What does it mean to anatomize a book? How does one “cut up” (ana-tomé) or “dissect” the written word? But more to the point, what is at stake in the cutting? When all is said and done, what does anatomy accomplish? If the discipline of textual anatomy looks anything like bodily anatomy, do we expect and accept a certain violence to the body lingual, perhaps justified by its being the dead letter? And what if the text still breathes? What then? When anatomists cut up something that is still alive so as to uncover its vital structures, it is called vivisection. What might it mean to vivisect a book, or still more, scripture? In this brief review, I propose to read Joseph Spencer's The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology in response to this question. Further, I will outline what vivisection has to do with the notion...
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