Book Review: A Barn Full of Angels: The Spiritual World and Pioneer Journey of Zerah Pulsipher, by Chad L. Nielsen

This book is a great example of what I consider to be the high-quality scholarship that Greg Kofford Books encourages. The author marshals many great sources in putting it together. He summarizes a lot of modern scholarship well, deftly incorporating it as context to Zerah Pulsipher's story. He briefly covers a lot of controversies that touched on Pulsipher's life without getting bogged down by them, and only making judgments where warranted. Overall, the narrative stays well-focused, well-paced, and extremely interesting.

One of the pleasures of this book comes from the richness of its sources -- we not only hear from Zerah, but from several family members as we live through his experiences. Each chapter starts out with a short, picturesque summary of its content, and then fills out its story of Zerah Pulsipher's life with a satisfying level of detail for the lay-reader, and with a bibliography that will help anyone seeking further knowledge.

I think the author did a great job hitting his goals of writing a book that would be simultaneously meaningful to the scholarly community, the Pulsipher family descendants, and modern LDS. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who wants a better understanding of what lived Mormonism was like in the 19th century.

I asked for a digital copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes, but did not receive any cash or discounts or other incentives to influence my opinions stated here.

Additional notes:

errata and corrigenda: (note that I use the Google Book page numbers, which are about 16 pages ahead of the physical book pages due to preface material, and book footnotes have become digital book endnotes)

- chapter 1, page 21, under "First Marriage and Visitation" section. "The Latter Day Glory" -- this is completely wrong so far as I can see! I don't know how such a mistake happened. The earliest record of the hymn I can find is 1790, "Mlllennium", in the book "Society hymns, original and selected on evangelical and experimental subjects" (https://hymnary.org/hymn/SHOS1790/XXXVII), over a decade before it gets attributed to John Leland. The source quoted in footnote 20 -- see https://hymnary.org/hymn/LCBS1811/166 -- actually calls the hymn "On the Millenium". Don't know how this mistake got in here

- page 98, chapter 7, middle of "Duties" section, "Smith'sf" should read "Smith's"

- page 101, chapter 7, footnote 18, there is an access date here and not elsewhere

 - page 108, "Succession Crisis" section, "associate President" is used of Hyrum. See the term "associate president" here --> https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/back/ecclesiastical-officers-and-church-appointees-1839-1844. Using the term in this context is ahistorical since it never applied to Hyrum during his life

- page 110, chapter 8, footnote 21 should be merged with 20

- page 114, text for footnote 37 -- this is quoted again, but for footnote 38. Text should have been consolidated

- page 122, "$84,000 in 2025" -- this kind of figure should be footnoted with a note about the strengths and limitations of dollar comparisons, and a more multidimensional chart exhibiting the nuances of what such money could buy would be even better

- page 136, chapter 9, footnote 37, "1846" should be "1845"

- page 136, chapter 9, footnote 38, "1846" should be "1845"

 - page 143, chapter 10, "Zion" section: not sure Nielsen should claim Zerah had a "deeply held belief" that the Saints "had to gather together" to perform priesthood ordinances. He sites a single, late address by BY to stake this claim. This explanation smacks of the presentism the author is usually good at avoiding and misses the more immediate reasons that are given elsewhere

- page 172, chapter 12, right before "The Utah War" section, "1837-1858" should read "1857-1858"

- page 183, chapter 12, "The Move South" section, "Nova Sccotia" should read "Nova Scotia" (checked original source)

- page 183, chapter 12, "The Move South" section, "then to" should read "than to" (checked quoted and original source -- https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/8f5e1442-8018-4470-aaaa-cd16c715c401/0/22)

- page 207, chapter 14, near the end, "sent...as a local manager to preside". Actually, as documented here, his family chose him to preside, not the top leadership

- page 208, chapter 14, footnote 4, "which the mature" should read "which to mature" (checked original source -- https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p16003coll15/id/780)

- page 208, chapter 14, footnote 8, "1871" pretty sure it should be 1861

- page 213, chapter 15 intro, "January 31" -- 1870. would be nice to know up front maybe instead of just at the end of the chapter

- there are some minor discrepencies in some footnote citations, such as chapter 9, footnote 32, Will Bagley is cited as the author of "The Whites Want Every Thing", but chapter 10, footnote 31, Will Bagley is cited as the editor of the book. Also, sources like the Historian's Office, general church minutes seem inconsistent in how they're referenced throughout the footnotes. See chapter 8, footnote 30, vs chapter 11, footnote 4, vs chapter 15, footnote 34, for instance

other notes:

Introduction: Excellent overview of author’s scholarly yet sympathetic approach to the history, and good explanation of the broader historical value of the focused subject

Chapter 1: Off to a good start with a solid sketch of his early life and family

Chapter 2: A great recounting not only of Pulsipher’s conversion, but that of a large portion of the Spafford community’s Freewill Baptists and the aftermath

 - footnote 24: A welcome occasion where Nielsen corrects overly eager authors for "playing fast and loose with the primary sources"

Chapter 3: Takes us from 1832 to 1835, tracking Zerah Pulsipher’s early days as an Elder in the church and what we know of his movements and role. It deeply contextualizes not only these early days of church history but also how their beliefs and behaviors fit into their wider American context. Readers will also be interested in the narration of Wilford Woodruff’s conversion and an early church exorcism saga

Chapter 4: Covers 1835- early 1838, but is a little sparse on biographical detail, and instead focuses on more general facts. We know Pulsipher moved to Kirtland spring 1835, took part in the 1836 endowments and was made a seventy, then started his Canada mission in the fall of 1837, with virtually no details in between

 - "Kirtland" section (page 54), text before footnote 5: Another welcome occasion where Nielsen warns the reader against presentist misconceptions of his topic, skillfully summarizing contemporary scholarship for the lay reader while also not getting bogged down in detail

 - "Endowment" section (page 58), end: "each person had a glass of wine" and a big hunk of bread, after fasting. I've always been curious about the accusations of drunkenness associated with the Kirtland temple / School of the Prophets. Fasting and then having a large glass of wine on a nearly empty stomach will do it

Chapter 5: Covers the tumultuous events that led to the desertion of Kirtland somewhat succinctly and without much speculation. Focuses on Pulsipher’s role in the Kirtland Camp migration toward Missouri in 1838

 - "Conflict" section (page 66): the Fanny Alger affair "may have been an early, unannounced form of plural marriage". Don Bradley notwithstanding, I think there's a:

Research opportunity: How did Joseph Smith's way of tying "revelation" to his own impressions and feelings intersect with his experiences of sexual attraction? I think some of the legwork has been done in showing how he tended to frame his "proposals" to women, including Emma, in terms of "this is what God wants and needs to carry out His work", so that rejecting Joseph always meant rejecting God. But I'm not sure I've seen everything come together quite right

 - "Conflict" section (page 67), end: Nielsen rightly notes that the KSS bank was out of capital after being open for only 22 days. He doesn't mention how they continued printing and signing notes for half a year after this, nor how the nationwide banking panic happened months AFTER the KSS bank technically failed. So many modern narratives still get this wrong, but that's not the focus of this book. At least the breadcrumb is there

 - "Kirtland Camp" section (page 75), end: reasonable possibility that the Kirtland camp was outfitted with the help of passing bogus KSS notes, but ends with "it is unclear what happened":

Research opportunity: to what extent did the Kirtland camp pass off bad KSS notes to enable them to buy teams and provisions for their journey? It would be neat to find more substance behind the rumor of Kirtland camp use of bogus notes — especially given the continuity of rumors surrounding mormons and counterfeiting that follow them through the Nauvoo era

 - "The Destroyer" section (page 79), end: Zerah "saw sickness not as a random misfortune, but as a spiritual battle". This tendency to see everything with only a single lens, and to be blinded to alternate possibilities, seems like a good theme to apply more broadly both within and outside of Mormonism. In the words of Abraham Maslow, "it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail"

