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History Through Seer Stones: Mormon Historical Thought 1890-2010

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History Through Seer Stones: Mormon Historical Thought 1890-2010 History Through Seer Stones: Mormon Historical Thought 1890-2010 by Stuart A. C. Parker A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Stuart A. C. Parker 2011 History Through Seer Stones : Mormon Historical Thought 1890-2010 Stuart A. C. Parker Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2011 Abstract Since Mark Leone’s landmark 1979 study Roots of Modern Mormonism , a scholarly consensus has emerged that a key element of Mormon distinctiveness stems from one’s subscription to an alternate narrative or experience of history. In the past generation, scholarship on Mormon historical thought has addressed important issues arising from these insights from anthropological and sociological perspectives. These perspectives have joined a rich and venerable controversial literature seeking to “debunk” Mormon narratives, apologetic scholarship asserting their epistemic harmony or superiority, as well as fault-finding scholarship that constructs differences in Mormon historical thinking as a problem that must be solved. The lacuna that this project begins to fill is the lack of scholarship specifically in the field of intellectual history describing the various alternate narratives of the past that have been and are being developed by Mormons, their contents, the methodologies by which they are produced and the theories of historical causation that they entail. This dissertation examines nine chronica (historical narratives and associated theories of history) generated by Mormon thinkers during the twentieth century. Following Philip Barlow’s definition of “Mormon” as any religious group ii iii that includes the Book of Mormon in its canon, this project examines five chronica generated by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism’s 14-million-strong Utah-based denomination), two generated by the Community of Christ (Mormonism’s 175,000- strong Missouri-based denomination) and two generated by independent Mormon fundamentalists (polygamists), one in Utah and the other in Mexico. In so doing it examines the thought of B. H. Roberts, James E. Talmage, Joseph Fielding Smith, Bruce R. McConkie, W. Cleon Skousen, Ogden Kraut, Margarito Bautista, Hugh Nibley, John Sorenson and a variety of CoC writers such as Harold Velt, Roy Cheville, Little Pigeon and F. Edward Butterworth. Following the work of Leone and Jan Shipps, it engages ethnographic perspectives on unique elements of Mormon temporal phenomenology and its relationship with ritual practice. It also examines how national political and religious movements interpenetrate with Mormonism to condition different understandings of the past; the interactions of Mormon understandings of the past with Mexican revolutionary nationalism and indigenismo , Cold War anti-communism, the 1970s New Left, Christian fundamentalism and Gilded Age progressivism are concurrently examined. Similarly, Mormon interactions with various epistemes and methodologies are canvassed, including New Testament criticism, cultural anthropology, conspiracy theory, medieval typology and the Cambridge myth and ritual school. Ultimately, a set of religious communities that prioritize subscription to a narrative of Israelite immigration to the Americas and pre-Columbian Christian history of the Western Hemisphere, including the post-resurrection ministry of Jesus Christ, has had to reach a special accommodation with history. This project is a study of the diverse accommodations that have been achieved, their epistemic bases and their sustainability in light of the different forms of time consciousness that underpin them. iv Acknowledgments This project, first and foremost, would not have been possible without the extraordinary and generous aid I received from my partner Rachel Gostenhofer , without whose help and guidance I could never have produced so much so quickly or so well-informed by scholarship of fields and in languages I have only begun to comprehend. But it has been her love, encouragement, hard work, brilliant advice and emotional support, often provided under adverse circumstances in her own life, that have been most crucial in this project and without which it would not have been completed. My supervisor, Kenneth Mills , similarly deserves high praise not only for his flexibility, kindness, dedication and intellectual depth but also for gaining not just a knowledge but a curiosity into and real engagement with areas of inquiry far outside his normal field. His work as an advocate for me and for this project have been generous, steadfast and unflagging, even when it has been work that I have inadvertently created for him. My prior supervisor, Derek Williams , similarly deserves recognition and thanks for the generosity, guidance and support that he gave me during its first years and early crucial chapters. Russell Kazal ’s contribution to this project has been similarly generous and has been underpinned by an extraordinary polymath knowledge whose breadth has been of pivotal importance in unifying the various bodies of scholarship and knowledge from which my project draws. This contribution has been made from time he did not have and often on very short notice and yet it has always been offered with exceptional patience and gentleness. Pamela Klassen ’s early contributions in helping to shape the project and place me in contact with key theoretical as well as topical scholarship also merit heartfelt appreciation, as does Rick Halpern ’s support to both my intellectual and professional development in this guild and in providing me with great professional as well as academic opportunities. I also want to thank the Greater Toronto Latin America Research Group (LARG), University of Toronto Latin American Studies, Rocky Mountain Council on Latin American Studies, Mormon History Association and John Whitmer History Association for affording me opportunities to present my work to fellow scholars and provide me with such helpful feedback. I am particularly appreciative of the LARG for its inclusiveness, collegiality and hospitality in including me as a junior scholar. As there are no historians of Mormonism at the University of Toronto, I want to single- out Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens who broke new and generous ground in including me as the first non-Mormon scholar to be welcomed and sponsored to attend the Joseph Smith seminar at Brigham Young University. This seminar was key to grounding me in the field of Mormon religious studies and placing me in a network of scholars like Grant Underwood from whom I have learned much; more importantly, it helped to ground me in LDS culture at a human level. In that respect, although not the largest contributor, I want to thank the Mormon Scholars Foundation for their support of me in the past, along with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Ontario Graduate Scholarship, University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies and Department of History and the Mormon History Association. I must also express my heartfelt appreciation to and thank the archives with which I interacted: the Tom L. Perry Collection at Brigham Young University, the Archive of the West at the University of Utah, the LDS Historical Archive and the Community of Christ Archive. But, in particular, I want to express my profound appreciation of el Museo de Mormonismo in Mexico City and especially its founder and benefactor, Fernando Gomez , for the great personal v trust and generosity entailed in temporarily entrusting irreplaceable portions of its archive to me for analysis. I also want to thank James Winter for seeing the historian in me in my youth and his attempts to both steer me onto an academic path in 1990 and aid me in finding it again in 2002. Finally, I want to thank my mother, Valerie Jerome , whose unflagging support not only of my scholarship but of any and every task to which I have committed myself has made this dissertation possible. Not just her support but the courage and lifelong commitment to struggling against adversity with dignity that she exemplifies every day has given me the strength to continue in this enterprise and those before it. vi Table of Contents History Through Seer Stones: A Prologue ........................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Introduction and General Concepts ........................................................... 10 I. Subaltern Pasts ............................................................................................................ 12 II. The Archive ................................................................................................................ 17 III. The State of the Field .................................................................................................. 19 IV. The Mormon Canon .................................................................................................... 23 V. Mormon Denominations ............................................................................................. 27 VI. Formative Influences on Mormon Historical Thought ............................................... 32 VII. Mormon Temporal Phenomenology ........................................................................... 50 VIII. Chapter Synopsis ........................................................................................................ 61 Chapter Two: The Modernist-Fundamentalist Debate, Mormon
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