The Gift of Tongues: The Propagation of Sermon Texts in Mormonism

In spite of all the talk about remembering what we feel in a sermon experience, not what we hear, as valid as that may be, it is the text that reigns supreme. Recreating a sermon is not possible. But recording the words spoken on the occasion may be valuable. From the very beginning of Joseph Smith’s career, it was the text that trumped all other things. The Book of Mormon saga places the text in the role of savior, preserver and founder of language and true religion. It was to be expected that Mormons would keep records, and by commandment.

Stemmata for the Funeral Sermons of Joseph Smith

Here’s an example for one of the funeral sermons.

Preaching event at the top. Arrows represent text dependence.

This particular sermon was published in full a comparatively large number of times. The more times in print the more complicated the variorum. In this particular case, one excerpt has appeared (just in recent years) over a hundred times in Church conferences and literature. That is rather unusual and somewhat odd, given the earth shaking stuff you *could* come up with. The stemma reveals the most influential editor: MS2. It is not always easy to identify the real editor of published Church documents and in the typesetting era often more than one set of hands dealt with a given text like this one. Complete texts of Joseph Smith’s sermons tend to be published by the Church at large during in a cycle very similar to this one. Aside from reprinting certain standard imprints like Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and a few independently published versions of the sermons, new “official” imprints stopped after 1952.

Some additions to BoAP.org

We have added a few items to the website:

First, a couple of what I would characterize as Joseph Smith tract sermons. These are Times and Seasons editorials. I’ve been rather suspicious of these items and I’m still not sure of their value as JS documents, but I’ve come to the grudging conclusion that the particular entries we’ve added are JS productions. We’ve had an April 1, 1842 up for years and I would say that I’m somewhat more leery of it than the ones we’ve recently added. My new proverb, Approval is not the same as Production, applies to the April 1 entry, but it clearly does contain ideas from JS, though not I think, his dictation. The new entries may be somewhat closer to the mark. Time will perhaps tell.

Tract sermons were big business in the antebellum period and I think these qualify. Anyway, have fun reading there. You will find these in the Parallel Joseph under 1842. They are new entries in May and June I believe.

We have added a few more items to the Early Saints compilation, the most notable being the Joseph C. Kingsbury diaries/memoirs. These are merely links to the diary images but the script is very readable and the Nauvoo period is fun, especially the polygamy bits.

There you have it. By the way, if you have any typescripts of journals for individuals that were contemporary Mormons of Joseph Smith, we want to put them up for reading. You can email us at boap (at) boap (dot) org.

Sermons, Their Impact and Joseph Smith

No, not a Mother’s Day post. Just some thinking out loud here. Ignore without peril.

Preaching in America during the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and more especially the antebellum period, makes a fascinating study (says I). Gauging the impact of those sermons among listeners and downstream is especially interesting. However, doing that can be challenging and requires considerable detective work especially in considering immediate impact. Ideally, there would be surveys to consult, reported interviews with listeners and so on. But those instruments were not really known in the sense that we use them today. There are a few items that can give us a peek at what people thought about their preachers. However, with one or two exceptions, these are not massive contemporary collections of data. Instead, we have personal accounts in diaries, memoirs, and the like. Pursuing such things for the occasional brief comment on one or another preacher can consume years and those discoveries rarely cluster around one particular minister. Given all the surviving texts of early American sermons it is rather startling how little we know about how they were received.[1]

Joseph Smith, Sermons, and Lived Religion

From the late colonial period to the time of Joseph Smith, important forces were at work that changed the nature of preaching. Most sermons in the late colonial period were read. Whether from small briefs carried into a pulpit, scribbled notes on a quarter sheet of foolscap, or carefully fleshed out thoughts in tempered script, preachers expanded from their notes or read word for word, but in general followed a written pre-planned text. There is a paper trail there.[1]

Preaching, Rhetoric and Mormons

[Cross posted at BCC.]

With the recent conference, many Church members saw what has become the pinnacle of Mormon Preaching: The General Conference Address. But is it really representative of the Mormon sermon? I say no. In my paltry experience, Mormon preaching is much more like classical Methodist homily than the considered rationalist stuff you might get from an Anglican pulpit. General Conference preaching is very carefully scripted. No off the reservation speculation, no fire and brimstone to speak of, no getting lost in the rhetorical moment allowed, much. (I think Church presidents have their leeway and there is descent evidence for that.)

The Pearl of Great Price – A History

[Reposted from 2010.]

