Item Detail
-
11515
-
18
-
0
-
English
-
Joseph Smith III and the Mormons of Utah
-
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley
-
Ph.D. diss.
-
"Joseph Smith III (1832-1914) was the oldest son of Joseph Smith, Jr., the Mormon prophet. Prior to being murdered in 1844, his father indicated that Joseph III should succeed him as president of the Mormon Church. But the prophet made several other contradictory statements about the succession, and after his death Brigham Young assumed the leadership of the church. The prophet's widow Emma refused to follow Brigham Young and the Mormons to Utah. The chief reason for her estrangement from Young and the church was her opposition to Mormon polygamy, which was secretly introduced by her late husband and openly practiced in Utah. She conveyed her distaste for polygamy and Brigham Young to her children. As a young man, Joseph Smith III faced a conflict: how to remain loyal to his paternal religious legacy (Mormonism) while simultaneously standing by his maternal ethical training (monogamous). He resolved the conflict by becoming the first president of the RLDS Church in 1860. The RLDS Church was a rival to the Utah Mormon Church. It rejected polygamy and insisted that the proper successor to Joseph Smith was his son, not Brigham Young. Under Joseph Smith III's leadership, the RLDS Church sought to live in peace among non-Mormons, accommodate itself to American culture, and differentiate itself in the public mind from the odium attached to Utah Mormonism. He spent the remainder of his life in a crusade against Utah Mormonism. He repeatedly urged the federal government to enforce anti-polygamy laws in Utah. He sought to establish the legitimacy of RLDS succession-claims in a pair of lawsuits over ecclesiastical property. He developed apologetic arguments designed to prove that his father did not originate Mormon polygamy, or, if he had, that the introduction of polygamy was contrary to ecclesiastical, moral, and civil law. He engaged in lengthy polemical controversies with opponents in Utah, made a number of missionary journeys there, and attempted to rewrite early Mormon history from an RLDS perspective. Nevertheless, he managed to maintain friendships with most of his Utah relatives." [Author's abstract]
-
A Contest for "Sacred Space"
American Prophet, New England Town : The Memory of Joseph Smith in Vermont
A New Historiographical Frontier : The Reorganized Church in the Twentieth Century
At the Barricades of the Gospel : The Conspiracy Theme in RLDS History
Contesting the LDS Image : The North American Review and the Mormons, 1881-1907
Cousins in Conflict : Joseph Smith III and Joseph F. Smith
Doing the Works of Abraham : Mormon Polygamy―Its Origin, Practice, and Demise
In Sacred Loneliness-- An Introduction and Some RLDS Portraits
Joseph Smith III : Pragmatic Prophet
Kingdom on the Mississippi Revisited
Methods and Motives : Joseph Smith III's Opposition to Polygamy, 1860-90
Mormon Polygamy : A Bibliography, 1977-92
"Out of the Mists of Memory" : Remembering Joseph Smith in Vermont
Solemn Covenant : The Mormon Polygamous Passage
The Church of Christ (Temple Lot) and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints : 130 Years of Crossroads and Controversies
The Establishment and Redemption of Zion
The Faith of Emma Smith
The Temple Lot Suit after 100 Years