Item Detail
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29226
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4
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12
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English
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"The Grand, Fundamental Principle" : Joseph Smith and the Virtue of Friendship
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Journal of Mormon History
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Fall 1997
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23
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2
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Salt Lake City, UT
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Mormon History Association
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77-105
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Those who identify in their various ways with Mormon communities approach the words of Joseph Smith with a heightened sense of expectancy and gravity. To them, this nineteenth-century American religious figure speaks compellingly in ways unlike those of any other modern religious, cultural, or political leader. In addition, due to Smith's role in creating and guiding Mormonism's theological self-definition and the initial stages of its community building, historians of the American religious experience have begun to more seriously study his career. Therefore, when Joseph Smith stated in the summer of 1843 that he possessed "the grand fundamental principle," which would "revolution[ize] the world," both Mormon reader and religious historian are likely to sit up and take note. Yet what followed may perplex and disappoint. Smith, as reported in notes taken during one of his speeches, stated to the audience: "Let me be resurrected with the saints whether to heaven or hell or any other good place-good society a friend a true friend. & I will be a friend to him friendship is the grand fundamental principle of Mormonism, to revolution civilize the world." [From the text]
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An American Prophet's Record : The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith
An Intimate Chronicle : The Journals of William Clayton
Close Friends as Witnesses : Joseph Smith and the Joseph Knight Families
Joseph Smith : Man of Forgiveness
Joseph Smith's Athletic Nature
Joseph Smith : The Prophet, The Man
Promises Made to the Fathers : Mormon Covenant Organization
'Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry' : The Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism
The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 1 : Autobiographical and Historical Writings
The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 2 : Journal, 1832-1842
The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph