Library Journal, David Azzolina
Vogel is nothing if not ambitious. He aims to write “an interpretive biography of an emotional and intellectual life” of Joseph Smith (1805-44), the founder of Mormonism This volume covers the first part of Smith’s career, up to 1831. Smith provoked controversy from early adolescence until his death—and it didn't stop then. There are hundreds of Smith biographies, ranging from the hagiographic to the muckraking, but the best most can do is provide a piece of what has been called the prophet puzzle. Vogel edited the five-volume Early Mormon Documents covering the same period. His expertise serves him well as he deals judiciously with questions about such issues as the nature of Smith’s treasure-seeking claims and the origins of the Book of Mormon. His analysis of the Book of Mormon is creative, psychologically astute, and grounded in a close reading of the sources and the secondary literature. This is certain to be the definitive biography for this part of Smith’s life for a long time. One can only hope Vogel will be able to cover the later periods as exhaustively and with such care and skill.

Midwest Book Review
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 accomplishments of a most unique and remarkable man of the nineteenth-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.

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, William D. Russell
Dan Vogel has written an extensive volume on the controversial Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, focusing on his creation of the Book of Mormon as "the making of a prophet."¹ Vogel has done impressive research, not only in the documents directly relating to Joseph Smith and his family, but also in the Old and New Testaments, the history of Christian thought, and American history in the Jacksonian era.

The characters in the Book of Mormon are one-dimensional—either good guys or bad guys (and "guys" they were). Similarly, the pre-Fawn Brodie biographies of Joseph Smith were also one-dimensional. The prophet was either a saint if the author was Mormon or a rogue if he was not. But Vogel sees Smith as both a sincere religious leader and a deceiver (xi, vii, xiv-xv; see also xii). He is both sympathetic to Smith and critical of him. While no historian can be totally objective, Vogel's biases are not as visible as those of Brodie, on the one hand, or on the other, orthodox biographies by Richard Bushman and Donna Hill. ²

Bushman consciously avoided what he called the "environmental" approach, in which a biographer sees his or her subject as merely a reflection of the forces that were at work in the subject's family and society. Vogel is a self-confessed rationalist and naturalist, who rejects supernatural explanations (570n39). I believe that is how the historian should proceed. Historians, when acting as historians, should avoid supernatural explanations, such as those we hear in church meetings. When they do, they are stepping outside their role as historians to make theological affirmations. Historians as historians have no way of knowing whether God spoke to Joseph Smith in the grove or that Moroni, John the Baptist, Peter, James, or John defied natural law and appeared to Smith in the 1820s. Nor can a historian as historian demonstrate that an unlettered farm boy was able to gaze at a peep stone and translate Reformed Egyptian—a language which itself only exists as an act of faith.

You can't say "Joseph went to the Lord and God told him, 'Tell Emma to quit murmuring.'" All we can say is Joseph said God wants Emma to quit murmuring. I think if a historian steps outside the naturalistic approach, she needs to acknowledge it. Perhaps orthodox Mormon historians should preface certain remarks with statements like, "I'm a believing Mormon, and I think this revelation was from God and not Joseph using revelation to get his way with Emma."

The rational, naturalistic way is not the only road to truth. Human reason, too, is limited. But faith assertions are more unreliable than reason and empirical evidence. If you are a person of faith, a naturalistic biography of your spiritual model—Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, or whoever—is an important source for understanding your faith. Read the best naturalistic historical explanation you can find (like Vogel if you're Mormon) and then engage in personal dialogue between the naturalistic explanation and your faith story.

Historical "truth" is imperfect, as any historiographical study will suggest. But where the historical evidence seems particularly strong, we should revise our faith understanding at points where it is in conflict, or at least put a question mark by that item of our faith. Some recent activities of FARMS are a good example, as they had adjusted their explanation of the scope of population in the Americas descended from Lehi as a result of DNA evidence. They weren't willing to completely defy empirical evidence. John-Charles Duffy's recent article in Sunstone is a masterpiece of research and interpretation regarding this matter. ³

The traditional faith story of Mormonism is fraught with conflicts with historical evidence. Indeed, Mormonism is an anti-historical faith. The notion that there is a pure gospel—a plan of salvation or whatever—that existed with Adam, was restored by Jesus, and restored again by Joseph Smith, denies that the gospel is affected by history. I recall a plenary session on the LDS Church's missionary work in Africa held at the Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City a few years ago. The advance advertising promised that this session would look at how the culture in Africa affects the gospel message proclaimed by the church there. I went to the session with eager anticipation, but alas, not one world was uttered to suggest that African culture in any way helped shape the gospel message these missionaries had proclaimed there.

