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Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays
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Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays
312Paperback(New Edition)
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Overview
Joseph Smith cannot be dismissed as a colorful fraud, Bushman argues, nor seen only as a restorer of religious truth. Entangled in nineteenth-century Yankee culture—including the skeptical Enlightenment—Smith was nevertheless an original who cut his own path. And while there are multiple contexts from which to draw an understanding of Joseph Smith (including magic, seekers, the Second Great Awakening, communitarianism, restorationism, and more), Bushman suggests that Smith stood at the cusp of modernity and presented the possibility of belief in a time of growing skepticism.
When examined carefully, the Book of Mormon is found to have intricate subplots and peculiar cultural twists. Bushman discusses the book's ambivalence toward republican government, explores the culture of the Lamanites (the enemies of the favored people), and traces the book's fascination with records, translation, and history. Yet Believing History also sheds light on the meaning of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon today. How do we situate Mormonism in American history? Is Mormonism relevant in the modern world?
Believing History offers many surprises. Believers will learn that Joseph Smith is more than an icon, and non-believers will find that Mormonism cannot be summed up with a simple label. But wherever readers stand on Bushman's arguments, he provides us with a provocative and open look at a believing historian studying his own faith.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780231130073 |
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Publisher: | Columbia University Press |
Publication date: | 02/13/2007 |
Edition description: | New Edition |
Pages: | 312 |
Product dimensions: | 6.25(w) x 9.12(h) x (d) |
Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Reid L. Neilson is assistant professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University.
Jed Woodworth is a Ph.D. candidate in American history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Table of Contents
PrefaceIntroduction
Faithful History
My Belief
Learning to Believe
The Social Dimensions of Rationality
The Book of Mormon and the American Revolution
The Book of Mormon in Early Mormon History
The Lamanite View of Book of Mormon History
The Recovery of the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon and Its Critics
Joseph Smith and Skepticism
Joseph Smith in the Current Age
Making Space for the Mormons
The Visionary World of Joseph Smith
Was Joseph Smith a Gentleman?
Joseph Smith as Translator
"The Little, Narrow Prison" of Language
A Joseph Smith for the Twenty-first Century
Afterword
What People are Saying About This
Classic Bushman throughout: erudite, elegant, witty, and unassuming. Others have illumined the complexities of American religious history, and still others have defended the credibility of Christian faith in the modern (and postmodern) world. But few have equaled, and none has surpassed, Bushman's ability to do both at once, cogently, and with the excitement of a conversation very much in process. Non-Mormon academics sometimes have said that the LDS tradition is still young enough to feel a need to justify itself historically. These essays suggest that the opposite may be true. In Bushman's hands LDS scholarship displays the wisdom of a traditiongracefully come of age: intelligently at ease with itself in a strangely non-believing culture.
Grant Wacker, Duke University
Reflecting a long career, these addresses and critical studies showcase Bushman's skill as a historian. As 'Mormon essays' they also highlight tensions a distinguished practitioner experiences studying his own faith. Rich and rewarding for scholars and lay folk alike.
John F. Wilson, Collord Professor of Religion emeritus, Princeton University
University
Believing History is an unparalleled compilation of essays capping three decades of Mormon scholarship by one of the country's top American historians. Richard Bushman exemplifies the historian's goal of understanding a subject matter on its own terms, without compromising his own Mormon faith. The result is an impressive achievement of interest to both Mormon and non-Mormon readers seeking a further understanding of America's greatest religious success story.
Harry S. Stout, Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History, Yale University