"Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling" by Richard Lyman Bushman

Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
by Richard Lyman Bushman

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1400077532/ref=s9_asin_image_1/002-7363174-5144854?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=19GFH3A1D6PEW1WSK8A8&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240301&pf_rd_i=507846


I'd heard a great deal about this biography of Joseph Smith and was quite curious to check it out. I am Mormon and the author's approach and background appealed to me - a believing Mormon but also a serious scholar of American religion at Columbia University who wasn't afraid to show the reality that honest scholarship and research on Joseph Smith's life revealed.

The results for me were eye-opening in a very positive way. Fair enough, there are criticisms that can be raised of Bushman's approach, some say he took kid gloves to some topics, others say he gives credence to accusations they don't believe. Personally, I think the only really fair criticisms (admittedly speaking as someone here who is not terribly steeped in primary sources from the era beyond the scriptures Joseph Smith produced) are those of which any good scholar who has produced a good work may be accused of: i.e., that as many questions are raised and left hanging as answered, that some minor points can be argued where the brevity necessary in any book required a more certain-sounding statement, etc. In other words, I find this a good, credible book and work of scholarship and would rather focus on what I learned than the minor concerns some folks would like to get all bent out of shape over.

So, what did I learn? Joseph Smith emerges here as a real human being to me for almost the first time. I won't say the first time, part of my faith has always seen some of his human foibles and struggles as an integral part of why I believe. But here, the full reality of Joseph Smith's personality and failings is laid out side-by-side with his accomplishments. A truly three-dimensional individual emerges. The man really did have a bit of a temper and hot-headed personality that sometimes caused him to act in ways that I probably would have had a tough time dealing with. But then in that way, I've had church leaders today that I've had the same struggles with. In both cases for me as a believer, I realize that I need to turn to higher spiritual principles and the guidance of the Holy Ghost to know how to act. I for one am glad to see Joseph Smith's place in the same spectrum of life as I live today rather than in some unrealistic deified sphere. A deified sphere is where I think he's gone to since and where I hope to get to, but there's not much point in pretending that he or anyone else who ever lived on the earth except Jesus was perfect in this life.

Another thing I always find valuable and which this book gives in spades is the breaking of false assumptions. Now, I'm not one to yell fire in a crowded theater and neither is Bushman: the point is not to say "you've all been duped, look at this stuff Joseph Smith did", but rather to say "here's a full account of what Joseph Smith did in life" and then let the reader sort out for themself what it means. So the subjects are handled in my view honestly and tactfully, and often-times with the questions of the meaning of it all and the why's left hanging where no clear answer is obvious. In other words those searching for either the debunking of certain claims about Joseph Smith (i.e., "he didn't really drink wine or marry already married women, right?") or a justification for them to use aren't going to find Bushman straining to force theories or answers where the evidence doesn't provide them. Instead Bushman is simply the honest scholar, laying out the historical record as best as he can and where no further answers are forthcoming he at best lays out a maybe or two or quite often says "I don't know based on the evidence available at present". That is honest, and that allows a reader like myself to come to these topics and explore them as best as possible with my own mind and theories.

Anyhow, a great read, eye-opening, not faith-destroying in any way for me but faith-building as I think I am in agreement with Joseph Smith himself in consider anything that gives me further knowledge faith-building even if it provides new challenges I have to sort through. Indeed, intellectual challenges if handled right are just like weights in the gym, they build strength when part of a broader strength-training program. For those who feel like this book was an expose which tore up their faith (of whom I think I know at least one), I honestly think they have misread the meaning of Joseph Smith's life and Bushman's attempt to give a comprehensive portrayal of it, but then that is far more a matter of an attitude of faith than of scholarship per se. As a work of scholarship quite aside from faith, I think believers and non-believers can learn a great deal from this book. As a believer, one can similarly gain a much greater understanding of the facts and history of Joseph Smith's era and then go on to build a more complete edifice of faith using that knowledge.