Two-thirds of Vogel's book is about the Book of Mormon. At first I thought that was too much. Richard Bushman's Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism covers the same years in Smith's life but only one of the six chapters is about the Book of Mormon. However, after finishing Vogel's book, I have concluded that he has made a valuable contribution by undertaking an extensive treatment of ways in which the contents of the Book of Mormon relate to Smith's life. I think the open-minded reader can hardly avoid coming away with the clear conclusion that the Book of Mormon is indeed Joseph's book and not an ancient document.

We create terrible misunderstandings of history when we treat the Book of Mormon as historical. For example, Fawn Brodie estimated that there were at least eight Indian fortification mounds within twelve miles of the Smith farm in Manchester (258). Vogel notes that the Book of Mormon gives us scant details about the temples and palaces, but "the Nephite fortifications are portrayed in great detail and in accord with what was generally understood about these sites." Clearly the historian will conclude that Smith, writing in 1829, was describing what he had seen. Vogel points out that B. H. Roberts, assuming the Book of Mormon was historical, said that whoever built the Ohio fortifications certainly "knew something of Moroni's system of fortification-building" (257). Roberts had it backwards.

Signature Books might want to consider publishing the Book of Mormon portion of this book as a separate volume. And I'd like to see Vogel write Volume 2, covering Smith's last twelve or thirteen years.

One problem with a religious system in which a prophet as prophet has revelations or gives general conference addresses which presumably speak for God is that difficult issues are thereby settled, often with an answer that is both simple and wrong. Poor Oliver Cowdery had a difference of opinion with Joseph Smith over whether John the Apostle tarried on earth after the apostolic age. So Joseph has a revelation on the matter. Are we surprised that, according to Joseph's revelation, Joseph was right? But possibly they were both wrong because the New Testament does not identify "the beloved apostle" as John. That's a later tradition.

Vogel has not written an anti-Mormon book. Contrary to the reviews published in FARMS, Vogel's book is moderate and balanced. He sometimes makes judgments that are consistent with the traditional Mormon faith story when he could have concluded otherwise, such as when he writes: "More likely, Anthon's initial assessment of the characters was more positive than he would later admit. Otherwise, it is doubtful that Harris would have requested a written statement" (115). Vogel doesn't accept critical judgments of Joseph Smith when there is cause for skepticism He does not credit the 1830 allegation by a "Methodist gentleman" who told Isaac Hale that Joseph Smith was engaged in extra-marital activities (528). He doesn't accept the allegation that Smith said "the book of plates could not be opened under penalty of death by any other person but [Smith's] first-born son and that the young lad would translate the plates at the age of three" (111). If Joseph did say it and the child had lived, you can imagine the bewildered look on the child's face when his father said, "Okay, son, here's the seer stone. Now translate."

On the other hand, Vogel doesn't avoid embarrassing episodes when the evidence is clear—the arrests, accusations of adultery, and so forth. It is always tempting for the orthodox historian to leave these things out. Bushman sometimes left out material that I'm sure he was aware of and which seemed to me important for a "fair and balanced" treatment of the prophet.

We Mormons have often foolishly said that either the First Vision happened just as Smith said it did or he was a liar and a fraud. The moderate Vogel offers a middle ground which I think believing Mormons are foolish to reject as without merit: he believes that Smith had a profound religious experience which included seeing Jesus in a heavenly vision and, over time, remembered it as a literal experience (242). Interestingly, Charles Grandison Finney, the greatest revivalist of the era, who also operated in the state of New York, reported a grove experience similar to that of Joseph Smith.

The Joseph Smith movement began as a protest against elites who claimed superiority over ordinary people in religion and other areas of life. Vogel notes that Smith was vulnerable to revelatory competitors like Oliver Cowdery and Hiram Page. Smith's limitation of revelation to himself was the first great compromise in the evolution of the movement from radical populism in its infancy to where it is today—the ultimate bastion of American conservatism.

