{"id":33711,"date":"2015-08-05T17:40:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T22:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=33711"},"modified":"2018-02-04T12:01:42","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T17:01:42","slug":"another-view-of-the-seer-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2015\/08\/another-view-of-the-seer-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Another View of the Seer Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"516WOyGZbfL._SX375_BO1,204,203,200_\"<\/a>Yesterday by invitation, I attended \u00a0the first known joint press conference between the LDS Church and its cousin, the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/del>\u00a0Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or RLDS.) The occasion was the release of the 2-part 3rd volume in the Revelations and Translations series of the\u00a0Joseph Smith Papers<\/a>, the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of the Mormon. As with the others, these books are hefty, high-quality,\u00a0and thought-provoking. While available at\u00a0Amazon (part 1<\/a>, part 2<\/a>), they will\u00a0also be available in their entirety online soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you hadn’t already seen it, one notable aspect of this volume is an essay and full-color large pictures of Joseph Smith’s seer stone, to which I’ll return. I enjoyed listening to the LDS and CoC scholars and authorities talk about the importance of the Printer’s Manuscript, and how this volume came about, as well as the foundational work by Royal Skousen at BYU. I expected the Q&A to take the form of a normal panel responding to the audience, but instead, they put each individual in a different area of the room, and allowed anyone (press, invitee) to get in line to talk to them. I overheard some good\u00a0questions and conversations, and enjoyed short but interesting conversation with Richard Turley (whom I first encountered when reading\u00a0his book about the Mark Hoffman forgeries<\/a>, which I’d learned about on my mission<\/a>) and Elder Snow, who happens to be in charge of the Gospel Topics pages<\/a>\u00a0(see here<\/a> for an interesting interview.)<\/p>\n

Since coverage of these new volumes and their import has been provided already by Steve Evans at\u00a0ByCommonComsent<\/a>, by Richard Bushman<\/a> (various places),\u00a0Ardis Parshall at Keepapitchinin<\/a>, Juvenile Instructor<\/a>, Deseret News<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0SL Tribune<\/a> (where Joseph Spencer and one “Ben Speckman” are featured in the pics) and a preview of an article to appear in the Ensign in October 2015<\/a> with pictures of the seer stone, I thought I would offer\u00a0a personal view.<\/p>\n

While on my mission<\/a>\u00a0in France, I learned about Joseph’s use of the seerstone, along with the Urim and Thummim\/ Nephite “interpreters,” and eventually nothing at all, in translating the Book of Mormon. I suspect my source was something from FARMS (now the\u00a0Maxwell Institute<\/a>), since many of their books and papers referred to it. I had learned some intellectual humility early on in my mission and assumed I knew little, so I naturally took it in stride along with all the other \u00a0new things I was learning.<\/p>\n

The years pass.<\/p>\n

In 2004, midway through my graduate Semitics coursework, I taught a RM section of\u00a0the Book of Mormon at BYU. On the first day, after going over the syllabus, I started in on background information\u00a0about the coming forth and translation of\u00a0the Book of Mormon, including the seerstone.\u00a0After some minutes, one of the\u00a0RMs (male, early 20s, like most of the class) asked with some hostility, “where are you getting this from?” He clearly thought I was making stuff up. I asked how many had heard of\u00a0Joseph’s seer stone, and a few wavering hands went up out of twenty-odd students. This surprised me a bit. I’d unconsciously assumed that you went on a mission and read books<\/a>, since that’s what I’d done. Thus caught somewhat unprepared, I asked a series of questions about historical sources, from imperfect memory.<\/p>\n

“Uh, well, how many of you have read any of the \u00a0History of the Church<\/em>?” No hands.<\/p>\n

“Richard Bushman’s\u00a0Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism<\/a><\/em>?” No hands.<\/p>\n

“History of Joseph Smith<\/a><\/em> by his mother? Or\u00a0By The Hand of Mormon<\/a><\/em>? ” No hands.<\/p>\n

“Ok, what about Elder Nelson’s article on\u00a0the Book of Mormon translation in 1993 in the Ensign?<\/a> That’s not too long ago.”\u00a0Crickets.<\/p>\n

At this point, I was moving out of flustration into frustration. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but tried to keep it very measured and mostly failed.<\/p>\n

