Review
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Title: Rethinking Revelation and the Human Element in Scripture: The Prophet’s Role as Creative Co-Author
Author: Michael R. Ash
Publisher: FAIRLATTERDAYSAINTS.ORG
Genre: Apologetics
Year Published: 2021
Pages: 758
ISBN-10: 1639440801
ISBN-13: 978-1639440801
Price: $34.95
Reviewed by Mark Tensmeyer for the Association for Mormon Letters
This impressive tome is Michael Ash’s response to the criticisms of the Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a massive book totaling 770 pages covering issues of Old World scripture (the Bible) and modern revelation (uniquely Latter-day Saint scripture).
Ash spends over 250 pages laying groundwork in introductory topics on the philosophical concepts of the nature of truth, the mechanics of human memory, and the role of narrative and myth in the human experience. At the risk of oversimplification, I would summarize his thesis as that truth is objective and eternal, but human beings’ ability to process it is inevitably limited. God speaks to humanity, as the scriptures say, “according to their language, unto their understanding” (2 Nephi 31:3). Any revelation from God filtered through the limited understanding of the prophet and is subject to the failings of human language. The purpose of revelation is not to give objectively accurate scientific or even historical facts. Revelation is supposed to convey from God spiritual knowledge helpful and necessary for salvation. Narrative is a powerful device for teaching eternal truths. The narratives in scripture, even when talking about real people, are not necessarily historically or scientifically accurate, as that is not their intention. Much of the problems that arise with the truth of scripture come from having expectations that would not be in place if one had a clearer understanding of what scripture is and is supposed to accomplish. Ash makes the distinction that he is not a Mythicalist, or one who believes all religious claims and narratives are myths. Rather, he is an Extensibilist, that is, a person who believes scripture can contain fictitious tales, but that they also contain factual realities about the culture and people described in the scriptures. Throughout the book, Ash asserts he believes some of the core truth claims of the Restored Gospel are objectively true, such as the Resurrection of Jesus, the reality of the Book of Mormon peoples, and the reality of the gold plates.
It is too much for one review to do an analysis of all the issues covered in this large book. This review will focus mainly on the section on the Bible. This section exclusively covers the Old Testament. Interestingly, Ash does not address issues about the accuracy of the Gospels versus the historical Jesus, the relationship between Paul and the larger Jesus movement, or the objections to the authorship/authenticity of some of the books of the New Testament. Of course, a book of this nature could never be comprehensive and I hope Ash would address these issues in other works.
Ash does an excellent job explaining the academic view of the authorship of the Old Testament, putting it into the context of the Jewish people’s effort to establish and maintain a national identity amidst the conquests of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. Ash gives a brief but effective introduction to the Torah’s sources, the Yahwist (J), Elohist (E), Deuteronomic (D), Priestly (P) sources were combined by the Redactor (R) to form the Torah. In telling the story of the origins of the Earth and humanity, these sources borrowed from regional myths in forming a uniquely Hebrew identity. Ash maintains that science is real. The Earth is 4.3 billion years old and homo sapiens evolved from lower primates about 200 million years ago. As an Extensibilist, Ash posits the theory that Adam and Eve, rather than being the first parents of all humanity, were rather a “mated man and woman had attained the intellectual and spiritual growth
necessary for divinely inspired insight” who God the Father revealed knowledge to and possibly visited. This couple served as an archetype of righteousness and as a prototype for others to follow. The Hebrew prophets and scribes contextualized this story into their own narrative and named this couple Adam and Eve. Joseph Smith likewise used the name Adam and Eve in his revelations and even in his descriptions of his visions as he came from the Judeo-Christian biblical tradition and would have viewed this pair in that context.
For better or worse, this book is not your grandpa’s apologetics. He is not Cleon Skousen trying to explain away evolution or geologic time. He is trying to reframe and add nuance to the discussion. This genre of apologetics has had a mixed reactions among both believers and critics. Prominent ex-Mormon Jeremy Runnells ended the CES Letter by writing that “apologetic Mormonism” is so foreign to “chapel Mormonism” that it is unrecognizable to Church members and not something a person such as himself could not possibly rebuild their testimony on. I think most Church members would agree. I think most would say Ash draws dangerously close to reducing Restoration truth claims to cultural myth and allegory that are no more valid than other religious systems.
The whole premise of the book, however, is to combat this perspective and show readers how they should not “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. The real strength of this book is that first 250 pages on groundwork on how the realities of the human condition limit how revelation works. It is here that explains how and why a believer can and should maintain their core beliefs among the reframing and nuance. I found this section to be thoroughly researched and impeccably relevant. I will be rereading and referring to this section for years. Through a single reading, I only felt like I was beginning to understand all he was trying to communicate. And that was the problem. It was difficult for me to retain what I read and then apply that in the sections on specific problems with scripture. I consider myself to be well-read and able to grasp difficult concepts. I doubt most people who read this book would have an easier time with it.
I did find myself being drawn to look at the scriptures in new ways and I found myself wanting to reread this and similar books to get a better grasp of it. At the very least, I have to applaud Michael Ash for taking an honest look at questions most Latter-day Saints would rather not ask.