It was unfortunate that the time in which this radical populist movement was emerging was the worst period in American history from the perspective of women's rights. It seems that women were freer in the colonial period than they were in the nineteenth century. Unfortunately the patriarchal worldview that was so strongly entrenched in early nineteenth-century American culture became canonized in the utterances of Joseph Smith. God speaking to a prophet with new scripture resulting was a radical idea. But it became a very conservative force, making it more difficult for Mormon women to break the shackles that bound them.

Revelation coming through ecclesiastical officers makes for conservative policies. I was struck by several references Vogel makes to Seneca Falls, New York, which happened to be the place where in 1848 the first women's rights convention was held. It is too bad that Emma and the other Mormon women were long gone from the area by 1848. While it is unlikely the Mormon women would have embraced the women's rights movement in New York, Susan B. Anthony and others did make alliances with Mormon women in Utah a generation later. And the populist theme of early Mormonism was consistent with the women's rights agenda.

The Book of Mormon knew nothing of women's rights, however. As Vogel notes, there are only three women in the entire Book of Mormon who are even named (225). Sariah's death goes unreported in the narrative (131), and nothing is said concerning the order of birth of Nephi's sisters, while it is quite clear regarding the first four brothers and reasonably clear on the last two.

When Vogel mentions an Anabaptist Society in Tunbridge, Vermont, that Joseph Sr. "may have joined," he says the Anabaptists "historically defended a belief in polygamy" (178). That is an inaccurate characterization of Anabaptists. They were the left wing of the sixteenth-century Reformation, and pacifism was a central tenet. The polygamist Anabaptists of Muenster, Germany, were an aberration. Their resort to violence and polygamy was a denial of Anabaptistism's central tenets. Like so many marginalized groups in history, the dominant groups—here Catholics, Reformed, and Lutherans—characterized Anabaptism on the basis on an extreme segment totally out of character with the genius of the main movement. I'm confident the Anabaptist group in Tunbridge was in harmony with the mainline Anabaptist groups that survived—the Mennonites, Hutterites, and the Amish. Muenster was a very short-lived community.

In 1965 Charles A. Davies was retiring after seven years as the RLDS Church Historian. He was our last Church Historian without a graduate degree in history. He had been shocked by the stuff he was finding in the headquarters archives about polygamy, the method of translation of the Book of Mormon, and other matters relating to our founding prophet. He often shared his findings with a handful of young scholars at headquarters, sometimes referred to as "the Young Turks." A few days before he retired, these Young Turks took Charlie out to lunch. They asked him, "Charlie, how would you characterize Joseph Smith?" Charlie thought for a minute and then said, "He was game!"

When asked if there are men on the moon, the prophet described their height, their clothing, and so forth. Bring him an ancient document, and the attitude was, "Heck yes, I can translate it." When a rabbi is delayed several days in arriving in Kirtland to teach Hebrew to the Saints, Joseph could step right in until the rabbi arrived.

Charlie was right. Joseph Smith was game. And the man we see in Dan Vogel's book fits that description.

¹ Some of my comments are based on my panel presentation at the Sunstone Symposium, August 14, 2004, Salt Lake City.
² Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My history: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, 2d ed. rev. (1945; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971); Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984); Donna Hill, Joseph Smith: The First Mormon (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977).
³ John-Charles Duffy, "Defending the Kingdom, Rethinking the Faith: How Apologetics Is Reshaping Mormon Orthodoxy," Sunstone #132 (May 2004): 22-39, 42-55.

John Whitmer Historical Journal, Newell G. Bringhurst
The approaching two hundredth anniversary of Joseph Smith's birth has stimulated increased scholarly interest in the life and activities of Mormonism's founder and renewed attempts to solve what historian Jan Shipps has sagaciously labeled the "prophet puzzle." Scheduled for publication within the next year is Richard L. Bushman's long-awaited biography from Columbia University Press. Also slated for publication under sponsorship of Signature Books is an ambitious three-volume overview of Smith's life and times under the authorship of three different scholars, each well-versed in Mormon studies, namely Scott Kenney, Richard Van Wagoner, and Martha Sonntag Bradley.

