Item Detail
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25971
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2
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25
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English
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The Curious Case of Joseph Howard, Palmyra's Seventeen-Year-Old Somnium Preacher
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Journal of Mormon History
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Summer 2014
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40
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3
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Salt Lake City, UT
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Mormon History Association
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1-42
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Faithful Latter-day Saint Church members and apologist scholars have long held that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from an ancient source by revelation. They characterize Joseph Smith's arcane method of translation as inexplicable but divinely directed. LDS Apostle Russell M. Nelson has said, for example, that the "details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known." Book of Mormon scholar Brant A. Gardner similarly asserts: "The Book of Mormon is not only a translation of an ancient text. It is a translation, miraculously accomplished, of a text miraculously preserved and miraculously delivered."
By contrast, some critics believe the Book of Mormon was the highly sophisticated product of automatism or subconscious dictation. The author examines two cases of "devotional somnium" (Rachel Baker and Joseph Howard) in New York around the time of Joseph's youth and their possible influence on the translation of the Book of Mormon. [From the article]
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A Pathway to Prophethood : Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet
Automaticity and the Dictation of the Book of Mormon
'By the Gift and Power of God'
Defense of the Faith and the Saints
Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
How Long Did It Take Joseph Smith to Translate the Book of Mormon?
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Joseph Smith's Experience of a Methodist "Camp-meeting" in 1820
Joseph Smith's Means and Methods of Translating the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith : 'The Gift of Seeing'
Landmarks of Wayne County, New York
Lucy's Book : A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir
New Paradigms for Understanding Mormonism and Mormon History
"Read This I Pray Thee" : Martin Harris and the Three Wise Men of the East
Scrying for the Lord : Magic, Mysticism, and the Origins of the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon and Automatic Writing
The Burned-Over District : The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850
The Encounter of the Young Joseph Smith with Presbyterianism
The Gift and Power : Translating the Book of Mormon
The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon
The Refiner's Fire : The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844
Translation of the Book of Mormon : Answers to Questions Respecting the Theory in The Senior Manual, 1905-6
Translation of the Book of Mormon : Interpreting the Evidence
Was Joseph Smith Guilty of Plagiarism?