"Joseph Smith's Gold Plates" by Richard Bushman
Above: Joseph Smith's Gold Plates - Richard Bushman - 170 pages.
I believe civilizational success and religion are intertwined, like a double helix, mutually dependent, one upon the other. Cultures which abandon religion fail. Russia learned that lesson under eighty years of failed Bolshevik rule. Ironically, as religious belief in the west atrophies, Russia, today, is reviving its Orthodox Christian traditions hoping to shore up Russian cultural vitality.
I completed reading the above book today.
The Prophet Joseph Smith, founder of the LDS Church, called the Book of Mormon “the keystone of our religion.”
Contemporary LDS apostle, Jeffrey R. Holland wrote, “Everything of saving significance in the Church stands or falls on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon[...]. Either the Book of Mormon is what the Prophet Joseph said it is, or this church and its founder are false.”
Does the controversial origin story of the Book of Mormon impair the book's believability, or invalidate its claim to divine truth? No doubt, the origin story of the Book of Mormon strains credulity. According to Joseph Smith, in September of 1823 an angel appeared to him and directed him to a hill near his home. Buried there, Smith found a box containing a stack of thin metal sheets, gold in color, about six inches wide, eight inches long, piled six or so inches high, bound together by large rings, and covered with what appeared to be ancient engravings. Exactly four years later, the angel allowed Smith to take the plates and instructed him to translate them into English. When the text was published, a new religion was born.
Author Richard Bushman is a lifelong member of the LDS Church and Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. "Joseph Smith's Gold Plates," does not... cannot, in modern scientific terms... purport to validate Joseph Smith's incredible claim about an angel leading him to unearth a record of the ancient inhabitants of the American continent written on gold plates. But Bushman does offer a comprehensive review of the events and environment surrounding the coming forth of Joseph's golden plates. Despite the lack of scientific proof of the gold plates' legitimacy, it cannot be denied that the Book of Mormon underpins a highly successful, American born, Christian religion. This fact alone gives rise to the importance of a deeper study into the events surrounding "The Book of Mormon's" genesis. Here, Richard Bushman's own description of his book (opening paragraph of Chapter 10):
This book has traced the history of the fold plates in the minds of artists, critics, believers and scholars from September 1823 when the plates first appeared in the Smith family down the present. It took time for the idea of an angel and a golden book of records to fully register with the Smiths, but by 1827 when Joseph brought the plates home it was fully formed. In succeeding chapters, the book analyzes the role of the plates in the Book of Mormon, their part of moving Joseph Smith to translate, and then their effects on the Smith family and their friends. Critics and apologists almost immediately deployed arguments to dismiss or to defend the plates. In the late nineteenth century, the attacks lightened, and the pates were seen less as a dangerous imposition and more as a fabulous fantasy. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the plates took on many forms in popular literature and art and were subject to scientific analysis both by critics and apologists. This sequence of appearances and arguments constitutes, in my way of thinking, a history of the gold plates.
In the late 1820's, upstate New York newspapers began reporting on the discovery of a "Golden Bible." In these public accounts, Joseph Smith was derided as a charlatan despite the fact that several witnesses testified to the authenticity of the gold plates. Notwithstanding the brickbats thrown at him, Joseph persevered in bringing the translated plates to publication. Bushman describes the evolution from Joseph's initial perception of the plates as being a treasure trove of personal wealth to his conception that the plates had a larger significance as an essential, incremental to the Bible, testimony of Jesus Christ. Bushman writes how the notion that he would have to translate the plates only came to Joseph fully four years after he discovered them.
Many of the early critics of Mormonism cited Joseph Smith's predilection for treasure hunting as a sign of his being a fraudster. Bushman notes that large numbers of upstate New Yorkers (the golden plates were found in Palmyra, New York) were inclined to believe in hidden treasures and spirits that guarded them. In the context of the times, Joseph's being introduced to the plates by a guardian angel, the Angel Moroni, didn't seem as farfetched as it might appear today. Indeed, as detailed in the Bushman account, many locals at the time believed Joseph's story and connived to steal the plates.
