The Possibility of Joseph Smith: Some Evangelical Probings
This chapter contributes to the evangelical understanding of Joseph Smith. The interest of evangelical scholars in Mormonism has tended to be in the context of apologetics rather than scholarly inquiry. The chapter breaks new ground in this regard by responding to the probing question: Is Joseph Smith possible for you? It stakes out an alternative to the facile either/or approaches that refuse to relinquish the burden of judgment. Turning the study of Joseph Smith in the direction of reception-theory enables both a richer dialogue and the possibility of real insight into the religious yearnings and preoccupations of religious communities. As a tentative gesture in this direction, the chapter makes history in a modest way, rather than examining it.
Keywords: Mormonism, prophet, revelation, open cannon, apologetics, reception theory, religious dialogue
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .