| Description |
Current LDS environmental theology, championed by George Handley, includes critiques of Mormon pioneer history, analyses of the Doctrine of Covenants (the LDS book of laws), and LDS influenced nature writing such as the work of Terry Tempest-Williams. However the lack of ecological thought dedicated to the Book of Mormon, the central scripture of the faith, has left many Mormons unsatisfied by the general LDS environmental effort. I show that in the Book of Mormon, righteousness aligns with conservation by tracing the development of righteous and wicked characters and their relationships with nature. This is accomplished by applying ecological readings of the Hebrew Bible to similar stories in the Book of Mormon and its characters, then reflect how these readings may assert new environmental ethical models. The methodologies presented here will ideally lay the groundwork for further readings of a book that influences nearly fifteen million people and one of the wealthiest churches. |
