alexander campbell

285 Pages·2015·1.47 MB·English

by  Brent Corcoran

Journal of
Mormon History
O c t o b e r 2 0 1 5 l V o l u m e 4 1 l N o . 4
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Covers by Clint Whiting, painter in Holladay, Utah. Front cover: Lift, acrylic on board, 18x24
(2014): “Th ere are moments in life when we fi nd ourselves in need of a hand; at other times, we
are able to lend a hand.” Back cover: Tree of Life, oil on board, 18x24 (2014): “And it came to pass
that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy” (1 Ne. 8:10).
Th e Mormon History Association
Th e Mormon History Association {www.mormonhistory association.org} is an independent non-
profi t 501(c)3 organization devoted to all aspects of the Mormon past. It strives to be the preeminent
catalyst and forum worldwide for encouraging the scholarly study of Mormon history. It pursues its
mission by sponsoring annual conferences; encouraging the highest quality research and publication;
and awarding book, article, and other prizes. Its offi cial periodical, the Journal of Mormon History, fos-
ters the publication of independent, scholarly research. Membership in the association is open to all.
© Copyright 2015 Mormon History Association. Printed in the United States of America.
ISSN 0194-7342
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Th e Journal of Mormon History
Publisher: Mormon History Association (founded 1965)
President: Laurie Maffl y-Kipp
President-Elect: Brian Q. Cannon
Past President: Laurel Th atcher Ulrich
Executive Director Robert L. Racker
Outgoing Interim Executive Director: Mary Ellen Robertson
Directors:
Patrick Q. Mason (2016)
Jonathan A. Stapley (2016)
Joseph Stuart (2017)
Bryon C. Andreasen (2017)
J. B. Haws (2017)
Darius Gray (2018)
Lisa Olsen Tait (2018)
Digital Commons: Noel A. Carmack
Electronic Initiatives Coordinator: Connie Lamb
Executive Board Production Staff
Editor: Martha Taysom Copy Editor: Lavina Fielding Anderson
Board of Editors: Production Manager: Brent Corcoran
Ronald O. Barney Art Director: Th ayne Whiting
Gary J. Bergera Book Review Editor: Ronald E. Bartholomew
Matthew Bowman Assistant Book Review Editor: Gary Woods
Scott C. Esplin Advertising Manager: Steve Eccles
Sarah Barringer Gordon Editorial Staff :
David Hall Elizabeth Ann Anderson
Benjamin E. Park Ryan Stuart Bingham
Michael Harold Paulos Laura Compton
D. Michael Quinn Linda Wilcox DeSimone
Andrea Radke-Moss Samuel Alonzo Dodge
George D. Smith Sherman Feher
Gary Topping Zachary R. Jones
Christian Larsen
Linda Lindstrom
H. Michael Marquardt
Jerilyn Wakefi eld

Manuscripts dealing with any aspect of the Mormon past are welcome. Primary consider-
ation is given to manuscripts that make a strong contribution to the knowledge of Mormon his-
tory through new interpretations and/or new information. Acceptance is based on originality,
literary quality, accuracy, and relevance. Reprints and simultaneous submissions are not accepted.
Submissions should be sent to [email protected] in Word. Th e author’s
name and contact information should be located on a page separate from the manuscript. All illustra-
tive materials, including maps, charts, tables, and graphs, should be attached in a separate fi le and not
embedded in the electronic document. All such illustrative materials must be supplied by the author.
Th e Journal’s style guide, based on the Chicago Manual of Style and the LDS Style Guide, includ-
ing specifi cations for illustrative materials, is available at www.mormonhistoryassociation.org. Th e
peer-reviewed evaluation process usually takes three to six months.
