Item Detail
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18440
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3
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0
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English
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Joseph Smith as an American Restorationist
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BYU Studies
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2005
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44
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no.4
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31-39
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Hughes agrees with Richard Bushman that Joseph Smith, while certainly American, must be viewed in a larger context. He focuses primarily, however, on Joseph's place among American restorationists of the nineteenth century--a period of unprecedented flourishing for restorationist movements. Hughes briefly discusses the Shaker movement and John Humphrey Noyes's Oneida Community, but concentrates his comparison on the restorationist movement of Alexander Campbell. The two differed in their approach to the common goal of recreating the ancient church: while Joseph Smith, a romantic, centered his belief on visions and revelations, Alexander Campbell, a product of the Enlightenment, created his doctrinal system around rational argument and the Bible. Americans were particularly drawn to these restorationist movements because America itself was seen as a "new order of the ages" which came not as an outgrowth of any previous society but as a nation created by God whose roots extended to the beginning of time. Unlike other restorationists, Joseph did not confine himself to restoring any one part of the biblical narrative--he drew from the whole Bible in bringing about the "restoration of all things." As a result of this extra-biblical self-view, Joseph must undoubtedly be seen in a context larger than simply an American one.