Nephi’s Obsession, Or, How to Talk with Nephi about God

Review of Joseph M. Spencer, 1 Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction

Joseph Spencer’s intimate familiarity with the Book of Mormon text is in full evidence in this initial volume in Neal A. Maxwell Institute’s new series of books on the Book of Mormon. This series approaches the book with the tools of the “scholarly practice” of theology which is understood to be informed by an emphasis on grace that is skeptical of claims of personal righteousness and engaged with contemporary moral and social issues grounded in a concern for “equality.” Accordingly, it focuses on “what God is doing in history with what we call the Abrahamic covenant” and in Nephi’s “realistic” and “mature” regret over his youthful over-boldness, alerting us to certain features of Nephi’s imperfect humanity while being preoccupied with any possible faults in the prophet. Spencer also raises provocative questions about barely heard female voices but frames them from the standpoint of “sexual egalitarianism.”