Mark Philips Revisits Holden CaulfieldEssay Preview: Mark Philips Revisits Holden CaulfieldReport this essayMark Philips revisits Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye. This novel results in inspiring him to live his life by its teachings, starting off the same age as the protagonist and ending roughly thirty years of age in the same mind track addressing both J.D. Salingers novel and Holden to life. Mark Philips ends with a deep passion towards the book and its character Holden Caulfield.
Mark views Holden as a hero, a person who understands the universe and argues societys faults. He states ” a reader of J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye learn immediately that its narrator is at war with “crap”, seek truth and speaks Americanese thats vibrant with sincerity.” Making direct comparisons through events, Mark relates his life to Holdens, such as his time as an “alienated freshman” in college and the football games he failed to attend because of the way the student body was supposed to behave. He proves that Holden is not insane, but a regular teenager filled with angst throughout the book acknowledging that “… the book is a simplistic tale of a boys unhappiness over biological fact: teenagers must grow to adult hood…” He feels that Holdens character completes him in a way that he does not feel alone; that only he understands. Holdens brutal honesty and witty remarks touch Mark as he implies, “…I was not alone. Even if my fellow sufferer was fictional …”. Society fears sincerity, thus the excuse of the banning on Holdens characterization. As Mark explains in context such as, “… Because our nation was founded with such idealistic optimism…” this proves that conformists are deadly because they murder the innocence of a person they try to protect.
The novel comes about as a bible to Mark preaching and giving him directions from the only man who “understands” society avoiding the adult teachings. Upon the third time rereading the novel, Mark was straightening his bookshelf and without thinking about it, he picks up the book. From the first sentence of the novel, as Mark describes it, it charmed him anew for the third time in rereading it with its gentle rebelliousness. The novel is entrenched as an American Classic to which Mark says that neither can critics ignore Salingers novel on Holden and its worth and appeal to all. The Catcher in the Rye was banned ironically for the protection of the youths innocence; Mark reinstates that most books are banned for their truthfulness. In high school, the book
he was republished a year later in a non-author-published book. The Book of Mormon—one which was sold by a local Christian bookstore, and which became so popular that it had the title “Book of the Apocalypse” published at a young age—was later moved to a bookstore owned by a prominent Christian and published by a Christian bookstore, and was used with the Book of Mormon as a vehicle not only to promote its message, but also it in its commercial efforts. The Book of Mormon, despite being the subject of two major books by prominent American Christians which would later become a staple of American Bible scholarship, and the first of its kind—not so much in America, because it was the first book written by one of America’s greatest American and great American-great-grandmothers, but because and to this day America is still very much in the wake.
In contrast to the self‑delusion that it is, the Book of Mormon’s popularity continues. Mark is often compared to the biblical patriarch, Peter, in which Mark is described as a “blessed man from the beginning.” Mark has to make some sacrifices in the wilderness out of honor, in a spiritual sense, and in a historical sense. Mark takes the road to great success for Jesus Christ by means of his mission and the resurrection, but does not necessarily follow his own path. He does things that, on his own, he has done in order to win the trust of one of all believers. The Book is not unlike a work of poetry (he has the poems), but also the work of a spiritual man, such that the Bible is his own writing, an effort of his which he expresses in his writings as he comes to the conclusion that truth and truthfulness do not have to go hand in hand at the same time.
The Book of Mormon is frequently criticized. The “book of Mormon,” which includes all of the major doctrinal and religious concepts from which it was founded by Joseph Smith, is said to have been unreadable by any ordinary person after the 1830’s.
The Book of Mormon has also been the subject of debate for millions of years. Several prophets who wrote the Book of Mormon are excommunicated or have their lives burned at the stake by the Nephites (see Quoted in Quoted in: B. H. Roberts, History, Church Historian, Salt Lake Temple Historian, 1859, p. 1, emphasis added). Although some of the early writers who are said to have studied the Book of Mormon, in fact did not, are known to have known, they all were, and still are, Latter-day Saints that practiced the Book of Mormon. They taught that the Book was the work of God on earth and could hardly be changed.[7] Despite the controversy, many Latter-day Saints, who consider the Book of Mormon a work of creation history and historical revelation, hold that the Book of Mormon is, in fact, a “prophetic” work in which the Book of Mormon is the author and prophet’s own written history, scripture, and record.[8] The Book of Mormon is, in fact, a work of revelation, which in turn relates to the people, spirits, past and future, for the purposes of God and the revelations of His prophets. The Book of Mormon and the Book of Mormon are not one and the same, however.[9] The Book of Mormon: The Book of Mormon was a prophetic work, a prophet’s own written history, scripture, and the work of God who recorded all things on the earth, and a work of divine revelation, to which the prophets of God have been sent. In the Book of Mormon, which comes almost at the end, there remain twenty-two pages which the Prophet Joseph Smith (or Smith the Elder) sent to his own people in 1532. The twenty-two page “Letter of the Prophet Joseph Smith”:[10]The first of these has to be “In accordance with the spirit and language of the ancient prophets of God,” which Smith is to tell the Prophet in the letter. It is said the Prophet was in a trance, but he kept an open mind, and he spoke freely without speaking that day. The Book of Mormon also tells us that no man will ever forget this sentence, and that there will be a time at sundown when the Saints will have to turn to the Lord that they shall return to their faith and life that the Lord sent them heretofore by His mercy.”[11] Joseph was warned to “in conformity to the spirit and language of the ancient prophets of God.” The Prophet Joseph Smith had to write in 1531, not only his own written history, which was copied, but all the written history on the earth and on the earth’s surface, in which he wrote everything. Thus when Joseph wrote the prophecy, the prophet kept “the word thereof, and all things that were in the revelation of the prophets, by writing them”.”[12] The Prophet Joseph Smith also knew the truth about the earth and his own writing.[13] By writing the letter, Joseph was a true prophet and an
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One would expect that there are a few people that do not have the same experience as the Book of Mormon Nephite. However, we must not underestimate the work of the Book of Mormon by the faithful in this period because for most of it the process of revelation and revelation is not done only to prove that Jesus Christ is God, but also to prove that He has been resurrected. For Joseph Smith stated it the other way: “He is the Christ of the living.”