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JOURNAL OF MORMON HISTORY
Volume 41, No. 4
October 2015
CONTENTS
LETTER
Re: John C. Bennett Gary James Bergera vi
ARTICLES
Alexander Campbell: Another Restorationist RoseAnn Benson 1
Th e Young Democrats and High Nibley at BYU
Nancy S. Kader 43
Joseph Smith’s First Vision in Historical Context:
How a Historical Narrative became Th eological
Gregory A. Prince 74
Memory as Evidence: Dating Joseph Smith’s
Plural Marriages to Louisa Beaman, Zina
Jacobs, and Presendia Buell Gary James Bergera 95
“Th e Lamanites Shall Blossom as the Rose”:
Th e Indian Student Placement Program,
Mormon Whiteness, and Indigenous Identity
Elise Boxer 132
ROUNDTABLE
Reassessing the Refi ner’s Fire: A Twentieth Anniversary
Retrospective 177
Introduction Benjamin E. Park 178
Camelot’s Crucible: Th e Historiographic
Context for Refi ner’s Fire Benjamin E. Park 188
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CONTENTS v
Th e Refi ner’s Fire: Rites of Scholarly Passage Susanna Morrill 198
Refi ner’s Fire and the Yates Th esis: Hermeticism,
Esotericism, and the History of Christianity
Stephen J. Fleming, Egil Asprem,
and Ann Taves 209
Narrative Arcs and Scholarly Nerve David F. Holland 221
Th e Refi ner’s Fire’s Atlantic Neil Kamil 228
Th e Refi ner’s Fire: In Retrospect John L. Brooke 228
REVIEWS
Matthew J. Grow and Ronald W. Walker, eds. Th e
Prophet and the Reformer: Th e Letters of
Brigham Young and Th omas L. Kane
William P. Mackinnon 238
Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and
David J. Whittaker, eds. Histories—Volume 2:
Assigned Histories, 1831-1847. Vol. 2 in the
Histories Series of the Joseph Smith Papers
Ronald E. Bartholomew 247
Raymond Kuehne. Henry Burkhardt and LDS
Realpolitik in Communist East Germany Fiona Givens 264
Brock Cheney. Plain but Wholesome: Foodways
of the Mormon Pioneers Kate Holbrook 269
Joseph Barnard Romney. Look Upstream: Junius
Romney in Mexico and the United States
Sherman L. Fleek 272
Richard Francaviglia, Mapmakers of New Zion:
A Cartographic History of Mormonism
Henry H. Goldman 276
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L
ETTER
Re: John C. Bennett
Brian Hales’s article, “John C. Ben- in original).2 It should not be sur-
nett and Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: prising, then, that Hales sometimes
Addressing the Question of Re- presents his sources in ways that
liability” (41, no. 2 [April 2015]: portray Smith as positively, from
131–81), asserts that some of us Hales’s perspective, as possible. In
may have depended too uncriti- Bennett’s case, Hales seeks to dis-
cally on Bennett in attempting to tance Smith from Bennett, whom
recover the history of LDS plural Hales regards as a “lascivious” “sex-
marriage in Nauvoo, Illinois. ual opportunist.”
While there is much to agree Hales writes, for example, that
with in Hales’s provocative analy- Bennett, not Smith, introduced the
sis, I believe few researchers today terms “spiritual wives” and “spir-
would argue that Bennett is wholly itual wifery” into LDS parlance.
reliable. As I wrote a decade ago: When Smith’s own plural wives
“Given the many confl icting al- and other Nauvoo contemporaries
legations surrounding Smith and referred to “spiritual wives as they
Bennett, it is diffi cult to know with called them in that day,” to “spiritu-
certainty who is telling the truth, al wives, as we were then termed,”
who is not, and when.”1 and to “spiritual wifery,” Hales dis-
Th e relevant issue, it seems to misses such uses as Bennett-taint-
me, is not so much the extent to ed misrememberings. Yet consid-
which Bennett may have been an ering the dearth of contemporary
early polygamy “insider” (Hales’s primary documentation regarding
term to imply a certain intima- Smith’s polygamy, isn’t it as plau-
cy with Joseph Smith’s controver- sible—perhaps even more likely—
sial teaching) as how best to treat that Smith’s wives and followers
Bennett—despite our biases—as a took the terms from Smith, as they
potential source of accurate infor- imply they did, rather than from
mation. Bennett?
Hales made clear his own ap- Hales notes that Smith some-
proach to Smith, Bennett, and times looked to Church members
Nauvoo plural marriage when he outside the LDS hierarchy—typ-
wrote in 2007 that he intended to ically men who could facilitate
“DEFEND THE PROPHET (WITH Smith’s access to potential plural
DOCUMENTATION)” (emphasis wives—in establishing plural mar-
1Bergera, “John C. Bennett, Joseph Smith, and the Beginnings of
Mormon Plural Marriage in Nauvoo,” John Whitmer Historical Association
Journal 25 (2005): 53.
2“Request for Copying Services,” signed by Hales and dated November 12,
2007, emphasis in original, available at http://mormonpolygamydocuments.
org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/JSP_Book_27.pdf, p. 9; retrieved Decem-
ber 6, 2014.
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Letter v
riage except when it comes to Ben- knowing them, and we cannot ex-
nett. Bennett, for thirty-nine weeks pect to know all . . . unless we com-
in 1840–41 resided with the Smith ply with or keep those we have al-
family and hence was physically ready received. Th at which is wrong
closer to Joseph Smith than many under one circumstance, may be,
other polygamy “insiders.” One and often is, right under another.”
wonders about the kinds of discus- How might Smith’s espousal of a
sions—which would have occurred heaven-directed morality explain
during plural marriage’s gesta- how he and others justifi ed en-
tion—such proximity generated. gaging in activities transgressive of
Hales also has yet to address the nineteenth-century and later sensi-
situation regarding Smith’s young- bilities?
er brother, William, who was, for Hales also concurs that Bennett
a time, a participant in Bennett’s correctly identifi ed some of Joseph
sexual activities, who used his rela- Smith’s early plural wives, though
tionship to Joseph Smith to justify he thinks that Bennett’s source was
Bennett’s and his abuses, but who someone other than Smith. Who
was never really punished for his else, besides Bennett, enjoyed the
involvement. Does not failing to same physical proximity to Smith
treat William and Bennett’s collab- ca. 1840–41?
