Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Joseph Smith's Many Histories, Richard L. Bushman

BYU Studies Quarterly

In 1992 my wife, Claudia, published a book titled America Discovers Columbus: How an Italian Explorer Became an American Hero. The book argued that until the American Revolution, Columbus was almost completely neglected in histories of the British colonies. Not until three centuries after the fact did North Americans honor him as the discoverer of America. Even in 1792, it required a stretch of the imagination to give him the credit, since he never touched foot on the North American continent and for centuries the British had distanced themselves from the hated Spanish exploiters of the New World. But …

Part 2: Joseph Smith And The Recovery Of Past Worlds, Byu Studies

BYU Studies Quarterly

Almost beyond measure, Joseph Smith was spiritually and intellectually occupied with the past. He worked insatiably from 1828 to 1835 on his translations of the Book of Mormon, the Book of Moses, the Old and New Testaments, and the Book of Abraham. He drew great knowledge and strength from the revelations received by past prophets and patriarchs, and he sought to see as they had seen and to know as they had known. In considering Joseph Smith’s recovery of past worlds, the following chapters address several questions. What are modern scholars to make of Joseph Smith’s efforts to recover past …

Joseph Smith As An American Restorationist, Richard T. Hughes

BYU Studies Quarterly

Richard Bushman’s wonderfully expansive paper “Joseph Smith’s Many Histories” reminds us in forceful ways of the historical complexity that helped create the Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith. Bushman also reminds us that while historical complexity is embedded in history, it embeds itself as well in the hearts and minds of human beings who discover the various realities of history and then appropriate those realities for their own purposes. As an illustration of this point, Bushman tells the story of Christopher Columbus— how his standing as the grandfather of the United States was neither acknowledged nor celebrated until after 1776.

Joseph Smith In A Personal World, Dallin H. Oaks

BYU Studies Quarterly

My subject is Joseph Smith in a personal world. My lens is primarily a personal one—his impact on me and believers I have known during my lifetime. I will also discuss Joseph Smith’s own personal world and his impact on his acquaintances and friends. A major focus will be Joseph Smith’s role as a prophet and his teachings on the reality of revelation. By prophet I mean one who speaks for God in revealing divine truth to others. By revelation I mean God’s communication to man—to prophets and to every one of us, if we seek.

Part 4: Joseph Smith And The Theological World, Byu Studies

BYU Studies Quarterly

While Joseph Smith lived in what could be called early nineteenth-century Protestant America, many of his teachings, though bearing a close resemblance to biblical Christianity, stood in stark contrast with the theologies of other religions. Distinctively, he insisted on the need for modern and continuing revelation. While Joseph Smith never thought of himself as a theologian, his experiences and declarations have theological implications. What theological answers did Joseph Smith offer the world? What problems do those answers solve? What problems do they raise? Authors in this part also address the issue of divine discourse beyond the Bible and the odyssey …

Joseph Smith's Theological Challenges: From Revelation And Authority To Metaphysics, Richard J. Mouw

BYU Studies Quarterly

In his published dialogue with the Evangelical theologian Craig Blomberg, Stephen Robinson observed that one of the factors that makes it so difficult for Mormons and Evangelicals to understand each other is the issue of terminology. The theology of the Latter-day Saints, he noted, has not been shaped by the same developments that Protestants have experienced since the days of the Reformation. This means, Robinson said, that “Latter-day Saints are generally quite naïve when it comes to the technical usage of theological language.”

Joseph Smith's Christology: After Two Hundred Years, Robert L. Millet

BYU Studies Quarterly

During the last decade, a recurring question has been posed to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Is the church “changing?” In addition, it is asked, Is there some effort on the part of church leadership to have the church and its teachings, particularly those concerning Jesus Christ, become more acceptable to and thus more accepted by other Christians? The natural Latter-day Saint inclination is to react sharply that the church’s doctrines concerning Jesus Christ are intact and even eternal, that the doctrines of Joseph Smith’s day and the doctrines of our own day are one …

Part 1: Joseph Smith In His Own Time, Byu Studies

BYU Studies Quarterly

As scholars look back on Joseph Smith two hundred years after his birth, several historical questions capture their immediate attention. How was Joseph Smith shaped or constrained by his moment in history? How much was Joseph Smith a product of his own time? To what extent can he be explained in terms of the prevailing attitudes of his day? Is it more illuminating to think of him as a critic or as a product of American culture? Should he be seen as an American prophet or in a larger world setting? In many areas of historical inquiry, America as an …

