A Hermeneutic of Sacred Texts: Historicism, Revisionism, Positivism, and the Bible and Book of Mormon 
Alan Goff Brigham Young University - Provo 
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5718&context=etd
Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, and the Mormon Studies Commons

.......What I and others term revisionist readings of the book of Mormon have
within the past thirty years attempted to explain the book of Mormon as a product
of Joseph Smiths environment as an american frontier novel rather than an
ancient document which the book claims to be this attempt to revise the
understanding of the book of Mormon from within the community of Mormons
aims to expose the text to to the scrutiny of reason and empirical research ham
16 all I want to do is subject the scrutiny itself to reasoned inquiry
the literary position I take up is that of a literary approach to biblical texts
the philosophical position I take up is hermeneutics although what is called
hermeneutics in biblical criticism meaning essentially interpretation and
what is called hermeneutics in philosophy have common roots the latter is much
more fully developed in philosophical circles I1 use the word as it is used by
philosophers hermeneutics opposes the truth claims frequently made in
readino readigo
revisionist discussions of the book of Mormon specifically the claims my
hermeneutical approach opposes are those that assert that they can tell us
precisely what the text means free of interpretation and bias to establish the
position and ideological interests of the commentator is necessary before we
grant authority to the interpretation that follows
I first examine some of these truth claims call them positivism or historicism
they are the same to me the theoretical issues I discuss in the first chapter I
apply in the later ones I want my own truth claims about what the text means to
be exposed to the same criticism that I expose others to be exposed to the same 
criticism that I expose others to

.......In addition to discussing the interpretive issues of positivism historicism and
hermeneutics I also intended to read particular passages in the book of Mormon
and subject them to a hermeneutical critique Thomas Alexander advocates a
historicist historic historicism position I intend some time in the future to explore the philosophical
difficulties of such a position in more than a theoretical sense by reading his
reconstruction of Mormon doctrine article I intended as part of this project to
examine his attempt to explain how contemporaries would have understood what
he claims to be a repudiation of the doctrinal content of the book of Mormon by
Joseph Smith in his later life I intended also to examine Michael Quinns book
which makes similar historicist historic historicism claims about the possibilities
of seeing things as people in an earlier age did about magic and early Mormonism 
particularly
about the book of Mormon finally I intended to examine Anthony Hutchinson
claims about the book of Mormon and other scripture none of these projects
have I been able to complete as part of this thesis
As part of my own reading of the book of Mormon I also intended to cover
much more ground I have examined four narratives from the book the stealing
of the daughters of the lamanites Lamanites narrative the broken bow incident the nahom
narrative and the building of the ship narrative I originally intended much
more I intended to write about the other narratives in first and second nephi the
obtaining of the brass plates story although I do discuss this narrative
somewhat and the tree of life vision I began for example analyzing the tree of
life passages but after seventy pages of commentary and having analyzed only
twelve verses of text I concluded that the section was too extensive to complete for
this project such projects await other opportunities I want and still hope that
my analysis of the book of Mormon text complements my theoretical discussion
about interpretation.