2002/03/21 by Terryl L. Givens · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Genealogy #History #Moravian Church and William Blake #Mormonism, Religion, and History #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1093/019513818x.003.0002
openalex publication_date 2002/03/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Joseph Smith was a young seeker in an age of religious awakening. He claimed he was visited by God and Christ in response to his spiritual quest for truth as a 14 year old, but his religious career began in earnest when he asserted he was the divinely appointed translator of sacred records delivered to him by an angel of God named Moroni seven years later. Assisted – in the face of growing opposition – by family, friends, and a well‐to‐do farmer, Martin Harris, Smith produced a translation from gold plates attested by 11 witnesses using Urim and Thummim (a seer stone and/or sacred “interpreters”). The concrete tangibility of the plates and accompanying holy relics, and the alleged historicity of the history he translated, made his claims especially audacious and resistant to dismissal as a subjective religious experience.