238 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought the Jacksonian era could easily relate formed Masonic lodge" (p. 163). Rem- to and understand because it is part of ini labels him " [a] charismatic leader a very American tradition. . . .[I]t radi- and an organizing genius. . .of little ates revivalist passion, frontier culture formal education but of striking intel- and folklore, popular concepts about lectual power, [who] produced a vast Indians, and the democratic impulses amount of religious writing that has in- and political movements of its time" fluenced millions of people around the (p. 72). world" (p. 180). "He was obviously a While certainly not hagiography, remarkable man who accomplished this biography is positive and sympa- something truly exceptional" (181). thetic, and the praise it bestows on Aside from being situated within Joseph will be well-received by church the useful historical context of "The members, as was Harold Bloom's The Second Great Awakening," this biogra- American Religion, which proclaimed phy adds no new material. LDS read- Joseph Smith a religious genius. Rem- ers might take some exception to Rem- ini writes that "The founder of this ini's occasional regurgitation of some Church. . .is unquestionably the most unsubstantiated biographical specula- important reformer and innovator in tions, allegations, and hearsay con- American religious history" (p. ix) and cerning Joseph's many wives (e.g., he that "Joseph Smith is the religious fig- quotes Fawn Brodie but not the more ure in United States history who has thorough In Sacred Loneliness [Salt had the largest following" (p. x). In ad- Lake City: Signature Books, 1997] by dition to his role as prophet, Joseph Todd Compton). Nevertheless, the Smith was "Nauvoo's mayor, chief jus- book provides a good balanced intro- tice, lieutenant general, trustee of the duction for general readers. Perhaps university, real estate agent, publisher this biography will be responsible for of a monthly newspaper, proprietor of increased interest in our faith, for ulti- a store, part owner of a Mississippi mately Robert Remini effects a posi- steamboat, a subscriber to the Nauvoo tive service to Joseph Smith and to The Agricultural and Manufacturing Asso- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ciation, and a member of the newly Saints.

A Frank Analysis of a Troubling Legacy

AH Abraham's Children: Changing Armand Mauss, emeri- Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lin- tus of Sociology and Religious Studies eage, by Armand L. Mauss (Urbana at Washington State University, has and Chicago: University of Illinois produced the authoritative and defini- Press, 2003), 343 pp. tive study of the evolution of Mormon conceptions of race and lineage. As a Reviewed by Thomas W. Murphy, practicing Latter-day Saint, former ed- Chair, Anthropology Department, Ed- itor of Journal for the Scientific Study monds Community College, Lynn- of Religion, and former president of wood, Washington. the Mormon History Association, Book Reviews 239 Mauss brings together the intimacy of Another story line examined by an insider, the empirical rigor of a so- Mauss "implicates religious ideas in cial scientist, and a historian's atten- the creation of racial prejudice and in- tiveness to change in an admirable vidious ethnic distinctions" (p. 1). The weaving of three intertwined story influence of church policy and doc- lines. trine on Mormon prejudice towards In his first story line Mauss "illus- Blacks illustrates the power of reli- trates the power of religious ideas and gious ideas. Belief that Blacks be- human behavior on each other, indeed longed to the cursed lineage of Cain on the operational definition of reality "virtually prevented proselyting alto- itself (p. 1). He delicately examines gether until 1978" when through reve- the interplay between Mormon evan- lation Kimball lifted the ban on Black gelism and the religious ideas and self- participation in the priesthood (p. conceptions of and their new 274). Ironically, the change in this case converts. For example, the failure of came about after "longsuffering Mormons in the nineteenth century to prospective converts themselves. . . achieve much enthusiastic reception reached out to the church and patiently and retention of the indigenous peo- waited for the LDS leaders to abandon ples they called Lamanites was fol- their anachronistic understanding of lowed late in the century by a shift in Africans and their lineage" (p. 274). their perception: instead of seeing The effects of this legacy are felt most them as chosen Israelites, destined to heavily in the United States where the join the saints in the construction of a LDS church still faces considerable new Zion, they saw them as just Indi- difficulty attracting and retaining Afr- ans, an image comparable to that found rican-American members. Africans, at elsewhere in the United States. In the a distance from U.S. racial politics, ap- mid-twentieth century, largely under pear to have been more receptive to the the leadership of Spencer W. Kimball, LDS gospel. Mauss notes, "The identi- Mormons came once again to view In- fication of blacks with Cain, however, dians primarily as Lamanites as they has never been officially dropped or engaged in renewed efforts to evange- even mildly disavowed by church lize, foster, and educate Indian chil- leaders" (p. 275). Interviews with dren. Disappointed with the results suggest, "As long as from these educational and social en- the folklore about Cain continues to deavors directed towards North Ameri- circulate among white Mormons, can Indians, church leaders abandoned many of them will continue to impose Indian programs in the mid-1980s, an identity on blacks that will greatly shifting focus and attention to the new complicate relationships and church Lamanites of and Central growth" (p. 275). America where proselytizing had been Mauss's third story line "explores more effective. Mauss finds similar the construction and reconstruction of patterns of influence between evange- various people's identities" (p. 1). He lism and identity construction among identifies ethnic, religious, and family Mormons from Europe and Polynesia. identities as "products of negotiations 240 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought across time between peoples—often he published. Yet Mauss forthrightly peoples of unequal power" (p. 1). This acknowledges questions regarding the negotiation can be seen not only in historicity of those texts, especially the Mormon relations with American Indi- Book of Abraham. He writes of the ans and Blacks, but also in the peculiar discovery in 1967 of the Joseph Smith Mormon relation with Jews. Despite papyrus fragments: the obvious strength of their claim to an Israelite heritage, Jews have not All the experts who studied the pa- been significant targets of Mormon pyrus, Mormon and non-Mormon evangelism. alike, agreed that it seemed to be a common funerary text from an Egypt- The Mormons came to see their rela- ian period much later than that of tionship with the Jews as one of two Abraham. Translated into English by brothers, Judah and Joseph (or the usual academic methods, the text Ephraim), kneeling before the same bore no resemblance to the writings Father. Ephraim might claim a supe- that Joseph Smith had attributed to rior understanding of the Father's ulti- Abraham. This discovery did not, of mate will and might even reach out to course, receive much publicity in the the more recalcitrant brother, but it is church, but it set Mormon scholars left up to the Father himself finally to and apologists to work searching for bring Judah back into the tent with the an alternative explanation for the rest of Abraham's children, (p. 273) Book of Abraham, (p. 239)