Bushman tells about Joseph's family members and their reactions to Joseph's story about the plates. Joseph's mother Lucy was an excited backer of her son's story from the beginning. Joseph's less religious father, Joseph Sr.'s enthusiasm came later.
The LDS Church was organized in 1830. A charismatic Joseph attracted numerous adherents to his "Book of Mormon" inspired gospel at a rapid rate. Bushman discusses publications denigrating the Mormon phenomenon that had attracted national attention in such a short period of time. For one, Eber D. Howe, a printer in Painesville, Ohio, published "Mormonism Unveiled (sic)" in 1834. Howe was shocked when people of standing in Painesville joined the Mormon cause. Howe's task, as he saw it was to make an anti-Mormon case so overwhelming that no one in his right mind would find the new religion credible. Howe aimed "to satisfy every rational person whose mind has not already been prostrated by the machinations of the Impostors, that the Supreme Being has had little agency in the prosperity of Mormonism, as in the grossest works of Satan." Notwithstanding the numerous published criticisms of Joseph Smith's new religion, the new Church continued to grow rapidly.
Bushman's book recounts the stories of "discoveries" of inscribed metal plates seeming to emulate Smith's own experience. Conspirators devised a scheme to try to expose Joseph's "chicanery." Three men fabricated six small, bell-shaped brass plates, used acid to burn characters onto the surfaces, buried the plates eight feet underground in a place called Kinderhook, Illinois. These plates became known as the Kinderhook Plates. They were presented to Joseph Smith who vouched for their authenticity, but the conspirators' intent to expose Joseph as a fraud petered out.
Two and a half years after the Kinderhook plates were uncovered, another set of plates appeared. This time, September 1845, a year after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, James J. Strang, an LDS Church member directed several followers to a hill in Walworth County, Wisconsin to dig for buried plates. Plates were found under what appeared to be credible circumstances. Strang recruited over one thousand followers (Strangites) and led them to Beaver Island, in Lake Michigan. The Strang movement at Beaver Island grew to some twelve thousand adherents by 1856 when Strang was assassinated. After Strang’s death, the Strangites were expelled from Beaver Island by a mob of Irish fishermen, who reclaimed the island as their own. Strangites still exist as a small group who maintain their original doctrines and practices.
The story of the gold plates sparked a spate of literary creativity. Fayette Lapham was fascinated with the gold plates story. He wrote an uncritical account of the story in The Historical Magazine which gained wide readership. W.D. Purple found the tale of the plates amusing, He wrote a reminiscence, Joseph Smith, "The Originator of Mormonism. Historical Reminiscences of the Town of Afton." Purple had attended the 1826 trial of Joseph on charges of glass-looking and may have contributed to the extensive notes on the trial. Purple's aim was to entertain and enlighten more than to warn or condemn. The Canadian-born writer Lily Dougall, an accomplished novelist, turned Joseph Smith's life into a substantial piece of fiction entitled "The Mormon Prophet (1899)." The reasonably sympathetic book was well received.
Bushman documents poetry, painting and sculpture by-products from the golden plates story. We learn about Torleif Knaphus, an LDS church convert from Norway, who created the sculpture of Moroni on the Hill Cumorah. Knaphus felt licensed to depart significantly from the historical record. For example, he left Joseph Smith out of the sculpture. In Joseph Smith's history, Moroni never appears alone, only in conversation with the prophet.
Bushman notes how supporters of Joseph's story sought to buttress Joseph's account. Various tests were accomplished to prove that the plates were large enough to contain the Book of Mormon text; the pile of plates was not too heavy for a young man to carry; metal plates could rustle as Emma, Joseph's wife, said.
