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The Apostle Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith

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The Apostle Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CGU Theses & Dissertations CGU Student Scholarship 2012 Authoring Authority: The Apostle Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith--A Critical Comparison of Texts and Power in the Generation of Religious Community Alonzo Huntsman Claremont Graduate University Recommended Citation Huntsman, Alonzo, "Authoring Authority: The Apostle Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith--A Critical Comparison of Texts and Power in the Generation of Religious Community" (2012). CGU Theses & Dissertations. Paper 28. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/28 DOI: 10.5642/cguetd/28 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the CGU Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in CGU Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authoring Authority: The Apostle Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith— A Critical Comparison of Texts and Power in the Generation of Religious Community by Alonzo Huntsman Claremont Graduate University May, 2012 Approved by ___________________________________________________ Vincent L. Wimbush Committee Chair © Copyright Alonzo Huntsman, 2012 All Rights Reserved APPROVAL OF THE REVIEW COMMITTEE This dissertation has been duly read, reviewed, and critiqued by the Committee listed below, which hereby approves the manuscript of Alonzo Huntsman as fulfilling the scope and quality requirements for meriting the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Vincent L. Wimbush _________________________________________ Claremont Graduate University Chair Richard L. Bushman _________________________________________ Columbia University, Emeritus, and Claremont Graduate University Committee Member Lori Anne Ferrell _________________________________________ Claremont Graduate University Committee Member Armand Mauss _________________________________________ Washington State University, Emeritus; Claremont Graduate University, Adjunct Visiting Examiner ABSTRACT Authoring Authority: The Apostle Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith— A Critical Comparison of Texts and Power in the Generation of Religious Community by Alonzo Huntsman Claremont Graduate University: 2012 . believe in God, believe also in me . —John 14.1 “Authoring Authority” analyzes the ways texts function to generate social cohesion while at the same time advancing the power interests of their authors. The study is a comparative, critical, and interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary excavation of the religion-making efforts of the first-century Christian Apostle Paul and the nineteenth-century Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. This comparison defamiliarizes and recharacterizes the heroes and origin- stories of the dominant (and my own) tradition to force important questions about scholarly perspectives, interests and deferences (protection, exceptionalization), self-reflexivity, and politics. The project’s critical orientation deploys insights and models from a range of disciplines to “read” these texts for what they signify and how they function in nascent social formations. The texts of these men were presented as if their contents were other than the products of embedded social actors (e.g. “it really is God’s word” 1 Thes 2.13) contending for limited resources such as discursive authority and social power. These charismatic narrators harnessed the authority of pre-existing texts and traditions and integrated them with contemporary perspectives and sentiment. Their texts and performances offered a contingent construal of reality as ultimate reality—which served the power needs of their authors and the existential needs of their communities of subscribers. The dissertation begins with the articulation of an analytical framework appropriate for the critical and comparative academic study of religion. Chapter two contextualizes the lives of these men within cultural settings that provided motivation, made available vocational training and, ultimately provisioned social opportunities for them as adept charismatics. Chapter three directly illuminates the range of techniques embedded in texts, both implicit and explicit, of claiming power and developing a following. The final chapter wrestles with the functional role of deception in social formation and human life. CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. III TABLES ...................................................................................................................................... VII ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................... VIII PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... IX CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION AND CRITICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION AND THESIS ........................................................................................................ 1 CONTRIBUTION .................................................................................................................................... 7 ASSUMPTIONS .................................................................................................................................... 11 The Relentless Meaning-Making Enterprise ................................................................... 13 Relationships: Self-Interest and Sociality, Knowledge and Power ....................... 24 Scripture and Scripturalization ............................................................................................. 30 Discourse as Mediator of Social Relationships ............................................................... 37 Discourse Internalized - a final assumption .................................................................... 39 APPROACH—COMPARATIVE AND CRITICAL ...................................................................... 43 Comparison .................................................................................................................................... 43 Critical Approach ......................................................................................................................... 46 Acknowledging the Human Motivations That Drive Behavior .............................................. 47 Meaning is Dynamic ................................................................................................................................... 51 Texts and Power—The Mandate to Excavate ................................................................................ 53 Personal Stake—Author’s Location .................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER TWO ....................................................................................................................... 61 CULTURE AND CHARISMATIC ............................................................................................ 61 CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES AND SOCIO-CULTURAL LOCATION .................................. 61 Charismatic Characteristics .................................................................................................... 64 Social Intelligence and Emotional Skills .......................................................................................... 71 Confidence and Persuasion ..................................................................................................................... 77 Recognizing Gifts ......................................................................................................................................... 83 THE LIFE-STAGES OF A PROPHET ............................................................................................ 93 The Sense of Not Belonging to Any Group ....................................................................... 96 Paul, a Diaspora Jew at Home in a Strange Land ........................................................................ 96 Smith: Poverty, Itinerancy and Longing for Belonging .......................................................... 107 Development of Career Skills ............................................................................................... 116 Paul: Partisan Persecutor, Partisan Promoter .......................................................................... 116 Smith: Seeker of Hidden Treasures, Golden and Spiritual .................................................... 124 Seer Stones ..............................................................................................................................................................................128 Market Demand for Scryers and Prophets ................................................................................................................131 Transferable Social and Emotional Skills ...................................................................................................................133 Skill Sets and Improvisation: The Alchemist Entrepreneur ...............................................................................137 v CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................................
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