Chapter 6: Covers Zerah Pulsipher's brief winter in Missouri, 1838-9, and some of the evidence of long-term traumatic impact it had on him, and the church as a whole. The beginning summary is very similar to the main chapter text after footnote 24, so it would sound better rewritten

 - "Hawn's Mill and the Fall of Far West" section (page 88): rightly calls out the victim blaming that seems to be a Pulsipher family pattern. See my the above quote about hammers and nails

Chapter 7: Covers a couple years in Lima / Nauvoo, with some reference to tensions surrounding the role of the Seventies envisioned by JS versus the Twelve

 - "Duties" section (page 100), tail end: Nielsen directly includes his perspective, with an interesting insight about the quoted text

Chapter 8: Covers the death of JS to the leaving of Nauvoo, including the expansion of the quorums of Seventy from 3.5 to 35

 - "Divisions and Persecutions Renewed" section (page 105): the author claims "many ideas...exist in revelations from the early 1830s". No footnote for this notion. Whereas I would note that JS actually cites some of his 1842 BoA work as the source for some of his innovations along these lines -- see Thomas Bullock, 16 June 1844, "I learned it by translating the papyrus now in my house"..."intelligences exist one above ano^{r.} that there is no end to it"..."J. C had a fa^{r.} you may suppose that he had a Fa^{r.} also" (https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/discourse-16-june-1844-a-as-reported-by-thomas-bullock/3)

 - "Succession Crisis" section (page 110): no mention that Brigham Young also used “first apostles, THEN prophets” reasoning from Ephesians to convince the crowd. Also, Young and the twelve were central to the missionary efforts that brought many members to the church in the first place, which Alex Baugh has indicated in his classes as a probable factor for the sequence of events that day

 - too much space was probably spent on the mantle story in the main text. However:

Research opportunity: scholarship on the BY mantle story seems super out of date and in need of a refresh. Somebody, line up accounts by date, by detail, and so far as possible by geographic settlement pattern of the originator, to allow for careful re-examination of the witnesses

Chapter 9: Covers the travails (indian relations, privations, horrible weather), ironies (Missouri as a vital lifeline, Mormon battalion, Zerah's leadership style) and highlights (BY's sense of humor, Pulsipher's 'adoption' to Wilford Woodruff, American bison) of the 1.5 year journey from Nauvoo to Utah

 - "Leaving Nauvoo" section (page 119): "falsely charged with counterfeiting currency". Well, the KSS fiasco certainly didn't help

- "garden grove" (page 122): I think this is roughly the halfway point to Winter Quarters

Chapter 10: Covers the early days of settling the Salt Lake Valley roughly up to the Mormon Reformation, and Zerah's participation in the industry and commerce that enabled their survival. It also covers some of the conflicts with the peoples that were already there and whom the Mormon settlers were displacing

Chapter 11: Details a lot of Zerah Pulsipher's teachings and views concerning the church and righteous living. It repeats a lot of quotes from other chapters but includes a lot more than they do. It also covers the rise of polygamy as a central concern for the Pulsipher household in the mid 1850s, including Zerah's marriage at age 67 to a 13 year old (likely due to intense, negative pressure from leadership during the “Mormon Reformation”), and her pregnancy the following year

 - "Family Meetings and Sermons" section (page 154): good quote: "We have had many revelations. Let us improve upon them"

 - "Plural Marriage" section (page 160): bad quote: "A man will love his wives just in proportion to their acts of kindness & good works"

 - "The Mormon Reformation" section (page 162): scary quote: "there is hardly a girl 14 years old in Utah but what is married or just going to be". Also, "only thirteen years old when she married Zerah Pulsipher"

Chapter 12: Takes us through the Mormon Reformation to the aftermath of the Utah War, and the perspectives and roles played by the Pulsiphers. Although Nielsen deals with Pulsipher relations with Native Americans elsewhere, he does not broach the broader topic of Brigham Young's behaviors relating to them much here

 - "Conflict with the United States" section (page 171): "The tactless memorandum" -- colorful paragraph, puts blame on both sides. I would note that Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom, page 130 shows that Brigham Young anticipated and began preparing for armed conflict with the US as early as December 1856

 - "The Utah War" section (page 172): "There had been hints that this turn of events was coming". Again, Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom, page 125 -- Young would have known the news for at least a month before the Big Cottonwood Canyon celebration. The event was staged to make it more dramatic and "fulfill" the 10 year prophecy to the day

 - "Zerah Pulsipher's Recollections of the War" section (page 186): "nerve for confronting southern secession". Nielsen doesn't really make it clear here that the threat of Southern secession was one reason why Buchanan felt he had no choice BUT to respond to the LDS provocations with force

Chapter 13: Covers plural marriage in considerable detail, including how the process evolved over time. It plausibly casts Pulsipher's reprimand for performing a couple unauthorized sealings and rebaptism and ordination to High Priest as more a "convenient opportunity" the brethren took advantage of to shift his calling than an ecclesiastical punishment per se. He rightly notes that rebaptism had different connotations in the 19th century than it had later on.

 - "The Punishment" section (page 203): interesting quote: 'the Presidents of the Seventy had "met with a seers stones to see what they could see"'

Chapter 14: Covers the Pulsipher clan's calling to move to southern Utah and initial settlement of Shoal Creek

Chapter 15: Summarizes details of the penultimate stage of Zerah Pulsipher's life in southern Utah

Chapter 16: Concludes with Zerah's death and the final trajectories of his wives' lives

Book Review: Unlocking the Chinese Realm: Apostle David O. McKay and Latter-day Saint Encounters in East Asia, 1852-1921, by Reid L. Neilson

This book is not really aptly named, since Mormons didn't really "unlock" anything related to China in the major period covered by the book until they established a mission presence in Hong Kong in the 1950's. Nevertheless, the author is an excellent historian and establishes and contextualizes the cross section of Mormon history and east Asia very well. Because the history is rather sparse, the author is able to flesh out what history there is with plenty of detail and historical perspective, including sociological reasons why the Mormons were so successful in the islands of the Pacific and not elsewhere in east Asia.

The writing is easy to follow and the book is well-footnoted (including some notes I wish were in the main text) and references a valuable collection of sources one may go to for further research into the topics it covers. It also contains transcriptions of many of the central events and documents the book covers in its several appendices.

The only major place I would say the author stumbles is where he veers into devotional, rather than scholarly, territory. This, unfortunately, includes the "highlight", or main focus of the book -- dedicatory prayers. The author tries to turn the practice into an "ordinance" with a recognizable and unchanging core. Fortunately, this problem is mostly isolated to chapters 4 and 5, and also in spite of his rhetoric, he marshals enough sources to basically make the opposite point he is trying to make.

It can be frustrating when misguided religiosity turns otherwise sound scholarship into slop. However, given that a big part of the audience is going to be active Mormons, this is probably a selling point rather than the opposite for a lot of folks.

I asked for a digital copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes, but did not receive any cash or discounts or other incentives to influence my opinions stated here.

Additional notes:

errata / corrigenda:

  - page 16, "A decade ago" is referring to 15 Mar 2013. See https://web.archive.org/web/20130318012517/https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/china-website-mormons

  - page 16, www.mormonsandchina.org -- this is no longer active. It redirects to https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/China?lang=eng, which is also wrong and the capitalization of "China" will give a 404 error at the moment. The correct url to visit is https://china.churchofjesuschrist.org/ which will redirect to https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/china?lang=eng. The content has mostly not changed since 2013

  - page 16, "sixty" should have been "fifty"

  - page 22, footnote 5, "1901" should be "1921"

  - page 28, "traveled in Utah" should read "traveled to Utah"

  - page 51, footnote 13, "See" has a weird superscripted "S"

  - page 51, footnote 26, "Foreign Kingdom" should actually read "A Foreign Kingdom"

  - page 51, footnote 47, spurious comma in ",."

