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.
Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Early Mormonism and the Magic World View/Chapter 7
| Claims made in "Chapter 6: Mormon Scriptures, the Magic World View, and Rural New York's Intellectual Life" | A FAIR Analysis of: Early Mormonism and the Magic World View A work by author: D. Michael Quinn
|
298
Claim
- The author claims that "Moshe Idel wrote that the Zohar 'is manifestly anthropomorphic'."
- The author claims that "Gershom Scholem wrote of the Cabala's 'almost provocatively conspicuous anthropomorphism'."
Author's source(s) - Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988), 107.
- Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (New York: Quadrangle, 1974), 141.
- The author wants to attribute Joseph's idea of God having a physical human form (anthropomorphism) to the Jewish mystics who practiced Kabbalah. But, the author twists and distorts his source, which clearly states that the anthropomorphism of God is only allegorical in Kabbalah.
- The author uses his sources to make it appear as if Kabbalah has a literal, rather than allegorical, conception of God in a human form.
- For a detailed response, see: Anthromorphism in Kabbalah?
338n2, 339n60
Claim
The author claims that the Encyclopedia of Mormonism "was an official product of the LDS Church."
Author's source(s)
- No source provided.
Response
- The author wants to make the Encyclopedia of Mormonism an 'official' work, when the book, its editor, its authors, and publisher all assert that it is not.
- For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and doctrine/Official Church publications