Michael Hubbard Mackay - Joseph Smiths Seer Stones

Published by the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, in cooperation with Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City. Visit us at rsc.byu.edu.

2016 by Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.

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Any uses of this material beyond those allowed by the exemptions in US copyright law, such as section 107, Fair Use, and section 108, Library Copying, require the written permission of the publisher, Religious Studies Center, 185 HGB, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of Brigham Young University or the Religious Studies Center.

ISBN: 978-1-9443-9405-9

Retail US: $24.99

Cover design and interior layout by Madison Swapp

Front cover painting by Anthony Sweat

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: MacKay, Michael Hubbard, author.

Title: Joseph Smiths seer stones / Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick.

Description: Provo : BYU Religious Studies Center, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016019871 | ISBN 9781944394059

Subjects: LCSH: Smith, Joseph, Jr., 18051844. | OccultismReligious aspectsMormon Church. | Visions. | Book of Mormon.

Classification: LCC BX8695.S6 M225 2016 | DDC 289.3092dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016019871

abbreviations

preface

In 2013, Mike MacKay approached Richard Turley, Assistant Church Historian, with Mark Ashurst-McGee, Senior Historian at the Church History Library, to request a photograph of Joseph Smiths brown seer stone. This request was germane to the research being done at the Joseph Smith Papers Project for Documents, Volume One . The request was unsuccessful at that time, but the foresight and leadership of Richard Turley culminated in a published photograph of the brown stone in the summer of 2015.

Much of this research developed into a more in-depth narrative analysis of the translation of the Book of Mormon, coauthored by Mike MacKay and Gerrit Dirkmaat, From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smiths Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon , currently in its third printing. An important element that needed to be developed further and was clearly a major interest within Mormonism was an analysis of the seer stones themselves. To build upon Turleys groundbreaking release, we originally intended to write a short guide to Joseph Smiths seer stones. MacKay teamed up with Nick Frederick, a colleague in Religious Education at Brigham Young University. Frederick had previously worked with Richard L. Bushman at Claremont Graduate University to research and write his book The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the Rhetoric of Allusivity. His emphasis on Book of Mormon and biblical studies was an ideal background to complement MacKays expertise in early Mormon history.

As we advanced further in the writing process, we realized that the book needed to be longer than we originally intended. What we ended up with is a comprehensive study aimed at both Latter-day Saints and researchers interested in Mormon history, Mormon scripture, and Joseph Smith. Additionally, there were several tangential issues and questions that extended beyond the primary narrative we were relaying but were nonetheless important issues to a study of seer stones. These have been included as appendices. This book also includes a sizable annotated source guide so readers can approach the sources without having to draw from numerous published works. The overarching theme of the book is that seer stones can be understood as a theological concept, which was an area that was previously unexplored. Yet, at its core, it is an approachable study that pulls the current scholarship together as a means of providing readers and researchers with a platform for further, more nuanced studies of seer stones. It is certainly not intended to be the final word on the topic.