  - page 57, "true claims" should read "truth claims"

  - page 79, footnote 5, "Stepehn" should read "Stephen"

  - page 79, footnote 10, "Neil" should read "Niel"

  - page 79, footnote 51. "The Wilford Woodruff Papers" needs consistent formatting

  - page 99, "China were the scenery" should read "China where the scenery"

  - page 110, "three priesthood quorums". the author fails to contextualize what Seventies were and how many quorums there are and which quorum presides

  - page 123, "Granted noted" should read "Grant noted"

  - page 152, footnote 24, "on page that" -- page number is missing

  - page 225, "Gunson, Neil" should read "Gunson, Niel"

other notes:

Chapter 1 details the first mission to China, which took about 15 months to fully conclude although only two months were actually spent (fruitlessly) in Hong Kong. It highlights the sociological reasons the Mormons were completely out of their depth in spite of the successes of other Christians, and in contrast to the success of the Mormons in the Pacific islands.

Research opportunity: He identifies a meaningful hole in the scholarly record -- who wrote what, and plagiarized what, in the periodicals of the era?

Chapter 2 continues the author's contextualization and summary of scholarship related to the east asian presence and the scant attention paid to it by the Mormon church in Hawaii, California and Utah in the nineteenth century.

Research opportunity: He identifies a meaningful hole in our understanding of the Japanese presence in Utah between circa 1890 and 1920.

Page 71, the author says "the US government sent 2,500 troops to Utah to take control of the territory by force" and uses the words "federal assault". It's unfortunate the author didn't contextualize this more -- the 1856-7 "Reformation" and the apocalyptic attitudes that were a precursor to the tension and violence. David Bigler's "Forgotten Kingdom" makes it clear that Brigham Young cast the first stone, as it were, by interfering with the federal mail long before the US contemplated sending troops in to restore order.

Chapter 3 details the opening of missionary efforts in Japan in the early 20th century. It again contextualizes the various sociological reasons why Mormon missionaries met with much less success than their Protestant counterparts. The words rigid, inflexible, uneducated, racist and nonadaptive come to mind. Furthermore, the author points out that the opening decades of the century were a "golden age" for Christian missionary work in China, and it was almost entirely overlooked and missed by the LDS. The book uses Alma O. Taylor's journal entries to narrate his trip into Korea and China in 1910 to prospect for future missionary opportunities, and while detailed and enjoyable, for some reason it focuses mainly on a two week period in the interior of china, despite Taylor's 9 weeks total spent traveling. It highlights his negative assessment of China and the lack of church resources to build necessary mission infrastructure as major factors behind the church's failure to do anything about China in this period.

Footnote 6 is disappointing in that the author calls the authors of religiously motivated speculative books "researchers" and affords them the same credibility and space as the much more legitimate research and researchers that fill most of the footnotes and part of this one.

Footnote 35, noting that the grain the church sent to China in 1907 came too late to be useful, totally should've been in the main text. Kind of sad but funny.

Research opportunity: So far as I know, Alma O. Taylor's japanese language efforts haven't been evaluated by any modern expert, so while his accomplishments are listed here, their evaluation is not and this is another opportunity for future research. The author does mention that the Japanese mission only had 35 converts after roughly a decade of labor.

Chapter 4 veers into a ridiculous devotional tone as it covers the topic of dedicatory prayers (frequently devotionally referred to here as a "dedicatory ordinance"). The author not only fails to separate the devotional from the scholarly in his words and choice of sources, but the quality of his work degrades. Page 112, "by inspiration", and page 114, "most profound", are not scholarly words. Footnote 20, the author notes that he will be ignoring at least 5 occasions of 'dedicatory prayers' that don't follow the pattern that he claims (1850 hawaii, 1853 south africa, 1854 australia, 1886 canada, 1905 greece). "Evangelism began to move steadily forward in Mexico" (page 121) following a dedicatory prayer -- the author gives no footnotes or numerical evidence to make this case. This is, quite unfortunately, a common problem when active mormons touch on sensitive topics such as priesthood organization and authority. Assertions about priesthood function have taken the place of historical rigor.

Another instance is that the author claims some very specific, priesthoody things about the general structure of the dedicatory prayer -- in spite of this structure not existing for the many early prayers that he proceeds to quote and outline. It seems (see work on similar processes by Jonathan Stapley and Kristine Wright, for instance) that the formalization and institutionalization of the meaning and purpose of dedicatory prayers and their association with the concept of ordinances, has a long and stuttered developmental history. The author interpolates and inserts his framework into his descriptions of the primary sources he works with, in spite of much of the framework not being found in the primary sources he quotes. His best example of a dedicatory prayer following the pattern of Orson Hyde's first 1841 prayer is Heber Grant's 1901 prayer, which was given shortly after Grant explicitly read a copy of Hyde's 1841 prayer. Grant also explicitly stated that he had never read Hyde's prayer before, so clearly there wasn't a pattern to these prayers in the 19th century. This is also the only real hint we get about the extent of membership-wide and apostolic-wide awareness of a dedicatory prayer tradition. The author's documentation of Francis Lyman's frequent dedicatory prayers in 1902-3 (alongside footnote 46) seems to make it clear that Lyman's approach was innovative and inspired by a bit of wanderlust, rather than necessarily following previously established patterns (he seemed to make the process of "turning the key" and opening gospel doors more aspirational than effort-based compared to his predecessors).

The author presents, by his count, 19 "dedicatory prayers" as his bedrock evidence - 9 in europe and the near east, 1 in mexico, 1 in japan, and 7 in palestine. By my count from the book, we had 1 prayer in Palestine by Orson Hyde in 1841, 3 suspect prayers by Erastus Snow and John Taylor in 1850 (Denmark, France, Italy) and 1 in 1851 (Switzerland) that do NOT sound like dedicatory prayers as defined by the author, a 6th prayer in Mexico in 1881 that sounds like a dedicatory prayer but doesn't follow the wording pattern that might warrant calling it an "ordinance", and 4 additional not-specifically-documented-here prayers in Palestine. Then we get Heber Grant's 1901 (Japan) prayer modeled after Hyde, and Francis Lyman's rush of 8 dedicatory prayers in 1902-3 (Belgium, Palestine twice, Finland, Russia twice, Poland. maybe the author is also counting Norway?). The 1921 prayer by David McKay makes for the 20th such prayer. After all this the author jarringly asserts, "Offering prayers over different nations has long been an important part of the work of Latter-day Saint apostles" (page 129). Um, didn't the author just exhaustively demonstrate that it was often more an after-thought? Also, the only places they prayed over were non-anglophone mission fields (not including the 35% before 1922 that were over Palestine and not really mission-field dedications).

"live until the Second Coming, like John the Beloved according to the New Testament" (page 123). This assertion is a Mormon belief, not a common Christian one and not what the New Testament / John 21:23 actually says.

Chapter 5 describes David McKay's dedication of China. To me this represents the further solidification of patterns that were once much more fluid -- the "institutionalization" of earlier charismatic and more spontaneous behaviors described in chapter 4. Although the author's framing is unfortunate (including carryovers from the previous chapter -- eg, on page 152 the quoted text uses the phrase "dedication services" to describe the dedicatory prayers performed by Cannon and McKay, but the author again changed this to "dedicatory ordinance" when describing it himself), it nonetheless provides an excellent overview and contextualization of the experience.

Chapter 6 describes the rest of the McKay's tour around the world and some later events that reflect the theme of the book. It ends on a high note regarding Russell Nelson's aspirational announcement of a future temple in Shanghai.

The chapter opens with some questionable language -- the author describes the visit to Tahiti as brief but "profound" (page 153) -- without justifying his use of that word. The book also neglects to mention that the Tahitian mission president wasn't able to meet with them during their brief stay at that time. Sounds less, profound, and more, disappointing.