“Just because you’ve served a mission does not mean you know all there is to know, even about familiar things like\u00a0the Book of Mormon, or faith, or Joseph Smith. How can you think you know Church history and doctrine, when you’ve never read it? You need to broaden your horizons, and read much more, beyond Deseret Book and Church publications, if you want to sample the complexity and richness the Gospel has to offer. Church materials focus heavily on core gospel principles and application. Limiting yourself to reading those might suffice for Christian discipleship, provided you can maintain some intellectual humility and\u00a0realize\u00a0that you don’t actually know very much.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Two years go by.<\/p>\n

2006, I’m teaching a freshman Book of Mormon class. This time, I prep a shotgun handout with some primary sources and secondary analysis<\/a>.\u00a0The freshmen respond well and take it in stride. I even integrate it into\u00a0their midterm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

7)<\/strong>\u00a0Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by means of:<\/p>\n

a)<\/strong>\u00a0The spirit and power of God.
\nb)<\/strong>\u00a0The Nephite \u201cinterpreters\u201d (Mosiah 8:13).
\nc)<\/strong>\u00a0The seer stone.
\nd)<\/strong>\u00a0No physical instrument at all.
\ne)<\/strong>\u00a0All of the above.
\nf)<\/strong>\u00a0None of the above.
\ng)<\/strong>\u00a0A-C of the above.<\/p>\n

(For the answers to the midterm, see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Today, roughly ten years later, we have the seerstone in full-color in The Ensign<\/a>, going worldwide in dozens of languages.<\/p>\n

Now, the question is, where did it go, historically? Joseph’s seerstone was known to early members of the Church, and early histories, and now here it is again. The answer, I suspect, lies heavily with Joseph Fielding Smith. He served as Church Historian and Apostle for many years. As such, his views tended to carry weight. I’m unaware of how much he knew about the sources we have today, but he thought sources suggesting Joseph’s use of the seer stone were mistaken<\/a>, and that Joseph made no such use of it.\u00a0Church writings tended to reflect his views, and consequently, talked little about the seerstone for most of the 20th century (to my knowledge.) We’ve had a historical awakening, as well as 50 years of progress in terms of historiography, and his view is now thought\u00a0to be quite wrong. Suffice to say, I think this shows that\u00a0the Church wasn’t consciously hiding the seer stone, as much as accepting\u00a0the historical authority of Fielding Smith.<\/p>\n

As for Church art, there are reasons why artists never wanted to portray the stone-in-the-hat part of the translation process, even if they had believed such was the case. Newly published,\u00a0From Darkness into Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>draws heavily on the Joseph Smith papers. While Gerrit Dirkmaat and Michael Mackay are names you are likely to hear more in\u00a0the future, the appendix “By the Gift and Power of Art<\/a>” is written by a BYU Religion professor with formal training in art, Anthony Sweat. He provides several views of Joseph and the hat<\/a>,\u00a0interviews multiple LDS artists you know by name, and looks at the assumptions and problems inherent in artistic portrayals of history. \u00a0It’s well worth reading, and FAIRMormon has posted it by permission<\/a>. \u00a0One of the money-quotes, my emphasis-<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

while art and artists are often credited with making historical, and particularly religious, ideas come alive and plainer to understand, an inherent problem enters when the language of religious art becomes translated into the language of history by its viewer. What we see becomes what we believe, and often, therefore,<\/strong><\/em> what we think we know about facts and details of history<\/em><\/strong>. And when we learn religious facts and history (from scholars or historians) that contradict what we think we know (through artistic renderings), a state of cognitive dissonance\u2014and in the case of religious art, spiritual dissonance\u2014can often be the result. The translation of the Book of Mormon is perhaps the most pertinent and pressing example of this problem today in the LDS mind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It’s a whole new ballgame than it was ten years ago with my RM class. The future is bright.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday by invitation, I attended \u00a0the first known joint press conference between the LDS Church and its cousin, the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints\u00a0Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or RLDS.) The occasion was the release of the 2-part 3rd volume in the Revelations and Translations series of the\u00a0Joseph Smith Papers, the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of the Mormon. As with the others, these books are hefty, high-quality,\u00a0and thought-provoking. While available at\u00a0Amazon (part 1, part 2), they will\u00a0also be available in their entirety online soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":33712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/516WOyGZbfL._SX375_BO1204203200_.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33711"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37676,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33711\/revisions\/37676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}