Approaching the Tree: Interpreting 1 Nephi 8 is an invitation to view again one of the Book of Mormon's best-known texts. From the fresh interactions of an array of artists and scholars, the theological significance of Lehi's dream emerges anew.
Together these able guides show, once more, both book and dream to be rich and deep, and worthy of repeated reflection.
Includes essays and artwork from Benjamin Keogh, Joseph M. Spencer, Jennifer Champoux, J. Kirk Richards, Rose Datoc Dall, Megan Knobloch Geilman, Rosalynde Frandsen Welch, Sarah Winegar, Rev'd Dr. Andrew R. Teal, Hildebrando de Melo, Kimberly Matheson, Caitlin Connolly, Kylie Nielson Turley, José de Faria, Timothy Farrant, Annie Poon, Terryl Givens and Kathleen Peterson.
Approaching the Tree was released December 12, 2023.
What is Approaching the Tree: Interpreting 1 Nephi 8?
Meet the Authors of Approaching the Tree
Approaching the Tree Art Explained
What is the Significance of Approaching the Tree?
Scripture should inspire rounds of discovery and rediscovery–of things we missed, of new ways to love, of God's work in the world. The scholars and artists in this book will have Latter-day Saints grateful, again, for an account that some may have thought they had wrung dry. These beautiful minds poignantly remind us of the gospel's inexhaustibility.
J. Spencer Fluhman, Brigham Young University
This collection of essays is illuminating and well worth the consideration of readers outside the community of Latter-day Saints with theological of Religious Studies interests, for two reasons–firstly to note the remarkable re-play, in the specific passage of the Book of Mormon under consideration, of biblical motifs and typologies reminiscent of traditional Christian approaches to scriptural exegesis, and secondly to observe how the methodological discussions instructively mirror the interpretive processes followed in modern biblical scholarship.
Frances Young, Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology, Emeritus, University of Birmingham
Where is the tree? What is the fruit? And how can I escape that dark and dreary waste? The work gathered here–both in image and in letter–responds to these questions with study and faith. What's more, this work never settles for the secular horizons of historical inquiry and continually presses, instead, the most fundamental questions raised by Lehi's dream: who is God and how is he found? A high-water mark in Book of Mormon scholarship.
Adam S. Miller, Author of Original Grace: An Experiment in Restoration Thinking
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