Visions in a Seer Stone

Visions in a Seer Stone PDF Author: William L. Davis
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469655675
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
In this interdisciplinary work, William L. Davis examines Joseph Smith's 1829 creation of the Book of Mormon, the foundational text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Positioning the text in the history of early American oratorical techniques, sermon culture, educational practices, and the passion for self-improvement, Davis elucidates both the fascinating cultural context for the creation of the Book of Mormon and the central role of oral culture in early nineteenth-century America. Drawing on performance studies, religious studies, literary culture, and the history of early American education, Davis analyzes Smith's process of oral composition. How did he produce a history spanning a period of 1,000 years, filled with hundreds of distinct characters and episodes, all cohesively tied together in an overarching narrative? Eyewitnesses claimed that Smith never looked at notes, manuscripts, or books—he simply spoke the words of this American religious epic into existence. Judging the truth of this process is not Davis's interest. Rather, he reveals a kaleidoscope of practices and styles that converged around Smith's creation, with an emphasis on the evangelical preaching styles popularized by the renowned George Whitefield and John Wesley.

Visions in a Seer Stone

Visions in a Seer Stone PDF Author: William L. Davis
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469655675
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book

Book Description
In this interdisciplinary work, William L. Davis examines Joseph Smith's 1829 creation of the Book of Mormon, the foundational text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Positioning the text in the history of early American oratorical techniques, sermon culture, educational practices, and the passion for self-improvement, Davis elucidates both the fascinating cultural context for the creation of the Book of Mormon and the central role of oral culture in early nineteenth-century America. Drawing on performance studies, religious studies, literary culture, and the history of early American education, Davis analyzes Smith's process of oral composition. How did he produce a history spanning a period of 1,000 years, filled with hundreds of distinct characters and episodes, all cohesively tied together in an overarching narrative? Eyewitnesses claimed that Smith never looked at notes, manuscripts, or books—he simply spoke the words of this American religious epic into existence. Judging the truth of this process is not Davis's interest. Rather, he reveals a kaleidoscope of practices and styles that converged around Smith's creation, with an emphasis on the evangelical preaching styles popularized by the renowned George Whitefield and John Wesley.

A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon

A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190699116
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
The story of the creation of the Book of Mormon has been told many times, and often ridiculed. A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon presents and examines the primary sources surrounding the origin of the foundational text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the most successful new religion of modern times. The scores of documents transcribed and annotated in this book include family histories, journal entries, letters, affidavits, reminiscences, interviews, newspaper articles, and book extracts, as well as revelations dictated in the name of God. From these texts emerges the captivating story of what happened (and what was believed or rumored to have happened) between September 1823-when the seventeen-year-old farm boy Joseph Smith announced that an angel of God had directed him to an ancient book inscribed on gold plates-and March 1830, when the Book of Mormon was first published. By compiling for the first time a substantial collection of both first- and secondhand accounts relevant to the inception of the divine revelation-or clever fraud-that launched a new world religion, A Documentary History makes a significant contribution to the rapidly growing field of Mormon Studies.

Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon

Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon PDF Author: Elizabeth Fenton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190056533
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
As the sacred text of a modern religious movement of global reach, The Book of Mormon has undeniable historical significance. That significance, this volume shows, is inextricable from the intricacy of its literary form and the audacity of its historical vision. This landmark collection brings together a diverse range of scholars in American literary studies and related fields to definitively establish The Book of Mormon as an indispensable object of Americanist inquiry not least because it is, among other things, a form of Americanist inquiry in its own right--a creative, critical reading of "America." Drawing on formalist criticism, literary and cultural theory, book history, religious studies, and even anthropological field work, Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon captures as never before the full dimensions and resonances of this "American Bible."

The Creation of the Book of Mormon

The Creation of the Book of Mormon PDF Author: LaMar Petersen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Book of Mormon
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description


