My last post was a product of where I was at in my research. As I’ve argued in previous posts, I see heavy Neoplatonic (particularly that of Proclus) influences on Mormonism, which become more pronounced in JS’s last years. The Book of Abraham and the King Follett are thoroughly Neoplatonic in their notions of pre-existence, references to intelligences, the nature of the creation, the rejection of creation ex nihilo, deification, hierarchy of gods, and that God was once human.

I found two things most striking about the King Follett Discourse. (more…)

I took a directed readings course for one of my last classes at BYU, and one of the books was about colonial New Englanders’ notions of America as a promised land. While that may seem rather innocuous, I was struck by the similarities to Mormon notions and the fact that JS would have been immersed in that culture (no getting around the fact that he would have been influenced by such ideas). When I met with the professor to discuss the book I mentioned my concern and I think he sort of made a joke. But then seeing that I still looked concerned he simply said, “it’s in the Bible.” That made me feel better.

In the process of getting comfortable with finding Mormon-looking ideas in JS’s environment, I’ve wondered why I felt this way. I think the impulse derives from the feeling that the Bible is a legitimate source, whereas other sources may not be. This is a very Protestant approach.

JS seemed to have a different approach though. (more…)

As I mentioned in the prospectus I posted, I see both striking resemblances between Mormonism and late Neoplatonism and important influences of late Neoplatonism on the history of Christianity that need to be explored. My committee balked at linking Mormonism to late Neoplatonism and wanted further proof. So I’ve been doing some research. (more…)

Here’s some more of my prospectus that deals with the issues of pre-Reformation survivals. Some of this I’ve posted around here already but I contextualize it here a little differently. (more…)

Ann Taves, my adviser, signed off on me sending this out to my committee a few days ago. The whole things is over 30 pages so I just include the first part here. (more…)

In Robert Bartlett’s The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages (2008), he pauses to wonder how historians deal with beliefs our subjects hold but “we” don’t. (more…)

Eamon Duffy sets up his monumental Stripping of the Altars as a challenge to three books: A. G. Dickens The English Reformation, Jean Delumeau Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire and Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (Duffy xx). Duffy’s critique of Dickens is related to what I describe in this post (Dickens described the English Reformation as a popular movement while Duffy said it was not; most scholars agree with Duffy now) and the critiques of Delumeau are described in my write up on the Dechristianization of Europe.

Duffy’s critique of Thomas is more complex, however. (more…)

Randall Styers. Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Naomi Janowitz. Magic in the Roman World: Pagans, Jews and Christians. London: Routledge, 2001.

Syters begins his book with a quote from Bruno Latour: “Do not trust those who analyze magic. They are usually magicians in search of revenge.” The Pasteurization of France, (Harvard 1988), 212. I’m not sure what that then says about Styers or myself, but fun to think about nonetheless. (more…)

Continuing on this theme, I wanted to give a little summary of John Wesley’s view of the apostasy. Wesley, whose Methodist movement was highly influential on Mormonism, was very interested in “the mystery of iniquity” or how Christianity had become corrupted. His speech by that name covers his views on the issue (Wesley’s Works vol. 3, Sermon 61) and offers additional, useful ways to look at the apostasy. (more…)

Continuing my theme of rethinking our metanarrative of apostasy to resotration, I wanted to talk a little more about the Middle Ages. (more…)

My vote for best historical work ever is Keith Thomas’s Religion and the Decline of Magic. I first read chunks of the book as an undergrad and have used it as a reference up till now, all the while becoming more convinced that it was worthy of this title. Recently I made sure to get the whole thing read and am now more convinced than ever and wanted to put a post. (more…)

Desidrius Erasmus was the most learned man of his day and in the spirit of the Renaissance he sought to get back to the original sources of wisdom (often called Christian Humanism). For Erasmus this meant the Fathers over the Scholastics, Origin over Augustine and, of course, the Greek Bible (which he translated into Latin) over all. Said Erasmus (in a 16th century English translation) “I wold to god they were translated in to the tonges of all men, so that they might not only be read and knowne of the scotes and yrishmen, but also of the Turkes and sarracenes … I wold to god the plowman wold singe a texte of the scripture at his plowbeme.” [1]

This sentiment tends to be credited to William Tyndale the father of the English Bible: (more…)

I knew something was up when my wife’s high-school Spanish teacher came by. “I feel like I’m losing a daughter.” We were in my wife’s hometown of Sonora, California, one week before our wedding. Even before we started dating I learned that my wife was an only child of divorced hippy parents. “Great,” I thought, “no pressure to be a high achieving son-in-law.” Little did I know… (more…)

I’ve argued around here that we Mormons have tended to borrow the Protestant metanarrative of history in seeking to lay out how we get from Apostasy to Restoration: early Catholics corrupt the church, on come the dark ages, Luther brings light back into the world by focusing on the scriptures and breaking with the wicked pope, setting the stage for the Restoration.

A little more autobiography if you’ll indulge me. (more…)

Bever, Edward. The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe: Culture, Cognition, and Everyday Life. Houndsmill, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. 2008.

I read this book recently at the recommendation of my adviser, Ann Taves, because she is now focused on the cognitive science aspect of religion. This book is an attempt by Bever, a historian by training, to apply some of the cognitive science methods to the study of early modern witchcraft. This review is a little long but I thought it suggested a number of interesting approaches for the study of supernatural beliefs in a historical setting. (more…)

Jon Butler argued in Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People that colonial Americans were not really “Christianized” until late in the eighteenth century. In making his argument, Butler was essentially applying the “dechristianization” thesis to colonial America (he mentions Mormons in a later chapter). To shed light on these arguments, I wanted to summarize the debates over the dechristianization thesis. (more…)

A week or two ago when my wife was out of town, my daughter (yes, that one) said something at dinner that caught me off guard. “I don’t believe our church is true.” She’s eight. That in and of itself didn’t catch me totally off guard because a month or so before she asked while we were doing scripture reading, “what if our church isn’t true and God is mad at us for going to the wrong church.” At that time I told her that I knew that if she prayed God would lead her in the way He saw fit. (more…)

Eva Pocs. Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern World. Trans. By Szilvia Redey and Michael Webb. Budapest: Central University Press, 1999.

Owen Davies. Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History. London: Hambledon and London, 2003.

As I mentioned in my review of Emma Wilby, there is a growing focus in the study of early modern witchcraft on trying to get at the actual folk practices behind the accusations. Some of the most important works on the topic come out of Hungary where the witchcraft trials generally lasted longer. Pocs’s book is one such; I also include a little summary of Owen Davies book on the cunning-folk, which is also very helpful. (more…)

On Chris Smith’s post, in my attempt to defend “the bracket” or experiential agnosticism as a historiographical method, I made the remark that Fawn Bordie had said very little that was new. I no doubt was engaging in hyperbole, sometimes that happens around the blogs. (more…)

Since Ardis Parshall said JI needed more posts like Jared’s…

Once when a member asked the typical question of what I wanted to study when I got home from my mission, my companion interjected, “He’ll say he doesn’t know, but if you really press him, he’ll say he wants to be a historian.” (more…)