Last week I attended part of the 22nd International Book of Mormon Evidences Conference hosted by the FIRM Foundation. One of the presentations on Friday morning was delivered by James F. and L. Hannah Stoddard of the Joseph Smith Foundation. The title of the presentation was “Urim & Thummim or the Seer Stone & Hat?” … Read more
Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones (2016) At a church conference on October 25–26, 1831, the topic of the translation of the Book of Mormon arose and Joseph Smith was pressed to furnish the details pertaining thereto. According to the minutes taken at the conference, “Br. Joseph Smith jr. said that it was not intended to tell … Read more
[Cross posted from the FairMormon Blog.] An anonymous author* writing at the MorningStar Post blog “had an awful time putting [a] story together” on “the number of Latter Day Saints [sic] that are actually considered active,” and that Mormons are, per the title of the post, allegedly “leaving their religion in record numbers around the world.” (Link) … Read more
Volume 1 of the Journals series of the Joseph Smith Papers, published in 2008. I continued to be very impressed with the work being undertaken by the Joseph Smith Papers Project. In case you haven’t had a chance to, I’d recommend that you be sure to check out the introductory material in volumes 1 and … Read more
Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam! My good friend Brandon Habermeyer has an interesting blog post on the relationship between Mormonism and magic. I actually agree with a lot of what Brandon has highlighted in his blog post. I am also pleased that this is a question that has been explored by numerous Mormon historians. I myself remember reading D. … Read more