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Introduction: Canons, Scriptures, and New Religions Notes Introduction: Canons, Scriptures, and New Religions 1. On the polemical context of Athanasius’ letter, see David Brakke, “Canon Formation and Social Conflict in Fourth-Century Egypt: Athanasius of Alexandria’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter,” Harvard Theological Review 87 (1994): 395–419. 2. Athanasius, Letter XXXIX.6; I follow the translation in David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998), pp. 329–330. 3. See Brakke, “Canon Formation and Social Conflict,” p. 396, where the sentence is identified as an allusion to the Greek translation of Deuteronomy 12:32. 4. See Gerald T. Shepherd, “Canon,” in Lindsay Jones, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 2004), p. 1407. 5. See H. M. Vos, “The Canon as a Straitjacket,” in A. Van Der Kooij and K. Van Der Toorn, eds., Canonization and Decanonization: Papers Presented to the International Conference of the Leiden Institute for the Study of Religions (LISOR), Held at Leiden 9–10 January 1997 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 354, 356. 6. See A. Van De Beek, “Being Convinced: On the Foundations of the Christian Canon,” in Van Der Kooij and Van Der Toorn, Canonization and Decanonization, pp. 336, 337. 7. Z. Zevit, “The Second-Third Century Canonization of the Hebrew Bible and its Influence on Christian Canonizing,” in Van Der Kooij and Van Der Toorn, Canonization and Decanonization, p. 133. 8. See Shepherd, “Canon,” p. 1410. 9. Frederick M. Denny and Rodney L. Taylor, “Introduction,” in Denny & Taylor eds., The Holy Book in Comparative Perspective (Columbia, NY: University of South Carolina Press, 1985), pp. 6–7. 10. Jonathan Z. Smith, “Sacred Persistence: Toward a Redescription of Canon,” in Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 40. 11. Ibid., p. 48. 264 Notes 12. See Shepherd, “Canon,” p. 1408. 13. Miriam Levering, “Introduction,” in Miriam Levering ed., Rethinking Scripture: Essays from a Comparative Perspective (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1989), p. 13. 14. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “Scripture as Form and Concept: Their Emergence for the Western World,” in Levering, Rethinking Scripture, p. 36. 15. See ibid., p. 39. 16. See Wilfred Cantwell Smith, What is Scripture? A Comparative Approach (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 357, note 33. 17. On the pejorative uses of the term, see Catherine Wessinger, How the Millennium Comes Violently (New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2000), pp. 3–6. 18. Martin Gardner, Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995), p. 387. 19. “Joseph Smith—History,” in The Pearl of Great Price, 1.33; available at http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng. Accessed July 12, 2013. 20. J. Z. Smith, “Canons, Catalogues and Classics,” in Van Der Kooij and Van Der Toorn, Canonization and Decanonization, p. 299. 21. See Eugene V. Gallagher, “Sectarianism,” in Peter Clarke and Peter Beyer, eds., The World’s Religions: Continuities and Transformations, 2nd ed., (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 610–623. 22. See Athanasius, Letter XXXIX.7. 23. J. Z. Smith, “Canons, Catalogues and Classics,” in Van Der Kooij and Van Der Toorn, Canonization and Decanonization, p. 298. 24. For a classic statement of this competitive situation, see Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969) and also Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985). 25. A Course in Miracles, Volume One: Text, (Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), “Introduction,” n. p. 26. Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, MA: The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1994), p. vii. 27. Throughout I will use “modern new religious movements” or rough equiva- lents to distinguish those new religions from the older new religions that W. C. Smith identifies as participating in the “scripture movement” of the second through seventh centuries ce. 28. For an accessible overview see Robert L. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 2nd ed., (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003); for a case study of a particular example of polemic against Christianity see Eugene V. Gallagher, Divine Man or Magician? Origen and Celsus on Jesus (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982), SBLDS 64. Part I Introduction 1. Bruce Lincoln, Authority: Construction and Corrosion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 2. Notes 265 2. Gill’s personal testimony and the full text of The Book of Jeraneck are available at http://www.latterdaychurch.co.uk/. Accessed July 21, 2013. For an analysis of Gill’s career and movement in the broader context of the Mormon tradition, see Matthew Bowman, “Matthew Philip Gill and Joseph Smith: The Dynamics of Mormon Schism,” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 13 (2011): 42–63. 