but also by reading “the best LDS scholarship available.” I personally think it is imperative in today’s world for every Latter-day Saint—not just Gospel educators—to make an effort to be informed on both controversial issues as well as knowing reliable faith-building information as well.
(Given that Elder Ballard’s CES address was published to general Church membership in the Ensign, I think it’s safe to say that Church leadership also feels this way.)
An important step in the process of getting informed is reading the 11 Gospel Topic essays and getting familiar with their contents. But what’s next? How can a person learn more about these and other topics? What are the “best books” (D&C 88:118) or “the best LDS scholarship available”?
Here are 15 suggestions.
1. Michael R. Ash, Shaken Faith S…
16 comments
Read more

Responding to the New Video on Nahom as Archaeological Evidence for the Book of Mormon

Many of my (few) readers have probably already seen the new video by Book of Mormon Central on Nahom as archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon, starring my good friend (and co-author on a related paper) Stephen Smoot. If you haven’t, check it out:


As usual, comments sections wherever this video is shared have been flooded by Internet ex-Mormons insisting this not evidence for the Book of Mormon. I’ve actually had a few productive conversations with some reasonable people who don’t think Nahom is, by itself, compelling evidence—and I can understand that. But the insistence that Nahom is not evidence at all is just, frankly, absurd. So I’ll just go ahead and preempt about 90% of future responses to this post by responding to the most common arguments against Nahom/NHM now:
1. The Book of Mormon is false, therefore there can be no evidence, therefore this is not evidence. First, this is circular reasoning. It assumes the conclusion (Book of Mormon is false) which the evidence pre…
108 comments
Read more

New Paper on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon

Joseph M. Spencer, an adjunct professor at the BYU religion department, recently published a paper in the non-LDS peer review journal Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception, titled, “Isaiah 52 in the Book of Mormon: Note’s on Isaiah’s Reception History.” Spencer is a young scholar who is doing exciting stuff on the Book of Mormon from a theological perspective.
The paper is described as follows in the abstract: Despite increasing recognition of the importance of Mormonism to American religion, little attention has been given to the novel uses of Isaiah in foundational Mormon texts. This paper crosses two lines of inquiry: the study of American religion, with an eye to the role played in it by Mormonism, and the study of Isaiah’s reception history. It looks at the use of Isa 52:7–10 in the Book of Mormon, arguing that the volume exhibits four irreducibly distinct approaches to the interpretation of Isaiah, the interrelations among which are explicitly meant to speak to nineteent…
1 comment
Read more