People of Paradox

People of Paradox PDF Author: Terryl L. Givens
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198037361
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
In People of Paradox, Terryl Givens traces the rise and development of Mormon culture from the days of Joseph Smith in upstate New York, through Brigham Young's founding of the Territory of Deseret on the shores of Great Salt Lake, to the spread of the Latter-Day Saints around the globe. Throughout the last century and a half, Givens notes, distinctive traditions have emerged among the Latter-Day Saints, shaped by dynamic tensions--or paradoxes--that give Mormon cultural expression much of its vitality. Here is a religion shaped by a rigid authoritarian hierarchy and radical individualism; by prophetic certainty and a celebration of learning and intellectual investigation; by existence in exile and a yearning for integration and acceptance by the larger world. Givens divides Mormon history into two periods, separated by the renunciation of polygamy in 1890. In each, he explores the life of the mind, the emphasis on education, the importance of architecture and urban planning (so apparent in Salt Lake City and Mormon temples around the world), and Mormon accomplishments in music and dance, theater, film, literature, and the visual arts. He situates such cultural practices in the context of the society of the larger nation and, in more recent years, the world. Today, he observes, only fourteen percent of Mormon believers live in the United States. Mormonism has never been more prominent in public life. But there is a rich inner life beneath the public surface, one deftly captured in this sympathetic, nuanced account by a leading authority on Mormon history and thought.

Mormon Visual Culture and the American West

Mormon Visual Culture and the American West PDF Author: Nathan Rees
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000349799
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
This book explores the place of art in Latter-day Saint society during the first 50 years of the Utah settlement, beginning in 1847. Nathan Rees uncovers the critical role that images played in nineteenth-century Mormon religion, politics, and social practice. These artists not only represented, but actively participated in debates about theology, politics, race, gender, and sexuality at a time when Latter-day Saints were grappling with evolving doctrine, conflict with Native Americans, and political turmoil resulting from their practice of polygamy. The book makes an important contribution to art history, Mormon studies, American studies, and religious studies.

An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon

An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon PDF Author: John L. Sorenson
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
ISBN: 9780877476085
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description


A Cultural History of the Book of Mormon: Volume One

A Cultural History of the Book of Mormon: Volume One PDF Author: Daymon M. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781482529807
Category : Book of Mormon
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
This first volume of a cultural history of the Book of Mormon focuses on the earliest years of the text. In a new reading of Mormon history informed by the author's expertise in anthropology and text analysis, the role of Restorationists in locating the Book of Mormon inside the cultural world of the Bible comes to the forefront. The notion of "metatext" is developed in order to explain how texts about the Book of Mormon informed the earliest readings of it, rendering it "scripture" in the genre familiar to Christians, and also shaped it to fit the tradition of Restoration widespread on the American frontier. As a group of Campbellites in late 1830 saw in the book their hoped-for restoration of the power of miracles, the Book of Mormon became the engine of a movement: the power had been restored. In this movement, Alexander Campbell's Ohio group suffered a schism, and his remaining followers called the break off sect "Mormonites" in derision. This cultural history of the Book of Mormon presents a dramatically new way to understand that text and how it has been read and misread from the 1830s onward, as Restorationists took up the text--not for what it said--as a sign of miracles being restored to the true New Testament Church. This first volume is the sort of book you'll either love or hate.

Sisters in Spirit

Sisters in Spirit PDF Author: Maureen Ursenbach Beecher
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252062964
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This book of essays about Mormon women, all written and edited by scholars who are themselves Mormon women, is a brave and important work. Readers will fully appreciate just how brave and important it really is, however, if they can see how this work of historical theology fits into the history of historical writing about Mormon women, as well as how it fits into Mormon history itself. "The women who contributed to this book are among the best of the Mormon literati . . . they] hold that there is hope within the church for change, for reform, for expansion of the place of women." -- Women's Review of Books "Historians of women in America have a great deal to learn from the history of Mormon women. This fine set of essays provides an excellent introduction to a subject about which we should all know more." -- Anne Firor Scott, author of Making the Invisible Woman Visible.

Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited

Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited PDF Author: Noel B. Reynolds
Publisher: Maxwell Institute
ISBN: 9780934893251
Category : Book of Mormon
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints view the Book of Mormon as scripture written by ancient prophets, while critics believe that it is a 19th-century fraud. The 15 essays in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited present the latest research by LDS scholars on the question in an effort to demonstrate that the weight of scholarly evidence is on the side of authenticity. Part 1 contains essays dealing with accounts of how the book was produced in 1829 and 1830, with emphasis on the translation process and the witnesses who saw the plates. Part 2 takes a look at the logical structure of the authorship debate and reviews the history of alternative theories and criticisms of the Book of Mormon. Part 3 presents textual studies that demonstrate the plausibility of the Book of Mormon as an ancient book, and part 4 updates scholars' attempts to understand the ancient cultural and geographic setting of the book in both the Old and New Worlds.