Joseph Smith: Prophecy, Process, And Plenitude, Terryl L. Givens

BYU Studies Quarterly

Joseph Smith was an explorer, a discoverer, and a revealer of past worlds. He described an ancient America replete with elaborate detail and daring specificity, rooted and grounded in what he claimed were concrete, palpable artifacts. He recuperated texts of Adam, Abraham, Enoch, and Moses to resurrect and reconstitute a series of past patriarchal ages, not as mere shadows and types of things to come, but as dispensations of gospel fullness equaling, and in some cases surpassing, present plenitude. And he revealed an infinitely receding premortal past—not of the largely mythic Platonic variety and not a mere Wordsworthian, sentimental intimation—but …

Attempting To Situate Joseph Smith, Grant Underwood

BYU Studies Quarterly

Undergirding Richard Bushman’s insightful paper is a profound recognition (and a reminder) that histories are the creations of authors, not photographs of the past. Every aspect of writing a history, from the selection of sources to the interpretation of those sources bears the imprint of the author. The profoundly precarious and contingent character of all reconstructions of the past led Roland Barthes to quip that biography is “a novel that dare not speak its name.” Clearly, this is an overstatement, but it does warn us away from an unhealthy critical complacency when engaging in studying written histories.

Joseph Smith And Preexilic Israelite Religion, Margaret Barker

BYU Studies Quarterly

Terryl Givens has set Joseph Smith in the religious and cultural context of his time and raised many important issues. I should like to take a few of these issues and set them in another context, that of preexilic Jerusalem. I am not a scholar of Mormon texts and traditions. I am a biblical scholar specializing in the Old Testament, and until some Mormon scholars made contact with me a few years ago, I would never have considered using Mormon texts and traditions as part of my work. Since that initial contact I have had many good and fruitful exchanges …

Biographical Reflections On The American Joseph Smith, Robert V. Remini

BYU Studies Quarterly

I have long thought that the importance and role of Joseph Smith in the history of religion in America has been muted more than necessary by the Latter-day Saint church. As his biographer, I was and remain very anxious that his contribution to American culture and religion in general be recognized and appreciated, both by Mormons and by non-Mormons.

Joseph Smith And The Past, John W. Welch

BYU Studies Quarterly

My thoughts on Joseph Smith’s interest in past worlds cluster into three sections. The first deals with the challenge of evaluating and assessing Joseph Smith’s recoveries of texts or views from past worlds or civilizations. The second develops a list of ways in which the past functioned in Joseph Smith’s process of continuing revelation. The third focuses on the dynamic link between the past and the present in Joseph Smith’s concept of priesthood authority and its restoration.

Archeological Trends And Book Of Mormon Origins, John E. Clark

BYU Studies Quarterly

Had circumstances permitted a marked grave for the slain prophet, a fitting headstone could have read, “By Joseph Smith, Junior, Author and Proprietor.” Such an epitaph, taken from the title page of the Book of Mormon, captures the enduring bond between the man and the book, and also the controversy which coalesced around both with the book’s publication and the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830. In the ensuing and continuing “war of words” (Joseph Smith–History 1:10) and prejudice, redemption may hang on the single preposition “by.” What hand did Joseph have in producing …

Part 3: Joseph Smith In A Personal World, Byu Studies

BYU Studies Quarterly

Joseph Smith cared intensely about the personal world. He related to individuals. He championed the exercise of individual conscience. He promoted personal revelation. For this part, the presenter was asked to provide insights into Joseph Smith the man, who became devoutly revered by his followers as the Prophet Joseph Smith. What can be known of his background, his personality, his challenges, his opposition, and his charisma? What has drawn people to him? This presentation opens several windows into the mind and heart of a complex human being who responded to a call from God to undertake a divine work.

The Worlds Of Joseph Smith Gallery Display, Byu Studies

BYU Studies Quarterly

A display of books, manuscripts, photographs, and artifacts was assembled to accompany “The Worlds of Joseph Smith” conference at the Library of Congress. Twelve items in this display came from collections in the Library of Congress; three from the Library-Archives of the Community of Christ in Independence, Missouri; two from the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah; and thirteen from the LDS Church History Library, Archives, and Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City.

Joseph Smith Challenges The Theological World, David Paulsen

BYU Studies Quarterly

In his illuminating book The Story of Christian Theology, Roger Olson states:

Christian theology does not begin at the beginning. That is, Christian theology began well after Jesus Christ walked the earth with his disciples and even after the last disciple and apostle died. . . . The apostles [had] tremendous prestige and authority. . . . While they were alive, there was no need for theology in the same sense as afterward. Theology was born as the heirs of the apostles began to reflect on Jesus’ and the apostles’ teachings to . . . settle controversies about Christian …

Part 5: Joseph Smith And The Making Of A Global Religion, Byu Studies

BYU Studies Quarterly

Spawned in the Burned-over District of upstate New York and classified by historians for decades as a western American church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now faces the challenge of broadening its scope and its reach into many countries of the world. In this context, scholars have examined some of the more poignant challenges that Latter-day Saints face in making the transition from being a regional sect to becoming a global religion in terms of teachings, practices, language, and cultural differences. What does it take, beyond a burgeoning membership, to become a bona fide world religion? To …

World Religion: Dynamics And Constraints, Douglas J. Davies

BYU Studies Quarterly

Mormonism as a world religion and Joseph Smith as its originating prophet furnish the subject of this paper. A brief theoretical reflection on approaching The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides both an opening context for the quantitatively focused debate on Mormonism’s potential for growth into world religion status and an introduction for a more extensive consideration of several factors of a more qualitative kind that may foster or inhibit that development. The paper then ponders the issue of identity in relation to Joseph Smith.