More suspect language appears on pages 161 and 163 where the author describes Matthew Cowley's dedication of China as rededication, even though the passages he quotes clearly suggest this is a dedication and opening of China "for missionary work" (page 163), not a rededication or reopening, in spite of their awareness of McKay’s 1921 dedication. Clearly some historical dedicatory prayers had a more aspirational function, but by this point in LDS church history they seem to largely have had a routine ecclesial function, as further demonstrated by the book's description of Joseph Fielding Smith's assignment to dedicate several lands for missionary work in 1955. It was only in 1959 that Mark Peterson dedicated Formosa and in his prayer used the words "rededicate" and "rededication" for apparently the first time (page 164). James Faust performed another aspirational rededication prayer in Beijing in 1979.

Appendix A is a delightful transcription (from Pitman shorthand) of Hosea Stout's Christmas 1853 tabernacle recitation of his experience going to China and back. It makes for a good addendum to chapter 1.

Appendix B contains about half of Alma Taylor's lengthy report of his 7 weeks in China. It makes for a good addendum to chapter 3.

Appendix C contains David McKay's 9 Jan 1921 prayer text (as reconstructed on 23 Feb that year from Hugh Cannon's notes).　It makes for a good addendum to chapter 5. Of note is his phrase that "the time has come" (page 198) for the gospel to come to the nation, and that "we implore thee" to "open the door for the preaching of thy Gospel from one end of this realm to the other" (page 199).

Appendix D contains Hugh Cannon's widely published account of the event in 1921. Another good addendum to chapter 5. Church members would have read of "The horde of ragged and revolting mendicants, grimy porters and insistent jinrikisha men" (page 200) and how "at no very distant day the light of the gospel may penetrate to present overwhelming darkness" (page 203).

Appendix E contains David McKay's Sept 1921 "Ah Ching" improvement era article, describing the Chinese-Samoan convert he met as described in chapter 6. Would've been nice if the author had included additional biographical information about "Tagaloa" Hiau Ah Ching. On family search (record KW8W-4F8) you can find that he was born 19 Jan 1854, married Fa'aoso around 1890, had son Afa / Arthur on 4 June 1896 (widowed around maybe that time -- 1-2 years before second marriage), baptised Sunday 3 April 1898 (already as local chief) after being "converted" the day previous, married Fa'atupu on 4 April 1898 (family search currently records this as 5 April, but a journal entry shows this is wrong), and died on 19 Jan 1923.

Appendix F contains a chronology that includes events from this book and whole bunch of events relating to the church in east Asia not really covered in the book.

Book Review: Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration, by Robert A. Rees

 Amazon and Goodreads review:

A poetic attempt to promote liberal mormonism

This book is a decent contribution to the liberal mormon tradition, and as such, it should at least be read by folks in leadership in the church. There is nothing trailblazing in the book, but the author has been a lifelong voice and support in the struggle to help the church be the best it can be. His words are worth considering at the least.

Regarding the structure, there is a light bibliography in the back as well as an "acknowledgements" section that lists all the essays, etc from which the author drew for this book. The text is also interspersed with poetic and creative "interludes". A couple chapters are adapted from previous publications.

Regarding the style, this book is very much a devotional work. It uses insider-coded language, or what I consider "virtue signaling", to fit many of its thoughts and inspirations within a mainstream "mormon" framework.

Regarding content, the book sometimes promotes shallow, mainstream-type answers to how to make the church better, such as "accept callings and then magnifying them" (page 66), and also negative views against outsiders or those leaving the church - "Abandoning the Church because of something broken in it is like leaving a house because the plumbing isn't working well" (page 72). At the same time, it promotes many liberal causes -- elevating heavenly mother within our discourse, moving past our racist and anti-LGBTQ past and present, being stewards of the earth, etc.

Personally, I prefer much more academic rigor, and you will not find that here. The writing sits on the verge of mysticism and "creative misinterpretation", both of which I find to be harmful misuses of the imagination. The author wishes to appropriate what might be called the "midrashic" impulse in behalf of the churhc, whereas I would prefer careful and deliberate deconstruction and nuancing of our perspectives rather than letting our imaginations play with and run roughshod over truth.

Additional notes:

This book takes an approach at odds with my own sense of how to improve the world. Rather than subject our beliefs to a skeptical and reasoned scrutiny, it showcases the possibilities open to us when we suspend our disbeliefs and instead purposefully engage in creative misinterpretation, or in Rees's word, "reimagination". For some reason this always seems to entail requiring the reader to accept as "truth" propositions untenable to critical scholarship that aims to get as near to universal "truth" as possible. It seems Rees would agree wholeheartedly with Joseph Smith's 16 June 1844 statement (as reported by Thomas Bullock) that a man won't be damned for believing too much, but for unbelief. Yet, Rees seems only capable of imagining things which correspond to current church culture, and never grapples with an accurate understanding of the past as found in abundance in present-day scholarship.

In the intro, Bob Rees uses pointed reasoning and instances of others misinterpreting scripture (eg, Hosea 12:10 on page 2) to find tenuous support for his project of "reimagination," or in my words, creative misinterpretation.

Chapter 1, on Christ. Of Luke's birth narrative, "I believe, that he may even have tracked down shepherds who were in the field that glorious night" (page 8). Really? Even ignoring the many problems that arise when you try to reify Luke's infancy narrative, it defies any kind of sense to think that this account, composed about a century after Jesus' birth, relied on eyewitnesses. Where and how would the refined, urban Greek-speaking author of Luke have obtained fellowship with these apparently amazingly long-lived anonymous rural Aramaic-speaking shepherds? Nephi "was commanded to behead his own relative" (page 9). Um, citation please? This makes Laban sound like near kin. Also, "We can surmise that Nephi knew of Nazareth" because Nephi sees and names it in 1 Ne 11:13. He supports this claim with a dubious reading of Matthew. Sorry, but all archaeological evidence points to Nazareth being a late Hellenistic period settlement -- it didn't exist in Nephi's day. Then he quotes 1 Ne 11:21 and doesn't bother to note that the 1830 text read, "behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!" Lost opportunity to "imagine" what was going on when JS "reimagined" that passage and added "Son of" to the text. Apparently the heavenly council in the preexistence included "the Father and Mother" (page 11), and the celestial kingdom means living in "the presence of our Heavenly Father and Mother" (page 13. see also pages 22, 24, 91, 156, 164, all of chapter 3, etc). I guess he's "reimagining" the Mormon vision of a Father and many Mothers -- let's not forget about eternal polygamy!

Chapter 2, on Joseph Smith. Flowery phrases like "how absolutely profound, transcendent, and life-changing seeing the faces of the Father and the Son must have been for Joseph" (page 18). Ugh, please engage with scholarship -- "show me the receipts" and stop engaging in eisegetical misreadings of the historical record. Later on the same page he calls the "Jewish midrash" "the Rabbis' imaginative expansion of scripture". Yet he refuses to even get near the idea of the Book of Mormon and other revelations as a similar kind of midrash. On pages 19-20, he reads the vision of God as recorded in D&C 76 as if it was a photographic recollection rather than a mismash of scriptural tropes ranging from Jesus' baptism to Stephen's vision of God in Acts 7. He likewise on page 20 interprets D&C 110:3-4 as a literal description of seeing Jesus rather than seeing it as a rehash of the vision found in Revelation 1. Someone is drowning in the koolaid: "if we each carry the physical DNA of our earthly parents and other ancestors, why wouldn't our spirits, which are refined matter, carry the DNA of the parents of our spirits?" *Sigh*. Why not read Jonathan Stapley's musings on "Tripartite Existentialism" from way back in 2009 on the By Common Consent blog? Or any decent history of Mormon theology to see how these ideas were invented wholecloth in the 20th century and don't even go back to Joseph Smith.

And must we be forever lost in creative misinterpretation and hagiography? I think one of the greatest services we can do to our past and the dead is to uncover them and see them as clearly as we can. Some of these chapters were an exercise in doing the opposite.

