Courtney S. Campbell and Kelly Sorensen, co-editors of Moral Visions: Ethics and the Book of Mormon, answer questions about their new book.
Q: Why did you decide to write this book?
Courtney S. Campbell (CC): This book emerged from a 4-year long seminar series that convened scholars and non-academics in history, theology, ethics, literature, philosophy, scripture studies, and culture. It was an exhilarating and stimulating experience that I hope invites the reader to think differently about scripture, ethics, and their relationship.
Kelly Sorensen (KS): Beginning in 2019, a group of scholars in philosophy, religious studies, and other fields got together to discuss ethics in The Book of Mormon – the ethical and moral views expressed by narrators and stories within the book. For some decades, scholars have focused on the history and production of The Book of Mormon, with oddly little attention to its content (aside from didactic and worship purposes). We wanted to invite inquiry into what the book says to its readers about ethics, and to put the book in conversation with some contemporary scholarship about ethics in philosophy and religious studies.
Q: What is the most interesting discovery you made while researching and writing your book?
CC: I found that the different disciplinary and perspectival approaches to a common text generated new insights and greater appreciation for working in a community of moral inquiry.
KS: That the book enacts its internal content’s approach to inviting readers to become better and more ethical people – it “walks its talk,” so to speak.
Q: What myths do you hope your book will dispel or what do you hope your book will help readers unlearn?
CC: There is no unitary moral message in a scriptural text like the Book of Mormon. Consequently, LDS moral culture is a much more complicated and nuanced phenomenon.
KS: I hope the collection will dispel the view that The Book of Mormon has a simple-minded, unchallenging, predictable moral message.
Q: Which part of the publishing process did you find the most interesting?
KS: Watching fellow scholars revise and improve their interpretations and arguments in light of feedback and critique.
Q: What is your advice to scholars/authors who want to take on a similar project?
CC: Do your “homework” about what has already been studied in your field. Collaborate with others.
KS: Conversations with other scholars is incredibly important if one is to work responsibly on the text of The Book of Mormon.
Q: What do you like to read/watch/or listen to for fun?
CC: For fun … cooking shows, “Survivor,” “Incredible Race.” For recreation … cycling, hiking, etc.
KS: George Eliot. Early Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Eric Whitacre’s choral works.
Courtney S. Campbell is Hundere Professor in Religion and Culture at Oregon State University. He is the author of Mormonism, Medicine, and Bioethics and Bearing Witness: Religious Meanings in Bioethics.
Kelly Sorensen is a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Ursinus College and the co-editor of Kant and the Faculty of Feeling.