This biography is unmistakably written from the biased perspective of a believer. I also liked the way the author laid out the life story of J.Smith. Wow. Loved this book and love Joseph Smith on a new level. "[3] Novelist Walter Kirn in The New York Times Book Review says that when reading Bushman's biography, "once the reader despairs of ever finding out whether Smith was God's own spokesman or the L. Ron Hubbard of his day, it's possible to enjoy a tale that's as colorful, suspenseful and unlikely as any in American history. [6] Marvin S. Hill, a retired Brigham Young University professor, wrote in Dialogue that Bushman "comes up markedly short at times and he does not always examine controversial issues carefully" but that "his book suggests that thought about the Prophet has matured among some faithful Latter-day Saints. I read it over the course of about 7 months, reading 4-5 pages at a time, then pausing to let things sink in. It is well written and for the most part well researched. This book, written by a practicing Mormon, is a great account of the prophet's life. For some reason, I was much more interested the second-go. I suspect this alternately thrills and frustrates both groups to some degree. While the book is mostly positive and let's the reader decide for himself from the facts, you'll find your appreciation of the things that Joseph and his family went through increase dramatically while reading this book. Yes. Huge book, so hard to encapsulate. Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was twenty-three and went on … Now that I'm actually finished reading it, I have mixed emotions. This book is not for the faint of heart. So here is my recommendation: I know I am very late coming to this party, but I have a good reason-both for the delay and the final assent to read the book. I am very confident that such would be a great disappointment to Brother Bushman, an active believer and devoted follower of the faith restored by Joseph Smith. It's been a while since I read it but I figured I'd still do a post about it anyway. Or for anyone with doubts about anything regarding the LDS church. Regarding this line: "Rough Stone Rolling makes use of much recent research and is the most complete biography of Joseph Smith published to date, but it lacks the literary distinction of Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History (1945), a biography that presents Smith as a gifted fraud. So proud to be a member of the church. I read this book and Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows My History" back to back, and I found this one FAR more disturbing than the Brodie book. If you study the. If you study them out and they go away, great! But you owe it to whatever amount of time and effort and emotion you've put into your church membership and coming to an understanding or knowledge of what "truth" is, to explore those doubts. There are certainly moments where I felt that Bushman may have been overplaying the "cultural" influences on Joseph Smith. This book is not for the faint of heart. Although the five-hundred eighty-four page biography (with additional extensive notes and documentation) does not avoid controversial aspects of Smith's life and work, such as his practice of polygamy and his youthful treasure-seeking, it treats them cautiously, and as Bushman himself admits, with "greater tolerance for Smith's remarkable stories than most historians would allow. An excellent biography all around. The almost dismissive speaking about polyandry and wives who were 14 and 15 years old was disconcerting. Given the emotional crosscurrents, agreement will never be reached about his character, his inspiration, or his accomplishments.”. If there was a personal motive for Joseph Smith Jr.’s revelations, it was to satisfy his family’s religious want and, above all, to meet the need of his oft-defeated, unmoored father.12 Untitled. Grateful for Joseph for the questions he asked, for the organization he established and for those early saints and their willingness to believe in what had to be SO hard to believe. You'll learn positives and negatives about Joseph's character and his past. . I suspect that most of the reason some people were shaken by the book is because of the hagiographic way that we often talk about prophets and the oversimplistic way we often talk about prophetic revelation in the LDS faith. The definitive biography on Joseph Smith (so I've heard--I haven't read any other). I find the process fascinating. Added to these combatants are those suspicious of all religious authority who find in Joseph Smith a perfect target for their fears. So I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about. I started over a few months ago, and stuck it through. They cannot countenance evidence of divine inspiration in his teachings without catching themselves in a disastrous error. I am getting a better understanding of how the restoration took place and the challenges it faced. I was intrigued by the title of this book and I have found it to be very appropriate. But in terms of objectivity, the author comes up short. I do appreciate that Bushman did not shy away from the hard truths, and although I did find his attempted explanations to sometimes be weak, I also found a few that helped me to see certain situations with a different perspective. Bushman tended to think that at times, outside influencs shaped Smith's understanding of theology or the revelations he received--ie, confronting his father's alcoholism, trying to decide what type of role his father would play, led to a revelation about patriarchs. that are never presented to the average LDS member. My favorite part of the book was the chapter on the Book of Mormon (the text itself, not Smith’s translation of it), which gave me a much better understanding of why people find its narrative relevant and inspiring. Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet and iOS and Android devices. If from God, how could the language be corrected? Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Some people really didn't like this, but I imagine that, like it is for us, many revelations came as quotidian matters pushed him to thinking and wondering. An exhaustively detailed biography of Joseph Smith, sometimes dry, but generally absorbing. 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