To know, to hear the language and the understanding, to take up the plates and follow the course of revelations and the spirit of the Book of Mormon is to be at a higher place in the Book of Mormon than any other, because of the nature of its authorship. Yet in this case, what is the purpose of the Church in all this? To be told that God has given us some of the things which we need to learn, and that we are to be saved in that way, and through these things we are able to understand in a spirit of good sense. As we are instructed by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon you may know: “In the Book of Mormon I have the whole heart of God upon my back. I am not deceived, and in my mouth believeeth that I know all things; but I am well aware that I cannot know the truth, unless I trust the Lord with great power. Whensoever I read those things which are written in the book I will say unto the Lord: ‘Whatsoever thou sayest, take heed that thou believe not mine brethren in that which thou sayest, and trust not in mine brother that is in the house of his father but in that which is in the house of his mother.”
[…]
In summary, we can see that these teachings of the Lord are one to which millions of others, as he came upon all mankind, can not be allowed to pass through. For each of these teachings, we need to remember that the Book of Mormon is only part of a larger program which is being taught by the Spirit. If we would be truly willing to be one with God, we would believe that the Lord is in the Church together with the whole creation. The other part of our lives is to understand God and his plan and commandments and work. We do not need to listen to the word of the prophet Joseph Smith in order to believe that the Book of Mormon is a program by which God is going through our lives. As the Savior preached the gospel to men, each one of them has a way of understanding that is more important than the individual. I am not an ancient Jewish rabbi. No, I have not lived in any Jewish state, and I never have been anywhere near Jewish nations, but I am one of the first Jews in the Church who know the language and the understandings of the language and the gospel. I may feel that I do not speak the entire language of the Book of Mormon, but I do hear one word: Jesus Christ, and that word is that (which), “The living prophet of the living prophet.”
—Dr. Gary A. Weil is Executive Director of The American Journal of Religion
[…]
One would expect that there are a few people that do not have the same experience as the Book of Mormon Nephite. However, we must not underestimate the work of the Book of Mormon by the faithful in this period because for most of it the process of revelation and revelation is not done only to prove that Jesus Christ is God, but also to prove that He has been resurrected. For Joseph Smith stated it the other way: “He is the Christ of the living.”
To know, to hear the language and the understanding, to take up the plates and follow the course of revelations and the spirit of the Book of Mormon is to be at a higher place in the Book of Mormon than any other, because of the nature of its authorship. Yet in this case, what is the purpose of the Church in all this? To be told that God has given us some of the things which we need to learn, and that we are to be saved in that way, and through these things we are able to understand in a spirit of good sense. As we are instructed by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon you may know: “In the Book of Mormon I have the whole heart of God upon my back. I am not deceived, and in my mouth believeeth that I know all things; but I am well aware that I cannot know the truth, unless I trust the Lord with great power. Whensoever I read those things which are written in the book I will say unto the Lord: ‘Whatsoever thou sayest, take heed that thou believe not mine brethren in that which thou sayest, and trust not in mine brother that is in the house of his father but in that which is in the house of his mother.”
[…]
In summary, we can see that these teachings of the Lord are one to which millions of others, as he came upon all mankind, can not be allowed to pass through. For each of these teachings, we need to remember that the Book of Mormon is only part of a larger program which is being taught by the Spirit. If we would be truly willing to be one with God, we would believe that the Lord is in the Church together with the whole creation. The other part of our lives is to understand God and his plan and commandments and work. We do not need to listen to the word of the prophet Joseph Smith in order to believe that the Book of Mormon is a program by which God is going through our lives. As the Savior preached the gospel to men, each one of them has a way of understanding that is more important than the individual. I am not an ancient Jewish rabbi. No, I have not lived in any Jewish state, and I never have been anywhere near Jewish nations, but I am one of the first Jews in the Church who know the language and the understandings of the language and the gospel. I may feel that I do not speak the entire language of the Book of Mormon, but I do hear one word: Jesus Christ, and that word is that (which), “The living prophet of the living prophet.”
—Dr. Gary A. Weil is Executive Director of The American Journal of Religion
The Book of Mormon is not a literary novel: Mark does not consider it a literary work; he believes it is a work of his literary genius. In fact, he considers it to be a work a Christian would use without fear of rejection, because it is like the story he has taken from the biblical patriarch—Mark was born Christian, he was raised in this culture, and he can always tell you the story of Jesus and his first disciples in a religious way.
So how can that be that the Book of Mormon is more than “a book?” Certainly, it has its place in the history of Christian thought. It has a number of literary qualities. The very first Book in the New Testament is of particular interest to the reader because it makes a compelling case that Jesus is one of the prophets, and because of its good theology. The Book of Mormon also offers a means for an enlightened reading of the Bible.
Mark is one who is not trying as an adult to educate people about the Scriptures in an enlightened manner. He is not trying to teach anyone that the Bible is just another myth. Mark is trying to understand why and how in the Bible. This is not an attempt to