Tagged Stories
Displaying stories 1 - 15 of 68 in total tagged with "Joseph Smith"
Joseph Smith is in 'the pantheon of the prophets'
In considering the character of the Prophet Joseph Smith, it is good "to transfer what we know into how we act," Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy said May 12.Elder Jensen, recently released as Church Historian and Recorder, was the evening dinner speaker for the National Society of the Sons...
Defending the Faith: A simple explanation works best for the Restoration
We left off last week with the notion that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from a manuscript written by Solomon Spalding, who had died in 1816. Sidney Rigdon, so the story goes, stole the work from Spalding's family and, for whatever reason, used it to set the young farmer Joseph Smith up as a...
Joseph Smith's account of the Restoration is difficult to counter
As I see it, the single most persuasive secular argument for the authenticity of the founding events of the Restoration isn't actually a single argument or line of evidence at all. It's the fact that no counterexplanation yet proposed for those events accounts for all the relevant data nearly as...
Defending the Faith: If beginning is true, all else follows
Years ago, my colleague and friend Louis Midgley drew my attention to an anecdote related by the eminent Protestant church historian Martin Marty. It conveys an important lesson. Marie de Vichy-Chamrond (d. 1780), the Marquise du Deffand, was a famous 18th-century French hostess, as well as a...
Mormon Media Observer: It always comes back to Joseph Smith
Mormon Life says: In a Pew study, more people knew that Joseph Smith was Mormon than could identify the first four books of the New Testament.
It might come as a shock to MSNBC commentator Lawrence O'Donell, but many Latter-day Saints might well see O'Donell's mean-spirited remarks late last week about the Prophet Joseph Smith as evidence,...
Anti-Mormon bigotry repeated by MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell
Mormon Life says: He would have been fired had he said this about Islam or any other religion.
When Sen. Orrin Hatch proclaimed Tuesday afternoon that President Barack Obama's re-election campaign would "throw the Mormon church at" Mitt Romney, Democrats were quick to reaffirm "attacking a...
Mormon scholar presents golden plates research at USU
A renowned scholar of Mormon history visited Utah State University on Thursday, giving students and community members an exclusive presentation on his latest historical research. Richard Bushman is most well-known for his historical biography, “Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling,” on Mormonism's...
Joseph Smith Papers Project releases new book
As part of a continuing effort to collect, preserve, and share Church history, Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844, the latest publication of the Joseph Smith Papers project, will become available for purchase starting Monday, March 19, 2012. Like other volumes, this publication...
Bloggernacle Back Bench: What's new in history and international art
Let’s delve into some history and art this week since I attended both a blogger news conference on the new "The Joseph Smith Papers: Histories, Volume 1" and the Church History Library’s 9th International Art Competition opening.
Sharing stories from family history: Robert Crookston's testimony of the Prophet
Growing up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I knew of the church's pioneer legacy and had some idea of my own pioneer ancestry, although I wasn't sure on a lot of the specifics. During family trips to Salt Lake City or church history sites in Missouri and Illinois,...
SPONSORED: Joseph Smith Papers project releases first Histories volume
The Joseph Smith Papers Project is a collection of primary Joseph Smith documents that is invaluable to American history scholars, Mormon history scholars, and of importance to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The latest volume, Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith...
Scholar Terryl Givens explains Mormon concept of 'Restoration'
Mormons may think they understand the Restoration, but in 19th century America, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not just another restoriationist religion. Scholar Terryl Givens explained at the “Exploring Mormon Conceptions of the Apostasy” conference on Friday afternoon at...
New Documents Available on Joseph Smith Papers Website
Following the release of the second volume of the manuscript history of the Church online, the Joseph Smith Papers website has now added to its collection a dozen new documents relating to early Latter-day Saint history and Joseph Smith’s personal life. The new documents, dated from 1829 to...
N.J. man seeks to have Vermont land used as Mormon center
A man who tried for seven years to build a gift shop and delicatessen near the Vermont birthplace of Joseph Smith now wants to sell the land to a Mormon historical society that would build a museum and hospitality center. John Lefgren said his unsuccessful effort to open the business on his land...
The Restoration stands up to history
Decades ago, I attended a gathering where the late Stanley Kimball, a professor of history at Southern Illinois University and president of the Mormon History Association, spoke. His remarks have stuck in my mind ever since. (If anybody out there knows where a written version of the speech can be...
