Item Detail
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25621
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2
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0
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English
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Epilogue : "We Have Only the Old Thing" : Rethinking Mormon Restoration
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Standing Apart : Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy
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Oxford, New York
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Oxford University Press
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335-342
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Mormons have largely adopted an apostasy narrative that emphasizes radical loss and abrupt reinstitution. But Smith himself spoke and acted out of a context that gave particular interpretive value to the allegory of Revelation 12 along the lines of these predecessors. 5 Smith invoked the language of Revelation 12 (the coming out of the wilderness) on several occasions and juxtaposed it with the triumphal language of Solomon’s Song (the army terrible with banners), just as Fraser had a century earlier.
The narrative Mormonism subsequently developed of a radical and emphatic rupture in the apostolic era, with a total de novo restoration, is not indicated in either Smith’s language or his actions. What follows is only the briefest outline of what I think was his self-understanding. [From the article]