Joseph Smith allowed for truth to be found in un-canonized scripture upon condition of receiving personal guidance: “whoso readeth it, let him understand, for the Spirit manifesteth truth;” — D&C 91:4. That places greater responsibility on the reader. But, we may be shy about accepting truth from unacknowledged or unapproved visions of glory because we certainly don’t want to make a mistake. What if we end up following the hallucinations of a mad man? Our eventual acceptance of unorthodox visionaries may require more of us in terms of both our ability to believe and our connection to the Spirit, but it may also allow us to celebrate the goodness of God who liberally shares dreams, visions, wisdom, and many other divine gifts with so many of His children.

Once on my mission we fasted with a family we had just started teaching. The wife had a dream that she was in the chapel and a woman went up to shake the bishop’s hand but couldn’t sustain it. Then she went up and shook his hand and was able to stand.

Craig, I’ve often wondered if anxiety about literacy in transition is one of the necessary ingredients for visionaries. It’s certainly one of Jost’s concerns. A religious environment undergoing change seems to be another necessity, but what’s so interesting about Jost is that he’s not easily identifiable with any particular side in the Reformation. His visions have a good amount to say about clerical poverty and sacramental theology and other issues that indicate he’s aware of the ongoing debates, but his answers are filtered through an impoverished laborer’s personal experience and expressed in personally significant symbolism (such as partial stigmata) that are prior to or outside of the prevailing discussion.