Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

Rating:
Summary: Rather a remake ... but a good one!
Review: Dan Vogel has really impressed me with his detailed work about the writing of Joseph Smith. His five "Early Mormon documents" have been used in the book. It is easy to follow his way of reasoning and he discusses the different sources before he draws his own conclusions. Much of his earlier research is also quoted. Vogel has written so much about LDS and Joseph and this book can be seen as a sort of masterpiece which compile his former writings and of course research done by others.

The most positive about the book is the holistic view of Joseph, his treasure-seeking days are not treated as a proof for fraud but rather a basis for his future calling as a prophet (following Jan Shipps). The most interesting parts of the book are the chapters about the Book of Mormon and how Joseph wrote it (see further below). Though, one is never confronted with the answer to this question: why this complicated story about hundreds of personalities, cities and repeating latter day visions and prenominations of Christ's coming, when Joseph could have been another Alexander Campell (another preacher of those times, and a bit chilly towards Joe for the natural reason that many of Campell's disciples found Joe interesting!).
Joseph's identity as a translator never vanished after Book of Mormon, it continued, the difference between his work with the Bible and the Book of Abraham is that he did not use a stone, or?

The rest of the chapters of the book are dealing with financial matters, or at least, that is what I mostly remember from them, Joseph owing somebody this and that.

In the section about the Book of Mormon we follow Mosiah, Alma and the other Book of Mormon personalities from a 19th century perspective. According to Vogel, every word they say reflect Joseph way of reasoning, his middle way, trying to create a balance in the different Christian denominations but also to convert his own family to a single coherent religous system. The 19th century parallellism notwithstanding, the reader gets to know Book of Mormon history, culture and society in modern English, which can be liberating (compared to the old English style in the Book of Mormon itself). Vogel presents us with a Joseph who takes the challenge to create a new Christianity through creating a past pre-Columbian Christianity in America, written in holy goldish plates. They don't exist and they don't need to, because the belief resolves most of the puzzle. Not to forget: several chapters of Doctrine and Covenants are discussed and also the writing of Book of Moses, but of course not in the same fashion or space as the Book of Mormon. Goody!

I don't know what to make of the book in total, it is not a biography, it is a psychiography, but something was missing after all, maybe the discussion of the different documents made it so non-biographical. One never gets to know the life as it was in those days, the role of Emma in Joseph's life, the mother, Lucy, takes a lot of space though. This book is foremost for those who support the 19th century arguments about Book of Mormon. Even if I am so non-affliated with LDS, my few drops of spirituality did increase rather tremendously reading the book, I mean if Joseph did it, why can't I?


Rating:
Summary: Eye opening approach to Joseph Smith
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Eye opening approach to Joseph Smith
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Really New
Review: I have to agree with "Ed Tuttle," Vogel's book, while well-documented, presents nothing really new to the question of whether Joseph Smith was a prophet as he claimed. Vogel rehashes the same information we have seen for over a hundred-and-fifty years. He does add some pyshcological explanation for Smith's actions, but as another reviewer noted, that has been done, in my opinion more adroitly, before.

As with other books dealing with Mormonism, lets not let our beliefs color our evaluation of a book. I wouldn't rave about this book if it were for or against Smith unless it added something new to the debate. This book, while well researched, will not stand the test of time as the definitive biography of Smith.

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly, insightful, thoughtful and thought-provoking
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 accomplished of a most unique and remarkable man of the 19th 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.

Rating:
Summary: Speculative and pedantic
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: 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."