David Charles Gore, “Equality vs. Self-Indulgence in the Book of Mormon”
Channel: Maxwell Institute
Date: 2019-09-22

Maxwell Institute Guest Lecture—September 12, 2019

The Book of Mormon is rife with political and religious turmoil between two competing ways of life: Equality versus ever-greater forms of self-indulgence. This contest runs through the center of every human community and through every individual heart.

In this guest lecture, David Charles Gore examines how this battle plays out in three crucial chapters of the Book of Mormon—Mosiah 29 through Alma 2. How can we support efforts toward genuine equality? How can we enhance our capacity to bear public burdens? How does the way we talk with each other contribute to or diminish inequality?

These pressing questions are addressed by way of an introduction to Gore’s new book, "The Voice of the People: Political Rhetoric in the Book of Mormon."

DAVID CHARLES GORE is associate professor and department head in the Department of Communication at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. His research explores the age-old trio of rhetoric, politics, and theology in order to illuminate the communicative ethics found in their interrelationships. By engaging politics and religion and faith and reason, Gore’s scholarship addresses why building strong communities and strong commitments to the sacred remain relevant in a secular age. His new book is called "The Voice of the People: Political Rhetoric in the Book of Mormon."