Customer Reviews

Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (A Biography)

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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.

This is one of the best and most detailed biographies about the early life of Joseph Smith. The book ends in 1831 when Joseph Smith goes to Ohio. Vogel gives the best possible secular interpretation of Jospeh Smith. Vogel states up front in the introduction that he does not believe in the super natural and interprets Joseph Smith from that point of view. Vogel deals far better with the complexities of Joseph Smith than do other secular biographies of Joseph Smith such as Fawn Brodies biography that states Joseph Smith was simply a con artist from the beginning and may have started to believe in his own prophetic calling. Instead of simply being a fraud, Vogel believes Smith sincerely believed himself to be a prophet but that Smith was willing to use deception in order to convince other people of his calling. Vogel makes the case that Smith likely did have some sort of spiritual awakening in 1820/1821, which later became known as Smith's First Vision. Vogel believes that Smith had a desire to unite his family spiritually, and therefore used "golden plates" story to unite both religion (which was appealing to his mother) and folk magic (which was appealing to his father). Vogel believes that through looking for buried treasure Smith learned to convince people he had a supernatural gift. Later Smith would use his gift of persuasion to convince people he was a prophet.

Vogel also meticulously goes through the Book of Mormon verse by verse demonstrating an immense knowledge of the Book of Mormon. Vogel attempts to show where Smith came up with many of the stories contained in the Book of Mormon. However I believe in some ways this is one of the books most major weaknesses. Vogel gets a little to bogged down in trying to figure out where the stories of the Book of Mormon came from. Some of the parallels he draws from Smith's enviroment and the Book of Mormon is a little weak, such as finding parallels between some of the Book of Mormon stories and the war of 1812.

Another weakness I believe is how Vogel deals with the eight witnesses of the Book of Mormon. He makes a case that the witnesses did not actually physically see the plates, but rather that it was a spiritual experience. Although there is some evidence for this possibility, Vogel does not treat the different statements that make the experience sound like a physical experience adequately.

Vogel has been criticized for frequently speculating in the book. Vogel does in fact use words such as "may have," "could have," "probably," and other such phrases many times. Although I can see why that is a criticism, Vogel was left with little other option since he does not believe in the super natural. Vogel does believe Smith "may have" made some plates out of tin, but what else could Vogel say on that point since he does not believe the gold plates ever existed?

I highly recommend this book to any serious student of Joseph Smith. I would also recommend reading Richard Bushman's book "Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism" which covers the same period and gives a different point of view.

Dan Vogel proved a masterful editor of the five-volume Early Mormon Documents, and perhaps his encyclopedic knowledge of the primary sources is part of the problem with this biography. Vogel knows the young Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon inside and out, but he doesn't seem to know how to summarize what he knows--or to ignore what he only supposes.

Vogel's thesis is that Joseph Smith's motivation for founding a new religion arose in conflicts that occurred within his semi-dysfunctional family. While there is undoubtedly truth to this notion, Vogel insists on taking us through the Book of Mormon blow-by-blow to explicate his argument. Some of his conclusions are clever and perceptive, others in-the-ballpark possible, and some (at best) strained. For instance, in Vogel's reading, the Book of Mormon account of Lamanites forcing women and children to eat the flesh of their husbands and fathers while restricting the prisoners' access to water is supposed to illustrate Smith's "oral rage" at his father "mixed with the fever, thirst, and torture of childhood surgery." (374) There's always something poignant about religious skeptics putting their trust in this sort of psychobabble.

Readers can expect a good deal of autobiography in a first novel, but they should also expect a good deal of fiction. Vogel occasionally seems annoyed when there is no obvious autobiographical hook on which to hang his notions. On one occasion, he suggests that a portion of the Book of Mormon is "perhaps...literary license"(211). Well, yes, literary license is what novels are about.

Furthermore, Vogel's knowledge of the Bible is weaker than he imagines, and his solution of picking up the nearest commentary frequently leads him astray, especially when he believes its opinion is so obviously correct that it requires no citation. For instance, he argues (with Edward Gibbon) that Luke "specifically said" that the darkness at Christ's crucifixion was "caused by an eclipse...astronomically impossible during paschal full moon." (286) But Luke 23: 45 says no such thing. In another place, Vogel announces, on the basis of no cited authority, that the mention of Melchizedek in Psalm 110 was "intended as a statement about Israelite rulers who were seen as kingly priests."

