{"id":48128,"date":"2024-10-18T05:31:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T11:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=48128"},"modified":"2024-10-17T10:58:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T16:58:13","slug":"a-review-joseph-fielding-smith-a-mormon-theologian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2024\/10\/a-review-joseph-fielding-smith-a-mormon-theologian\/","title":{"rendered":"A Review Joseph Fielding Smith: A Mormon Theologian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I remember a conversation with an institute teacher that I was particularly close to while I was attending college. I was in his office and noticed a framed sketch that included important intellectuals and writers in Latter-day Saint history. While I liked most of them, I pointed out that I didn’t care for Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R. McConkie and the perspectives they held. The institute teacher then said, “I agree, but can you deny that they belong there because of the impact they had?” Joseph Fielding Smith: A Mormon Theologian<\/a><\/em>, by Matthew Bowman is an impressive glimpse into the world and thought of one of the most influential writers and theologians in the world of 20th century Latter-day Saints. Joseph Fielding Smith was the son of Joseph F. Smith and grandson of Hyrum Smith who served as an influential and dogmatic theologian and high-ranking church leader for over sixty years. He published numerous articles and books, as well as many talks and discourses over the course of his long life, advocating for a position that had some similarities to fundamentalist Protestant thought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In this book, Matthew Bowman takes Joseph Fielding Smith seriously and works to contextualize his worldview. My experience is that Joseph Fielding Smith is often oversimplified into an anti-intellectual and racist crank who did more harm than good in the Church through insisting on his brand of orthodoxy. While there is some truth to that, Bowman digs into the complexities beyond that oversimplification: “[Joseph] Fielding Smith, and those like him, must be taken seriously. Not simply throwbacks or cranks, they are modern people in their own way and thus reveal the composite and contradictory nature of the world they have left to us” (p. 90). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Bowman goes into detail into why Joseph Fielding Smith didn’t believe in progress (using Joseph Fielding Smith’s statements that humans would never land on the moon as a launching point). In direct opposition to a liberal Protestant view, Joseph Fielding Smith saw history as cyclical and that while modern humanity had different technology than in the past, “not only did he deny the idea that human beings were the product of a long process of biological development; he denied also the idea that human cultures and civilizations were likewise the product of centuries of historical development” (p. 42). Part of why Smith believed so strongly in enforcing orthodoxy was because belief shapes action, and he thought that beliefs like societal evolution encouraged types of competition and destruction that weakened society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book follows the standard format for the series of an introductory chapter that offers a brief biographical sketch, three body chapters that focus on major themes in the figure\u2019s thought (in this case, chapters on how Joseph Fielding Smith approached texts like the scriptures; his views on progress; and why he valued orthodox beliefs), and a short concluding chapter that provides a reader\u2019s guide or a bibliographic essay that introduces readers to the figure\u2019s most important works. In doing so, it provides a very accessible introduction to a key figure in 20th century Latter-day Saint history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For more of my reviews and copost about entries in the University of Illinois Press\u2019s Introductions to Mormon Thought <\/em>series, see the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n