- Hardcover: 715 pages
- Publisher: Signature Books (Jan 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1560851791
- ISBN-13: 978-1560851790
- Product Dimensions: 26.1 x 17.8 x 4.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,629,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Was Joseph Smith a true prophet or a religious pretender? Vogel, who edited the five-volume series Early Mormon Documents, attempts to answer this and other questions in this somewhat tedious, workmanlike psychological biography of Smith. In his youth, Vogel says, Smith experienced a dream about gold tablets and the angel Moroni that he later shaped into a narrative of his prophetic calling. Vogel performs a close reading of the Book of Mormon in search of clues to the development of Smith's religious life, arguing that while the book reveals Smith's own inner religious conflictsâ€"his beliefs about eternal damnation, for exampleâ€"the process of "translating" the Book of Mormon exposes a religious leader who was willing to use any means at hand to secure his prophetic authority. Vogel also questions whether the gold plates were really delivered to Smith by an angel or whether Smith fashioned them himself, for he would not let anyone see them uncovered. Vogel's speculations that Smith engaged in deception to obtain his status as God's chosen man will certainly provoke strenuous objections, but his tone is a careful balance of criticism and admiration. The book's chief flaw is that it does not fulfill its own ambitious goals. After an introduction in which Vogel declares his intention to draw upon family-systems theory to analyze the Smith family's dysfunctionality and to use his research on the methods of the charlatan to better understand Smith as a religious pretender, the biography veers off into other directions and ends abruptly at the height of Smith's career.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scholarly, insightful, thoughtful and thought-provoking,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Hardcover)
Joseph Smith: The Making Of A Prophet is a new, 738-page, definitive biography of the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly referred to as the Mormons). Biographer Dan Vogel draws upon his many years of expertise in Mormon history and painstaking research to provide contemporary readers with an informed and informative biographical portrait of the family background, personal and public life, controversies and accomplished of a most unique and remarkable man of the 19th century American frontier. Scholarly, insightful, thoughtful and thought-provoking, Joseph Smith: The Making Of A Prophet is highly recommended reading and an essential, core addition to any Mormon History Studies reference collection or reading list.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Speculative and pedantic,
By I am the "mindfunker" (Live from Kolob) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Hardcover)
This book is an exhaustive overview of the origins of Mormonism, focusing primarily on Joseph Smith's production of the Book of Mormon. As such, Vogel's title does not really match the book's content, as at least two thirds of the book is devoted to a detailed, blow-by-blow commentary on the BofM's contents. Hence, I would not call this a biography in the classic sense. Vogel assumes that Smith is the BofM's author. I have no problem with this. But he also assumes that the characters and situations in the book are largely autobiographical, a view that is speculative at best. This assumption leads to some very tenuous conclusions, and causes much of the text to read like "psychobiography." Not that this is a bad thing, but this approach has already been done (and done better) by others. (see Anderson's _Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith_.) But the real problem with Vogel's book is that it is simply too long for what it accomplishes. Editors at Signature Books should have helped Vogel shave off the most speculative conclusions and tangential digressions in his manuscript in order to find the five-star 300 page book lurking within. As it is, it is a three-star 700 page book. I had high hopes for this work, but I cannot recommend it without reservation.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye opening approach to Joseph Smith,
By
This review is from: Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Hardcover)
Dan Vogel is a great researcher(whether you agree with his ideas or not). He has compiled a huge number of early mormon documents. In this book he brings them all together to attempt to understand the prophet Joseph Smith. He shows us his early life and the strife of the Smith family in regards to religion. The divide between his mother and father. He shows how he was working to bring them together. He also goes into the Book of Mormon and it's translation. Very interesting whether you agree with the authors conclusions or not.
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