This review essay focuses on two recently published books: Dan Vogel's Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Signature Books) and Clyde R. Forsberg Jr.'s Equal Rites: The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture (Columbia University Press). On a superficial level, these two books have similarities. Each focuses on Joseph Smith's early life and career, especially the writing and bringing forth of the Book of Mormon. Each views Smith's basic motives and the Book of Mormon from a naturalistic perspective. That is, both scholars present Mormonism's founder as considerably less than the prophetic leader that he purported to be. But at the same time, Vogel and Forsberg draw quite different conclusions concerning Smith's behavior and motives. And each is very different in depth of research and methodology.

Vogel's Joseph Smith, a massive, carefully researched, 715-page volume, traces the Mormon prophet's early life and career from his birth in 1805 to 1831, the year of his departure from New York to Kirtland, Ohio. Vogel's carefully written work draws extensively from his own indispensable, edited, five-volume work, Early Mormon Documents (Signature Books).

Vogel is up front in asserting a naturalistic interpretation, labeling Joseph Smith variously as a "pious deceiver," "sincere fraud," "pious fraud," and "religious pretender" (viii-xix). But at the same time, he presents Smith as the sincere religious leader he claimed to be. In Vogel's words, the Mormon prophet "believed he was called of God, yet occasionally engaged in fraudulent activities in order to preach the word of God as effectively as possible" (viii).

In crafting his naturalistic portrait, Vogel utilizes the multi-disciplinary tools of psychology, sociology, and family systems theory. The latter concept, a major focus of this biography, "views the family as an organism-like system" seeking "to maintain emotional equilibrium (or homeostasis)." Vogel argues that maintaining "emotional equilibrium" especially challenged Joseph Smith given the "essentially dysfunctional" nature of his family. This dysfunctionality was evident in the relationship between Smith's parents, Lucy and Joseph Sr., one plagued "by religious conflict and financial burden." Also problematic "were Lucy's periodic bouts with depression and even suicidal fantasies," along with "Joseph Sr.'s struggle with low self-esteem and alcoholism" (xx). Vogel's work considers "the psychological implications of Smith's actions and beliefs," attempting to get "as close to the man as possible." It is "an interpretive biography of an emotional and intellectual life" (xvii).

In attempting to comprehend Smith, Vogel thoroughly examines the Book of Mormon, devoting over half of his total text to literary analysis or "higher criticism." The Book of Mormon, asserts Vogel:

... abounds with examples of [Smith's] poor grammar and Yankee dialect as well as his penchant for digression, redundancy, and wordiness. Rarely are his characters' inner moral conflicts reflected. Most often they are flat, uncomplicated, two-dimensional heroes and villains. Generally the plots are simple and frequently improbable. However, the point was not to produce a literary masterpiece, although there are occasionally passages that exhibit the lyrical quality of romantic writers of the era as well as the rhetorical style of the area's preachers. Rather, Joseph was creating a new scripture that would command the exercise of faith (119).

Smith, in producing the Book of Mormon and founding a new religion, was driven by a strong desire to restore religious unity to his family—a family deeply divided over religious belief and practice. Vogel views the Book of Mormon as an "autobiographical" "stream-of-consciousness composition" providing illuminating insights into "Smith's state of mind."

Various Book of Mormon characters reflect and/or represent Joseph himself, family members, and acquaintances. The book contains numerous "alter-egos" representative of Smith. A key figure is Mormon, "the book's compiler, ... editor" and namesake—an individual who comes "closest to Smith's own self-perceptions" (118). The characters Lehi and Laban, taken together, represent the positive and negative sides of Joseph's father. While Lehi represents the idealized Joseph Sr., the drunken Laban personifies Joseph Sr. as a "backsliding Universalist and sword-bearing treasure seeker," the side of the father "that the son hated most" (135). All this being said, Vogel takes care to note that "parallels to the Smith family are not seen so much in direct representations as in more subtle emotional profiles" (131).

Vogel also explores various outside "cultural and environmental influences in early nineteenth-century American society directly affecting the form of the Book of Mormon. Vogel detects parallels between Book of Mormon characters and people in contemporary America. The basic Book of Mormon theme of continuous Nephite-Lamanite conflict mirrors Indian-white tensions erupting in Jacksonian America. Descriptions of Lamanite enemies as both "lazy and an idolatrous" and "a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people" are "typical of the stereotyped images of Native Americans current in Smith's time" (176).