oration risk leaving readers with an Bennett was many things: a
incomplete understanding of Ben- charismatic scoundrel, a political
nett’s closeness to Joseph Smith? trouble-shooter, a con man and liar,
On the other hand, Hales ac- a gifted orator, and a self-serving
cepts the accuracy of Bennett’s ver- opportunist. But I worry that an
sion of Joseph Smith’s so-called approach that takes as its primary
“happiness letter,” which func- goal to defend Smith, and to dis-
tioned as an invitation for Nancy credit Bennett, limits the scope of
Rigdon, daughter of Sidney Rig- our investigations and potentially
don, to become one of Smith’s plu- misrepresents the past.
ral wives. “Happiness is the object What is needed is an annotat-
and design of our existence,” Smith ed edition of Bennett’s important,
explained, “ . . . and this path is . . . problematic History of the Saints
keeping all the commandments that distinguishes—responsibly,
of God. But we cannot keep all dispassionately, non-defensively—
the commandments without fi rst truth from error.
Gary James Bergera
Salt Lake City
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A youthful Alexander Campbell, whose penchant for deeply studying
the scriptures, caused him to advocate a restoration of the ancient
order of things. Artist, Edward Dean Neuenswander.
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A C :
LEXANDER AMPBELL
A R
NOTHER ESTORATIONIST
RoseAnn Benson
Students of Mormon history may be familiar with the term
“Campbellite” because Parley P. Pratt suggested that the fi rst mis-
sionaries heading west in 1830 to preach the gospel to the Lama-
nites stop in Mentor, Ohio, to see his friend Sidney Rigdon, his
former Campbellite minister prior to his conversion to Mormon-
ism.1 Perhaps some know of the angry interactions in Hiram, Ohio,
between the “Campbellites” and “Mormonites,” as they were pejo-
ratively called at the time, or Alexander Campbell’s published essay
on the Book of Mormon, his main title “Delusions” proclaiming his
point of view.2 Many of the new converts to Mormonism in the
Ohio region were previously reformed Baptists, Campbell’s affi li-
ation until about 1830. Th is competition for seekers of truth led to
confl icts between the two groups.
Interestingly, both Alexander Campbell and Joseph Smith
called their life’s religious work restorations; however, their
approaches and outcomes were very diff erent.3 David Harrell,
ROSEANN BENSON {[email protected]} is an adjunct
faculty member in religious education at Brigham Young University.
1Followers of the reform movement of Alexander Campbell were
commonly called “Campbellites.” However, until they left the Baptist
church about 1830, they considered themselves reformed Baptists.
2Alexander Campbell, “Delusions: An Analysis of the Book of
Mormon; with an Examination of Its Internal and External Evidences,
and a Refutation of Its Pretences to Divine Authority,” Millennial
Harbinger 2, no. 2 (February 1831): 85–96.
3Douglas A. Foster, director of the Restoration Studies Center
at Abilene Christian University, points out that neither the Book of
1
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2 Th e Journal of Mormon History
a scholar in the Churches of Christ, noted, “To speak of
restoration is to speak of movements, not of one movement.”4
Such a statement may be surprising to some Latter-day Saints,
who believe theirs is the restoration church; for them Campbell’s
restoration movement is relatively unknown. Similarly, those
who trace their beginnings to Campbell believe they were reared
in the restoration movement; for them Smith’s restoration is not
considered as such.5
Because the Journal’s readers are very familiar with Joseph
Mormon nor Doctrine and Covenants uses “restoration” frequently
although it is implied from the beginning. He argues that the
designation of Smith’s church as a “restoration movement” is a later
development. Douglas A. Foster, “Community of Christ and Churches
of Christ: Extraordinary Distinctions, Extraordinary Parallels,” in
Restoration Studies, Vol. 14, edited by Peter A. Judd (Independence,
Mo.: John Whitmer Historical Association/Community of Christ
Seminary Press: 2013), 4–5. However, a computer search of LDS.
org “Scriptures” using the terms “restore,” “restored,” “restoring,” and
“restoration” in contexts that employ restoring priesthood powers,
restoring Zion, restoring knowledge of true principles and doctrines
especially regarding Christ, and restoring the house of Israel identifi es
a number of passages in the Doctrine and Covenants, Book of
Mormon, Joseph Smith Translation, and Articles of Faith. See, for
example Doctrine and Covenants 27:6; 45:17; 84:2; 86:10; 103:13, 29;
124:28; 127:8; 128:17; and 132:40, 45. Th e Book of Mormon yields 2
Ne. 3:13, 24; 30:5, 8; Alma 37:19; Hel. 15:11; 3 Ne. 5:25; 29:1; and
Mormon 9:36. See also Joseph Smith Translation Matt. 17:10, 14, and
John 1:22. See also Article of Faith No. 10.
4David Edwin Harrell Jr., “Epilogue,” in Th e American Quest for the
Primitive Church, edited by Richard T. Hughes (Urbana: University of
Illinois, 1988), 242.
5Various off shoots of the union created by Alexander Campbell
and Barton Stone include the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ),
Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, or Churches of Christ. See
Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, Douglas A. Foster, and
D. Newell Williams, eds., Th e Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell
Movement (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2004), xxi.
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