Four Views Of Joseph Smith

"…the mystery of Mormonism cannot be solved until we solve the mystery of Joseph Smith."

"What we have in Mormon historiography are variations on two Josephs: the one who started out digging for money and when he was unsuccessful, turned to propheteering; and the one who had visions and dreamed dreams, restored the church, and revealed the will of the Lord to a sinful world. While the shading was varied, the portraits have pretty much remained constant; the differences are differences of degree not kind."

--Jan Shipps in "The Prophet Puzzle: Suggestions Leading Toward a More Comprehensive Interpretation of Joseph Smith".


I stated in my post of July 13, 2016 (bold added):

I told her [my wife] that people think of him [Joseph Smith] as a con-man or a pious fraud (or at the least he used some degree of deception) or that he was a prophet. I wondered if there was a middle ground. I laid out his treasure seeking background, the seer stone and the Book of Mormon, his polygamy, etc. and my theory (see upcoming post).

On July 23, 2016, I came across "Four Views Of Joseph Smith Historians Debate The Prophet Puzzle" on the Sunstone website. I was there figuring out if they were LDS-critical or LDS-supportive for my research bibliography.

The Four Views Presented are:

1. Pious Fraud View by Dan Vogel [4:41 to 19:34]
2. Sincere Visionary View by Ann Taves [20:20 to 42:07]
3. Con-Man View by Christopher C. Smith [42:24 to 55:43]
4. True Prophet by Don Bradley [57:01 to 1:20:01]
5. Questions [1:20:44 to 1:28:04]

My theory (still upcoming) is very similar to the Sincere Visionary View by Ann Taves.