FAIR Topical Guide

Guide Home > Prophets > Latter-day Prophets > Smith, Joseph > Character

Additional Topics

The following are additional topic areas related to Character. If there is a bracket number after the topic, that number indicates how many actual articles there are related to that subject. If the link for the topic is not live, it simply means the topic is a 'planned area' for future growth.

FAIR Resources

These links are either to Web pages hosted on the FAIR Website, or to FAIR Papers. FAIR Papers are short articles about specific topics or questions, written by members of FAIR. These articles can be downloaded and read in PDF format and are intended to be distributed by e-mail or print for the general use of our patrons. (To read FAIR Papers you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader. It can be downloaded free from the Adobe Web site.) Click on a title below to visit a FAIR Web page or to read the latest version of a FAIR Paper.

Russell Anderson, "The 1826 Trial of Joseph Smith," (2002 FAIR Conference presentation.) Was Joseph Smith convicted of being a fraud and glass looker?

Russell Anderson, "The 1826 Trial of Joseph Smith," (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, August 2002) In his 2002 FAIR Conference presentation, Russell Anderson responds to critics who attempt to use the 1826 "trial" to impugn the reputation and character of Joseph Smith.

Danel W. Bachman, "Mormonism -- Shadow or Reality? History or Propaganda? Joseph Smith as a Case Study," (2000 FAIR Conference presentation.)

Matthew B. Brown, "Historical or Hysterical. Anti-Mormons and Documentary Sources," (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, April 2005) At the 2004 FAIR Conference, Matthew Brown presented a presentation that examined many of the claims made by anti-Mormons about Joseph Smith's character and his account of the events of the Restoration. Anti-Mormon literature is filled with many accusations against Joseph Smith: he was of low moral character, he was not spiritually-minded as a youth, the "true" accounts of his behavior and personality have been nefariously suppresed by the Church, and that historical records show that Joseph Smith's accounting of the Restoration evolved into the story that is told today. Brown brings up evidence showing that these anti-Mormon claims are unsupported and contradicted by the evidence. This article includes the slide presentation used by Brown, and shows point by point how anti-Mormon accusations really are more hysteria than history.

Richard L. Bushman, "Joseph Smith Miscellany," (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, 2005 FAIR Conference) In his 2005 FAIR Conference presentation, Richard Bushman discusses portions of Joseph Smith's life that have been traditionally difficult to understand and looks at how these can be understood better from the point of view of the Prophet.

Daniel C. Peterson, "The Protean Joseph Smith," (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, August 2002) Dan Peterson looks at the history of the theories of how the Book of Mormon came to be. In this 2002 FAIR Conference presentation, Peterson concludes that nothing the critics have offered is as believable as Joseph Smith's own explanation.

Ensign Articles

These articles cited below provide information on the topic of this page. The Ensign is one of the official publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When you click on one of the article links below, you are whisked to the article found in the archives of the Church's Web site.

Leonard J. Arrington, "The Human Qualities of Joseph Smith, the Prophet," Ensign, January 1971, 35.

Richard L. Bushman, "The Character of Joseph Smith: Insights from His Holographs," Ensign, April 1977, 11.

Dean C. Jessee, "Joseph Smith Jr.--in His Own Words, Part 1," Ensign, December 1984, 22.

Dean C. Jessee, "Joseph Smith Jr.--in His Own Words, Part 2," Ensign, January 1985, 18.

Dean C. Jessee, "Joseph Smith Jr.--in His Own Words, Part 3," Ensign, February 1985, 6.

Dean C. Jessee, "Joseph Smith's Reputation Among Historians," Ensign, September 1979, 57.

Dean C. Jessee, "The Spirituality of Joseph Smith," Ensign, September 1978, 14.

Duane C. Knowles, "Foes Became His Friends," Ensign, January 1993, 27. Joseph Smith's love for his enemies often won their respect and support.

Don L. Searle, "A Disciple in Deed," Ensign, June 1994, 12. Those whose lives were touched by the Prophet witnessed the ways in which he emulated the Master.

J. Lewis Taylor, "Joseph the Prophet: A Self-Portrait," Ensign, June 1973, 40.

Brent L. Top, "'I Was with My Family': Joseph Smith--Devoted Husband, Father, Son, and Brother," Ensign, August 1991, 22.

Other Resources

The resources listed below are related items available on the Web that should be of interest. These links are to information not located on the FAIR Web site.

Richard L. Anderson, "Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reappraised," BYU Studies (1970) The biographer of Joseph Smith’s early life will know his subject when he relies on sources that know their subject. This truism is more obvious in statement than application, for non-Mormon biography has not faced the severe limitations of the uniformly hostile affidavits taken by a sworn enemy of the Mormon Prophet. The image thus obtained is sharply discordant from the Joseph Smith documented in the 1830’s: a leader of physical prowess and vigorous manhood, a profound idealist with spontaneous humor and warmth, who displayed personal courage under tremendous odds. A similar youth in the 1820’s is discovered, not by editing out non-Mormon sources, but finding those non-Mormon sources that reflect definite contact with Joseph Smith. Such a study shows that collecting informed statements about the Prophet will produce a substantial favorable judgment. Although initial collection of statements against Joseph Smith is an oft-told story, its outline is a necessary background for the affidavits to be analyzed. D. P. Hurlbut, excommunicated twice by LDS tribunals for immorality; became so personally vindictive that he was put under a court order restraining him from doing harm to the person or property of Joseph Smith. He was next “employed” by an anti-Mormon public committee to gather evidence to “completely divest Joseph Smith of all claims to the character of an honest man. . . .” To achieve this goal he traveled to New York and procured statements at Palmyra Village, the largest business center adjacent to the Smith farm and also at Manchester, the rural district that included “Stafford Street.” Cornelius Stafford, then twenty, later remembered that Hurlbut arrived at “our school house and took statements about the bad character of the Mormon Smith family, and saw them swear to them.” The Painesville, Ohio, editor, E. D. Howe, replaced Hurlbut as a respectable author, and published the affidavits in Mormonism Unvailed(1834), laying the cornerstone of anti-Mormon historiography. Howe lived to see the solidity of the edifice, observing forty-four years afterward in his memoirs that the book “has been the basis of all the histories which have appeared from time to time since that period touching that people.” More accurately, Howe’s writing was insignificant, but the Palmyra-Manchester affidavits published by him have introduced Joseph Smith in every major non-Mormon study from 1834 to the present. Yet even supposedly definitive studies display no investigation of the individuals behind the Hurlbut statements, nor much insight into their community.

Michael R. Ash, Treasure Digging and Seerstones.

Stephen R. Gibson, "Did Joseph Smith Claim To Do a Greater Work Than Jesus?," One-Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers) How can Latter-day Saints follow a man who boasts to have done a greater work than Jesus Christ?

Stephen R. Gibson, "Why Was Joseph Smith Jailed?," One-Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers) How can Latter-day Saints belong to a church whose founder spent time in prison?

William J. Hamblin, ""Everything is Everything:" Was Joseph Smith Influenced by Kabbalah?," FARMS Review of Books (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1996), 251-325 A review of "Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection," by Lance S. Owens.

Recommended Reading

If you are interested in more information about the topic of 'Prophets,' you may want to refer to the books listed below. These books are available in the FAIR Bookstore; click on a link to find more information.

Hugh W. Nibley, Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass, Edited by David J. Whittaker (Deseret Book and FARMS, 1993, 741 pages). Exposing the faulty reasoning and flawed arguments of nineteenth-century critics arguments against Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

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Last Updated September 28, 2008
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