Latter-day Saints also "tend to read Joseph as a figure cleanly severed from what came before him." Which does cause some disorientation, I think, whenever it happens that he wasn't completely removed from the world he was living in. Like you said, jarring and disorientation.
A big one is -- in Joseph Smith history, Joseph presents the story of the first vision by saying: "I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse..."
William Smith & Oliver Cowdery both remark that the Methodist preacher Rev. George Lane, had been preaching on James 1:5, and that Joseph attended a revival where this verse was preached upon.
Most people perfunctorily familiar with LDS Church History only know the "official account," which, like every story, has to pick a spot to begin, and a spot to end. And, it doesn't start with the Methodist revival. But, with Joseph reading. It creates the perspective that Joseph was "cleanly severed from what came before him." But, perhaps he wasn't in this case. He just took what came before him, and stretched it out farther than it had been before. Took it a little further.
It is an interesting note when it comes to writing histories. How are stories framed? How are they presented? Does it unintentionally create the wrong idea? Is it intentionally trying to teach something different.
I think that’s a good point, and one that also helps me with the First Vision. Depending on the historical context, the version changes, which is how we generally tell stories. Joseph living in 1832 is a very different man than the one living in 1838. No one lives through what he did during the Kirtland-Missouri era and comes out the same person.
Latter-day Saints also "tend to read Joseph as a figure cleanly severed from what came before him." Which does cause some disorientation, I think, whenever it happens that he wasn't completely removed from the world he was living in. Like you said, jarring and disorientation.
A big one is -- in Joseph Smith history, Joseph presents the story of the first vision by saying: "I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse..."
William Smith & Oliver Cowdery both remark that the Methodist preacher Rev. George Lane, had been preaching on James 1:5, and that Joseph attended a revival where this verse was preached upon.
Most people perfunctorily familiar with LDS Church History only know the "official account," which, like every story, has to pick a spot to begin, and a spot to end. And, it doesn't start with the Methodist revival. But, with Joseph reading. It creates the perspective that Joseph was "cleanly severed from what came before him." But, perhaps he wasn't in this case. He just took what came before him, and stretched it out farther than it had been before. Took it a little further.
It is an interesting note when it comes to writing histories. How are stories framed? How are they presented? Does it unintentionally create the wrong idea? Is it intentionally trying to teach something different.
I think that’s a good point, and one that also helps me with the First Vision. Depending on the historical context, the version changes, which is how we generally tell stories. Joseph living in 1832 is a very different man than the one living in 1838. No one lives through what he did during the Kirtland-Missouri era and comes out the same person.