Item Detail
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5302
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7
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24
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English
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'The Prophet Puzzle' Revisited
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Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought
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Fall 1998
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31
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125-40
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"In her 1974 essay, 'The Prophet Puzzle: Suggestions Leading Toward a More Comprehensive Interpretation of Joseph Smith,' Jan Shipps confronted the anomalies in the historical record concerning Smith, noting: 'What we have in Mormon historiography is two Josephs: the one who started out digging for money and when he was unsuccessful, turned to propheteering, and the one who had visions and dreamed dreams, restored the church, and revealed the will of the Lord to a sinful world.' To resolve this 'schizophrenic state of Mormon history, with its double interpretive strand of Joseph Smith as a man of God and Joseph Smith as a kind of fraud who exploited his followers for his own purposes,' Shipps called for a more fully integrated view of Smith, one that allows for the complexities of human personality. More than twenty years later, Smith remains an enigma for historians, believer and skeptic alike. My intent is not to rehash evidence on both sides of the prophet/fraud issue, but to suggest a possible solution to Shipps's 'prophet puzzle.' Unraveling the complexities of Smith's character and motives is difficult, but before the puzzle can be solved, all the pieces, or at least the most significant ones, must be gathered and correctly interpreted. Some of these, in my opinion, have been overlooked, ignored, or mishandled-- pieces which I believe reveal previously hidden features of Smith's complex, conflicted, and gifted personality. Throughout, however, one would do well to bear in mind Marvin S. Hill's warning that those who attempt such endeavors 'must write with courage, for no matter what they say many will disagree strongly.'" [Author]
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Mormon Answer to Skepticism : Why Joseph Smith Wrote the Book of Mormon
Mormon Polygamy : A History
Quest for Refuge : The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism
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The Structure of the Book of Mormon : A Theory of Evolutionary Development
The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion
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They Knew the Prophet