{"id":48526,"date":"2024-12-21T02:26:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T09:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=48526"},"modified":"2024-12-22T07:54:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-22T14:54:34","slug":"matthew-bowman-on-joseph-fielding-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2024\/12\/matthew-bowman-on-joseph-fielding-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Bowman on Joseph Fielding Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/joseph-fielding-smith-a-mormon-theologian\/\">Joseph Fielding Smith<\/a> was one of the movers and shapers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the twentieth century. Although lacking in professional training in theology or history, his impact in those areas can still be felt today in the Church. In a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog <em>From the Desk<\/em>, Matthew Bowman discussed some of Joseph Fielding Smith\u2019s life and legacy. What follows here is a copost to the full interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-wp-embed is-provider-from-the-desk wp-block-embed-from-the-desk\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"BiiOenTYDd\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/joseph-fielding-smith-a-mormon-theologian\/\">What&#8217;s in the Joseph Fielding Smith Biography by Matt Bowman?<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;What&#8217;s in the Joseph Fielding Smith Biography by Matt Bowman?&#8221; &#8212; From the Desk\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/joseph-fielding-smith-a-mormon-theologian\/embed\/#?secret=L6eDq9RAd5#?secret=BiiOenTYDd\" data-secret=\"BiiOenTYDd\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Who was Joseph Fielding Smith? Matthew Bowman started by answering that very question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>We could answer this institutionally. Joseph Fielding Smith was a General Authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than sixty years. He was an apostle from 1910 to 1970; he was the president of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1951 to 1970; he was president of the Church from 1970 to 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also served in a number of other offices\u2014he was the Church\u2019s historian for decades; he served on committees supervising the Church\u2019s educational programs and publications for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond his immense institutional influence, Joseph Fielding Smith was also the most influential theologian in the Church in the twentieth century.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>While Joseph Fielding Smith left a mixed legacy of both good and bad through his theological contributions, his impact was enormous. This was, in part, because he \u201cpublished works defending the Church for more than sixty years. Multiple generations of Saints grew up perceiving him as an authority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the biggest ways in which he shaped Latter-day Saint doctrinal discussion was in his emphasis on orthodoxy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I suggest in the volume that Joseph Fielding Smith was in some ways the inventor of \u201corthodoxy,\u201d by which I mean the idea that correct belief should be foundational for all else in the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is another way that he was influenced by Protestantism, a branch of Christianity which emphasizes theology, belief, and words\u2014as opposed to, say, Roman Catholicism, which emphasizes community and ritual, or Eastern Orthodoxy, which emphasizes ritual and personal experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joseph Fielding Smith absorbed not merely from Protestantism but also from that early twentieth century faith in science and education the conviction that once you teach people the right ideas they will do the right things. He therefore believed that it was important to promote and enforce correct belief in the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This drove many of his efforts in publishing and spreading his ideas; it drove his conflict with Roberts and many other intellectuals in the Church whom he believed were spreading incorrect ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This conviction, I think, was a lasting legacy he left to the Church. By the late twentieth century, his theology had become the theology spread in Church curriculum and church educators in the Church Education System (CES), which, perhaps more than any other department of the Church embraced the work of Joseph Fielding Smith and his son-in-law and heir Bruce R. McConkie. CES also embraced the notion that correct belief is foundational to correct behavior.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Orthodoxy was both defined and defended by Joseph Fielding Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The nature of that orthodoxy, however, is what has remained more controversial. While his beliefs diverged sharply from fundamentalist Protestants, he shared a \u201cmilitant anti-modernism\u201d with them. Areas in which this can be felt include his opposition to the concept of organic evolution. As Bowman observed, \u201cJoseph Fielding Smith opposed evolution not simply because he believed it contradicted the book of Genesis, but also because he perceived it as part of a broad modernist project that he objected to from the get-go.\u201d Bowman added that<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>He seized on the notion of \u201csurvival of the fittest,\u201d for instance, a common paraphrase of Darwin\u2019s ideas, and argued that it was deeply anti-humanistic and a way to justify rapacious abuse of the poor and the marginalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joseph Fielding Smith believed that the theory of evolution would lead to an inhumane and cruel society\u2014an argument he shared with other Christian antievolutionists.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Joseph Fielding Smith\u2019s opposition to organic evolution was multifaceted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>For more on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/joseph-fielding-smith-a-mormon-theologian\/\">Joseph Fielding Smith<\/a>, head on over to the Latter-day Saint history blog <em>From the Desk<\/em> to read the full interview with Matthew Bowman. While you\u2019re there, check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/doctrine-and-covenants-come-follow-me\/\">Come Follow Me 2025<\/a> resources page and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/joseph-fielding-smith-quotes\/\">Joseph Fielding Smith Quotes<\/a> page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-wp-embed is-provider-from-the-desk wp-block-embed-from-the-desk\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"bv9FSCZ1Ke\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/doctrine-and-covenants-come-follow-me\/\">Come Follow Me 2025: Doctrine and Covenants Resources<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Come Follow Me 2025: Doctrine and Covenants Resources&#8221; &#8212; From the Desk\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/doctrine-and-covenants-come-follow-me\/embed\/#?secret=4VB6Vogi5Y#?secret=bv9FSCZ1Ke\" data-secret=\"bv9FSCZ1Ke\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joseph Fielding Smith was one of the movers and shapers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the twentieth century. Although lacking in professional training in theology or history, his impact in those areas can still be felt today in the Church. In a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog From the Desk, Matthew Bowman discussed some of Joseph Fielding Smith\u2019s life and legacy. What follows here is a copost to the full interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2890],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-desk"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48526","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\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48527,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48526\/revisions\/48527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}