Vogel, like other naturalistic writers before him, most notably Fawn M. Brodie, sees the Book of Mormon as unequivocally anti-Masonic, evident in "the clandestine activities of Gadianton's band," whose subversive activities engulfed "the entire Nephite land ... in factional wars" (279). Such a view, explains Vogel, "reflects the strong anti-Masonic beliefs evident in American society during the late 1820s and early 1830s (295).

Vogel also sees the Book of Mormon as strongly anti-Andrew Jackson, stemming from the controversy surrounding Old Hickory's emergence as a major political figure culminating in his 1828 election to the presidency. Indeed, a major Book of Mormon villain is the Nephite King Jacob, who gained power with the help of a "secret society" (396). He, in the words of Vogel, is "likely based on Jackson" and reflective of "the conservative reaction to Jackson" (298).

Vogel's interpretation of the Book of Mormon stands in sharp contrast to earlier naturalistic interpretations in one important respect. Vogel views Smith's work as an important religious volume, essential to the foundation of the Latter-day Saint movement. In particular, Vogel sees as a persistent theme the Book of Mormon's attack on the doctrines and beliefs of the Universalists, the religious movement to which Smith's own father, Joseph Sr., belonged. Universalists believed that most all of humankind was basically good and that virtually all would be saved or achieve eternal salvation, thereby discounting the essential nature of Christ's atonement to avoid hell and eternal damnation. Reacting against such beliefs is the Book of Mormon King Benjamin, whom Vogel dubs a "preacher of righteousness ... who repeatedly emphasizes the eternal duration of hell and God's justice in punishing the wicked" (149) while at the same time declaring the essential nature of "salvation through the blood of Christ " (150).

Another important religious concept developed by Smith through the Book of Mormon is his view of the godhead. In the words of Vogel: "The Book of Mormon ... rejected the mystical three-in-one theology of the trinitarians," advancing instead a "modalistic concept in which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are conceived as being three modes or expressions of the one God. In other words, the Father not only begat the son but becomes the Son" (150-51).

In summary, this limited overview of Dan Vogel's Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet cannot begin to do justice to its complex, multi-layered structure and the sophisticated nature of its arguments. Vogel's seminal study will, hopefully, further stimulate meaningful discussion and debate concerning Joseph Smith and the origins of the Restoration. Unfortunately, Vogel's book and his conclusions will most likely be ignored by most rank-and-file Utah Mormons and perhaps also by conservative members of the Community of Christ. Furthermore, orthodox Utah LDS scholars will undoubtedly dismiss and denounce Vogel's specific arguments. But hopefully, other professional scholars and interested lay persons will see fit to read and carefully ponder Vogel's thoughtful and carefully reasoned arguments.

But be forewarned, Vogel's Joseph Smith is not an easy read, especially for casual readers, particularly those not well-versed concerning Joseph Smith's early life or with limited knowledge of the Book of Mormon. Vogel's work requires more than one reading to comprehend fully the author's carefully nuanced, multi-layered arguments.

There are also shortcomings in Vogel's work. In places he is less than convincing in drawing parallels between Book of Mormon characters/incidents and selected individuals and events in nineteenth-century Jacksonian America. Also, Vogel's narrative is lacking in its failure to discuss in greater detail the behavior, motives, and attributes of certain key individuals who knew and interacted with Smith, in particular Newel Knight, Oliver Cowdery, and various members of the Whitmer family. And finally, the volume seems somewhat truncated, given the author's failure to summarize Joseph Smith's activities subsequent to 1831 down to 1844. There is no conclusion, leaving the reader wondering about the author's take on the broader implications of Joseph Smith's life and career. Also, the biography lacks a bibliography, depriving the reader complete knowledge of the rich and varied sources consulted in compiling the volume.

Standing in sharp contrast to Vogel's carefully written, thoroughly researched Joseph Smith is Clyde R. Forsberg's Equal Rites. Forsberg's book is written in a casual, almost pedestrian style. The author draws bold, sometimes audacious conclusions concerning the formation of Smith's ideas. Forsberg's research is less thorough and comprehensive than Vogel's, with Forsberg relying much more on secondary sources. Also in contrast to Vogel, Forsberg focuses on the entire course of Joseph Smith's life and activities from his formative years until the time of his death in 1844.

