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Richard S. Van Wagoner, Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805–1830 (Salt Lake City: Smith-Petit Foundation, 2016)

I came across a reference to this book in an Interpreter article. Has anyone read it?

Please link the interpreter article.

tagriffy wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 16, 2023 4:59 am

Richard S. Van Wagoner, Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805–1830 (Salt Lake City: Smith-Petit Foundation, 2016)

I came across a reference to this book in an Interpreter article. Has anyone read it?

I have not read that particular book, but the author is stellar! His book on Mormon Polygamy is eye opening and very well done!

Brian Hales gave it one out of five stars. That is an indirect recommendation.

Per request, here is the link to the Interpreter article. Coincidentally or not, the author is Brian Hales. I did read Van Wagoner's book on polygamy, and thought it was excellent.

Moksha wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 16, 2023 1:09 pm

Brian Hales gave it one out of five stars. That is an indirect recommendation.

Indeed! That SCREAMS read it!

Philo Sofee wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 17, 2023 12:24 am

Moksha wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 16, 2023 1:09 pm

Brian Hales gave it one out of five stars. That is an indirect recommendation.

Indeed! That SCREAMS read it!

Well, yeah. He’s not on your team. It’s natural you would scream for the home team. Your tribe.

It’s only human.

Regards,
MG

MG 2.0 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 17, 2023 3:20 am

Well, yeah. He’s not on your team. It’s natural you would scream for the home team. Your tribe.

It’s only human.

Regards,
MG

Team Righteous has given us many ideas throughout the last ten years, including why slavery was not so bad and why it is righteous to not have health care.

What has Team Critic given us? They have provided opposition to God's chosen plan and corporate style.

Moksha wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 17, 2023 9:00 am

What has Team Critic given us? They have provided opposition to God's chosen plan and corporate style.

That’s an important point.

Regards,
MG

I read Natural Born Seer around 2019 while experiencing my “faith crisis.” The thing that Van Wagoner revealed well there was just how much Joseph Smith cribbed from other sources, especially from Methodism. I remember he copied Methodism’s conference practice, including general conference. If memory serves me, I think he also copied the office of “elder,” although that morphed according to Smith’s later priesthood innovations.

I’m not sure that Smith lifted the concept of “common consent” from Methodism (I don’t remember Van Wagoner claiming this directly), but Van Wagoner showed that Smith was so influenced by Methodism in the beginning that I began to suspect Smith may have taken common consent from them. This caused me to buy a history of American Methodism, but I haven’t yet read it. When I do read it, I’ll be looking to see if that’s true and for whatever else in Methodism may have influenced Smith. Of course, Methodism was only one of many “-isms” from which Smith helped himself.

I found Natural Born Seer to be well worth reading. It’s a good supplement to Michael Marquardt’s Inventing Mormonism.