Digital Commons Network^™

Joseph Smith’S Many Histories, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

I wish to explore, in broad general terms, the histories to which historians have attached Joseph Smith. As you can imagine, the context in which he is placed profoundly affects how people see the Prophet, since the history selected for a subject colors everything about it. Is he a money-digger like hundreds of other superstitious Yankees in his day, a religious fanatic like Muhammad was thought to be in Joseph’s time, a prophet like Moses, a religious revolutionary like Jesus? To a large extent, Joseph Smith assumes the character of the history selected for him. The broader the historical context, …

The Character Of Joseph Smith, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The title of this essay, "The Character of Joseph Smith," may promise more than can ever be fulfilled. Joseph warned the Saints of the difficulty in trying to understand him. In the King Follett discourse given two months before his death, he told them, "You don't know me--you never will." Another version of the same speech says, "You never knew my heart. No man knows my hist[ory]." He seems to say that what we want to know most--his heart and his history--are not to be found out. No matter how much we study him, we must be cautious about believing …

The Colonization Of The Mormon Mind, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The title of my talk doesn't shed much light on my topic. This past week, when I told people about the talk, the title mystified them. What can be meant by the colonization of the Mormon mind? The phrase is both inscrutable and ominous. Has the Mormon mind been colonized? Are we under the control of an imperial power without knowing about it?

Because of the obscurity of the title, I want to explain what the talk is about. It has two parts, an autobiographical section and a historical section, which are interrelated. I am going to talk about myself …

Was Joseph Smith A Gentleman? The Standard For Refinement In Utah, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The question of refinement cut even more deeply in Utah in the early days when the governance of the territory was at issue. The Latter-day Saints worked with a double handicap in striving to win respect from eastern travelers: in addition to the usual doubts about civilization in the West, the visitors were skeptical about Mormon religious fanaticism. Travelers came expecting that the poor credulous fools who submitted to the rule of Brigham Young would lack education, manners, taste, and intelligence—in short,would be as degraded as the woodcutters Trollope sighted along the banks of the Mississippi. The Saints for their …

The Social Dimensions Of Rationality, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

I recently attended a conference on religious advocacy sponsored by a group of Christian scholars who feel that religious belief is unduly restricted in academic discourse. The starting point for the conference was the evident fact that political convictions are freely advocated in classrooms and scholarly writing. These political positions are ideological and value laden, so why not introduce religious views too? If history can be taught from a Marxist perspective, why not from a Christian viewpoint?

Making Space For The Mormons, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This work is a lecture that was presented at Utah State University.

The Secret History Of Mormonism, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This is a book review.

Joseph Smith: The Prophet, Richard Bushman, Dean C. Jessee

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This is an encyclopedia article.

Treasure-Seeking Then And Now, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Last August I attended the BYU conference on the Mark Hofmann documents where I had an opportunity to reflect on what the documents meant to me. After searching my thoughts and testing my feelings, I came to the conclusion that they meant very little. They did not mean much when they first came out, and their fall from historical authenticity had little effect on me later. That may sound like a strange confession from one who was writing on the early life of Joseph Smith at the very moment the "Salamander" and 1825 Joseph Smith letters came to light, with …

Mormon Persecution In Missouri, 1833, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The Mormon war in Missouri began in 1833 when the residents of Jackson County drove out the Mormons at gun point. Peace officers, militia leaders, ministers, and merchants joined the mobs. They broke into homes, whipped men and threatened women, destroyed the Mormon press, and tarred and feathered Latter-day Saint leaders. The Saints fled in all directions, most of them crossing the Missouri River into Clay County.