Forsberg asserts that the primary factor motivating Joseph Smith throughout his life and career was his thorough embrace of Masonic beliefs and practices. Smith "was driven by a strong desire to defend Masonry in America against attack" (xxi). "What the Mormon prophet hoped to accomplish was the restoration of a beleaguered Masonic political order ... that promised to end sectarian rivalry, reestablish social harmony, and guarantee economic equality" (xxii).

Forsberg detects Masonic elements in Smith's First Vision, claiming that the Mormon prophet's "earliest recitation" for this event "alludes to the Masonic emblems of sun, moon, and stars—the great luminaries that move under the watchful care of the All-Seeing Eye" (59). Forsberg further asserts that Smith's "query [for divine guidance] and the Deity's response all have a Masonic tone" (60).

Turning to the Book of Mormon, Forsberg labels it "a well-crafted defense of Church Masonry" (xxii) and a "fine specimen of antebellum Masonic literary mimeis [imitation]" albeit "with a very different agenda" (xxi). Thus, Forsberg directly rejects Vogel's assertion that Smith's book was anti-Masonic (22). ...

Forsberg also discusses Joseph Smith's actions relative to gender issues within the context of his overarching Mormon-Masonic framework. In one of his boldest assertions, Forsberg states that the Book of Mormon itself "can be seen as a subversive, radical feminist statement in opposition to the standing male order in America during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries" and as a "feminist resource" (91). The Book of Mormon's underlying message," contends Forsberg, called for "the dismantling of patriarchal systems generally" (91). ...

Forsberg also explores Joseph Smith's involvement with the issue of race and interaction with various ethnic groups. He speculates that the Book of Mormon in its discussion of the "mark" or "curse of a dark skin" imposed upon the Lamanites "had a hidden anti-African agenda; ... so much so that black and red are indistinguishable in the text" (204-05). ...

As a follow up to this assertion, Forsberg turns to the issue of Mormon black priesthood denial in the early church. Forsberg claims that Joseph Smith deliberately denied African-Americans access to the temple. In doing this, Smith was actually denying blacks the priesthood, thereby making the Mormon prophet and not Brigham Young the instigator of black priesthood denial. Thus, Forsberg rejects the arguments of "those who contend for a gentler, kinder Smith on the issue of blacks and priesthood," which includes Lester E. Bush, Armand Mauss, and indeed myself, stating that we "do not have a single leg to stand upon" (220).

In summary, Claude Forsberg has produced a highly provocative book putting forth a myriad of theories running counter to the arguments of various other scholars, focusing on the issue of gender, race, and especially Masonry.

Although these arguments are interesting and certain to stimulate animated debate and discussion—a good thing in and of itself—Forsberg's book is fundamentally flawed in a number of important respects. Frequently the book's argumentative logic and organization is stilted and confusing, particularly when bringing forth evidence supporting the opposite conclusion. A prime example of this is its presentation in chapter 2 entitled: "Was Joseph Smith a Mason?" Forsberg initially suggests that Smith joined a Masonic lodge in 1830 but then draws the opposite conclusion by the end of the chapter. Also, the book's historical documentation is often suspect. Frequently, the author relies on secondary sources rather than contemporary primary sources. Worse still, Equal Rites draws bold, sometimes audacious conclusions not supported by his own historical evidence. Also disconcerting is the author's often muddled prose along with all-too-frequent use of clichés, compounded by attempts to be witty and urbane. All of these acute shortcomings taken together make it difficult to view Forsberg's book as a legitimate scholarly work, notwithstanding its publication by the prestigious Columbia University Press.

By contrast, Dan Vogel's scholarly, carefully written Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet indicates noteworthy progress in solving the so-called "prophet puzzle." But much remains to be done, as I, along with other long-time students of Mormon studies, anxiously await the appearance of the truly definitive biography on Mormonism's founder.

Salt Lake Tribune, Martin Naparsteck
Reading Dan Vogel's Joseph Smith biography, The Making of a Prophet, for many readers will be like coming to a fork in a road, choosing a path, and later not knowing which path was taken. For nearly two centuries, Smith has been one of the most controversial figures in American religious history. For millions of Mormons, he was a prophet who carried out the will of God by founding what they believe to be the one true church on Earth. For millions of others, he was a charlatan, a man who duped and continues to dupe millions. Vogel gives us a man who, at different stages in his life, was both.