What about contemporary interpretations of the gold plates? Bushman notes that until recently, imposture remained the predominate explanation for the gold plates. They had to be a figment of Joseph's fertile imagination. What other explanation could there be? Fawn McKay Brodie, reared a Mormon, *** wrote a biography of Joseph Smith in 1945: "No Man Knows My History." Her book was readily accepted as a persuasive analysis of Joseph's early revelations. To Brodie, Smith was a believable impostor. Brodie is quoted, "perhaps in the beginning Joseph never intended his stories of the golden plates to be taken so seriously, but once the masquerade had begun, there was no point at which he could call a halt. Since his own family believed him (with the possible exception of his cynical younger brother William) why should not the world?" The plates, Brodie suggests, were not the product of some severe psychological crisis or cultural dilemma or a powerful idea. They resulted from an unexpected reaction to a chance comment. In Brodies telling, the Book of Mormon began as a lark.
Contemporary Joseph Smith biographer Dan Vogel tries to be true to original accounts, positive or negative, of people feeling or lifting the plates. They were seen under a cloth, stored in a box, kept under bedcovers, transported in a barrel of beans, held on a knee. Respecting these accounts, Vogel theorizes that "the would-be prophet constructed a set of plates to be felt through a cloth." Vogel's Joseph is a conscious fraud but one driven by pain and anguish. At first Joseph thought merely telling the story would be enough. Reports of conversing with a messenger would satisfy the family; he would not have to actually retrieve the plates and pretend to translate them. Vogel speculates that not until September 1827, when his life seemed to be headed into a tailspin, did Joseph think seriously about procuring the plates. Vogel speculated that the plates were a meld of his father's folk beliefs and his mother's Christianity.
Ann Taves, a professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara believes that Smith was less a deceiver and more an earnest seeker of God. "Smith's logic... may have been less like an adept deceiving his subjects and more like a Catholic priest making Christ present in the Eucharistic wafer." "The comparison... allows us to consider the possibility that Smith viewed something that he had made (metal plates) as a vehicle through which something sacred - the ancient golden plates - could be made (really) present. In both the Catholic and Mormon case, the sacred character is visible only to those who believe." Bushman notes, "this may be as far as a sympathetic outsider can go in crediting Joseph Smith's story." Per Taves Smith was engaged in a serious spiritual quest. By an exercise of faith, he sought to make a lowly material contrivance, a pile of tin sheets, serve a high spiritual purpose.
SDT Observations
Who, in the end, is to say that Joseph's claims didn't play out exactly the way he said they did? But, if they didn't, can a religion's truthfulness, or efficacy stand on its fruits despite the ambiguity of its origin story? The Western Culture defining Judeo/Christian tradition of the Bible, in which Mormonism resides, is not without its own credulity straining claims. Did Moses really witness the finger of God etching out the Ten Commandments into stone tablets? Did Jesus Christ really rise from the dead having been crucified three days earlier? Truth of a religion, I believe, can also be certified by evaluating its outcomes. Underpinned by Christianity, Western Culture has evidenced continuing progress in cultural cohesiveness, economic growth and expanding individual self-actualization. The LDS church has built, incrementally, on Christianity's cultural accomplishments, whether or not one views the LDS as the one true church. "By their fruits ye shall know them (Matthew 7:16-20)" is a religious truism that stands independently of an origin story as validating religious truth, and the abundant fruits today of Joseph Smith's gospel are plainly evident for all to see.
I believe civilizational success and religion are intertwined, like a double helix, mutually dependent, one upon the other. Cultures which abandon religion fail. Russia learned that lesson under eighty years of failed Bolshevik rule. Ironically, as religious belief in the west atrophies, Russia, today, is reviving its Orthodox Christian traditions hoping to shore up Russian cultural vitality. Ascertaining the truth of religion, I believe, lies less in certifying its historical origins and more in observing the results of the application of its principles. "God moves a in mysterious way, his wonders to perform (18th Century Anglican hymn)." And, again, it's not for me to say whether Joseph's origin story didn't play out exactly the way he claimed. Can't the Book of Mormon can be the keystone of the LDS religion on the strength of the application of its teachings, over time, in the lives of believers? Like the Bible, The Book of Mormon doesn't need certified, scientific proof of its origins to be "true."
