Re: Four Views of Joseph Smith
Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:37 am
Blixa wrote:Runtu wrote: "Was he true prophet, sincere visionary, pious fraud, or con man?"
What if he was all of the above (or none)? Humans are complex, and Joseph Smith was no different. Trying to pin a label on him is pointless because we will never get inside his head and know what he was thinking. What we have are his actions, words, and the religion he produced, and from them we can draw conclusions, but we'll never quite know the man's history.
I see what you did there.
Yes, That book encouraged me to think further about the possibility of a shifting mix of pious intention, false manipulative actions, and perhaps even impious intentions. Fawn Brodie proposed significantly I thought that the mix was assisted along by the hopes and expectations of others, ( fitsDon's contribution but not entirely the way he intended.)
I listened to the exchange and found myself thinking each presenter had some valid contributions.