Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845: A Documentary History Rating :
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
A Useful Collection of Documentary Materials from Mormon Nauvoo
By Roger D. Launius
One of the most powerful beliefs about Mormon Nauvoo is that it is where Joseph Smith completed his work of restoration. Among the Mormons a powerful interpretation is that Joseph Smith is significant not just for his life but for his religious innovations. As Ronald K. Esplin commented in an important essay about Nauvoo, "Nauvoo was, and is, and will be important to Latter-day Saints because it was the City of Joseph. It was the city he built, where he lived and acted, where he died. Above all, it was the city where he fulfilled his religious mission,...In a very real sense, his other labors were prologue" (Ronald K. Esplin, "The Significance of Nauvoo for Latter-day Saints," Journal of Mormon History 16 (1990): 72). Nothing was more significant to this than the religious innovations he incorporated into the religion.
This book, edited by Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, documents in excruciating detail the efforts of Smith and his inner circle in establishing the practice of the Mormon temple endowment. As a documentary record that ranges far in reproducing primary source material on the subject it is of exceptional value. It opens a window into the esoteric practices that emerged in Nauvoo in the 1840s and found their place in some strains of Mormonism following the death of the founding prophet.
"Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed" deals with the development of the rituals that took place in the upper room of Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store beginning in 1842, portions of which were accidentally witnessed by a host of people in the city. Ebenezer Robinson, who embraced a rival group after Smith's death in 1844, for example, described walking innocently into the upper room only to see "John Taylor, one of the twelve Apostles, in a long white garment, with a white turban on his head, and drawn sword in his hand, evidently representing the `cherubims and flaming sword which was placed at the east of the garden of Eden, to guard the tree of life'" (p. 79). Robinson was not part of Joseph Smith's inner circle, and did not participate in these ceremonies. Like others who left the Utah branch of Mormonism, he was repulsed by them. Not so, many others who embraced the endowment as Joseph Smith taught them, even as it evolved during the last couple of years of Joseph Smith's life.
These ideas anchor the faith of the Utah Latter-day Saints to this day. This work does a fine job of documenting through primary sources how the ideas emerged in Nauvoo. Arranged chronologically, various sources are connected together to state the process of teaching these ideas among the church's elite.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Good research
By lexiconductor_91
Very unbiased collection of history concerning Joseph Smith's most faithful followers. Most of the book is a compilation of journal entries and notes which support the existence of the "Quorum of the Anointed".
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.Great book!!
By James Warren
I have read this book and all the foot notes. I have found that anyone can get a real educatioin on the fullness of Priesthood and what is needed to gain the highest degree. I can recommend this book only you have the foundation nessesary.
Product Description
The first Latter-day Saint temple ceremonies were performed, not in Kirtland, Ohio, but on the second floor of Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois. For nearly four years beginning in 1842, the prophet's modest mercantile functioned as the de facto temple, —the site of the first washings, anointings, endowments, and sealings. Preparations to initiate the first members of Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, or Holy Order, as it was also known, were made on May 3, 1842. The walls of the second level of the store were painted with garden-themed murals, the rooms fitted with carpets, potted plants, and a veil hung from the ceiling. In this volume, the editors assemble all available primary references to the Anointed Quorum and its regular gatherings in the Red Brick Store and other locations prior to construction of the Nauvoo temple.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #991925 in Books
- Published on: 2005-07-15
- Original language:English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.09" h x6.26" w x1.14" l,1.36 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 314 pages
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