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This is the biography of a contested memory, how it was born, grew, changed the world, and was changed by it. It's the story of the story of how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began. Joseph Smith, the church's founder, remembered that his first audible prayer, uttered in spring of 1820 when he was about fourteen, was answered with a vision of heavenly beings. Appearing to the boy in the woods near his parents' home in western New York State, they told Smith that he was forgiven and warned him that Christianity had gone astray.
Smith created a rich and controversial historical record by narrating and documenting this event repeatedly. In First Vision, Steven C. Harper shows how Latter-day Saints (beginning with Joseph Smith) and others have remembered this experience and rendered it meaningful. When and why and how did Joseph Smith's first vision, as saints know the event, become their seminal story? What challenges did it face along the way? What changes did it undergo as a result? Can it possibly hold its privileged position against the tides of doubt and disbelief, memory studies, and source criticism-all in the information age? Steven C. Harper tells the story of how Latter-day Saints forgot and then remembered accounts of Smith's experience and how Smith's 1838 account was redacted and canonized. He explores the dissonance many saints experienced after discovering multiple accounts of Smith's experience. He describes how, for many, the dissonance has been resolved by a reshaped collective memory.
In this volume, Church historian Steven C. Harper provides all known accounts of the first vision written during Joseph Smith's lifetime and places them within the historical context of his family, community, and culture. Brother Harper includes practical explanations of the variations and nuances of each account as well as an analysis of three notable critiques of Joseph's statements. Using historical and analytical methodology, Brother Harper helps us better understand what he declares may be the best document theophany vision of God in history.
Have you struggled with understanding the Doctrine and Covenants? As a collection of separate and diverse texts, it can be rather daunting to study. After all, it is the only one of the standard works that does not tell its own story.
Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants addresses this challenge in a creative new way. Rather than giving a verse-by-verse commentary, author Steven C. Harper takes readers on a guided tour through the revelations. Drawing on the earliest manuscripts of those revelations, he provides historically grounded insights into why each revelation was given, what it means, and why it matters.
Chapters on every section of the Doctrine and Covenants begin by delving into the historical record to recreate the question or problem each revelation was given to resolve and end by showing readers the outcomes for individuals and the Church.
Families and scholars alike will relish the depth and accessibility of Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is an invaluable addition to any gospel library and a fascinating resource for anyone who wishes to become more closely acquainted with this marvelous book of scripture.
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This book serves as a valuable guide for anyone seeking a better understanding of the Word of Wisdom, how it came to be, how it has been understood and applied historically, and what it means to Latter-day Saints today. Employing a thorough, concise, and engaging style, this volume provides readers with the best analysis of the Word of Wisdom currently available.
What is the law of consecration, and who is required to live it? Is it a law relegated to past Saints, or does it apply to members of the Church today? In Steven C. Harper's book Let's Talk about the Law of Consecration, you will learn things about consecration that have stayed the same since the beginning and other aspects of the law that have changed over time. One thing that remains the same is the reason for keeping the law: love for God and others, including the poor. In light of temple covenants, we might wonder how else we live the law today. As we study the revelations to the early Saints and "seek, receive, and act on the Lord's revelations to [us] personally," we will know how to live according to the law of consecration today.
Let's Talk about the Law of Consecration is part of the Let's Talk About series—small, approachable books on important Latter-day Saint topics, written by trusted, faithful scholars who can thoroughly explain crucial issues in a digestible way. For people who have sincere questions and are seeking answers, this series provides access to the some of the best thinking in the Church.
Think about what you know about the Restoration. Maybe dates or names of people come to mind. Maybe you think about miracles or remember particular stories. Or maybe difficult topics come up—questions of faith and history. Now think about how you know what you know. Can you think of specific sources you've learned from? What assumptions have you made about what you've learned? In Wrestling with the Restoration, acclaimed historian Steven C. Harper asks us to slow down and ponder our own knowledge of the Restoration. How do we know what we know, and what does the Restoration do for us? Through short, accessible chapters each focused on a different lesson taught by the Restoration, this book frankly addresses hard questions and concerns and will help you understand what the Restoration teaches us about God and grow a deeper testimony.
Co-Edited Books
Before Joseph Smith was born, religious scholars such as William Tyndale and Martin Luther put their lives in jeopardy to spread the word of God to their followers, blazing doctrinal trails so that a restoration of the gospel could occur. This volume highlights these influential men and other important Reformers who helped pave the way for the Restoration.
The pattern of keeping records dates back to the earliest days of the church, when Joseph Smith, the church’s founding prophet, announced the divine decree, “Behold, there shall be a record kept among you” (D&C 21:1). Leaders of the church have strived to obey that command. Contemporaneous records were kept of revelations received by the prophet, the calling and interaction of early leaders, missionary assignments, the building of temples, and much more.
The Latter-day Saints continue to be a record-keeping people. In fact, there may be no other people on earth of comparable size who have a richer record-keeping tradition than the people nicknamed Mormons. It is a part of the church’s administrative system, reaching from small committees to the church’s general conferences and from new members to the most senior leaders. Because of this tradition, scholars can readily evaluate Latter-day Saint history from a wealth of primary documents.
This volume explores some of the seminal articles that examine Joseph Smith’s First Vision, which were written by the foremost experts who have studied it for half a century. This book preserves and shares that work. Those who study the First Vision today depend very much on the works of the scholars that are reprinted in this volume. The book includes articles by and interviews with James B. Allen, Richard L. Anderson, Milton V. Backman Jr., Richard L. Bushman, Steven C. Harper, Dean C. Jessee, Larry C. Porter, and John W. Welch.
When most Latter-day Saints conjure up images of Church history, their minds are filled with pictures of the sacred sites and peoples of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Utah. But years before Brigham Young declared the Salt Lake Valley to be the site of future gathering in 1847, Church members had already pushed even further west into the Pacific Basin frontier. William Barratt made his way to Australia on a mission in 1840. Addison Pratt and his evangelizing companions arrived in the Society Islands in 1844, the year Joseph Smith was martyred in Illinois. And during the early 1850s, when Saints in the Utah Territory were clawing for their physical survival in American's Great Basin, missionaries enjoyed proselyting success among the native Sandwich Islanders in today's Hawaii. Clearly, the Pacific Isles have played a major—and early—role in the unfolding of the Restoration.
Documents, Volume 5: October 1835-January 1838 covers nearly two and a half years of Latter-day Saint history as it documents some of the highest and lowest points of Joseph Smith's life. The fall and winter of 1835-1836 saw a flurry of activity to finish the House of the Lord in Kirtland as well as Joseph Smith's work to unify the priesthood quorums. In March 1836, the Saints dedicated the new temple to God and experiences tremendous outpourings of His Spirit, many of which are documented here. The story of the next twenty-two months is one of financial hardship and challenges to the Prophet's leadership. The establishment and failure of the Kirtland Safety Society Bank loom large. The volume ends with Joseph Smith, fearful for his life, departing Kirtland to move his family to Missouri.
This volume features two manuscript books into which scores of Joseph Smith's revelations, dated from 1828 to 1834, were copied by early church scribes. The revelations copied into these two books became the primary basis for the canonized books of Joseph Smith's revelations: the Book of Commandments, published in 1833, and the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants (1835). These revelation books rank among the most important documents in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
