I recently read an interesting article from a journal I just discovered:
Brett Hashimoto and Joshua Cowley, “A
Corpus-Based Comparison of Keywords and Themes from The Book of Mormon and
the Bible,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 20 (2024):
1-31.
Here is the final few paragraphs to whet one’s appetite:
Conclusion
While distinct in their origins
and cultural contexts, the Bible and the Book of Mormon share numerous thematic
parallels that resonate through their respective narratives. Both texts delve
into profound topics central to human experience, such as morality,
spirituality, and the struggle between good and evil. Despite their shared
themes, each text approaches these subjects with unique emphasis and
perspective, resulting in nuanced differences in portrayal.
One notable area where the two
texts intersect is their exploration of warfare. While the Bible contains
accounts of battles and conflicts, the Book of Mormon offers a more detailed
and strategic examination of warfare, providing insights into tactics, alliances,
and military leadership. The heightened focus on the intricacies of warfare
reflects the historical context of the Book of Mormon, which chronicles the
struggles of ancient civilizations in the Americas.
Conversely, specific themes
receive more attention in one text than the other. For instance, the concept of
freedom is a recurring motif in the Book of Mormon, with its narrative
highlighting the importance of agency and the consequences of both righteous
and wicked choices. In contrast, while the Bible touches upon themes of liberty
and captivity, it does not delve into the concept of freedom with the same
degree of elaboration.
Similarly, the texts diverge in
their treatment of religious practices and rituals. The Bible contains detailed
descriptions of ceremonies, sacrifices, and religious ordinances central to
Jewish tradition, offering insights into the spiritual practices of ancient
Israelites. In contrast, the Book of Mormon focuses less on physical sacrifice
and ritualistic aspects of holy living. However, it highlights specific
religious observances more than the Bible, especially regarding baptism.
Despite these differences, one
can discern similarities in grammar and style, reflecting the standard
linguistic conventions of their respective periods and cultural milieus.
However, distinct linguistic features and stylistic choices also set them apart,
reflecting the diverse authorship and cultural influences behind each text.
While the Bible and the Book of
Mormon share many thematic threads and linguistic characteristics, their unique
perspectives and emphases contribute to a rich tapestry of religious
literature, offering readers varied insights into the complexities of human
existence and spiritual truth. This analysis has highlighted areas where the
books are different, emphasizing the complementary nature of the books of
scripture, especially for members of the Church. (Brett Hashimoto and Joshua
Cowley, “A
Corpus-Based Comparison of Keywords and Themes from The Book of Mormon and
the Bible,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 20
[2024]: 22-23)
Future Directions
This keyness analysis highlights
many critical differences between The Book of Mormon and the Bible. However,
some key themes in each book must be included in the keyword lists, showing
limited differences in certain areas. More research is needed to explore
similarities between the books by exploring lockwords (significantly common
words between two corpora when running a statistical analysis). Furthermore,
though we explored a small portion of the keywords of each corpus, there remain
many keywords to analyze further to discover differences between The Book of
Mormon and the Bible.
This study presents a method of
keyword analysis that researchers could use to explore various questions in
different religious texts. One of the most notable of these relates to the
problem of treating the Old Testament and New Testament as a single corpus for
this study. The Old Testament and New Testament have many differences. A
computational analysis of those differences could lead to new insights and
research, adding to the existing work comparing the two "books" that
have not been fully explored.
Future research could and should
also examine the language differences between books within the Bible and the
Book of Mormon and authors within scripture, such as the various gospel writers
in the New Testament. Also, register analysis could be implemented in such
analysis to describe each book more considerately from a register-functional
perspective (see, e.g., Biber et al., 2021). Keyword analysis also helps
identify critical differences in themes between the Vedas individually or in
comparison to other religious texts. Furthermore, speeches could be organized
into corpora and compared to answer questions such as "What do modern
Evangelical Christian leaders speak about that is distinct from modern Catholic
leaders?"
While many opportunities exist to
learn about contemporary language use and its implications, the possibility of
examining language change within and across religions over time may be even
greater. Using corpora to examine the topics that were most prevalent within a
specific religion 100 years ago compared to that same religion in the 21st
century could lead to discoveries of how the religion has changed in its
emphasis on specific themes and its treatment of those same themes. Further,
comparing multiple religions across many years could lead to conclusions about
how religions have influenced one another. The possibilities to learn more
about the world's religions by systematically examining the language itself are
vast and numerous. (Ibid., 23)
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