Item Detail
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32317
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1
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5
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English
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Discordant Images : Joseph Smith's First Vision in the Lutheran Tradition of Ars Moriendi
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Journal of Mormon History
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2021
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47
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4
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Champaign, IL
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University of Illinois Press
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122-134
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"Of all the several early renderings of the First Vision, the motif of the adversary infiltrating Joseph Smith’s mind with negative images is only found in the German version directed by Orson Hyde and published in Frankfurt in 1842. Tracing the inclusion of this motif, through Hyde’s 'Ein Ruf aus der Wüste' and back into English as 'A Cry from the Wilderness,' brings a convoluted textual genealogy, as well as a culturally distinct reception into relief. But something has been lost in the translation back into English. What’s more, too much has been gained in that leading transformation. In an otherwise excellent English translation of Hyde’s text published by Marvin Folsom in
1989, the 'unpassende Bilder' became 'inappropriate images.' This essay, then, thematically retranslates the German unpassende Bilder of Hyde’s tract into 'discordant images'—images out of place and time, in order to argue that the phrasing stemmed from a Lutheran tradition of ars moriendi. These were powerful instructions with a unique focus on holy death and meeting God and were likely recognized as such in the German context. Rather than obscene or inappropriate, the German wording seems to suggest that the images projected in Joseph Smith’s mind were untimely or temporally incompatible." [Author] -
A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, And of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records
Ein Ruf aus der Wuste, eine Stimme aus dem Schoose der Erde
In Heaven as It Is on Earth : Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
The Language of Orson Hyde's "Ein Ruf aus der Wüste"
The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 1 : Autobiographical and Historical Writings