Thoughts on Approaches to the Book of Mormon

A suggestive quote jumped out at me while I was reading for a very different project.  It proposed a lot of ideas and opened analytical paths about a passion of mine, Mormonism. 

It brought to mind immediately the endless arguments and hand-wringing among many Latter-day Saints about whether the Book of Mormon is an ancient American text, as it was claimed.  More about this, but first the quote. 

One Current of the Mormon River, Highly Active Members in Bolivia

Many Latter-day Saints have expressed concerns over the loss of members, especially among the young. These are very important concerns, but they can easily cause us to not see other aspects of the Mormon community. 

At the moment, I am in a working class, proto-middle class part of El Alto, Bolivia, the fascinating city on the edge of the nation’s de facto capital, La Paz, staying with a Latter-day Saint family, the elder members of which became LDS in the seventies.