Title: Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History
Author: Richard Lyman Bushman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Genre: History
Year Published: 2023
Number of Pages: xiv + 245 (end material included)
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0197576529
Price: $34.16
Reviewed by Nicholas S. Literski, JD, PhD, for the Association for Mormon Letters
Reviewing a book by Richard Lyman Bushman is a somewhat daunting task for any serious scholar of Mormonism. I would argue that no man since Leonard Arrington has captured the role of “Dean of Mormon History” as thoroughly as Bushman, and like Arrington, Bushman has attracted both admirers and detractors. His last major work, Joseph Smit: Rough Stone Rolling: A Cultural Biography of Mormonism’s Founder, was lauded by many for its honesty and forthrightness in portraying Smith’s complicated life. At the same time, however, it was condemned by traditionalist Latter-day Saints who were unfamiliar with history outside the confines of church manuals. My own Latter-day Saint bishop, who was serving as a temple recorder at the time, approached me in hushed tones at a local church event, asking what I thought of Bushman’s revelations. Others have prominently accused Bushman of falsifying Smith’s history, alleging a dark conspiracy to destroy the foundations of Mormonism.
Eighteen years later, Bushman presents a focused study on the gold plates that were allegedly discovered and translated by Joseph Smith Jr. to produce The Book of Mormon. Once again, Bushman emphasizes that this is a cultural history—an attempt to locate the gold plates within their specific context of time and place. More specifically, however, one might say that Bushman examines the idea of the gold plates within their sphere. Nothing in Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History attempts to establish the bona fides of Smith’s narrative. Rather, Bushman examines how the plates have been thought of during the 200 years since an 18-year-old Joseph Smith Jr. first told of their existence.
In the past, Bushman’s refusal to shy away from Smith’s early years as a treasure digger has drawn criticism from traditionalists who sought to minimize or discredit such accounts. In contrast, overly-simplistic critics have emphasized these activities as if they were prima facie evidence that Smith’s later religious claims were fraudulent. In Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates, Bushman provides an innovative approach that threads the needle between these extremes. Bushman retains Smith’s claim of earnest prayer resulting in the appearance of an angel who reveals the location of the plates, but departs from official narratives by suggesting that Smith and his family initially failed to understand the true significance of the plates as sacred records. In essence, Bushman argues that the Smiths had no context for the plates beyond that of the traditions of treasure digging, only gradually coming to understand over the ensuing years that the message outweighed the medium.
While perhaps not enough to satisfy every reader, Bushman’s approach makes an important contribution to the discussion. By carefully analyzing both primary and secondary statements, Bushman shows that despite being told that he must be focused on the glory of God in order to obtain the plates, Smith and his family initially perceived the plates as a divine gift of valuable treasure. Even after obtaining the plates, Smith seems to have lacked a full comprehension of his role, as he spoke of finding some learned person to translate them into English. In taking this position, Bushman frankly describes how early discourse shifted in order to deemphasize the treasure-digging aspects of the gold plate story, thus reshaping Smith’s experience for religious audiences. As early as 1829, Smith’s uncle accused him of obtaining the plates by means of necromancy, and only later inventing a story of holy messengers. By way of further illustration, Bushman notes that the phrase “Urim and Thummim” was never used to describe the interpretive devices found with the plates until 1834, likely in direct response to treasure digging accusations in Eber D. Howe’s expose, Mormonism Unvailed.
According to Smith, the angel who revealed the gold plates retrieved them after The Book of Mormon was completed, leaving for some future time a revelation of the plates’ untranslated “sealed” portion. Only a few close family members and close associates thereafter reported ever encountering the plates as physical objects. The published “Testimony of Eight Witnesses,” in particular, notably lacked any reference to supernatural phenomena, whether in the context of treasure hunting or divine revelation. Just as the story of the plates had shifted emphasis from treasure digging to angelic revelation, these witnesses helped to bring the plates into an increasingly empirical, rationalistic culture where physicality reigned supreme.
Bushman’s further analysis aptly brings together the many permutations of the gold plates narrative as it was encountered by other parties with various agendas. Psychologists have attempted to explain the plates as a manifestation of Smith’s psyche. Claimants to Smith’s legacy have presented other metal plates, transparently reenacting his ministry. No other writer has so clearly and concisely gathered together the many treatments of Smith’s gold plates, and Bushman’s work is an important contribution in this sense, among others.
In Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates, Bushman shows that the physical nature of the plates has held a comparatively small role in their future significance. In modern Latter-day Saint teachings, such as the Preach My Gospel manual, Bushman notes that “Moroni and the gold plates have nearly disappeared from the story . . . The plates and the angel are incidental details. The essential thrust is to teach revelation” (p. 127). At first, this might read as a shocking conclusion, and this work will no doubt further enrage some traditionalists. The honest reader, however, will readily follow Bushman’s ample demonstrations of how the meaning of the gold plates has shifted to meet the needs of a changing world. This work is deepened, after all, by the perspective of its author—a man who has ably served both his academic discipline and his own Latter-day Saint faith with unquestionable devotion over the course of many decades.
Many years ago, I was a first-year student in Ray Matheny’s BYU archeology class. On the last day of class, he spoke frankly, expressing his thinly veiled contempt for those who try to reduce The Book of Mormon to archeological proofs. I still remember the shock to my naïve young faith, as he stated flatly that he did not ever expect to see anyone find archeological proof of the book. After nearly forty years, including my own departure from the faith, I understand Matheny differently. Just as young Joseph Smith took time to understand that the message of the plates was more important than their physical nature, our own understanding of the plates has grown. A meaningful, inspiring story will always find greater value than a bundle of gold plates.