Vogel's book follows Smith from his birth in Vermont in late 1805 until 1831, shortly after the formal founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in mid-1830. The focus of his book is how a young Smith was transformed from a treasure seeker who did not deserve anyone's admiration into a man who came to believe he was doing God's work.

In his introduction, Vogel writes of Smith, "I believe that during his early career as a treasure seeker, he was a charlatan, but he came to believe that he was in fact called of God and thereafter occasionally used deceit to bolster his religious message. . . . there is a high degree of sincerity in Smith's career as a prophet, his defense of God against deism and skepticism."

Much of what Vogel tells us about Smith before he "came to believe that he was in fact called of God" is far less than admirable. Consider, for example, this testimony from David Stafford, who worked with Smith near Palmyra, N.Y., where he founded the LDS Church: "When intoxicated he was very quarrelsome. Pervious to his going to Pennsylvania to get married, we worked together making a coal-pit. While at work at one time, a dispute arouse between us, [he having drinked a little too freely] and some hard words passed between us, and as usual with him at such times, was for fighting. He got the advantage of me in the scuffle, and a gentleman by the name of Ford interfered, when Joseph turned to fighting him. We both entered a complaint against him and he was fined for the breach of the peace."

Vogel adds, "It was neither the first nor the last scuffle Joseph would be involved in. With or without alcohol, he could be physically abusive if provoked."

Vogel's critique of the Book of Mormon is similar to his dual view of Smith's personality: "The book Joseph dictated abounds with examples of his poor grammar and Yankee dialect as well as his penchant for digression, redundancy, and wordiness. Rarely are his characters' own inner moral conflicts reflected. Most often they are flat, uncomplicated, two-dimensional heroes and villains. Generally the plots are simple and frequently improbable. However the point was not to produce a literary masterpiece, although there are occasionally passages that exhibit the lyrical quality of romantic writers of the era as well as the rhetorical style of the area's preachers. Rather, Joseph was creating new scripture that would command the exercise of faith."

The overall effect of the biography is twofold. Devout members of the church who want to provide their faith with an intellectual grounding are likely to see in Vogel's work a reasonable way to explain the many disquieting aspects of Smith's life as a young man, including treasure seeking, self-serving statements and improper behavior. Vogel's book allows the willing to view Smith's life with an attitude of, well, yes, he had faults, but he outgrew them and became a great man.

The second, almost contradictory way of viewing the mass of evidence accumulated and analyzed by Vogel, a view likely to be adopted by those skeptical of Smith's claims to have been a prophet of God, is to conclude that, well, yes, here is proof of a flawed personality, someone clearly willing to dupe others.

Vogel concludes his study of Smith's transformation from treasure seeker to prophet with an admiring comment: "As a treasure seeker, Smith had been given charge of and was responsible for just a handful of men and then only briefly, but now as the prophet of the Restoration, he was charged with the temporal and spiritual salvation of more than two hundred souls. . . . With so many people looking to him for salvation, he knew there was no room for doubts or second thoughts."

Vogel's biography offers solace for both the believer and skeptic, enough evidence to both condemn and acquit.

"Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet,"
an intellectual history

For twenty-five years, Dan Vogel has made a career of studying the Mormons. He is the editor of "Early Mormon Documents," a five-volume series that won Best Documentary awards from both the Mormon History Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association. He is the editor of "The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture"; author of "Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon," Religious Seekers and the Advent of Mormonism"? and the list just goes on and on.

Vogel, who lives in Westerville (near Columbus), is preparing a definitive edition of Joseph Smith's multi-volume history of the church. With all this, you might assume he is a Mormon. He is not—at least not anymore. Born as a sixth-generation Mormon, Vogel fell away from the church, but not before completing one of the church's missions to England. "I am a sympathetic skeptic," Vogel said in an interview.

That he challenges the orthodox view becomes readily apparent in his latest book, "Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet," published by Salt Lake City-based Signature Books. Though touted as a biography, it really is more of an intellectual history seeking to explain the claims of the Mormon prophet in light of an analysis of the text of Smith's greatest achievement, the Book of Mormon.

