Hungry Night

Sophic

Sophic is a term used by Mormon apologist, scholar, and author Hugh Nibley to explain the shift from the tradition of oral-formulaic composition to that of the written word—sophic corresponding to the written word, the word "mantic" corresponding to the oral formulaic tradition. According to his theory, the mantic was a tradition relying entirely on God and prophets for knowledge. A person in that time period could go directly to the wise man, who simply asked God, the great spirit, or the universe and shared his directive. The mantic experience was a communal one—information was oral in mantic societies because everybody needed to be able to repeat and remember knowledge together. Sacred memories and information were encoded in a way that the community could… more »