Joseph Spencer is a theologian. He does theology. What exactly, though, does that mean and what does that mean for the average reader?

Theology is the study of God and his works. When I joined the Church at the age of 16 in 1975, I became enamored with the Book of Mormon. However, after a few years of studying it, I got stuck. The stories and teachings all seemed to be the same.

Last month the Neal A. Maxwell Institute started publishing a series of brief Theological Introductions to segments of the Book of Mormon, each written by a different author. To date, the introductions to 1st Nephi and 2nd Nephi are available. Unfortunately, publishing these in February and March almost guarantees that most folks won’t care until January 2024.

However for those of us who can never get enough about the Book of Mormon, these little volumes promise to open our eyes to treasures we’d never noticed before.

Professor Spencer’s theological introduction to 1st Nephi has much to offer any reader. Given the dependence of subsequent Book of Mormon writers on the theology and culture associated with Nephi, this volume is definitely worth picking up both in its own right and to inform our Book of Mormon studies for the rest of 2020.

One challenge, however, is that those of us who can never get enough about the Book of Mormon may already have more information than the average Book of Mormon reader these volumes appear to target. Even so, I think almost all readers will find numerous insights that expand their horizons.

My blog post on Come Follow Me: Enos through Words of Mormon

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2020/03/come-follow-me-enos-through-words-of.html

My blog post on CFM: Jacob 5-7

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2020/03/come-follow-me-jacob-5-7.html