"Joseph Smith's Gold Plates" offers a readable, fascinating, if esoteric, story about the people and events surrounding seeming incredible gold plates origin story of the LDS Church. I understand that "Joseph Smith's Gold Plates" might not be for everyone. There are so many books to read. My Mormon background continues to draw me to books like this. I recently completed reading Richard Bushman's highly acclaimed biography of Joseph Smith, "Rough Stone Rolling." Here is a link to my review of that book: "Joseph Smith - Rough Stone Rolling" by Richard Bushman | Stephen DeWitt Taylor
*** Mom (Gayle DeWitt Taylor) was good friends with Barbara Smith, sister to Fawn Brodie, when I was a Provo, Utah pre-teen in the early 1950's. The Smith and Taylor families were neighbors. I can still remember our address: 741 North 11th East, Provo, UT. I have early memories of Mom and Dad talking about Fawn Brodie and the aftershocks of the publication of her book, "No Man Knows My History." From those conversations I remember Mom saying to the effect, that irrespective of Mormonism's origins, Mormonism is a good way to raise a family. I never inquired about Mom or Dad's underlying beliefs about Joseph Smith and the gold plates. Mom and Dad were devout practitioners of the LDS faith throughout their lives. My review of Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows My History," is here: "No Man Knows My History" by Fawn M. Brodie | Stephen DeWitt Taylor
Addendum:
Above: Richard Lyman Bushman, author, "Joseph Smith's Gold Plates," Harmon Building, Brigham Young University, 19 October 2023.
Richard Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, a lifelong member of the LDS Church, is main speaker at a dinner event hosted by The Monk (Dan Jorgensen) and his wife Elaine. Dan and Elaine had invited Dan's BYU college class of 1963 and missionaries who served in the Milan, Italy mission under Dan and Elaine's mission presidency (1971 to 1973), to hear Richard Bushman speak about his latest book, "Joseph Smith's Gold Plates." Margaret and I were among a few additional personal friends, not part of the college class or returned missionaries, invited to the dinner.
At the end of the evening, I was able to have Richard Bushman autograph my copy of "Joseph Smith's Gold Plates." I reminded Dr. Bushman that he was our LDS Bishop while we were studying at Harvard Business School (HBS) from 1969 to 1971. He didn't say he remembered me... why should he have? We had had no contact with him since our time at HBS the early 1970's. I told him that my father was Weldon J. Taylor, Dean of the College of Business at BYU from 1960 to 1975. Dr. Bushman said he knew my dad and considered him a very successful educator with a strong professorial presence.
In his remarks, Dr. Bushman reviewed the important points of his new book. and noted that he was a better person for having stayed true to the LDS religion. His wife, Claudia Bushman also spoke. Among others she highlighted the importance of keeping a diary. "If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen."
I didn't take the opportunity to remind Dr. Bushman of my once rendering my testimony at a late 1970 Fast and Testimony meeting in the Cambridge, MA "marrieds" LDS ward while he was serving as Bishop. Several ward members gave testimony to the blessings deriving from paying a full tithing to the Church (10% of increase). I decided to volunteer my own testimony on tithing. I stood, received the roving mike, and said, "I paid my tithing and I just got drafted." It was the time of the Vietnam War and many young men in the congregation had to face the prospect of being conscripted into the US military. My somewhat irreverent testimony on tithing brought the meeting house down with laughter. Years later, adherents who were at that meeting would remind me, always with a chuckle, of my "I got drafted" testimony. As it happened, I subsequently failed my draft physical exam due to varicose veins and, so, did not serve in the US military.