On Aug. 7, the University of Utah Union Theater hosted a premier screening of the film “The Lost Book of Abraham: Investigating a Remarkable Mormon Claim,” produced by the Institute for Religious Research. The film presents a condensed history of the early LDS Church, focusing on the origins of the Book of Abraham and on the ancient Egyptian papyri from which Joseph Smith purportedly translated the book. Several credentialed historians and Egyptologists were interviewed about the content of the papyri and facsimiles associated with the Book of Abraham. The film’s conclusions did not reflect favorably upon Joseph Smith’s translations.
The film is, for the most part, surprisingly friendly to many aspects of LDS history and teachings. Where many works from sources outside the church have tried to assault every facet of Mormonism, “The Book of Abraham” is polite and presents favorable versions of LDS Church history on every subject except the Book of Abraham itself. In short: It has focus. It is reasonably well-made and the scholars appear to be legitimate. It also seems well-researched and almost complete.
Having listed some of the positives, I now have to ask some more important questions: Why was this made and who is the intended audience? Comments from the LDS Church or related organizations are glaringly absent. The film makes note of this several times. But I can’t say that I blame the LDS Church for avoiding participation in this project?it could only have reflected poorly on the church.
“The Institute for Religious Research” has an almost secular sounding name. They describe themselves as a “non-denominational, nonprofit Christian foundation.” Judging from their Web site (www.irr.org), they have set out to debunk everything other than “orthodox” western Protestantism (Catholics might be OK; I couldn’t tell from my brief visit). The site contains a large volume of watchdog material directed against Mormonism (also against Atheism, Hinduism, Islam, Seventh-Day Adventists and mostly everyone else). So it shouldn’t be surprising that Mormons didn’t want to play when they could expect the dice to be loaded.
As the film nears its end, it arrives at a section on how the faith of Mormons is affected by the weight of scholarly evidence against the Book of Abraham papyri. This section included apparently random “Mormon-on-the-street” interviews which were interesting. It also included interviews with people such as Richard J. Mouw, President of the Fuller Theological Seminary. His comments seemed out of place. While he is a religious figure, he is not a Mormon religious figure, and there was no indication that he had any special insight into the spiritual lives of Mormons.
This section could have been vastly improved by the inclusion of somebody from the LDS Church who was qualified to say something about it. This wasn’t the fault of the filmmakers. I’ve already defended the LDS Church for keeping its distance from this production. While it makes sense to approach with caution, the church doesn’t look any better when it tries to hide completely from public view. The same people will see this film with or without LDS Church’s input, and it would certainly look better for the church if it had something to say in the film.
Finally, the real conclusion of this review: Who should see this movie. Anyone who is interested in the Book of Abraham papyri but prefers to receive the information in a passive, film-based format might enjoy “The Lost Book of Abraham.” Faithful Mormons who are curious will find a good overview of the issues, and will probably not lose their faith over it. Non-Mormons who need to feel more secure about not being Mormon might be comforted by this film. If you’ve already read about the Book of Abraham translations (from the Tanners or wherever), this film will not likely present new information and may not be worth your time.