Vogel's book is bound to stir fresh controversy over Smith, not to mention augmenting the continued fascination with the history of Mormons, the evidence of which lies before us in numerous historic sites in Kirtland, where some of Mormon history played out.

Vogel says Smith, whose church is formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS, "is among the most enigmatic, controversial figures of the nineteenth century. He has been variously described as a pretender after worldly power, religious fanatic, or God's mouthpiece on earth."

Vogel's own conclusions come quickly. He maintains Joseph Smith Jr. "was a well-intentioned 'pious deceiver' or, perhaps otherwise worded, a 'sincere fraud,' someone who prevaricated for 'good' reasons. Admittedly, the terms are not entirely satisfying. Nevertheless, 'pious' connotes genuine religious conviction, while I apply 'fraud' or 'deceiver' to describe some of Smith's activities."

Vogel buttresses his assertions with the body of his book, which consists of a sometimes tedious analysis of the Book of Mormon's content. Vogel asserts a naturalist interpretation of the Book of Mormon, which runs counter to official church doctrine claiming that the book constitutes holy writ, on a level with the orthodox Christian Bible, and that Smith translated it through supernatural, divine revelation from inscribed golden plates.

Vogel says the Book of Mormon's content reflects the religious and political issues of the early nineteenth century, as well as family issues experienced by the Smiths. These included controversy over the role of the Masons in American government because of their secret rites and the fact that President Andrew Jackson was a Mason; and the theological debate of the time between Calvinists, who taught salvation only for those who professed Christ as savior, as opposed to Universalists, who said Christ's atonement guaranteed salvation for all.

Smith's family was divided along Calvinist-Universalist lines, with his mother, Lucy, and others part of the Presbyterian church and his father, Joseph Sr., a dogmatic Universalist. Joseph Smith, acting as a prophet, purported to settle this dispute, declaring all churches false and authorizing formation of a new Church of Jesus Christ, which he proceeded to found.

Vogel said he does not attempt to answer the question as to whether Joseph Smith was a genuine prophet. "I suggest Smith believed he was called of God to preach repentance to a sinful world and felt justified in using whatever means were at his disposal to accomplish this mission," he writes.

While conservative Mormons are hostile to anything that challenges the church's view of Joseph Smith, there are adherents of the faith who consider the Book of Mormon to be "inspired fiction," Vogel says. There is, after all, no archaeological evidence proving the Book of Mormon's portrayal of an ancient American civilization. In any case, Vogel remains an invited guest at conventional Mormon gatherings because of the impeccable quality of his research.

The church portrays Smith as an ignorant farm boy who in no way could have concocted the Book of Mormon on his own. But Vogel says Smith was "by no means an ignorant farm boy. He kept on churning out stuff. He had an eloquence. He was a charismatic religious leader who could move his audience. He was confident verbally. He was less confident when writing," Vogel said, noting there have been 4,000 changes made by the LDS in the Book of Mormon since Smith dictated it.

As for the Book of Mormon's literary merit, Vogel calls it "very poetic," with a lyric quality. "Some parts of it are very good; some aren't so good," he says. Vogel's book ends as the Book of Mormon is published and Smith receives a revelation to move his fledgling movement to a headquarters in Ohio in 1831, where it was to remain until 1838. Thus, he does not deal with the last thirteen years of Smith's life. Smith was martyred in 1844.

There was a belief among Mormons in 1831 that Masons were secretly plotting the demise of their new church, which began in New York. Smith had received a visit from Sidney Rigdon, a Disciples of Christ minister who left that denomination after it rejected his request to establish a communal society in Kirtland months before Mormon missionaries arrived in Kirtland.

Rigdon converted to Mormonism and became an ally of Smith. His role is memorialized today in Kirtland. Rigdon had received visions of "Kirtland with the surrounding country, consecrated as the promised land, and the churches in the state of New York expected to receive their everlasting inheritance in the state of Ohio."

"One may only imagine the thoughts that swirled through Smith's head as he left the town of his first spiritual adventures …" Vogel concludes in the book, adding: "As the prophet of the Restoration, he was charged with the temporal and spiritual salvation of more than two hundred souls, many of whom were preparing to sell their possessions and follow him to Ohio. … Another hundred or so converts in the Kirtland area anxiously awaited his arrival so they could see him for the first time. With so many people looking to him for salvation, he knew there was no room for doubts or second thoughts."