Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon

1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 268
Author(s):  
Gordon Shepherd ◽  
Ernest H. Taves
Keyword(s):  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon

Esotericism and the “Coded Word” in Mormonism

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-54
Author(s):  
Clyde Forsberg Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Popular Religion ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Social Commentary ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
Divine Inspiration ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
New Religion

In the history of American popular religion, the Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, have undergone a series of paradigmatic shifts in order to join the Christian mainstream, abandoning such controversial core doctrines and institutions as polygamy and the political kingdom of God. Mormon historians have played an important role in this metamorphosis, employing a version (if not perversion) of the Church-Sect Dichotomy to change the past in order to control the future, arguing, in effect, that founder Joseph Smith Jr’s erstwhile magical beliefs and practices gave way to a more “mature” and bible-based self-understanding which is then said to best describe the religion that he founded in 1830. However, an “esoteric approach” as Faivre and Hanegraaff understand the term has much to offer the study of Mormonism as an old, new religion and the basis for a more even methodological playing field and new interpretation of Mormonism as equally magical (Masonic) and biblical (Evangelical) despite appearances. This article will focus on early Mormonism’s fascination with and employment of ciphers, or “the coded word,” essential to such foundation texts as the Book of Mormon and “Book of Abraham,” as well as the somewhat contradictory, albeit colonial understanding of African character and destiny in these two hermetic works of divine inspiration and social commentary in the Latter-day Saint canonical tradition.

Priesthood Ordination

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Stapley
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Church ◽  
Power And Authority

Early Mormons used the Book of Mormon as the basis for their ecclesiology and understanding of the open heaven. Church leaders edited, harmonized, and published Joseph Smith’s revelation texts, expanding understandings of ecclesiastical priesthood office. Joseph Smith then revealed the Nauvoo Temple liturgy, with its cosmology that equated heaven, kinship, and priesthood. This cosmological priesthood was materialized through sealings at the temple altar and was the context for expansive teachings incorporating women into priesthood. This cosmology was also the basis for polygamy, temple adoption, and restrictions on the participation of black men and women in the church. This framework gave way at the end of the nineteenth century to a new priesthood cosmology introduced by Joseph F. Smith based on male ecclesiastical office. As church leaders expanded the meaning of priesthood to comprise the entire power and authority of God, they struggled to integrate women into church cosmology.

scholarly journals Religion and Revolution: Joseph Smith, Abraham Lincoln, and the Book of Mormon

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. p42
Author(s):  
Sri Michael Das
Keyword(s):  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Important Task ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Human History ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
False Prophet ◽  
Con Artist

The name Joseph Smith, b. 23 December 1803, d. 27 June, 1844 invokes words like heretic, false prophet, con artist and fruitcake. No stranger to con artistry or the interior of a prisoner cell, Smith was arrested numerous times on legitimate charges, he also accomplished something no other Prophet did: developed the character and strategies for First Citizen of Humanity, Abraham Lincoln and helped start a War Between the States that enslaved men might be free. Though he never lived to see his Book of Mormon accomplish its ends, he, along with the Latter Day Saints were never given recognition, not even informally for this, humankind’s the most important task. The most important in human history. In this paper I detail important elements of Smith’s and his Church’s work and also illuminate his ties to Mr. Lincoln, and mourn the wayward Church of today. Perhaps revisiting Mister Smith’s Vision will reignite all of us and cause us to rise up and wage one more War against tyranny, weaponry, waste, abuse, neglect, and utter ignorance of our innate spiritual principals.

Translation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Taves
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Upstate New York ◽  
The Third ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
The Church

In 1823, Joseph Smith (1805–44), a farmer and treasure seeker in Upstate New York, had a vision in which a personage told him of ancient golden plates buried in a hillside, which Mormons claim he recovered, translated, and published as the Book of Mormon (1830) and which led to the founding of a restored church (1830). The revelation to Smith that Mormons now refer to as “D&C 3,” that is, the third revelation in the current edition of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' canonized Doctrine and Covenants, provides our first direct window into the emergence of early Mormonism. Although there is evidence to suggest that Smith received what he and others viewed as revelations prior to this one, this is the first revelation that was written down at about the time it was received. This chapter centers on that revelation, using it to reconstruct not only the event itself but the events that led up to and followed from it, as they likely appeared to those who were involved at the time.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Perry Mueller
Keyword(s):  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Racial Boundaries ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This chapter concludes the book with a survey of the history of Mormonism and race after Brigham Young’s death in 1877 to the present. For more than a century, the church worked to fortify the racial boundaries around the Mormon identity that Brigham Young erected during his tenure as president and prophet. And yet, pressures from inside as well as outside the church continually contested these boundaries. This chapter also meditates on how and why the church has recently renewed its universalism, and done so in relation to a rereading of the Book of Mormon. Yet this contemporary Mormon universalism is a new universalism. It is cast explicitly in a different shade than the white universalism that was proposed, and in some ways practiced, by the church that Joseph Smith founded in 1830.