Chapter 3, on Heavenly Mother. Honestly, authors like Carol Lynn Pearson do such a better job grappling with the hard questions and not simply imagining how our doctrines should be without grappling with them as they are. They refuse to even acknowledge, much less grapple with, the ways in which the present institutional church has stifled discussion of Heavenly Mother. How can we really make progress if we don't engage with the actual present and past?

Chapter 4, on Mary. Rees gets close to Brigham Young's imagination that God the Father literally fathered Jesus with Mary, imagining her "ravaged by a divine being" (page 87) and that "So much light floods into her that she feels as if the sun itself is inside her" (page 55). Eww. He doesn't even get close to the scholarly consensus that Joseph was the father of Jesus and that the miracle birth stories were a later invention. His imagination does leave Mary "Alone in her room at night" as "she reads and rereads the words of the prophets" (page 55). This peasant girl from a backwater town is literate, has her own set of scripture scrolls, candles for reading, and her own bedroom. Meaning she knows Hebrew along with her native Aramaic, and must be considerably wealthy. Who knew? I feel like Rees really wants to write his own infancy gospel like they did in the early days of Christianity. Is this kind of impulse really healthy for us?

Chapter 5, Repairing the Church. He has to stress so hard that admitting that the church is broken and trying to mend it doesn't make him a critic or an "ark steadier". Doesn't this need to spend so much space preempting criticism itself say a lot? He lists a lot of legitimate problems with church culture (many of which he himself reflects throughout this book), and a lot of common tropes found in the "liberal mormon" cultural sphere. He mentions secondhand knowledge of many "mission presidents not reporting truthfully on conditions in the mission field for fear of being blamed" (page 67). Folks ought to read Daymon Smith's "Book of Mammon" if they really want to know more about that kind of stuff. But then he goes and spends most of his space blaming the members and excusing church leadership. What are the solutions? "It begins by being willing to accept callings and then magnifying them" (page 66). Wow. What a "just read your scriptures, pray, pay your tithing, and go to church" kind of answer. He criticizes those who would just leave the church - "Abandoning the Church because of something broken in it is like leaving a house because the plumbing isn't working well" (page 72). He also criticizes those who complain about the church but who don't give 100% to it, "who don't show up on Saturday mornings to clean it for Sunday services or on Tuesday evenings to work with the youth" (page 72 -- but see the footnote where he at least gives lip service to the possibility that church itself might be blamed a bit too). I have to say, I'm a much bigger fan of Ursula le Guin and her short story, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas". I'd rather side with those.

Chapter 6, a tribute to Lester Bush. This is decent. Rees laments about how the church and world would have been better if only Brigham Young hadn't insisted on racist church policy and doctrine. I think it's unfortunate that it's not better understood that Joseph Smith himself was also quite racist. "Fixing" Brigham Young wouldn't really quite have been enough.

Chapter 7, on intentionally "feminine" readings of scripture. He spends a lot of time defending a (shallowly understood, appropriated and jerry-rigged for his own purposes) "midrashic" approach to scriptural interpretation -- as opposed to "fundamentalist, literal, and privileged approaches to the scriptures" (page 84). He asks us to creatively reimagine and even intentionally distort (page 89) scripture and gives several examples. For some reason, his "good Samaritan" rereading involves a woman who is "physically and sexually assaulted" (page 88). I'm not sure turning negative things relating to women into rape stories is productive rather than just sensational. Also, in the "prodigal daughter" story of interlude 4a (page 95), it's kind of telling that he finds the need to make the husband a central part of the story. Is just telling a story centered on just women that hard to do? He also turned it into a rape story. I also don't think papering over the uncomfortable within the past in order to invent readings that "work" for modern mormons necessarily does us or anyone justice. If only we were to recognize the Book of Mormon as midrash, we would also be better positioned to see how it prioritizes its own misreadings of history over the real histories and experiences of the american indians... no luck getting close to that here, though.

Chapter 8 - LGBTQ members. Decent chapter. A weird paragraph on page 110 quotes Irene Bates, "Myths... can never serve as pillars of our faith". Um, what has this whole book been about again, besides generating faith-enriching myths? There is a lot of virtue signaling towards mainstream members of the church in this chapter as well as the rest of the book.

Chapter 9 - holy week. A decent celebration and remembrance of past celebrations of holy week and a desire for the church to do more with it.

Chapter 10 - environmentalism. In between okay discussions of environmental stewardship and copious referencing of other work, he quotes someone using the phrase, "wave field of bio-emotional energy" (page 139). Plunging into Deepak Chopra territory here...

Chapter 11 - forgiving the church. Surprisingly decent, besides being structured using a somewhat arbitrary "spiritual evolution" model of life. I think this kind of teleological thinking is self-serving and procrustean in its application.

Chapter 12 - imagination and mormonism. A call for a more "liberal" mormonism. A good summary of the author's central concerns and hopes.

Throughout the book Rees tends to adopt modern liberal-ish positions. For instance, on page 66, right after saying that the church culture has too many people "committed to the values of our political parties than to those of the gospel", he praises a bishop who refused to follow church directives during the Proposition 8 debacle.

Book Review: The Revised & Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts, compiled by Alonzo L. Gaskill and Richard G. Moore

 Amazon and Goodreads review:

This book is a helpful update to the TPJS, for anyone acquainted with the original or who desires to understand one of the books that stood as a pillar of 20th century Mormonism. It reprints the original TPJS pretty much in its entirety, with transcripts from the earliest texts the TPJS drew on in a parallel column. The editors of the volume use pro-Mormon language in the introduction but remain scholarly throughout the rest of the text. There are appendices for some of JS's later discourses that had multiple independent records, so you can see what each source originally looked like. There is also an appendix identifying many possible "ghost-written" texts that may not have originally been by JS.

On formatting. The Google books version has a broken table of contents, so you can't immediately jump to a particular section. While reading the book online, my Safari browser occasionally blanked out the window to clear its memory usage, and this would make me lose my place.

On editorial choices. The authors quote the footnotes from the original text in their own footnotes, without any kind of critical evaluation. Often they include notes about the sources from which the original TPJS drew, but not all the time. For instance, Joseph's 18 December 1833 blessings to Samuel and William Smith were expanded in 1835 to promise riches, long life, and prowess in battle. The original TPJS text reflects the earlier Joseph Smith journal text, whereas the new text on the right actually reflects the expanded 1835 Patriarchal Blessing book text rather than the earliest source. I could only figure this and a few other details out by using the Joseph Smith Papers website's Calendar of Documents.

I think it would have been nice for the editors to make it more clear when most of the differences between the original TPJS and the earliest sources were made. It takes some careful investigation to realize that the original TPJS largely drew on the DHC, and that most differences between the old TPJS text and the new text actually come from changes made between around 1845 and maybe 1856 (from History, D-1 and E-1). But not all. For instance, the phrase "by the hands of a cruel mob and the tyrannical disposition of the authorities of this state" was first added to the 16 Dec 1838 letter from liberty jail when it was published in the April 1840 Times and Seasons.

On interesting differences between earliest manuscripts and the TPJS. The DHC really messed with the original Relief Society minutes. For instance, JS originally is reported to have said he wanted the Society to become "a kingdom of priests" and spoke of delivering keys to it and the church, but DHC editors made it so that JS wanted the Church to be a kingdom of priests and that he delivered keys just to the church. JS also said the society "shall have power to command Queens", but this was changed to, "through the heads of the Church, they shall have power to command queens". The DHC editors also changed a prophecy -- JS is originally reported to have said, "I now deliver it as a prophecy that before ten years shall roll round, the queens of the earth shall come and pay their respects to this Society". But this was changed to "if the inhabitants of this state, with the people of the surrounding country, will turn unto the Lord with all their hearts, ten years will not roll around before the kings and queens of the earth will come unto Zion, and pay their respects to the leaders of this people".

An early version of the endowment ceremony from 21 Jan 1836 was elided by the original TPJS, and is restored here.

