197

155

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Book

English

Quinn, D. Michael

Early Mormonism and the Magic World View

Salt Lake City

Signature Books

1987

[1988 Mormon Historical Association Winner for Best Book]
[1988 John Whitmer Historical Association winner for Best Book]

In this articulate and insightful book, D. Michael Quinn, a professor of history at Brigham Young University, masterfully reconstructs the world view of an earlier age in America, finding ample evidence for treasure seeking and folk magic in Joseph Smith's formative years. Quinn discovers, for example, that Joseph's world was inhabited by supernatural creatures whose existence could be both symbolic and real. He explains that the involvement of the Joseph Smith family in folk magic was not unusual for the times and is important in attempting to understand how early Mormons may have interpreted developments in their history in ways that differ from modern, twentieth-century perceptions. Quinn's impressive research provides a much-needed background for the environment that produced Mormonism's founding prophet.

Social and cultural history, American setting
Folklore
Social and cultural history, 19th century
Smith, Lucy Mack
Award Winner
Smith, Joseph, Jr., thought, American setting
Smith, Joseph, Jr., occult, treasure seeking
Smith, Joseph, Jr., occult
Smith, Hyrum (1800-1844)
Origins, American setting
Occult, treasure seeking
Occult, magic
Occult, astrology
Cowdery, Oliver
Book of Mormon
Occult, American setting
Occult
Mysticism
New York
Mormon thought

