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 | | Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman ISBN-10: 9781400077533 ISBN-10: 1-4000-7753-2 ISBN-13: 9781400077533 ISBN-13: 978-1-4000-7753-3 Paperback 2007-03-13 Vintage Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was twenty-three and went on to organize a church, found cities, and attract thousands of followers before his violent death at age thirty-eight. Richard Bushman, an esteemed cultural historian and a practicing Mormon, moves beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud to explore his personality, his relationships with others, and how he received revelations. An arresting narrative of the birth of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling also brilliantly evaluates the prophet’s bold contributions to Christian theology and his cultural place in the modern world. | ||
Reviews | ||
A Historical and Biographical Tour De Force Dr. Richard Bushman is to be commended for writing one of the best, most balanced biographies of perhaps the most controversial man in American history. The fact that Mormon Mullahs and rabidly hateful Mormon detractors both dislike this book sez something good. Dr. Bushman's work is as objective as possible without the polemics, charactor assassinations, deifications, etc. that are found in other works. For this, Dr. Bushman deserves 5 stars and the congratulations of all open minded persons. I started reading history at quite an early age, and Mormon history was always one of my topics of fascination. I remember Joseph Fielding Smith, as Church Historian, wrote a book entitled "Essentials In Church History", and other titles as well. I was surprised, even as a newly returned missionary, at the excessively defensive posture taken in these books. Further, I read more controversial books from the Mormon perspective, including the hate pieces written by Sandra and Gerald Tanner, as well as the disingenuous Brodie. None of these rang of truth or were very satisfying. This book does ring of truth largely because Dr. Bushman presents the cold hard facts and lets the reader come to his/her own conslusions. Dr. Bushman does not confuse Smith family history with Church history, one of the bigger mistakes made in Church sponsored works. Church Historians often were members of the Smith family. Dr. Bushman professionally steps back and looks at Joseph Smith as a man, which to me makes him much more remarkable than a person to be deified. This book has much to make Mormon Mullahs uncomfortable. Certainly, Joseph Smith Senior's inability to provide for the family because of drunkeness answers many questions not previously answered, let alone addressed. The folk magic episodes, the temper, the plural wives, etc, are not ignored. For that reason, I wonder how some Mormon critics reviewing this book can honestly charge that Dr. Bushman is sweeping controversial matters under the rug. Unless they are reading documents produced by Mark Hoffman, I don't think there is any controversy regarding Joseph Smith that Dr. Bushman doesn't address in a forthright and honest manner. If there is, they should articulate such things instead of only alluding to the "whitewash" by Dr. Bushman. During the 1940's, Fawn Brodie was given access to Church Archives by the Church hierarchy because she represented she would be writing a faithful biography of Joseph Smith. Instead, she made her fame and fortune at Joseph's expense by denouncing him as a sex addict and charlatan/fraud. She used very questionable/flimsy material to support these conclusions...she frankly was quite dishonest in her conclusions. It was no surprise that Brodie was slammed by fellow historians who previously had applauded her assasination of Joseph Smith when she tried the same tactics on Thomas Jefferson. I would recommend this book to anyone for the integrity of Dr. Bushman's writings, warts and all. | ||
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, a valuable biography This book provides a view of Joseph Smith that helps the reader understand him as a person, his struggles and his goals. As with the prophets of the Bible, he had foibles and overcame problems in his personal as well as his professional life. We felt that the explanations were sufficiently helpful that we purchased this copy to give to a relative. | ||
Bushman doesn't cut it (but I'm sure he's a nice guy) Bushman is no doubt an historian with enormous credibility. However, his book is for "Mormons in denial," or those folks who wanna feel like they're getting a scholarly scoop on this complex man-- who wanna feel like if this book sits on their shelf or even if they crack it and read it, that they've defended their faith. If you wanna know the REAL story of Joseph Smith Jr, who he was, what he REALLY did especially in those crucial early years, you MUST read An Insider's View of Mormon Origins by Grant H. Palmer, and Michael Quinn's masterwork, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. | ||
Shows both sides of this religious leader Excellent book. I have read it in its entirety. It tells the story of a human being, with all the foibles and weaknesses that entails, who was learning to lead people in religion. The wise reader will be able to tell this is a far more even-handed and objective study of Smith's background than books such as F. Brodie's "No man knows my history" and those books with sensational titles that were written more just to get us to buy them than to to present research as objectively as possible. If you want to know the good and negative to Smith's background in tremendous detail (the book is thick), this is the book to read. If you want to read something that supports what you have already concluded, positive or negative, you'll want to choose some other book. | ||
Environmental influences on perception-Neuroplaticity I also am studying the Mormons. Should I venture to say - studying the way God has provided a candle accross a night football field. Neuroplaticity - brain change from environment input. Brain grey/white thickness, hippocamus reshape/theta(memory - locations, scenes, color, smells, sounds), two stage memories ("visions"), pattern recognition (visions-imprint/representations)... Being a neural engineer putting probes in the ventral stream (cortex), getting image/time correlation through V1->V4. Lay speak- how does sight/sound get understood/retained? My thinking is Joeseph was on a very fast track. A lot of large stuff (Palmyra canal/ambitious family, Harmony, Harris etc., etc.) No societal concerns(read rouge?) being in poverty,but with extensivly developed genetic brain (6 generations?). I think God, please excuse the familiarity, replaced the distant candel with a spotlight strapped to his head, and used him until Joeseph burned out. He lost Emma, sad. God appears to have provided 30 vision channels, thick copper wires to Joeseph, with vision dumps. These concepts are overwhelming, even I hae a very hard time accepting this, and jumping off this cliff, letting God catch me in the responsibility net. 10 million mormons with priesthood responsibile for saving 5 billion Chinese, Hindus etc, I think I am quite comfy in my no responsibility 1 hour a week protesteant world. I can see why God cracked open the door to this lightning rod man... :) | ||