• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

SUNSTONE great-grandfather and Vogel’s citation of the REVIEW ESSAY 1827 list of liquor purchases by Joseph Smith Sr., I began to long for something that feels more like Joseph to me: a few lines from a Rossini opera, perhaps. Something on a WHERE IS JOSEPH SMITH NOW?: bolder scale to articulate who Joseph Smith Jr. was. Indeed, one might accuse both BEGINNING THE SECOND QUEST scholars of believing in the dictum: “more is less.” No one deserves such a slow death by FOR THE HISTORICAL JOSEPH suffocation of detail. But these authors had other projects in mind, and I suppose too much detail is better than not enough. I am JOSEPH SMITH: ROUGH STONE ROLLING grateful for the gift of these two fresh and by Richard Lyman Bushman provocative approaches. Even as I write this, however, I hold it to Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 be a scandal of Mormon scholarship and an 740 pages, illustrations, index, $35.00 embarrassment for historians that these two biographies describe what appears to be the life of two entirely different people. Even JOSEPH SMITH: THE MAKING OF A PROPHET their choices about the shorthand way to by Dan Vogel refer to their subject—Bushman uses “Joseph” while Vogel uses “Smith”—reveals Signature Books, 2004 much about their approaches. Bushman is 744 pages, illustrations, index, $39.95 interested in the person with a complex spir- ituality who became an enigmatic, biblical- style prophet while Vogel is interested in the Reviewed by Mark D. Thomas phenomenon of the boy/man who grew through daring deceit and fraud to declare himself God’s power broker on earth. With these very different approaches, Joseph seems to be slipping deeper in the earth, It is scandalous that the even as we dig for him. Though it is scan- Joseph Smiths who emerge in dalous that the Joseph Smiths in their works are so different, these divergences can work these works are so different, to our advantage since they allow us to see but their divergences allow us the organization of data in two very different ways. to see the organization of data At the end of this essay, I suggest that these in two very different ways. two biographies, along with the pending pub- lication of the Joseph Smith papers and the in- ternationalization of Mormonism, mark the S A PRESENT for Joseph Smith’s crafted portraits of Mormonism’s founder. beginning of what might be called a “second 200th birthday, Latter-day Saints and Both are important reference works for quest” for the historical Joseph. And just as A others interested in Mormonism re- scholars of early Mormonism. Approximately with the new quest for the historical Jesus, we ceive two new and very detailed biographies, one-fourth of each of these 700+ page books will leave behind many inns before reaching each representing very different ways of consists of footnotes, demonstrating both au- Mormonism’s home. I believe this second scrying for the Mormon prophet. In many thors’ strong grasp of primary and secondary quest for the historical Joseph will encompass ways, the books and biographers are perfect sources. And both stand in contrast with and yet transcend the historical puzzle- complements to each other, though I believe more general and summary-type works on making. the success of the two diggings differs Smith by Robert Remini and Donna Hill.1 markedly. Yet for all of their wonderful details, there TWO AUTHORS, TWO PORTRAITS Both Richard L. Bushman’s Joseph Smith: is something un-Joseph-like about many of Rough Stone Rolling and Dan Vogel’s Joseph the little pieces in this puzzle-making com- ICHARD Bushman is a respected pro- Smith: The Making of a Prophet come to us as petition. Somewhere between Bushman’s fessor at Columbia University, a labors of a lifetime, each containing carefully long list of accomplishments of the prophet’s R former Mormon stake president who currently serves as stake patriarch. Rough Stone Rolling is Bushman at his best, pre- MARK D. THOMAS has spent his adult life researching and writing about the Book of senting his most objective, his most astute, Mormon. He is the founder of the Book of Mormon Round Table—a group of Mormon and critical scholarship. In this book, Bushman non-Mormon scholars who meet annually. