Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: CANONIZATION AND BACKGROUND
Canonization
Backgrounds and Precedents 1
Chapter 1. RE-VISIONING THE BIBLE: THE JOSEPH SMITH TRANSLATION
Chapter 2. "WRITTEN BY HIS OWN HAND": THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM
Chapter 3."OWING TO THE MANY REPORTS": HISTORICIZING MORMONISM
Chapter 4. "NOT TO BE TRAMMELED": TO CREED OR NOT TO CREED
EPILOGUE

About the Author

Terryl Givens did graduate work in intellectual history at Cornell and in comparative literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the Jabez Bostwick Professor of Literature and Religion Emeritus at the University of Richmond, and currently works as a Senior Research Fellow at BYU's Neal A. Maxwell Institute. His writings have been praised by the New York Times as "provocative reading," and include most recently a
two-volume history of Mormon thought, Wrestling the Angel and Feeding the Flock (Oxford 2014; 2017).
Brian M. Hauglid is Associate Professor and Visiting Scholar at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University.

Reviews

"Extraordinary commentary on this least likely of scriptures... Givens's review of the response of Latter-day Saint scholars is the best single account of the controversy I know." -- Richard Lyman Bushman, BYU Studies Quarterly
"In this deeply researched study of the Pearl of Great Price, Terryl Givens argues that the smallest of the Restoration's books of scripture has had the most influence on doctrine. The Book of Moses is a powerhouse of doctrinal generation, and Abraham is not far behind. The authors' analyses put all of the books of the Pearl of Great Price, some of them wrapped in controversy, in an entirely new light." -- Richard Bushman, author of Joseph Smith: Rough
Stone Rolling
"This fascinating book delves deeply into the text and context of the most revolutionary scripture in the LDS canon. Insiders and outsiders to the church will alike profit from the authors' exploration of Joseph Smith's re-workings of the Bible; of Smith's understanding of Abraham in the context of Egypt; and above all of the doctrine of theosis - the transformative belief that men may become gods." -- Noah Feldman, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Harvard
University
"This book presents a searching and sustained analysis of The Pearl of Great Price, one of the most controversial and under-examined works in the LDS canon. It is at once interpretive and historical, arguing for the centrality of Joseph Smith's later revelations to an understanding of his church. Readers seeking explanation of both the power and the vexations of Mormon theological claims should begin with this elegant, insightful study." -- Laurie Maffly-Kipp,
Archer Alexander Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis