عنوان

History and the Claims of Revelation:

Number

LA122783

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

History and the Claims of Revelation:

General Material Designation

[Article]

Other Title Information

Joseph Smith and the Materialization of the Golden Plates

First Statement of Responsibility

Ann Taves

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

The Mormon claim that Joseph Smith discovered ancient golden plates buried in a hillside in upstate New York is too often viewed in simple either/or terms, such that the plates either existed, making Smith the prophet he claimed to be, or did not, making him deceptive or delusional. If we assume that there were no ancient golden plates and at the same that Smith was not a fraud, then the task of historical explanation is more complex. Building on a review of the evidence for the materiality of the plates, the paper uses a series of comparisons - between the golden plates and sacred objects in other religious traditions, between Smith's claims and claims that psychiatrists define as delusional, and between Smith's role as a seer and the role of the artist and the physician as skilled perceivers - to generate a greater range of explanatory options. In light of these comparisons, we can view the materialization of the golden plates in naturalistic terms as resulting from an interaction between an individual with unusual abilities, intimate others who recognized and called forth those abilities, and objects that facilitated the creation of both the revelator and the revelation. The Mormon claim that Joseph Smith discovered ancient golden plates buried in a hillside in upstate New York is too often viewed in simple either/or terms, such that the plates either existed, making Smith the prophet he claimed to be, or did not, making him deceptive or delusional. If we assume that there were no ancient golden plates and at the same that Smith was not a fraud, then the task of historical explanation is more complex. Building on a review of the evidence for the materiality of the plates, the paper uses a series of comparisons - between the golden plates and sacred objects in other religious traditions, between Smith's claims and claims that psychiatrists define as delusional, and between Smith's role as a seer and the role of the artist and the physician as skilled perceivers - to generate a greater range of explanatory options. In light of these comparisons, we can view the materialization of the golden plates in naturalistic terms as resulting from an interaction between an individual with unusual abilities, intimate others who recognized and called forth those abilities, and objects that facilitated the creation of both the revelator and the revelation.

Date of Publication

2014

Physical description

182-207

Title

Numen

Volume Number

61/2-3

International Standard Serial Number

1568-5276

Subject Term

Book of Mormon

Subject Term

golden plates

Subject Term

Joseph Smith

Subject Term

Mormonism

Subject Term

revelation

Ann Taves

Call Number

10.1163/15685276-12341315

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y