"A Continuation of the Seeds" : Joseph Smith and Spirit Birth
A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon
Advocacy and Inquiry in the Writing of Latter-day Saint History
A Foreign Kingdom : Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852-1890
A Hermeneutic of Sacred Texts: Historicism, Revisionism, Positivism, and the Bible and Book of Mormon
A Joseph Smith for the Twenty-First Century
Almanacs in the New England Heritage of Mormonism
American Apocrypha : Essays on the Book of Mormon
Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon
Ancient Texts and Mormonism: Discovering the Roots of the Eternal Gospel in Ancient Israel and the Primitive Church
An Examination of the Mormon Doctrine of Creation and a Defense of Creation ex nihilo
Anti-Universalist Rhetoric in the Book of Mormon
A Peculiar People : Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America
"As Ugly as Evil" and "As Wicked as Hell" : Gadianton Robbers and the Legend Process among the Mormons
Attempting to Situate Joseph Smith
A Widow's Tale : The 1884-1896 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney
Becoming the American Religion : The Place of Mormonism in the Development of American Religious Historiography
Believing History : Latter-day Saints Essays
Between Pulpit and Pew : The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore
Black and Mormon
Blood of the Prophets : Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Books Buried in the Earth : The Book of Mormon, Revelation, and the Humic Foundations of the Nation
"Build, Therefore, Your Own World" : Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joseph Smith, and American Antebellum Thought
By Study and Also by Faith : Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, 27 March 1990
By the Hand of Mormon : The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion
Can Deconstruction Save the Day? "Faithful Scholarship" and the Uses of Postmodernism
Changes in the Revelations, 1833 to 1835
Concepts of Deity : A Brief Overview from Yahwist Writings to the Mormon Jehovah-is-Jesus Doctrine
Conflict in the Camps of Israel : The 1853 Cutlerite Schism
Counterfeiting in Early Mormonism : The Historical Record
Critical Foundations of Mormon Apologetics
Cunning and Disorderly : Early Nineteenth-Century Witch Trials of Joseph Smith
Cunning Distortions: Folk Christianity and Witchcraft Allegations in Early Mormon History
Defending the Kingdom, Rethinking the Faith : How Apologetics is Reshaping Mormon Orthodoxy
Differing Visions : Dissenters in Mormon History
Digging in Cumorah : Reclaiming Book of Mormon narratives
Dream Mines and Religious Identity in Twentieth-Century Utah : Insights from the Norman C. Pierce Papers
Dreams, Visions, and Visitations, The Genesis of Mormonism
Eighth Witness : The Biography of John Whitmer
Eliza R. Snow and the Prophet's Gold Watch : Time Keeper as Relic
Emergent Mormonism in Context
Equal Rites : The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture
Et Incarnatus Est : The Imperative for Book of Mormon Historicity
First Vision Controversies : Implications for Accounts of Mormon Origins
Freemasonry and the Latter-day Saint Temple Endowment Ceremony
From Missionary Resort to Memorial Farm : Commemoration and Capitalism at the Birthplace of Joseph Smith, 1905-1925
From Mission to Madness : Last Son of the Mormon Prophet
From the Outside Looking In : Essays on Mormon History, Theology, and Culture
Gender Differences in the Early Patriarchal Blessings of the LDS Church, 1834-1845
Gettysburg to Great Salt Lake : George R. Maxwell, Civil War Hero and Federal Marshal among the Mormons
Girded about with a Lambskin
Glorious in Persecution : Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1839–1844
Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures
"I Consider the Proper Authority Rests Among the Mormons" : Oran Brownson to Orestes Brownson on Oran's Conversion to Mormonism
In Heaven as It Is on Earth : Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
Jan Shipps : A Social and Intellectual Portrait
John Steele : Medicine Man, Magician, Mormon Patriarch
Joseph Smith as the Philosopher-King : Neoplatonism in Early Mormon Political Thought
Joseph Smith, Captain Kidd Lore, and Treasure-Seeking in New York and New England during the Early Republic
Joseph (Smith) in Egypt : Babel, Hieroglyphs, and the Pure Language of Eden
Joseph Smith Jr. : Reappraisals After Two Centuries
Joseph Smith's Description of Paul the Apostle
Joseph Smith's Family Dynamics
Joseph Smith's Many Histories
Joseph Smith, the Mormons, and Antebellum Reform : A Closer Look
Knowing Brother Joseph Again : Perceptions and Perspectives
Knowing Why: 137 Evidences that the Book of Mormon is True
Latter-Day Prophets : Their Lives, Teachings, and Testimonies
Line Within Line : An Intertextual Analysis of Mormon Scripture and the Prologue of the Gospel of John
Lost Legacy : The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch
Major Problems of Mormonism
Make Yourselves Gods : Mormons and the Unfinished Business of American Secularism
Minds, Bodies, and Objects
Mormon and Methodist : Popular Religion in the Crucible of the Free Market
Mormon Europeans or European Mormons? : An "Afro-European" View on Religious Colonization
Mormon Folk Culture
Mormon History
Mormonism 101 : Examining the Religion of the Latter-day Saints
Mormonism and the Quest for Truth
Mormonism at the Crossroads of Philosophy and Theology
Mormonism's 'Anti-Masonick Bible'
Mormon Opposition Literature : A Historiographical Critique and Case Study, 1844-57
Mormons and Mormonism : An Introduction to an American World Religion
Mormons and the Bible : The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion
Mormons and the Law
Mormons in America
Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America
Mormons, Musical Theatre and Belonging in America
Mormons, Musical Theatre, and Belonging in America
Mormon Women's History : Beyond Biography
Navajo Tradition, Mormon Life : The Autobiography and Teachings of Jim Dandy
No Middle Ground : The Debate over the Authenticity of the Book of Mormon
Notes on "Gadianton Masonry"
Oliver Cowdery : Scribe, Elder, Witness : Essays from BYU Studies and FARMS
One Face of the Hero : In Search of the Mythological Joseph Smith
On the Potter's Wheel : The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball
Parallel Paths : LDS General Conference and Mormon History
Patriarchal Blessings and the Routinization of Charisma
Peculiar Portrayals : Mormons on the Page, Stage, and Screen
People of Paradox : A History of Mormon Culture
Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith's Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity
Put On Your Strength, O Daughters of Zion': Claiming Priesthood and Knowing the Mother
Radical Origins : Early Mormon Converts and Their Colonial Ancestors
Raising The Dead, Mormons, Evangelicals, and Miracles in America
Reconsidering Lucy Mack Smith's Folk Magic Confession
Recording Beyond the Grave : Joseph Smith’s Celestial Bookkeeping
(Re)Interpreting Early Mormon Thought : Synthesizing Joseph Smith's Theology and the Process of Religion Formation
Revisiting Joseph Smith and the Availability of the Book of Enoch
Revisiting Thomas F. O'Dea's The Mormons : Contemporary Perspectives
Robert Newton Baskin and the Making of Modern Utah
Rocky Mountain Divide
School of the Prophet : Joseph Smith Learns the First Principles, 1820-1830
Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology
Scrying for the Lord : Magic, Mysticism, and the Origins of the Book of Mormon
Seer Stones, Salamanders, and Early Mormon "Folk Magic" in the Light of Folklore Studies and Bible Scholarship
'Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry' : The Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism
Sojourner in the Promised Land : Forty years among the Mormons
Solemn Covenant : The Mormon Polygamous Passage
Staging the Saints : Mormonism and American Musical Theater
The American Religion
The 'Beautiful Death' In the Smith Family
"The Blood of Every Beast" : Mormonism and the Question of the Animal
The Book of Mormon, the Early Nineteenth-Century Debates over Universalism, and the Development of the Novel Mormon Doctrines of Ultimate Rewards and Punishments
The Construction of the Mormon People
The Curious Case of Joseph Howard, Palmyra's Seventeen-Year-Old Somnium Preacher
The Expanded Canon : Perspectives on Mormonism and Sacred Texts
The Gadianton Robbers as Guerrilla Warriors
The Kingdom and the Church : The Anointed, the Fifty, and Alpheus Cutler's Claims
The Kingdom of Matthias
The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism
The Mormon Gender-Inclusive Image of God
The Mormon History Association's Tanner Lectures : The First Twenty Years
The Mormon Image in the American Mind : Fifty Years of Public Perception
The Mormon Question : Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America
The Mormons, the Victorians, and the Idea of Greater Britain
The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism
The Pearl of Greatest Price : Mormonism's Most Controversial Scripture
'The Prophet Puzzle' Revisited
The Quest for "Reformed Egyptian"
The Reluctant Metaphysicians
The Scattered Saints of Southwestern Iowa Cutlerite-Josephite Conflict and Rivalry, 1855-1865
The Spectacles, the Stone, the Hat, and the Book : A Twenty-first Century Believer's View of the Book of Mormon Translation
The State of Mormon Folklore Studies
The Texas Republic and the Mormon Kingdom of God
The Triangle and the Sovereign : Logics, Histories, and an Open Canon
The Village Enlightenment in America : Science and the Emergence of New Religious Ideas, 1830 - 1860
The Worlds of Joseph Smith : A Bicentennial Conference at the Library of Congress
Thomas F. O'Dea and Mormon Intellectual Life : A Reassessment Fifty Years Later
Understanding Multiple Mormonisms
What is Mormonism? A Student’s Introduction
What's true in Mormon folklore? : The Contribution of Folklore to Mormon Studies
When Race, Religion and Sport Collide : Black Athletes at BYU and Beyond
Woman as Healer in the Modern Church
Writing an Honorable Remembrance : Nineteenth-Century LDS Women's Autobiography
Zion in the Courts : A Legal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900