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Holladay, acts as a neoclassical scholar—balanced like Utah, and is currently director of field studies at BYU’s Marriott School of Management. granite Ionic pillars, with an interior of rich PAGE 58 NOVEMBER 2005 SUNSTONE woodwork and Tiffany lamps. Good judg- his better judgment and logic. Bushman sees Jospeh Smith as a man of ment and continuous quality are evident in But these are mere matters of style and deep strengths and weaknesses, perpetually every detail. It is a cautious, class act. approach. Let us turn to a summary of each on the verge of financial and spiritual cata- Dan Vogel is a prolific historian toiling book and conclude with what these books strophe. Yet he also presents him as a mam- late in the night from his home in suggest for future Joseph Smith research. moth and generous personality who, like Westerville, Ohio. Vogel is the iconoclast, a Abraham Lincoln, came out of nowhere. captious crusader writing with a switchblade Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling Bushman’s Joseph combined profound love in his hand, a marathon runner picking apart and charisma with vindictiveness—he the details of the would-be prophet/king. WHILE VOGEL’S PORTRAIT covers just would not be crossed. He was creative and While Joseph Smith sought to teach us how Joseph Smith’s early years, Bushman covers bold—and often foolish and boastful. Joseph to believe in a world of doubt, Vogel seeks to his whole life. I very much like the way disdained high society. He was a populist teach us how to doubt in a world of belief. Bushman portrays the Prophet—without who at times appeared raucous, impious, Vogel states that he offers us a balanced, ob- heavy-handed pronouncements, choosing and certainly playful. Yet he could also jective view of the prophet (vii–xii), but he instead to quietly reveal Joseph’s character muster enormous dignity and composure fails to deliver. Bushman’s biography is by far through concrete events of his life. This bal- when circumstances called for it. Joseph was the more balanced of the two. Vogel is dis- ance and attention to detail is likely to make chief visionary and chief executive of the USHMAN IS INTERESTED IN THE PERSON WITH a complex spirituality who became an enigmatic, biblical-style Bprophet while Vogel is interested in the phenomenon of the boy/man who grew through daring deceit and fraud to declare himself God’s power broker on earth. missive of religion, including Mormonism’s Church, as well as chief developer of real es- founder. tate. He received revelations as if from an in- A better analogy for the contrasting ap- exhaustible spring (232–51, 294–304, proaches of the two biographers would be to 323–25, 332, 343–44, 390–92, 399, 409, compare Bushman to a judge who must bal- 423, 488–90). ance all the evidence, piling all the specifics At times, Bushman seems puzzled by in separate stacks and carefully giving a ver- Joseph’s actions. In the case of plural mar- dict on which stack is higher. If Bushman is riage, he asks: “What lay behind this egre- the judge, Vogel is the prosecuting attorney. gious transgression of conventional morality? As prosecuting attorney, Vogel is out to make What drove him to a practice that put his life a case. Unfortunately for Vogel, his useful and his work in jeopardy, not to mention his and clever arguments often go beyond what relationship with Emma?” (442) He wonders the evidence can bear. But nothing is lost in what lay behind Joseph’s calling this a com- this case. Each side learns from the other. As mandment and statements that those who re- long as readers understand Bushman’s cau- ject it would go to hell. In trying to make tion and Vogel’s guesswork, both books to- sense of this, Bushman writes that the God of gether make for interesting, enlightening, Joseph “was both kind and terrible” (442). In and occasionally baffling reads. passages such as these, we see Bushman Perhaps, one might argue that Bushman is Bushman’s biography a definitive and re- struggling to make sense of the Prophet’s too institutionally acceptable and too willing spected history of the life of Joseph Smith for mind. While Joseph recognized the potential to accept Joseph Smith at his word. the foreseeable future. for deceptions from Satan, he never admitted Compared to Bushman, Vogel is the gambler Bushman presents Joseph as a complex, deception as a possibility in the case of plural who risks it all on a single hand—presenting ironic character. He makes summations of as- marriage (443). Bushman acknowledges the great detail, interesting insights, speculative pects of his character but clearly believes we prophet’s marriages to women who were al- guesses, logic, laughable interpretations of cannot get at some things. At these points, ready married and who lived with their hus- the Book of Mormon along with useful inter- Bushman points out the possibilities and bands after marrying the prophet. This leads pretive insights. Vogel is a great blessing to moves on. His conclusions never go beyond Bushman to conclude that this doctrine may Mormonism because he forces Mormons to what the data will support.

Load more

  6

Copy Link