Any serious student of Mormonism will find much of profit in this biography. For example, Vogel notes every error and anachronism that he finds in the Book of Mormon--a considerable heap by page 557. But as biography--and especially readable biography--Vogel's attempt is overly long and overly speculative.

THE BEST BIOGRAPHY OF THE MORMON PROPHET
Simply put, this is THE best Joseph Smith biography I have ever read. Vogel's documentation is exceptional. Vogel edited the award-winning five volume series EARLY MORMON DOCUMENTS (the best compilation available of early Mormon documents), so his knowledge and grasp of early Mormon letters, journals, exposes and publications is awe-inspiring to say the least. But what I find most impressive is that Vogel offers overwhelming evidence to support a much more nuanced theory regarding Joseph Smith's formative years. As a result ,this is the first biography I've read where Joseph Smith comes across as a believably authentic teenager and young man growing up in America during the first decades of 19th century. Not only does Vogel bring Joseph to life, but each individual in the Smith family comes across as a three-dimensional personality. I've been devouring Joseph Smith biographies and studies for the past 30 years. The anti-Mormon and the faith-promoting LDS books suffer from the very same faults: the authors start with their faith-based biases concerning Joseph and then selectively quote only those sources that support their views. As a result, these books are horrible--serving no purpose other than furthering a particular dogma. Joseph is either an evil fraud or a larger than life paragon of virtue. There are better biographies, of course--notably Fawn Brodie's NO MAN KNOWS MY HISTORY, Donna Hill's JOSEPH SMITH; THE FIRST MORMON and Richard Bushman's JOSEPH SMITH THE BEGINNINGS OF MORMONISM. Yet, in reading each of these, I thought that each of the writer's employed rational that evaded many issues. Brodie certainly rejected the idea that Joseph Smith had an authentic belief in God. Bushman went to the other extreme: his approach of treating Joseph visions as objective realities because that's how Joseph presented them, is a classic attempt to evade objective reality itself. And Hill, in her approach, straddles a fence between the two. In the end, it has always seemed to me that Joseph's best biographers seemed to be writing more about a religion (Mormonism) than about an individual human being (Joseph Smith himself). All start out accepting anachronisms. For instance, in dealing with Joseph's mid-teen years, all of the above focus heavily on his 'First Vision Story'--which Joseph did not record until 15-18 years after the supposed event. All treat the First Vision Story (set in 1820) as if it were a foundational concept of early Mormonism--when, in fact, did not exist until the latter half of the 1830s and was not used in Mormon missionary work until the 1840s and beyond. But Brodie, Bushman and Hill lay out that story first in dealing with the teenage Joseph and then frame the rest of their studies around it. Obviously the '1820 First Vision Story' played no part whatsoever in Joseph's development and would be better used in trying to understand Joseph not as a young teen but as a powerful religious leader in his early 30's (the age he was when he dictated the 1820 First Vision Story.) In 1991 (when I was heavy into Joseph Smith research and taking extensive notes in preparation for a screenplay I wanted to write on his early life), I came to the conclusion that a good way to approach a bio of the youthful Joseph would be to consider only those sources written by eyewitnesses to event in his teens and young adult years; to give greater consideration to those sources recorded closer to the times of events; to consider the biases of those making the records; to give primary consideration only to the conceptual common denominators in these accounts--thus finding areas of agreement between Anti-Mormon sources and pro-Mormon sources. This task was far beyond my abilities, so I put my screenplay idea on the back shelf. Vogel has taken this approach (thank God!). He accepts what appears to be an incontestable fact: Joseph Smith had a rich inner life, that was centered on a belief in God. But Vogel also accepts another seemingly incontestable fact: Joseph deliberately perpetrated frauds in his attempt to establish the validity of his religious convictions. Having just seen M. Night Shyamalan's latest film THE VILLAGE (which deals with this very issue) on the same day on which I began reading this book, I suppose I was very open to accepting Vogel's premise that Joseph Smith was 'a pious fraud'--a term used by Thomas Paine in his classic THE AGE OF REASON. The question that many Mormon's ask is 'Why would a 17 year old make up a story about gold plates and angels?' 