While this view is "condescending. . .it He is similarly frank about the has proved historically to be a strong , but in this case he neutralizer of the hostile anti-Semitism leaves the impression that only non- characteristic of mainstream Protes- Mormons regard it as a nineteenth- tantism and Catholicism" (p. 273). century document: "Although Joseph Jews stand out as an exception to gen- Smith presented the Book of Mormon eral patterns of to the world as his translation of an an- initiatives; they occupy a somewhat cient document, it is generally re- protected state characterized by "a def- garded by non-Mormons as a nine- erential reluctance about proselyting" teenth-century product, whether or not (p. 273). it was divinely inspired, (p. 117) Of While this book is an exceptional course, there are many Mormon schol- and rigorous evaluation of Mormon ars who agree with the conclusions of constructions of race and lineage, it their colleagues that the Book of Mor- does not fully examine the influence of mon is a product of the nineteenth cen- LDS scriptures on racialism and preju- tury. Mauss appears to have left a dice in LDS thought. Mauss focuses on fuller exploration of the constructions the uses Mormons have made of their of race and lineage in Joseph Smith's scripture, not on the influences of sim- cultural environment and his scriptural ilar religious ideas in Joseph Smith's productions to other scholars. Given environment on the sacred narratives the necessity of focusing his narrative Book Reviews 241 and the costs that such endeavors may still much work to be done to better entail, this omission is understandable, record and understand the views of even if regrettable. ethnic minorities in the LDS church, One of the significant strengths but Mauss makes great strides in Mor- of the book is the attention Mauss de- mon historiography by engaging and votes to the perspectives of LDS eth- incorporating recent scholarship on nic minorities. His examination of identity and subjectivity. constructions of race and lineage All Abraham's Children is not treats Nahua Mormons such as Mar- only a book for scholars; it needs to garito Bautista and Agricol Lozano read widely by members and church and Navajo Mormons like George P. leaders alike. Mauss does a very im- Lee and Ella Bedonie as active partic- pressive job of synthesizing four ipants in the development of Laman- decades of research and making it ac- ite identities (pp. 101-103, 129-131, cessible to lay persons as well as spe- 146-150). He similarly devotes atten- cialists. The book is an excellent testa- tion to interviews of African Ameri- ment to the compassion, integrity, can Mormons by Alan Cherry, "a balance, and enduring legacy of one of prominent black convert of many 's best social scientists. years" (p. 243). Of course, there is