Chloroform in Print
Does the Book of Mormon get a bad rap?
Also in Slate, David Haglund wonders why there's a dearth of great Mormon literature. Plus: Great Magnum photos of Mormons and Mormon sites.
Mormonism's success suggests that a religion can flourish in spite of rather than because of its founding texts. I do not doubt that Mormons are inspired by the words associated with Joseph Smith. But if another reference to music is permitted, I simply cannot imagine anyone setting those words to music the way Handel did with the Bible in his oratorios. The Book of Mormon has a structure. It does not sing.
Correction, May 17, 2010: This article originally misspelled Asheville, N.C. (Return to the corrected sentence.)
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Alan Wolfe, professor and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, is the author most recently of Does American Democracy Still Work?