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| − | {{JosephSmithPortal}}
| + | #REDIRECT [[Question: Did Joseph Smith derive his religious ideas in part from a mysticism called Kabbalah?]] |
| − | ==Criticism==
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| − | Critics claim that Joseph Smith's religious ideas derived in part from ''Kabbalah'', a type of (usually Jewish) mysticism.
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| − | ===Source(s) of the Criticism===
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| − | *{{CriticalWork:Brooke:Refiner's Fire|pages=1–}}
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| − | *{{CriticalWork:Owens:JS and Kabbalah|pages=117–194}}
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| − | ==Response==
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| − | Extensive reviews of the works which purport to find this strain in Joseph Smith's thought are available (see below).
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| − | It is difficult to prove a negative—how might we prove that Joseph's ideas were ''not'' from Kabbalah?
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| − | Rather, we can consider a number of the problems with this intellectual construct, and then ask if there are not perhaps better ways to understand Joseph's thought.
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| − | One review wrote that:
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| − | :Throughout his book, Brooke's approach might be characterized as scholarship by adjective (see, e.g., pp. 240, 294). Time and again, he places the adjective "hermetic" or "alchemical" before a noun relating to Mormonism and then proceeds as if the mere act of juxtaposing the two terms—essentially without argument—had established that the ill-defined adjective really applies. He holds that "certainly Joseph Smith was predisposed to a hermetic interpretation of sacred history and processes from his boyhood" (p. 208). But what does this mean? What is a "hermetic interpretation" here? Although Brooke himself seems to have a predisposition to a "hermetic interpretation" of almost everything in sight, Joseph Smith and his followers undoubtedly did not have the remotest idea of what hermeticism was.
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| − | :Simply labeling Mormon celestial marriage "hermetic" and "alchemical" (as on pp. 214, 257-58, 281) does not make it such. Frequently, in a kind of fallacy of misplaced concretion, Brooke is misled by his own metaphors to misread nineteenth-century realities (as in his use of the terms "alchemy" and "transmutation" in discussing the Kirtland Bank [pp. 222-23; cf. 227-28]), and even twentieth-century Utah (as when he describes modern financial scams in Utah as "alchemical" [p. 299]). On at least one occasion, Fawn Brodie's (twentieth-century) portrayal of Sidney Rigdon as engaged in a metaphorical "witchhunt" inspires Brooke—evidently by sheer word association—to claim that Joseph Smith (!) saw himself as literally surrounded by witches (p. 230).{{ref|hamblin-peterson-mitton.1}}
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| − | ==Endnotes==
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| − | #
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| − | ===FAIR wiki articles===
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| − | {{MagicWiki}}
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| − | ===FAIR web site===
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| − | {{MagicFAIR}}
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| − | ===External links===
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| − | *{{BYUS|author=Davis Bitton|article=Review of John L. Brooke, ''The Refiner’s Fire: the Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844''|vol=34|num=4|date=1994–95|start=182|end=192}}{{pdflink|url=http://byustudies.byu.edu/Products/MoreInfoPage/MoreInfo.aspx?Type=7&ProdID=1169}}
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| − | *{{FR-8-2-12}}<!--Everything is everything-->
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| − | *{{BYUS|author=William J. Hamblin, Daniel C. Peterson, and George L. Mitton|article=Review of John L. Brooke, ''The Refiner’s Fire: the Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844''|vol=34|num=4|date=1994–95|start=167|end=181}}{{pdflink|url=http://byustudies.byu.edu/Products/MoreInfoPage/MoreInfo.aspx?Type=7&ProdID=1207}}
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| − | *{{FR-6-2-3}}{{an|Shorter version of ''BYU Studies'' paper above; discusses Hermeticism; Masonry}}
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| − | ===Printed material===
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| − | *
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