In our priesthood meeting a few weeks back a part of the lesson involved inviting class members to offer brief accounts of “how we got them and what’s in ‘em” in regard to the Mormon scriptures. Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants went about as short and sweet as you might imagine, but no one volunteered anything about the Pearl of Great Price beyond the usual bit about its contents. (I don’t usually comment – unless someone points at me and asks. Its been a good policy)

Antebellum Liberty vs. Mormon Individuality

I put this one up a couple of years ago, but I want to revisit it in light of some current discussion on Mormonism and politics. Patrick Mason’s recent article in Church and State (summer 2011) 53:349-375, made me wonder again about our presentist impositions.

In a 1990 article, Gregory Schneider observed,

Early versions of republicanism conceived of liberty and rights as belonging to the people taken as a whole in opposition to the power and interests of rulers. Liberty was, first of all, public and political, not private and individual. Hence, there could be no legitimate opposition between individual liberties and the common good of the people in the republic. Those who place their private interests above the common good were diseased tissue in the body politic, and might be subjected to harsh remedies. Unity in the cause of the common good, then, sometimes required an oppressive conformity.[1]

KFD5 (the Sermon in the Grove) and Display Postscript

I’ve been using LaTeX to construct typographical facsimiles for Joseph Smith (JS) sermon docs. The packages available to create “critical texts” are pretty feature rich, but limited in how text can be manipulated. Twenty odd years ago, Steve Jobs started NeXT Computer. The display technology was a breakthrough in a number of ways. One thing it allowed was the possibility to form and shape text like never before. Drag and drop on steroids. Pushing text around, shrinking/growing font size, moving text and characters upside down, sideways, curving it, writing sideways in margins. It was perfect for projects like mine. But it died and nothing like it seems to be available now. This is just a wish for it to return.

The Mormon Naturalist

[Cross posted at BCC.]

No this isn’t a post about Steve Peck, much as I think that would be fun. Instead, its in the vein I’ve been sort of mining lately. I hesitate to use the tired “Mormonism and Science” title, but what the heck. Why not?

Toward a Theology of the Material

[Cross-posted at BCC. But it seems oddly Abrahamic, so here it is again.]

[I was just sitting here - thinking about where the fun speculations of 19th century Mormonism might lead, and this is what came out. Excuse its ragged form.]

Mormonism has a uniquely materialist bent. It posits that the material is necessary for complete happiness.[1] That while the world is biphasic, physical and spiritual, both are material.[2] Modern physics divides much of its attention between the very large (cosmology) and the very small (quantum phenomena). In the large, physics tells us of a universe whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere and yet expanding. That expansion is apparently going on forever, never to stop.

Joseph Smith Papers, Journals Vol. 2.

The Church Historian’s Press offers the second volume in the journals series of the Joseph Smith Papers. Volume editors Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith and Richard Lloyd Anderson bring us Joseph Smith’s journals from the period December 1841 to April 1843.

The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, Volume 2.

The period covered by the journals was one of great importance and included political and infrastructure development of Nauvoo (including the temple), the establishment of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, the transition of the Times and Seasons to official Church organ, the printing of the Book of Abraham, the inauguration of the temple ceremonies (most of them) and proxy baptism for the dead, the quorum of the anointed, the extradition attempt and underground, the rise of the twelve apostles, polygamy, a much better though less personal account of JS’s doings and sayings and much more. During the period JS’s journals were recorded by Willard Richards, his private secretary and chief chronographer, William Clayton, Erastus Derby[1] and a few pages by Eliza R. Snow, the latter three only during the first year of the volume. That period is important for historical reasons, but as a documentary record perhaps the most interesting aspect is the now open availability of the journal record for the period from the famous “Book of the Law of the Lord.”

“How We Got the Book of Mormon” – A Review

A few months ago I was invited to review a new book titled How We Got the Book of Mormon. Given that title, I thought the book would be concerned with issues of translation, or criticism of Joseph Smith as translator. In fact, the book has a much wider sweep. Perhaps a better title might have been, “how we got the current edition of the Book of Mormon.” In fact, that is a title I can get into, fascinated as I am with texts, their development and criticism. Indeed, the book follows a long tradition of the many volumes similarly titled: How We Got the Bible, and variations on the theme.

Joseph Smith and the Priesthood Mythos

Joseph Smith was very much in the mould of the Old Testament prophets, and cast Mormonism as a unification of Old and New Testament ideas and even ritual. The kind of dispensationalism that saw the Old Testament period as backward – the dwelling of a hidden God and only partially revealed truth was not for him. He saw that mould as formed by a priesthood mythos, only parts of which were evident in Scripture. Many of his statements and some revelations make this evident. For example, our old friend D&C 107. Verse 29:

Imagine a new Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith

What would it look like? What goes in it? How would this be received if some beloved statements were absent? Could it be a Deseret Book product? Should texts that were obviously (or less obviously) co-productions or contemporarily ghostwritten be allowed? Where should the circle be drawn? Just curious.