FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Array
Question: Why are people concerned about Church artwork?: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "{{FME-Source |title=Question: Why are people concerned about Church artwork? |category=Mormonism and history/Accuracy of Church art }} <onlyinclude> ==Question: Why are people...") |
|||
| Line 24: | Line 24: | ||
</onlyinclude> | </onlyinclude> | ||
{{endnotes sources}} | {{endnotes sources}} | ||
[[Category:Letter to a CES Director]] | |||
Revision as of 20:21, 24 October 2014
Question: Why are people concerned about Church artwork?
As the critics point out, there are potential historical errors in some of these images
One of the strangest attacks on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an assault on the Church's art. Now and again, one hears criticism about the representational images which the Church uses in lesson manuals and magazines to illustrate some of the foundational events of Church history.[1]
A common complaint is that Church materials usually show Joseph translating the Book of Mormon by looking at the golden plates, such as in the photo shown here.
Here critics charge a clear case of duplicity—Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith are shown translating the Book of Mormon.
But as the critics point out, there are potential historical errors in this image:
- Oliver Cowdery did not see the plates as Joseph worked with them.
- For much of the translation of the extant Book of Mormon text, Joseph did not have the plates in front of him—they were often hidden outside the home during the translation.
- Joseph used a seer stone to translate the plates; he usually did this by placing the stone in his hat to exclude light, and dictating to his scribe.
Notes
- ↑ Note: Most of the images used in this paper are centuries old, and so are in the public domain. I have tried to indicate the creator each of these works of art. No challenge to copyright is intended by their inclusion here for scholarly purposes and illustration. Click each photo for title and author information.
- ↑ Del Parson, "Translating the Book of Mormon," © Intellectual Reserve, 1997. off-site