Overwriting Ether: Moroni’s Transfiguration of Jaredite Scripture

Review of Rosalynde Frandsen Welch, Ether: A Brief Theological Introduction (Provo, UT: The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2020). 128 pages.

Abstract: Rosalynde Frandsen Welch offers a novel perspective on the Book of Ether in this in the Maxwell Institute’s series of “brief theological introductions.” The principal focus of Welch’s analysis concerns Moroni’s editorial purposes, how he interacts with his source text, and the ethics of his agenda for his abridgment of the Jaredite record. She critiques what she sees as Moroni’s lack of interest in the Jaredite record for its own sake and his attempts to “Christianize” the indigenous religion and culture of the former inhabitants. This review finds some of Welch’s proposals to be problematic but recognizes the great value of her beautifully written contribution to the academic study of the Book of Ether and the Book of Mormon.