Description

In the Mayan creation story of the Popul Vuh, a pair of hero twins descend into the Underworld to face off with the gods of death. During their trials, one of the twins loses his head in an act cosmic rejuvenation. The Book of Mormon begins with its first prophet decapitating a political opponent in pursuit of a sacred text. The Popul Vuh is a product of oral thinking; the Book of Mormon is a product of fully literate thinking. This presentation discusses the differences between oral and literate forms of religion and shows that the Christology and historical assumptions of the Book of Mormon are, from beginning to end, anachronistic to the time and place in which they were supposed to have taken place.

Speaker
John Lundwall