Joseph Smith And The Making Of A Global Religion, Jan Shipps

BYU Studies Quarterly

In regard to the other “worlds” of the first Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith was certainly “in that world and of it.” He was clearly in attendance “in his own time;” he attempted to recover past worlds; he was and is present in his own and in the personal worlds of others; and he challenged the theological world of his day.

Cornelius P. Lott And His Contribution To The Temporal Salvation Of The Latter-Day Saint Pioneers Through The Care Of Livestock, Gary S. Ford

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis combines two studies: the role of livestock in the temporal salvation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Mormon exodus of 1846 and Cornelius P. Lott's contribution in the care of cattle and sheep during that time period. At Winter Quarters, the Church and its members depended in large measure for their survival upon the sizeable cattle herds they had acquired prior to their exodus from Nauvoo and during their trek across Iowa. Church leaders relied on men like Lott, whose expertise in the care of livestock, contributed significantly to the salvation of the …

Joseph Smith: Prophecy, Process, And Plentitude, Terryl Givens

English Faculty Publications

Joseph Smith was an explorer, a discoverer, and a revealer of past worlds. He described an ancient America replete with elaborate detail and daring specificity, rooted and grounded in what he claimed were concrete, palpable artifacts. He recuperated texts of Adam, Abraham, Enoch, and Moses to resurrect and reconstitute a series of past patriarchal ages, not as mere shadows and types of things to come, but as dispensations of gospel fullness equaling, and in some cases surpassing, present plenitude. And he revealed an infinitely receding premortal past—not of the largely mythic Platonic variety and not a mere Wordsworthian, sentimental intimation—but …

No Man Knows My Psychology: Fawn Brodie, Joseph Smith, And Psychoanalysis, Charles L. Cohen

BYU Studies Quarterly

Anyone (like me) approaching the study of Mormon history wet behind the ears soon confronts Fawn McKay Brodie's famous (or, in certain LDS circles, infamous) biography of Joseph Smith. Quickly fulfilling Herbert Brayer's prophecy that it "will probably of be one of the most highly praised as well as highly condemned historical works of 1945," No Man Knows My History elicited both wholesale acclaim ("the best book about the Mormons so far published," Bernard De Voto enthused; a "definitive treatment," seconded her friend Dale Morgan) and whole-hearted condemnation ("the statement made by Joseph Smith that "no man knows my history," …

Joseph Smith And The 1834 D. P. Hurlbut Case, David W. Grua

BYU Studies Quarterly

Joseph Smith, the Latter-day Saint Prophet, was not a lawyer by training, but he became well acquainted with the court system in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois during his brief lifetime. Through his encounters with the law, he developed a distinct view of the law's prospect for delivering justice. At first, Smith had a firm belief that, through faith and God's assistance, he would find justice. He was willing to go before the courts to present his complaints with confidence that he would ultimately prevail against all challenges. But after 1837, when his enemies began assailing him with numerous …

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, …

Joseph Smith And Abraham Lincoln, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

In a letter to his friend John Stuart, dated March 1, 1840, Abraham Lincoln wrote that Joseph Smith had recently passed through Springfield, Illinois. In a tantalizingly brief report, Lincoln told Stuart that "Speed [another close friend] says he wrote you what Jo. Smith said about you as he passed here. We will procure the names of some of his people here and send them to you before long." The nature of Joseph's comment on Stuart can only be surmised. Joseph had spent the winter in Washington D.C., vainly seeking compensation for the Saints' losses in Missouri in 1839. He …

The Case For Sidney Rigdon As Author Of The Lectures On Faith, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Twentieth century attempts to include the "Lectures on Faith" in the writings of Joseph Smith, Jr., provoked this comprehensive survey of historical evidence and carefully designed authorship testing of the text. Every credible approach reaches the same conclusion. Sidney Rigdon wrote the Lectures on Faith, likely without help from Joseph Smith or any others. These Lectures are characterized by both teachings and language that Rigdon may have retained from his recent discipleship with Alexander Campbell. The published Lectures follow both the form and content of lectures given and then published by frontier phenomenon Charles Finney. The decision to insert these …