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| Conclusions |
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 In his work, Allen
asks: "If the parallels are so strong between Christ and Quetzalcoatl, why do some people question that they
are one and the same?"(Allen, 1989, 160.) Allen responds with the argument that the material is complex, and
the separation of the aspects of Quetzalcoatl are difficult. The evidence presented in this paper would suggest
that we should reverse the question. If there are so few reconstructible parallels, why do we continue to assert
a connection between Quetzalcoatl and Christ? The answer is that we have simply fallen prey to the same desires
and distortions as the early Spanish fathers. Our interest in making the correlation between Quetzalcoatl and Christ
is just as understandable as their desire to link Quetzalcoatl to St. Thomas. It is just as much in error.If there is no reconstructible tale of Quetzalcoatl which can be shown to have any correlation to Christ, where does that leave the Book of Mormon? Right where it has always been. The literature which has been developed to show a connection between Christ and Quetzalcoatl has been done in good faith, if not in good scholarship. None of the work, however, bears any relationship to the text of the Book of Mormon itself. The Book of Mormon makes no connection between Christ and any mythological figure. Those connections were made by believers who did not have the benefit of many of the texts available today. That they were mistaken in their analysis does not impugn the record of the Book of Mormon itself. The appearance of Christ chronicled in 3 Nephi is so spectacular and memorable, that we naturally assume that someone must have remembered it. We therefore look for what might be a garbled remembrance of that appearance, and find Quetzalcoatl as the most natural candidate. Allow me to suggest an alternative. Since the appearance of Christ came to believers, I believe it became part of the sacred lore of the faithful, a part of their pearls which were not to be cast before swine. The tale would have been remembered, but passed on only in a sacred context. When that context died with both the wickedness and extermination of the Nephites, the tale would have died. While this is purely speculation, its a reasonable explanation for the absence of a mythology that we might otherwise expect to find. |
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| by Brant Gardner. Copyright 1998 |
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