A Theory of Translation

2020 ◽  
pp. 160-192
Author(s):  
William L. Davis
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
Historical Authenticity ◽  
Historical Accounts

Chapter Seven theorizes how Joseph Smith composed the Book of Mormon. Through a process of "revelatory translation," Smith spent several years crafting story outlines for the Book of Mormon, while simultaneously seeking spiritual confirmation of the historical authenticity of the narratives. Whether using a notebook of story outlines or simply his memory, Smith reviewed each of the story outlines prior to dictation, and then dictated the stories without the use of notes or manuscripts. The chapter contextualizes Smith's process within the western esoteric tradition of using seer stones and a biblical-style Urim and Thummim, with attention to the esotericism of John Dee and his scryer Edward Kelly (aka "Kelley"), who used a seer stone ("shew-stone") to translate angelic texts. The chapter further suggests the influence of biblical commentator Adam Clarke and his discussion of Paul's New Testament reference to the "tongue of angels." The chapter then reviews historical accounts by eyewitnesses to Smith's process of dictation and challenges apologetic interpretations. The chapter concludes with the theory that Smith composed the Book of Mormon by formulating the narratives in the work, after which he sought spiritual confirmation of their accuracy in a collaborative, spiritual co-authorship with the divine.

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 193-196
Author(s):  
William L. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Alternative View ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Oral Composition

The epilogue concludes the study with a brief review of the role of oral composition and oral performance in the creation of the Book of Mormon, along with providing suggestions for future studies. The chapter challenges hagiographic tropes that portray Joseph Smith as an uneducated, illiterate farm boy, offering instead an alternative view of an ambitious young man seeking to improve his humble status and to fulfil his belief that he was destined to become a prophet of God. The epilogue ends with a review of Smith's legacy and how the Book of Mormon remains the foundational text of his movement.

“Written by the Hand of Mormon”

2019 ◽  
pp. 456-504
Author(s):  
Larry E. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Newspaper Article ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
Print Shop

In June 1829, Joseph Smith and Martin Harris began contacting printers, including Thurlow Weed, who declined a contract, and Egbert B. Grandin, who eventually agreed to publish the Book of Mormon. Oliver Cowdery prepared a printer’s copy of the manuscript, and printing began in late August or early September. Employees of the print shop, including Pomeroy Tucker, Albert Chandler, and John H. Gilbert, later described the process in detail. During this same period, Cornelius Blatchly published an early newspaper article about the Book of Mormon, Abner Cole began illegally publishing extracts from the Book of Mormon, and a controversial revelation dealing with the Canadian copyright was dictated. In March 1830, the Wayne Sentinel announced the publication of the Book of Mormon.

“I Lead the Way, Like Columbus”

2019 ◽  
pp. 391-419
Author(s):  
Zachary McLeod Hutchins
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Christopher Columbus ◽  
Native Peoples ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
Orson Scott Card ◽  
The Way

Readers of The Book of Mormon have long identified Christopher Columbus as the “man among the Gentiles” whose divinely prompted journey to the Americas is foretold therein; Columbus thus became a model for the prophetic leadership of Joseph Smith. But if Columbus was inspired to discover the New World, that inspiration was imprecise, as the admiral sailed for China, suggesting that revelation is necessarily an ambiguous, messy process whose conclusions are uncertain and provisional, subject to correction or revision. Because his arrival in the Americas precipitated the genocide of Native peoples, identifying Columbus as a prophetic figure has forced faithful readers of The Book of Mormon to grapple with the question of theodicy. Some, like the novelist Orson Scott Card, have suggested that the Amerindian genocide is compatible with the justice of a loving God, while others have argued that The Book of Mormon celebrates prophetic weakness and promotes hermeneutic humility.

An American Book of Chronicles

2019 ◽  
pp. 136-158
Author(s):  
Eran Shalev
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Early American ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Republic ◽  
American Book

By the time Joseph Smith published The Book of Mormon, Americans had been producing and consuming faux biblical texts for close to a century. Imitating a practice that originated as a satirical literary genre in eighteenth-century Britain, Americans began producing pseudo-biblical texts during the Revolution. This essay demonstrates how the prism of pseudo-biblicism allows us to view The Book of Mormon as emerging from a larger biblico-American world. The genre demonstrates how pervasive the Bible was in the cultural landscape of the Republic and the ease with which Americans lapsed into biblical language. As this essay points out, however, pseudo-biblical discourse also sheds new light on The Book of Mormon. The similarities between The Book of Mormon and other pseudo-biblical texts provide a significant context to understanding the creation and reception of Smith’s text, the culture of biblicism in the nineteenth century, and the intellectual history of the early American Republic.

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