Minor differences can be hard to catch. For instance, in JS's 21 Jan 1836 vision of the celestial kingdom, he sees "father Adam, and Abraham and Michael and my father and mother", which was corrected in the original TPJS to "Father Adam and Abraham, and my father and my mother" (page 135). The JSP Calendar of documents shows that the deletion of Michael from the text first happened in the 1852 Deseret News reprint of this text. Another example, 28 April 1842 RS minutes, "Respecting the female laying on hands", "there could be no devil in it" was originally changed to "there could be no evil in it" (page 291). Also, the text shows that throughout at least the Nauvoo era Joseph refers to apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists as "gifts" along with other gifts of the spirit (see, eg, 2 Jan 1843, page 350), which the original TPJS corrects.

This new TPJS also notes that the 15 Oct 1843 statement advocating capital punishment for officials who don't uphold the constitution comes from history book E-1, and was composed in the Utah period (pages 429-430).

Some good footnotes. Pages 114-115, footnotes 70-72, point out material that belongs to JSP History book B-1 Addenda. What they don't note is that this material dates to sometime after 24 February 1845. Among other things, this material makes the High Council unable to try the Twelve. Page 132, footnote 90, also points out the later revision added the statement, "where I am not, there is no First Presidency over the Twelve". Footnote 32 on page 329 about the 6 Aug 1842 "Rocky Mountain" prophecy, rightfully casts suspicion on the provenance and specificity of the quotation. The "Happiness" letter, 19 Aug 1842, also has a contextual footnote 33, page 330. Footnote 44 on page 338, regarding the 1 Sep 1842 T&S claim that the Luke 11:51 Zacharias is the father of John the baptist (rather than the prophet Zechariah), has some references to this idea in LDS history and possible resolutions to the problem. The new TPJS also makes clear that the 28 May 1843 statement attributed to JS, that among the original Twelve only "Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball" have been faithful to him (page 401), is only found in the post-JS death D-1 history -- a time when the Twelve were securing control in Nauvoo. Also, footnote 103 on page 404 shows that the apparantly prophetic 11 June 1843 phrase "and will cause the people to kill the Prophets in this generation" was added after JS's death.

Some changed material. TPJS elided a comment by JS on 5 Jan 1841 that John C. Bennett was "a superior orator, and like Paul is active and diligent, always, employing himself in doing good to his fellow men" (page 231). Another elision about Bennett can be found in the 15 Jan 1841 T&S on page 234. JS was also critical of Parley Pratt, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, and John Page on 28 Apr 1842, but JFS follows the DHC in eliding it to just mention John E. Page (page 292). The 9 Jul 1843 idea that before the millenium the Christians need to be more united was a later addition to the text (page 411).

Some more new material. An 11 Nov 1835 discourse has a restored section, wherein JS interprets Daniel's vision. A 29 Sept 1839 sermon has an interesting statement restored, that "the righteous will remain with him in the cloud whilst all the proud and all that do wickedly will have to return to the earth". This King Follett discourse restores the section where JS claims resurrected children "will never grow.... Eternity is full of thrones upon which dwell thousands of Children reigning on thrones of glory" (page 474). A 5 Jan 1841 statement, "This earth was organized or formed out of other planets which were broke up and remodelled and made into the one on which we live". A 9 June 1842 statement, "by union of feeling we obtain pow'r with God".

Finally, an interesting note. The 2 May 1842 T&S mentions an "Ash" (Thomas Ashe) who discovered mummies and catacombs in Lexington, KY. Turns out the Mammoth Caves nearby did house several mummified Indian remains from ~2000-2500 years ago (pp 301-302).

Additional notes:

Since the book just follows the original TPJS, it is missing interesting contextual letters and revelations, such as the 18 Aug 1833 letter, that really give color to what is in the book and make clearer some of Joseph's more bellicose inclinations. I kept going back to the Joseph Smith papers website to "fill in" missing details.

One interesting note elided from the TPJS and restored here is from the 21 April 1834 discourse where JS says, "Take away the book of Mormon, and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none". Right before this, the minutes say that Joseph "gave a relation of obtaining and translating the Book of Mormon, the revelation of the priesthood of Aaron, the organization of the Church in the year 1830, the revelation of the high priesthood, and the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the church". This shows and surrounding text show how Joseph was rehearsing the highlights in the progress of the church in this season of his life. This also shows the chronological sequence of the Aaronic priesthood, then the forming of the church, then the high priesthood, then a pentacostal "enduement".

I like how deeply apocalyptic Joseph consistently is. The end is nigh and if they don't strive with all their might, the earth will be wasted when God comes. Preach the Gospel and the destroying angel will come for everyone who doesn't listen (page 114). "the signs of the coming of the Son of man are already commencd...the world will have litte peace from henceforth" (page 204). The project of establishing and gathering to Zion has as its raison d'être the need for a place to shelter from the coming apocalypse. 15 Oct 1843, prophecied that this generation will be "visited with utter dissolation" (page 432). 21 Jan 1844, "the Saints have none to much time" "before the earth will be smitten & the consumption decreed falls upon the world" (page 434).

I don't like how consistently violent Joseph's ideations are. After they failed to "redeem" Zion, we still find, for instance, 30 March 1836 "I want to enter into the following covenant, that if any more of our brethren are slain or driven from their lands in Missouri by the mob that we will give ourselves no rest until we are avenged of our enimies [sic]" (page 138). 19 Dec 1841 "what greater love hath any man than that he lay down his life for his friend[?] then why not fight for our friend untill we die[?]" (page 252). Prophecied on 25 Feb 1844 "that within five years we should be rid of our old enemies". 7 Apr 1844, claims apostates have sinned against the holy ghost and have "the same spirit that crucified Jesus" (page 471).

In April 1837, in the middle of KSS troubles, JS urges the "brethren abroad" to come with their money and bail out the saints and pay for all the land they speculated on. A further detail from the new TJPS is that Joseph Smith further remarked, "more houses must be built" (page 143).

Page 130, the new TPJS has additional material from 11 Nov 1835, wherein JS interprets Daniel's vision of the image with head of gold and feet of iron and clay: "this Image is characteristic of all governments and institutions or most of them; as they begin with a head of gold and terminate in the contemptible feet of Iron & clay: making a splendid appearance at first, proposing to do much more than the[y] can perform, and finally end in degradation and sink, in infamy".

JS was somewhat consistent over time with many of his thoughts. He modeled the endowment after the pentecost, and consistently taught that the disciples were to go into all the world only after their endowment (see 22 Jan 1843 sermon, page 355). On 13 June 1844 he dreamed about his guardian angel (pages 486-7), and seems to always divide the world into people following or listening to or being possessed by different kinds of spirits.

Interestingly, the later temple ceremonies involving becoming kings and priests seems heavily influenced by, eg, Rev 3:6, and JS seems very involved with reading and interpreting it by at least his 8 Apr 1843 sermon.

Regarding polygamy, in the 16 December 1838 letter, JS says, "We have heard that it has been reported by some that some of us should have said that we not only dedicated our property but our families also to the Lord, and satan taking advantage of this has transfigured it into lasciviousness such as a community of wives which is an abomination in the sight of God" (page 160). It follows with a description of what it means for a man to conscrate or dedicate "his wife & children to the Lord", so this (not polygamy, but "consecration" of households) actually was a practice! In the 22 Mar 1839 letter, JS said, "There are times comming [sic] when God will signify many things which are expediant [sic] for the well being of the saints but the times have not yet come but will come as fast as there can be found place and reseptions [sic] for them" (page 184). The 5 Oct 1843 journal entry says, "gave inst[r]uction to try those who were preaching teaching" "the doctrin of plurality of wives. on this Law. Joseph forbids it. and the practice ther[e]of -- No man shall have but one wife", whereas the original TPJS follows the DHC in changing it to have JS say "I hold the keys of this power" and "I have constantly said no man shall have but one wife at a time, unless the Lord directs otherwise" (page 425).

