NY Times review of Rough Stone Rolling

[helemon]

From Born User on RfM
My Dear Friend, a recently released bishop and a participant here on RfM sent me this review. It's great.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/books/review/15kirn.html

This is an amazing review of RL Bushman's book, Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling. Here, the reviewer restates what's already been noted here on RfM -

"Bushman, a retired Columbia history professor who also happens to be a practicing Mormon, has a tricky dual agenda, it turns out: to depict Smith both as the prophet he claimed to be and as the man of his times that he most certainly was. 'The efforts to situate the Book of Mormon in history, whether ancient or modern, run up against baffling complexities,' Bushman writes, seemingly closing the door on the whole matter while slyly leaving it open a crack for a faith. 'The Book of Mormon resists conventional analysis, whether sympathetic or critical.' "


Here's a good one:

"As refracted through Bushman's intellectual bifocals - one lens is skeptical and clear, the other reverent and rosy - most of the rest of Smith's remarkable story is shown to resist such analysis as well. So why make the effort in the first place? By showing the inadequacy of reason in the face of spiritual phenomena, Bushman seems to be playing a Latter-Day-Saint Aquinas. It appears he wants to usher in a subtle, mature new age of Mormon thought - rigorous yet not impious - akin to what smart Roman Catholics have had for centuries."


It's been pointed out here by readers of the book (like myself) that Bushman has obviously been commissioned by the church to help "usher in a subtle, mature new age of Mormon thought..."

With even a cursory reading, anyone would come to the same conclusions. This is not the typical Mormon history book proudly displayed on the living room shelves of HP group leaders.


QUESTION, What do you think the church will preach 50 years from now?

In reading this book, more and more members are reading about:

Historical Problems with BofM (Not in detail, just a mention)
Early JS Polygamy
Early Mormon Polyandry
JS Marrying Previously-wed Women
Fanny Alger
Kinderhook Plates
Zelph
Multiple 1st Vision Accounts
.. and much, much more.

[helemon]

From the NYT review:
"Awake, O Kings of the earth!" the prophet cried from Nauvoo, Ill., the half-built Mississippi river town that he'd designed to accommodate immigrant Saints who would include but not be limited to "the polished European, the degraded Hottentot and the shivering Laplander." "Come ye, O! come ye with your gold and your silver," he urged.

All God wants from a person is a broken heart and a contrite spirit but his "prophet" just wants their gold and silver! :duh

[helemon]

Another great quote from the review:
For Bushman, the fact that his church continues to grow is proof that he was onto something big, though. For logicians, this is tantamount to arguing that Santa Claus probably exists because he gets millions of letters each year from children. But but since logic played almost no part in Joseph Smith's life, it may be fitting that it's largely absent from this respectful biography as well.

[vixenz]

Another great quote from the review:
I LOVE IT :D

[Born Free]

I don't suspect anyone at MoInc headquarters will be particularly appreciative of that review.

I thought it sounds solid and incisive, particulalry in light of the remarks of other readers here.

Daryl

[free thinker]

Interesting review. The Joseph Smith I read about in the book is much different than the one I was told about during my mormon conversion.


ft

[david]

Walter Kirn, who wrote the review, is an exmo himself. Or to be more specific, he spent time in the church as a teenager; his family was converted by missionaries going door to door.

Terry Gross (of "Fresh Air") recently interviewed him about his recently published novel "Mission to America" (4 stars at amazon). He was quite candid about his experience as a youth in the church, and how it has influenced his worldview.

You can listen to the interview here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4964686

[Jeff_Ricks]

I LOVE IT :D
My favorite quote from the reviewer:

But but since logic played almost no part in Joseph Smith's life, it may be fitting that it's largely absent from this respectful biography as well. He might as well say it's largely make beleive.

Jeff

P.S. Welcome vixenz! As well as any other new members I've missed lately. (going back into silent mode as I dive back into the workload on my desk.)

[miss taken]

I just found this one, which is also interesting.
I havn't read the book because I felt that there was no way Bushman could be objective.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2006/001/7.11.html

Mary

[free thinker]

I think that is the best review I have read yet.

I find it interesting, as I have said before, that Bushman spends so much time in Joseph's head. One of Hugh Nibley's loudest complaints about Fawn Brodie's " Know Man Knows My History", was that she assumed to be thinking for Joseph Smith. Now we have a book that is written in precisely such a manner by a faithful mormon author. I have not yet heard any such observation from the faithful.

From the review:

First, he seeks to explore faithfully the story of Joseph Smith's life. He attempts, in his words, "to think as Smith thought" in an effort to explain his actions and the development of the Mormon movement between 1820 and 1844.


ft