'Why would a boy in his late teens go to such lengths to perpetrate such a fraud?' Though usually asked rhetorically, these are questions that even the best of Joseph's biographers have too easily set aside. It is because Vogel seeks an honest, rational answer to these questions, that his book is, in my opinion, superior to all previous Smith biographies. Obviously if the teenage Joseph Smith invented the stories of the plates and the angel/spirit, and then went to such great lengths over the next 6 years to convince people of the story's objective reality, he must have been 'after something' that had great personal significance to him. What was that? Vogel answers the question by spending the first two sections of the book studying in depth the marriage of Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith. Other worthy historians have noted that Joseph Smith Sr displayed, for most of his life, all the symptons of alcoholism. Others have also noted that Lucy Mack Smith displayed many of the symptoms of what today would be considered Manic Depression. Vogels focuses on these issues and additionally explores the religious differences of this husband and wife. Joseph Sr. was more rational than Lucy in his approach to God; even his beliefs and practice of folk-magic were rooted in what we would now call pseudo-science. Joseph Sr. was a Universalist in his beliefs. His father was a devotee of Thomas Paine, Universalism and a particulate strand of late colonial era Deism, and he passed much of this on to Joseph Sr. Lucy Mack, on the other hand, was (by today's standards) more of a Pentecostal. Despite a literalistic approach to the Bible, her religion was centered on emotions. Her probable Manic Depression added to her religious instability. Vogel puts forth overwhelming evidence of the dysfunctional nature of Joseph Sr. and Lucy's marriage; how it effected the financial stability of the Smith family; how it effected the emotional lives of their children--specifically Joseph. Vogel accepts the fact that in most cases (and especially in dysfunctional families) the greatest influence on a child is not society as a while, not religion in particular, but the relationship of the child's parents. Vowel also explores the various dreams that JosephSr. had over the years concerning spiritual guides, salvation, buried treasures, etc, These dreams--along with Lucy's mania over Joseph Sr. salvation-- help provide a context for the events of September 21, 1823. In approaching the events of the evening September 21, 1823 (the night that Joseph claimed an angel first appeared to him and revealed the plates), Vogel provides information that I have never come across. Earlier that evening, Joseph Jr, was part of a money-digging outing on the hill that Mormons now call 'The Hill Cumorah.' No buried treasure was found in the hill, so Joseph (who used his peep stone on such occasions to locate the burial place of treasure) returned home empty handed again. It was a Sunday evening. Lucy and some of the children have probably come home from a Sunday evening prayer meeting--since Lucy has become very active in the Palmyrar churches. JosephSr.,however, considers all churches false, and refuses to attend any church--despite years of Lucy's begging, fretting, worrying, nagging. etc. That evening, an intense 'conversation' ensues regarding the spiritual state of the family members. When the family finally retires for the evening, 17 year old Joseph is distraught over his parent's disintegrating marriage--which seems to stem from their religious differences. Laying awake long into the morning, Joseph devises a way to unit his parents spiritually by combining elements of Joseph Sr.'s dreams over the years and his involvement with treasure digging with Lucy's obsession over Christian salvation. He adds into the mix, his own experiences earlier that evening with his peep-stone and treasure digging expedition to the Hill Cumorah. The next morning, he tells Joseph Sr. that during the night a spirit appeared to him in a dream and told him that a gold book was buried in the hill. Joseph, Sr. send him off to dig up the book. Joseph returns home that evening without the book, but gathers his family together to tell them that in due time, if he prepares himself, the book's guardian spirit will allow him to have the plates. But he warns the family, that this is their secret--they are to tell no one about this. He then proceeds to tell his family stories of the Nephites and Lamanites. In the weeks that follow, the family starts to work earlier in the morning so they knock off earlier in the evening and listen to Joseph's stories. For nearly two months, the Smith family's life is centered upon spending the evening listening to Joseph tells stories of the ancient Americans, their way of worship, etc. In short, the 17 year old, through his stories brings--for the very first time--religious unity to his family. When Alvin Smith dies suddenly two months later, this unity is destroyed. Lucy Smith wrote that because Alvin was so enthusiastic over Joseph's stories of the gold plates and the ancient Americans, following his sudden death, the family can't bear to hear any of Joseph's stories. Lucy becomes more devoted to the Presbyterian Church--despite the fact that the Presbyterian minister who preached at Alvin's funeral implied that Alvin had gone to hell because he never accepted Christ. Lucy's devotion to Presbyterianism despite this, further alienates Joseph Sr. and Joseph Jr.--who were outraged by the minister's remarks. Over the next four years as the family's situation deteriorated further, Joseph attempted--on various occasions, unsually after some tramatic episode in the family's life-- to reestablish family unity be returning to his stories of the gold plates. In short, Vogel's theory is that Joseph's invented the gold plates and the Book of Mormon stories in order to preserve first his parents' troubled marriage--and, a bit later, his own troubled marriage to Emma. By situating himself as the spiritual guide for his family, Joseph sought to save it.