The keys of the First Presidency are apparently "dominion" "over every living Creature" (pages 199-200).

JS (mis)readings of scripture seem to have gotten more extreme during early 1839. One instance was his view on murder of innocent blood being the _only_ unforgivable sin. See 6 May 1841 discourse (and the 1 June 1841 T&S), where he reads the differences in wording between Acts 2:41 and 3:19 as meaning the Jews Peter preached to would suffer in hell until "the times of refreshing". Another example of misreading: 15 Apr 1842 T&S originally misquoted John 3:5 as, "Except a man be born again of water, and of the spirit he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven". The original TPJS corrected the multiple differences back to the KJV text, causing us to miss, for instance, the use of the Matthean phrase "kingdom of heaven", and using the word "again", demonstrating the failure to comprehend that being "born of water" refers to the first, natural birth, and "of the spirit" refers to the second, spiritual birth.

The fire, water, air, earth view of the elements is hinted at in summer 1839, Willard Richards' Pocket Companion, "Any thing created cannot be Eternal & earth, water &c -- all these had their existence in an elementary state from Eternity" (page 201). Also, "The sun has no beginning or end" (5 Jan 1841, page 232). Also, "chaotic matter -- element had an existence from" [the beginning]. "The pure pure principles of element are principles that never can be destroyed -- they may be organized -- and reorganized -- but not destroyed" (7 April 1844, pp 462-3).

Doctrine of "Elias's" -- summer 1839, "there were Elias's raised up who tried to restore these very glories but did not obtain them" (page 202). JS is talking about prophets trying to bring people into God's presence and how Peter, James, and John received the keys of the priesthood from Christ, Moses, and Elias on the mount of transfiguration. Interesting. Also, 10 Mar 1844, "I went into the woods to inquire of the Lord by prayer his will Concerning me, & I saw an angel & he laid his hands upon my head & ordained me to be a priest after the order of Aaron...my ordination was a preparetory work or a going before which was the spirit of Elias" (pages 440-441 -- it continues with JS distinguishing the spirit of Elijah as more powerful than that of Elias, and later the spirit of "Mesiah" as the last and greatest).

Interprets Heb 11:4 on 5 Oct 1840 that Abel "being dead yet speaketh" must have actually been resurrected and come to visit Paul (pp 215-216). Also interprets Jude 14-15 as Enoch having visited Jude and told him those things. Also visited Paul because of Heb 11:5 (page 217).

money quote: "nothing is a greater injury to the children of men than to be under the influence of a false spirit, when they think they have the spirit of God" (T&S 1 Apr 1842, page 266). And JS is trustworthy guide, someone who sees the devil almost everywhere he looks? This same issue contains a very long discussion of then-modern movements that must be wrong because they were started by women. another money quote: "God told him in whom he might place confidence" (16 May 1843, page 391) -- God told him to trust John C. Bennett? "a jew put it there" (7 Apr 1844, page 459, and elsewhere) - it seems JS's approach to the apostasy is highly antisemitic, following of course the authors of the NT.

21st century mormonism

Sam Brown's comment #52 on this post on Mormonism and Masonry inspired today's thoughts:

I believe there is an obligation to assist with the denaturation of that poison (the “poison” being this system that has evolved of staking Mormon truth claims on their entire independence from cultural touchstones like Masonry)

I have been re-orienting my position over the past several months. Anyone who desires and commits the time and energy will find out both that Joseph Smith was likely very sincere in his proclamations, but also that his beliefs, writings, and translations are inseparably connected to the environment in which he grew up.

When we find out our early assumptions are wrong, what do we do about it? I belong to a church which insists that its claims which evolved out of a nineteenth century environment will somehow measure up to 21st century assumptions and expectations. It makes many of the same mistakes our fellow fundamentalists of other religions make.

That being said, just because fundamentalist ideology is fundamentally wrong, doesn't mean one should part from the faith. Why make it any more fundamental than it already is? It needs the chatty voices of the liberal minority to keep it afloat and help it transform into the 21st century church it had ought to be.

I am stumbling forward into an orientation that I hope is true to myself and true to my church. I don't personally accept a lot of things on the religious level. I don't accept that the earth was intelligently designed, nor that humans are much more than a brilliant accident of natural selection and speciation. I don't accept that he we call Jesus Christ was raised by God or likely considered himself more than a mortal, perhaps chosen by God. I don't believe the Book of Mormon contains, by 21st century standards, "real" history or authentic early American, Jewish, or Egyptian traits. I don't think Joseph Smith's theology, as he seemed to interpret it, had much literal truth to it, by today's scientific standards. The Book of Abraham is not a translation of an ancient work, nor is it independent of ideas floating around in Joseph Smith's environment.

That all being said, again, I don't believe the church should be abandoned. I believe Joseph Smith and others were sincere, and made sense of their experiences by believing things I do not accept. It is how they experienced the divine. I have experienced the divine through them, and my soul has resonated with the documents they left behind.

Likewise, I believe many Mormons sincerely made sense of the Book of Mormon in the 20th century by reading it as an ancient document, and finding tenuous connections with the ancient Near East or Mesoamerica. I don't accept their conclusions. It is how they made sense of the divine as the world slowly came more of age. I have experienced the divine through them, and my soul has resonated with a few of the documents they produced.

I try to live by modern standards of rigour in what I accept as true. My soul resonates with this approach. I experience the divine in discovering mathematical, historical, and even interpersonal truth -- truth upheld by standards of plausibility, probability, naturalistic skepticism and analytic rigour. I accept and my soul often resonates with the vastly divergent experiences of others. I do not often accept their interpretations as truth, but I am open to enriching my own understanding through them, and hope to return the favor.

This is my current, modern Mormonism. I accept modern and historical experiences and worldviews of church members as legitimate and often inspired, whilst not dogmatically asserting their universal applicability.

Atonement and Gethsemane

a comment I added to
http://bycommonconsent.com/2012/01/22/atonement-and-mormonism-cultural-over-belief-and-a-poll/

The author of Luke-Acts portrayed a very saintly Jesus who never lost his cool, and seemingly out of nowhere, in Lk 22:43-44 we have him needing the help of an angel and sweating blood. IMHO, the f13 group of manuscripts place these 2 verses, as well as the pericope adulterae, in much more logical places within the gospels. Even then, we still deal with the possibility of a fraudulent insertion.

Outside of that scripture, other NT references to Christ's blood atonement seem to refer directly to the cross. And the meaning of said atonement seems to vary from author to author. Luke seems to indicate that God will vindicate us after we feel guilt for our sins (recognizing our guilt via Christ's innocent death), and seek forgiveness, are baptized, and live a saintly life thereafter. Christ's death only "atones" with the likely late addition of Lk 22:19b-20. (Elsewhere, Luke seems to intentionally rewrite or remove references to Christ "atoning" with his death: Lk 23:47 vs Mk 15:39, Lk 22:26-27 vs Mk 10:43-45. Seems like Luke prefers the perspective that God had the power to forgive all along). Paul indicates that all are guilty, and Christ's atonement reconciles us to God if we believe in his resurrection / participate with him in the resurrection through baptism.

The Book of Mormon says Christ will bleed from every pore (literalizing the "as it were" of Luke) because of "his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people" (Mosiah 3:7), not necessarily because of taking upon himself their sins at that point. It could reasonably fit the role of strong apprehension at what is about to take place, similar to the rest of Christendom. The anguish seems to come in large part due to knowing the true nature and consequences of wickedness -- exactly the kind of which Christ is about to experience (and the Book of Mormon makes clear in Alma 28:14 and throughout, that needless death, destruction, and loss follow sin). Alma 7:11-12 jumps straight from His going "forth, suffering pains, and afflictions, and temptations of every kind" to his taking "upon him death". It seems there that his sufferings were the experiences of mortality, experienced through his life as a mortal rather than something extra happening in Gethsemane. The big deal in this regard throughout the Book of Mormon seems to be that God Himself will choose to become mortal and experience the afflictions of mortality, whereas nowadays we take for granted that a God would become mortal (because after all, aren't mortals gods in embryo?) and maybe thus interpret that God had to do something extra special, like suffer every last pain and wrong in the universe in Gethsemane, for it to be all that special. Alma 7:13, to me, indicates that in His role as a sacrificial substitute, He takes upon Himself our sins, as He dies in our place. The point is driven home in Alma 34:8ff, that since God Himself sacrifices His life ( = His atonement), the sacrifice is thus infinite and eternal, and thus accomplishes everything it needs to.

