Laban's Ghost: On Writing and Transgression

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 30.2 (Summer 1997): 105-128

12 Pages Posted: 20 Nov 2012

Date Written: 1997

Abstract

When writing is viewed simply as a source of enlightenment it conceals a network of possibly exploitative social relations. In the case of Mormonism, writing both conceals and shapes social relations. The Book of Mormon was presented by Joseph Smith as a history of the American Indians, a bridge between the historical Judeo-Christian tradition and a people not originally part of that written history. Although the author of this new scripture proclaimed that God was impartial, the text masked disparate power relations between American Indians and European colonizers. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints challenged the revelatory monopoly that the Protestant Reformation had assigned to the Bible and attached eternal significance to the written word. It thus reified the practice of writing, which has since shaped Mormon practice and belief through the production of new scriptures, extensive record keeping, and an emphasis on correlated instructional materials and genealogical production of salvation. In the past few years Mormon scholars, including feminists, have used the written word to challenge and limit the power and authority of male church leaders. In so doing they have offended those general authorities who claim to represent the God of the record keepers. The writings of scholars, like those of church leaders, also disguise contested social relations hidden within the written word. This contest over the written word is itself shaped by the reification or fetishization of writing as an administrative and an enlightening device of both humans and gods.

Keywords: Mormon, Latter-day Saint, writing, sin, record keeping, geneaology, Book of Mormon, social relations, scholars, feminists

JEL Classification: Z10

Suggested Citation

Murphy, Thomas, Laban's Ghost: On Writing and Transgression (1997). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 30.2 (Summer 1997): 105-128, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2177707

Thomas Murphy (Contact Author)

Edmonds College ( email )

20000 68th Ave W
Lynnwood, WA 98036
United States
425-640-1076 (Phone)
425-771-3366 (Fax)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
37
Abstract Views
738
PlumX Metrics