3. See Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible (New York: Avon Books, 1969), p. 39: “For those who already doubt supposed truths, this book is revelation.” 4. Max Weber, “The Pure Types of Legitimate Authority,” in S. N. Eisenstadt, ed., Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), p. 46. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid. 7. Max Weber, “The Nature of Charismatic Authority and Its Routinization,” in Eisenstadt, Max Weber on Charisma, p. 49. 8. Charles Lindholm, Charisma (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), p. 7. 1 A Teenaged Prophet, a Golden Bible, and Continuing Revelation 1. James B. Allen, “Emergence of a Fundamental: The Expanding Role of Joseph Smith’s First Vision in Mormon Religious Thought,” Journal of Mormon History 7 (1980): 43–61, quotation from p. 43. 2. Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), p. xx. 3. See ibid., p. 389; for the text and some commentary on its history see Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996), pp. 54–144. An electronic version of the text is available at http:// scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/contents. I will follow that version of the text, including its division into subsections. Vogel gives a brief account of the tex- tual history on pp. 54–55. Vogel retains the sometimes idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation of the original texts, which I will follow. 4. Bushman, Joseph Smith, p. 40. 5. On the acceptance of the later version of “Joseph Smith—History” as scrip- ture, see James B. Allen, “The Significance of Joseph Smiths ‘First Vision’ in Mormon Thought,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 1 (1966): 29–45, esp. p. 44. 6. Howe’s Mormonism Unvailed is available at http://solomonspalding.com /docs/1834howb.htm#cont. 7. Ibid., p. 12. 8. Ibid., pp. 14, 15. 9. See ibid., pp. 17, 19, 31, 43. 10. See Vogel, Documents, p. 55. 11. Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, 2nd ed, (New York: Vintage Books, 1971), p. 25. 12. Ibid. 266 Notes 13. Dean C. Jessee, “The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” BYU Studies 9 (1969): 1–13, quotation from p. 11. 14. Marvin S. Hill, “The First Vision Controversy: A Critique and Reconciliation,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18 (1982): 31–46, quotation from p. 41. 15. See, for example, James A Beckford, “Accounting for Conversion,” British Journal of Sociology 29 (1978): 249–262, and Brian Taylor, “Recollection and Membership: Converts’ Talk and the Ratiocination of Community,” Sociology 12 (1978): 316–324. 16. Wayne Proudfoot, Religious Experience (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985), p. 43; see pp. 61, 66, 71. 17. Ibid., p. 121. 18. See Bruce Lincoln, Authority: Construction and Corrosion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 2. 19. Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery, October 11, 1829 in Vogel, Documents, p. 7. Vogel retains Smith’s spelling and punctuation. 20. Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ, June 1830 in Vogel, Documents, p. 9. 21. Joseph Smith Interview with Peter Bauder, October 1830 in Vogel, Documents, pp. 16–18. 22. See ibid., pp. 17, 18. 23. Ibid., p. 26. 24. “Joseph Smith—History,” 1832 in Vogel, Documents, p. 26. 25. See ibid., pp. 27–29. 26. Bushman, Joseph Smith, p. 66. 27. See Joseph Smith Recital To Kirtland (OH) High Council, February 12 and April 21, 1834 in Bushman, Joseph Smith, pp. 32, 33. 28. See ibid., p. 43. On Matthias see also Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). 29. See ibid., pp. 43–45. 30. See ibid., pp. 46–51 for two examples from 1836. 31. See “Joseph Smith—History” sections 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28. 32. Richard Lyman Bushman, “The Visionary World of Joseph Smith,” BYU Studies 37 (1997–1998), pp. 183–204, quotation from p. 197. 33. See Hill, “The First Vision Controversy,” p. 41. 34. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 1. 35. See ibid., sections 1, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 56, 58, 60, 61, 74, 75. 36. Bushman, Joseph Smith, p. 50. 37. See ibid., p. 51; “Joseph Smith—History,” section 56. 38. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 46. 39. Ibid., section 10. 40. Ibid., section 11. 41. Ibid., section 12. 42. See ibid., sections 15, 16. 43. Ibid., section 20. 44. See Bushman, “The Visionary World.” Notes 267 45. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 22. 46. Ibid., sections 23, 22. 47. Ibid., sections 24, 25. 48. Ibid., section 25. 49. Ibid., section 33. 50. Compare Malachi 4:1, 5 and ibid., sections 37, 38. 51. Compare Malachi 4:6 and “Joseph Smith-History,” section 39. 52. On millennialism in early Mormonism, see Grant Underwood, The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1993).
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