Moving on, D&C 19 introduces some new ideas, and leaves plenty of room for some interesting interpretations. 19:16 leaves room for the possibility that God suffered "these things" once for all, and v.17 indicates to me that those who sin must suffer in the same way. Verse 18 indicates the type of suffering required of the unrepentant is the same kind of anguish Christ experienced in Gethsemane (it may be argued, not the physical side effects). It follows from above that this anguish is knowledge of what might have been versus what is, due to wickedness. As Joseph Smith later said, "A man is his own tormentor and his own condemner.... The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man." (HC 6:314).

I don't think that such anguish really has to do with atonement per se. I don't know why such anguish was so intense immediately before the atonement happened on the cross, but it certainly makes a few points clear. One is that it points to the importance of what Christ did for us, so that we need not feel such anguish. Instead, we can be forgiven of our sins and have things righted so that the gap between what is and what could have been no longer smarts. (I tend to think of the "cosmic" nature of atonement from Judaism wherein sin reverses God's divine ordering of the cosmos, and leads to chaos, and the blood of the atonement, as applied to representations of heaven and earth in the temple, restores the divine order once more). Another is that suffering has its place, but so does joy. Christ was certainly capable of fully comprehending and mourning the effects of sin at any time of His life, but He chose to do so only at the end, in preparation for what was to come. It's great to know that we need not dwell on the negative.

I fear we mythologize sin, and suffering, in church culture. In turn the nature of the atonement has been complicated in a harmful way. We turn an infinite atonement into an incomprehensible one. Whereas, the only "incomprehensible" thing mentioned in the scriptures is the joy the sons of Mosiah experience in their missionary work (Alma 28:8). And it's incomprehensible to me why we've done this. As if complicating God brings us nearer to Him (which is the approach *ahem* that classical Christianity seems to take).

Comment on goodly parents

I posted this to http://bycommonconsent.com/2012/01/01/goodly-parents-revisited/

You might add the 1828 webster's definition from http://www.1828-dictionary.com/d/search/word,goodly:

GOOD'LY, adv. Excellently.

GOOD'LY, a. Being of a handsome form; beautiful; graceful; as a goodly person; goodly raiment; goodly houses.

    1. Pleasant; agreeable; desirable; as goodly days.

    2. Bulky; swelling; affectedly turgid.

Although the apparent meanings of some words in the Book of Mormon seem to diverge from the norm of both King James English and 1820's vernacular..

Perhaps some of us have been overly zealous in reading far more into the text of the Book of Mormon than we fairly ought to. We use the "therefore" in 1 Ne. 1:1 to connect "goodly" to being "taught somewhat", and then somehow think Nephi is being modest concerning his education, pointing to the "gold, silver, and precious things" that are "exceedingly great" (1 Ne. 3:25) to indicate that Nephi's parents must have been wealthy, therefore must have afforded a great education for themselves and their children, including erudition in Jewish lore and Egyptian hieroglyphics (and, if you follow Nibley et alii down the rabbit hole, an expansive milieu of philosophical schools of thought from across the ancient world). Further speculation leads many to believe that Lehi must have been a merchant of sorts, in order to explain his (speculated) wealth and especially make plausible the host of supposed 'parallels' between his philosophies (esp. that of 2 Ne. 2) and those scattered across time and space in the ancient world.

What happens if instead we emphasize the "somewhat" in 1 Ne. 1:1, and the "exceedingly young" in 1 Ne. 2:16? Can't we just as fairly suppose that Nephi must have been too young to have been formally educated too much before their flight into the wilderness? Then we might speculate that Lehi took pains to educate Nephi (and Jacob and Joseph) in the wilderness. After all, why waste those 8 arduous years in the wilderness (1 Ne. 17:4)? Plus, the early Nephi was more of a visionary than a hands-on, read-the-plates-to-find-my-answers kind of guy. This reading also gives us explanatory power as to why Nephi would have his father inquire of the Lord as to where to get food in the wilderness -- at that time maybe only he could read the writing on "the ball" which seems to be how instructions were given by the Lord (1 Ne. 16:23-30). It also may help explain how Jacob became literate in the same ways Nephi was. Nephi also indicates that they couldn't preserve the language of their fathers without the plates (1 Ne. 3:19). Strange comment if he had any inkling that he could later become a writer and thus preserve their language himself.

Sure, Nephi took a wife (1 Ne. 16:7) at that age, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was barely a teenager or younger. I mean, people speculate that Mary was 12-14 when she married Joseph... and what with the flight in the wilderness, circumstances might have called for early pairing off. Some young folk look like adults, and apparently Nephi was one of them.

Also, consider that "gold, silver, and precious things" is formulaic to symbolize worldly possessions across the Nephite records. If Nephi was as young as he indicates, then perhaps he unconsciously exaggerates when he recalls the "exceedingly great" property that Laban lusted after. Certainly, my perspectives when I was younger were filled with more hyperbole than they are today. This reading, to me, also helps me justify Nephi's tiring of writing his own words and resorting to Isaiah, and also his treatment of himself and his brothers in his writings.

Some food for thought... for those of us, at least, not entirely enraptured by Hugh Nibley's rhetoric.

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EDIT - additional comment
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Per the above discussion, I will continue to maintain that Lehi was not necessarily wealthy, and to me Nephi was pretty unlettered. Arguments in support of Abraham not being the actual physical author of the Book of Abraham might even be applied to Nephi’s authorship. In the Abraham intro, the record purports to be written by the hand of Abraham, but it has been argued by those of Nibley’s ilk that it can mean that Abraham commissioned someone to write for him. 1 Nephi 1:3, 6:1, etc, might be explained this way. Then the peculiar language of certain parts might have better explanation:
1 Nephi 9:1-2 (and elsewhere) first mentions about things that can’t be written on the plates, and then Nephi says, “And now, as I have SPOKEN concerning these plates…”. Note the language in 9:3, “there should be an account engraven” rather than “I should engrave an account”. 2 Nephi 11:1, “these things have I caused to be written”, rather than “these things have I written” (even though in verse 2 it says, “I, Nephi, write more”, that can be explained in the same way as the BoA. To say that you wrote, or even that you wrote with your own hand, doesn’t necessarily mean you physically did it. Then again, he might have done 2 Nephi 11ff himself, given most of it was copying, or in other words, didn’t require as much effort).
It is enough for me to say he was a blacksmith / shipbuilder / architect / hunter / warrior / ruler / visionary / prophet without assuming he also had time to be a great man of letters as well. And maybe what little work he was acquainted with before they left Jerusalem had more to do with blacksmithing than with merchanting. It could better explain his fascination with Laban’s sword, his own great strength, his apparent familiarity with creating tools and manipulating ores and bellows in Bountiful (the first), and his continuing metallurgical forays in the promised land.
Furthermore, if Lehi (and thus Nephi and perhaps Jacob) was as rich or educated as some people seem to assume, I would be more surprised at the tone of the statements of Jacob in 2 Nephi 9:28-30 about riches and learning. I also would be more surprised at Jacob’s method of defeating Sherem, relying on testimony and especially the blanketing argument in Jacob 7:11 rather than proving Sherem wrong by opening up the scriptures. Likewise, the weak dialectic in most of the philosophical portions, like 2 Ne. 11:7. All this being my opinion, of course, but it seems as valid as any other explanations I’ve seen.