“I Dug the Graves”: Isaac Lewis Manning, Joseph Smith, and Racial Connections in Two Latter Day Saint Traditions

In the history of American popular religion, the Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, have undergone a series of paradigmatic shifts in order to join the Christian mainstream, abandoning such controversial core doctrines and institutions as polygamy and the political kingdom of God. Mormon historians have played an important role in this metamorphosis, employing a version (if not perversion) of the Church-Sect Dichotomy to change the past in order to control the future, arguing, in effect, that founder Joseph Smith Jr’s erstwhile magical beliefs and practices gave way to a more “mature” and bible-based self-understanding which is then said to best describe the religion that he founded in 1830. However, an “esoteric approach” as Faivre and Hanegraaff understand the term has much to offer the study of Mormonism as an old, new religion and the basis for a more even methodological playing field and new interpretation of Mormonism as equally magical (Masonic) and biblical (Evangelical) despite appearances. This article will focus on early Mormonism’s fascination with and employment of ciphers, or “the coded word,” essential to such foundation texts as the Book of Mormon and “Book of Abraham,” as well as the somewhat contradictory, albeit colonial understanding of African character and destiny in these two hermetic works of divine inspiration and social commentary in the Latter-day Saint canonical tradition.

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Book Review: Joseph Smith, Jesus and Satanic Opposition: Atonement, Evil and the Mormon Vision, by Douglas J. Davies. Ashgate, 2010. 282 pp., index, bibliography, pb. $29.22. ISBN-13: 9781409406709.

Religious Studies and Theology ◽

10.1558/rsth.v30i1.108 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kurt Widmer

Keyword(s):

Joseph Smith

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Priesthood Ordination

10.1093/oso/9780190844431.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan A. Stapley

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Black Men ◽

Church Leaders ◽

Men And Women ◽

Joseph Smith ◽

Book Of Mormon ◽

The Temple ◽

The Church ◽

Power And Authority

Early Mormons used the Book of Mormon as the basis for their ecclesiology and understanding of the open heaven. Church leaders edited, harmonized, and published Joseph Smith’s revelation texts, expanding understandings of ecclesiastical priesthood office. Joseph Smith then revealed the Nauvoo Temple liturgy, with its cosmology that equated heaven, kinship, and priesthood. This cosmological priesthood was materialized through sealings at the temple altar and was the context for expansive teachings incorporating women into priesthood. This cosmology was also the basis for polygamy, temple adoption, and restrictions on the participation of black men and women in the church. This framework gave way at the end of the nineteenth century to a new priesthood cosmology introduced by Joseph F. Smith based on male ecclesiastical office. As church leaders expanded the meaning of priesthood to comprise the entire power and authority of God, they struggled to integrate women into church cosmology.

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Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism

The American Historical Review ◽

10.2307/1867375 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 91 (1) ◽

pp. 185

Author(s):

Mark A. Noll ◽

Richard L. Bushman

Keyword(s):

Joseph Smith

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Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion ◽

10.2307/1385489 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 268

Author(s):

Gordon Shepherd ◽

Ernest H. Taves

Keyword(s):

Joseph Smith ◽

Book Of Mormon

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Religion and Revolution: Joseph Smith, Abraham Lincoln, and the Book of Mormon

Journal of Research in Philosophy and History ◽

10.22158/jrph.v4n2p42 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. p42

Author(s):

Sri Michael Das

Keyword(s):

Abraham Lincoln ◽

Important Task ◽

Latter Day Saints ◽

Human History ◽

Joseph Smith ◽

Book Of Mormon ◽

False Prophet ◽

Con Artist

The name Joseph Smith, b. 23 December 1803, d. 27 June, 1844 invokes words like heretic, false prophet, con artist and fruitcake. No stranger to con artistry or the interior of a prisoner cell, Smith was arrested numerous times on legitimate charges, he also accomplished something no other Prophet did: developed the character and strategies for First Citizen of Humanity, Abraham Lincoln and helped start a War Between the States that enslaved men might be free. Though he never lived to see his Book of Mormon accomplish its ends, he, along with the Latter Day Saints were never given recognition, not even informally for this, humankind’s the most important task. The most important in human history. In this paper I detail important elements of Smith’s and his Church’s work and also illuminate his ties to Mr. Lincoln, and mourn the wayward Church of today. Perhaps revisiting Mister Smith’s Vision will reignite all of us and cause us to rise up and wage one more War against tyranny, weaponry, waste, abuse, neglect, and utter ignorance of our innate spiritual principals.

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