LDSPMA Praiseworthy Award (2018)
In August 2017, I attended the “Chiasmus Jubilee” at Brigham Young University that commemorated 50 years since John W. Welch discovered chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. The keynote speaker at this commemoration was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As I listened to his talk, I noticed patterns in his words that suggested the presence of chiasmus. Later that night, I accessed a transcript of his talk and studied it in detail. I noticed the presence of several small-scale chiasms and a large-scale chiasm that encompasses his entire talk. Impressed by Elder Holland’s stealth use of chiasmus at an event dedicated to chiasmus, I posted an article to my then-blog presenting and analyzing chiasmus in his talk: “An Ever-Larger Cadre of Young Scholars: Chiasmus in Jeffrey R. Holland’s ‘The Greatness of the Evidence'”.
My favorite chiasm from his talk describes the role the Book of Mormon plays in his testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ:
A: For me a classic example of substance I hope for and evidence of things I have not seen is the 531 pages of the Book of Mormon
B: that come from a sheaf of gold plates
C: some people saw and handled and hefted
C: but I haven’t seen or handled or hefted, and neither have you.
B: Nevertheless, the reality of those plates,
A: the substance of them if you will, and the evidence that comes to us from them in the form of the Book of Mormon is at the heart, at the very center, of the hope and testimony and conviction of this work that is unshakably within me forever.
A year later, in November 2018, it was my honor to receive a Praiseworthy Award for this article at the Latter-day Saint Publishing and Media Association’s annual conference.