The Archive of Restoration Culture, 1997-2002

Authors

Richard Lyman Bushman

Keywords

Mormon studies, restoration culture, Joseph Smith

Abstract

When I first began work on Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling in 1996, I realized that reconstructing the cultural environment of the Prophet would be one of my largest tasks. I could scarcely conceive how to go about probing the huge quantities of sermons, newspapers, journals, pamphlets, books, artworks, and private diaries that possibly bore on the restoration of the gospel in the 1820s through the 1840s. Yet the culture of that period bore directly on the success of the young church under Joseph Smith’s leadership. People would never be able to grasp theological ideas that were entirely foreign to them. They would need a basic preparation for the Prophet’s revelations, making the cultural environment crucial to understanding how the Restoration came about

Recommended Citation

Bushman, Richard Lyman (2006) "The Archive of Restoration Culture, 1997-2002," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 45: Iss. 4, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol45/iss4/6