D. Michael Quinn has Passed Away

[cinepro]

Sad to hear that this giant has passed away. His contributions to Mormon studies will live on for generations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._Michael_Quinn

[Kishkumen]

Oh no!!!!

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

[Craig Paxton]

Sad day for Mormon history

[Philo Sofee]

What?! He was still quite young wasn't he? Oh I am sorry to hear this. I was hoping for more material from him to read. Dang, sad day.

[Kishkumen]

What?! He was still quite young wasn't he? Oh I am sorry to hear this. I was hoping for more material from him to read. Dang, sad day.

He has around 77, I think. Still, a terrible loss.

[Moksha]

Rest In Peace. Dr. Quinn was like Job, remaining faithful despite being horribly mistreated.

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/04 ... eal-quinn/

[Symmachus]

I am a little stunned by this news, though I shouldn't be, since 77 is not an age for optimism. Most of the Quinn controversies happened before I was born or at any rate long before I was old enough to understand them, but when I discovered his books as an undergraduate I was exhilarated by his approach to Mormon history, especially the dynamics of the institutional culture of the Church in the Extensions of Power books. I've had it in my head that there will be at least one more book sometime. I guess not now.

I echo Cinepro's comment.

Quinn knew how to exploit an archive in a way that younger historians can scarcely appreciate; the New MI people, particularly those who ignore Quinn as "outdated," play word games in sandboxes. Sure, they can make some pretty castles and they clearly enjoy playing with the social construction toys, but such edifices can't support much subsequent addition and enlargement; they are finally flimsy creations lumped together within a narrow, well-defined space that protects as much as it confines their creators. The sand stays in the box. They "moved beyond Quinn" (some getting positions that should have gone to him) not by superseding his work but rather by "bracketing" the controversies that his work summoned (that's how they got those jobs). Quinn's style has the feel mid-twentieth century reportage, and I think that is one reason that younger historians dismiss it as lacking in analysis: not enough anxiety about language and meaning. But on the other hand his work was not merely descriptive, like so much of Arrington's work was. Quinn was bold and original, and if he overshot the mark at times, he at least hit on some genuine insights. Mormonism and the Magic Worldview, for example, is the most important book written on Mormon history after No Man Knows My History (which is still the greatest work of Mormon history), and it is that style of appearing merely to report "the facts" that builds on itself to the point where one starts to have a solid view of just what was going on in the semi-literate culture and religious life of farmers in western New York. Without that, you miss what got Mormonism going in the first place and a lot that still remains in it.

[Kishkumen]

Well put as usual, carissime consule. EMMWV opened our eyes to a hidden world that was right under historians’ noses. Pre-1830 Joseph Smith was finally visible and not just a paper-thin religious ideal. More importantly, later developments in Mormon though and practice now made a great deal more sense in light of the once missing magic/esoteric foundations.

[thechair]

I happened to be in Salt Lake when Michael Quinn died. I asked one who is knowledgeable and is immersed in the Mormon history scene whether he knew if Quinn had been working on any knew projects. The source answered yes, Quinn was writing a two-volume work on Mormon fundamentalists. (I believe it was “fundamentalists“ and not “fundamentalism,“ although I can’t swear to it.) I was told that Quinn had completed the writing for the first volume, although it is unknown how ready it is for publication. Unfortunately, the second volume was still in his head only.

EMMWV changed everything for me. In it Quinn showed that Joseph Smith worked as a treasure-digging seer for at least six years straight, and placed him at scores of motley digging locations in New York and Pennsylvania. Quinn usually would use at least two sources to back each of his geo- temporal placement claims about Joseph Smith’s scrying. Needless to say this cluster of hard data points is incongruous with Smith’s claims not only to be a prophet, but the greatest one in history.