The author wrote in the Introduction to this 2004 book, "In writing this biography, I did not want to provide a simple chronological narrative of Smith's early life. Rather, I intended to consider the psychological implications of Smith's actions and beliefs and get as close to the man as possible. Thus, I have written an interpretive biography of an emotional and intellectual life... My approach to Joseph Smith is also informed by family-systems theory, which views the family as an organism-like system that seeks to maintain emotional equilibrium (homeostasis)... I argue that the marriage of Smith's parents---Lucy and Joseph Sr.---like many marriages, was essentially dysfunctional. It was marked by religious conflict and financial burden even before Joseph Jr.'s birth. Other contributing factors were Lucy's periodic bouts with depression and suicidal fantasies and Joseph Sr.'s struggle with low self-esteem and alcoholism."

He also admitted frankly, "No biographer is completely free of bias. As is no doubt apparent, my inclination is to interpret any claim of the paranormal... as delusion or fraud. I do not claim that the supernatural does not exist, for it is impossible prove a negative. I maintain only that the evidence upon which such claims rest is unconvincing to me." (Pg. xii)

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"To my mind, the most obvious solution ... is to suggest that Smith was a well intentioned 'pious deceiver' or, perhaps otherwise worded, a 'sincere fraud,' someone who prevaricated for 'good' reasons." (Pg. viii)
"I suspect that the (First Vision), or at least the claim to a vision, may be traced to 1820-1821. I therefore reject the suggestion that Smith invented the vision in the 1830s. However, his subsequent alterations ... cautions against an uncritical acceptance of even the 1832 account. In fact, one should be cautious, if for no other reason, because Smith himself freely modified his original account." (Pg. 30)
"Nevertheless, the nineteen-year-old (Joseph Smith) was drawn to the revival and later admitted that his 'mind at different times was greatly excited' by the preaching... Joseph Jr. 'frequented' the various revival meetings, 'sometimes professing to participate in their devotional exercises,' and that he eventually 'joined the probationary class of the Methodist church in Palmyra, and made some active demonstration of engagedness,' but soon withdrew." (Pg. 59)
"Joseph Smith was not under the same restrictions as the Reverend Ethan Smith (author of 'View of the Hebrews'), but he nevertheless retained the notion of a single migration party reaching America and that the mound builders had been destroyed by their own kinsmen. Joseph Smith rejected the ten tribe theory while also deriving inspiration from it." (Pg. 123)
"The principle (sic) participants in the Book of Mormon project, Smith and Cowdery, felt confident enough to baptize believers but were not yet sufficiently confident to organize a church." (Pg. 404)
"Smith found that he did not have to search for willing participants, for as soon as it was discovered that witnesses were to be chosen, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris began to implore him to let them be included. This was ideal, for the three men were among the most charismatic of Smith's followers." (Pg. 441-442)
"The metaphysical aspect of (David) Whitmer's testimony was noted... Despite the naturalistic wording of the printed testimony, Whitmer's candid personal account described what might be called a waking dream... Like Whitmer, (Martin) Harris admitted to the subjective nature of the experience." (Pg. 445)
"Despite the naturalistic language of the testimony, the experiences of the eight (witnesses) were apparently visionsary in nature, similar to the experiences of the three witnesses." (Pg. 467)
"Despite publicly posing as a believer in the traditional heaven and hell, Smith privately subscribed to the Universalist doctrine and did not himself fear an eternal, never-ending punishment." (Pg. 490)

