The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, Vol. 1, 1832-1839 ed. by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (review)

Ohio's place in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints receives significant exposure in this first published volume of the Joseph Smith papers. Comprising Smith's journals, 1832-39, it covers Mormon migration to Ohio and expansion, foundational developments in theology and practice tied to Smith's Ohio revelations, construction of the first temple, and mass migration from Ohio to Missouri. Edited according to the highest professional standards, meticulously presented, and eventually to include a comprehensive collection of extant Smith documents, the Joseph Smith papers represent a landmark in historical scholarship.

Students of religion and reform will find Smith's record dovetails with important developments in 1830s Ohio. Smith's New York cadre landed among Kirtland sympathizers in 1831 and quickly began evangelizing. Accustomed to fiery revivals, some Western Reserve inhabitants were also receptive to this new "Mormonite" religion based on Smith's revelatory visions. Many early converts had been prominent in Methodist and Disciples of Christ circles, resulting in a protracted theological feud enacted through regional newspapers. Mormon missionaries joined throngs of abolitionists, temperance lecturers, and other reform apostles crisscrossing the Reserve.

Scholars of Mormon history will appreciate the theological significance adhering to Smith's Ohio experiences. An 1832 vision at a Hiram farmhouse is the basis for the Mormon doctrine of the three heavens. From his Kirtland headquarters, Smith and church leaders also oversaw the construction of the Kirtland temple and "Zion" in northwestern Missouri, the primary gathering site for Mormons sheltering from the wrath God must shortly release on a sinful world. Although experimental communal settlements existed nearby, many Reserve neighbors bristled at Smith's teaching that property should be consecrated to the church's discretionary use. By the mid-1830s, mob violence and general discord prompted Smith and many Ohioans to relocate to Missouri. The Kirtland camp, numbering five hundred, left that city en masse in 1838.

Journal entries demonstrate that Missouri neighbors were even less welcoming; Ohio migrants arrived amidst a forced mass expulsion. Unfortunately, entries become more sporadic in the wake of the crisis, but they still illuminate Smith's frustration at seeing republican liberties violated by government officials at nearly every level. Mormon leaders became increasingly militant and isolationist as regional tensions escalated into the 1838 Mormon War. Arrested and imprisoned for treason while enemies wrested God's people from their promised land, Smith probably endured his most troubled period. Unfortunately, this portion of the journals is probably the least revealing, leaving a regrettable gap in information relating to a significant turning point in Smith's thinking.

Even more frustrating, Smith made only a fraction of all entries. His close associates wrote the bulk, and many were later revised. Historians already know studying early Mormonism is akin to aiming at a moving target, given Smith's penchant for revising, correcting, and even contradicting earlier revelations. Despite this volume's generous annotation and supplementation, readers may want to concurrently peruse Richard Bushman's Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005) and Mark Staker's Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith's Ohio Revelations (Salt Lake City: Kofford, 2009), dealing entirely with early Ohio Mormonism. Some scholars will feel that the authors and editors of all these works err by situating Mormonism firmly within the generally accepted theological tradition of Christianity, but this is not unusual among works produced by those with close ties to the LDS church.