This is the fourth book I have read of Dan Vogel's. He is an amazing researcher. This is one of the best and most thorough tombs on Joseph Smith and the early church. I would challenge anyone to come up with more pertinent references than Vogel. The amount of new research and sources he has found is truly amazing! I agree that some of the psychological analysis is speculative but Vogel admits to as much most of the time. It is still an interesting exercise and one that goes very deep into Joseph's possible motivations. Vogel supports his belief that Joseph was a pious con artist, in other words, he believed in his cause but was willing to lie, forge and cheat to support it (the ends justify the means). Once you complete this book and read all the reference notes, I don't see how you could still believe in Mormonism or in the historicity of the Book of Mormon. Vogel points out many of the inconsistencies and anachronisms therein.

This book is very detailed and densely packed with facts from the Mormon Prophet's life. Vogel presents a natural explanation for the actions and words of Mormonism's founding prophet. In contrast to Richard Bushman's "Rough Stone Rolling," he doesn't gloss over, or attempt to provide an excuse for Smith's obvious character flaws.

Because the book is so fact intensive--very detailed--it can drag at times. However, this biography along with Vogel's five volume set of "Early Mormon Documents," are important additions to any library of accurate Mormon history.

Kay Burningham, Attorney

Author of "An American Fraud: One Lawyer's Case against Mormonism"

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.

Joseph Smith is the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon Church. He led a relative brief and eventful life that ended with the murder of his brother and himself at the hands of a lynch mob. Mormon historian Dan Vogel has written an impressive, new biography based upon some twenty-five years of research into the life and world of Joseph Smith which provides the reader with a fascinating, informed and informative context of Joseph Smith's social and political environment. This outstanding biography expands traditional biographical boundaries to include a kind of intellectual history of the man, his movement, and his world. Among the multiple themes, issues, and elements that are pursued are the kind of home that Joseph Smith was raised in, the impact and influence of the Masons on the political culture of the times, the Smith family's financial setbacks and hardships, Smith's turning to religion for personal solace, his talent and charisma for attracting followers, his unique perspectives on the religious issues of his day, and so much more. Very highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in unique and influential American personalities, "Joseph Smith" should be considered required reading for anyone studying the history of the Mormon Church in general, and its charismatic and controversial founder in particular.

Vogel cannot be faulted in his research; his accumulation of material is dizzying. I have two major complaints with the book. First, Vogel actually has produced two books here. On one hand, he offers a biography of the prophet. While exhaustive, that biography differs little in substance from other works, mostly in the vein of Fawn Brodie's book. On the other hand, Vogel occupies a substantial portion of his book extensively discussing every aspect of the Book of Mormon brought forth by Joseph Smith, finding environmental or familial influences that flavored or defined its content. The insertion of this material not only seriously disrupts the flow of the biography, it detracts from the stated purpose of the title: to exhibit the making of the prophet Joseph Smith. Perhaps Vogel's work would have been stronger had he omitted the distracting commentary on the Book of Mormon.

But perhaps not. Before it came out, many touted Vogel's work as the new definitive work on Joseph Smith. Vogel indeed accumulates an impressive array of material. But he really adds little to the question of Joseph Smith's claims as a prophet. All of Vogel's arguments have been presented, often more succinctly and less speculatively, before. And, importantly, Vogel by no means approached this work objectively. His book seems to have been written with a skeptical, and even critical, approach. Vogel's methodology seems to be that all information casting Joseph in a negative or naturalistic light is inherently credible, while any "faithful" account of his life is irreparably tainted and unreliable. This approach exposes the biases of the author and weakens the impact of his work.

Having a strong background in Mormon history, I found Vogel's book somewhat interesting, but only in the same way I find it interesting when Paul McCartney records yet another version of The Beatles' song `Yesterday." I have heard the song many, many times before. The nuances are somewhat interesting, but from the first few notes, I know what to expect. If you like "Yesterday," that's okay with you. But no one will claim that the latest remake of the song is groundbreaking or earthshattering. Hey, if you want to believe that Joseph Smith was not a prophet, go ahead and read Vogel's book. I would suggest, though, that those wishing an unbiased perspective read Bushman's "Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism."