Abstract
This article documents one strain of Mormon thought concerning the Woman of Endor narrative in 1 Samuel 28, in which the woman was interpreted as a prophetess enabled to raise the dead through her spiritual gifts. Church leaders eventually condemned this narrative because of its similarities with Spiritualist exegesis and American Christianity’s use of the narrative to condemn Spiritualism as necromancy. Through establishing an orthodox reading of the passage, leaders strengthened the boundaries separating the two faiths – boundaries that many Spiritualists had argued were at best blurry and overlapping.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to express his appreciation for those who read and commented on drafts of this paper, including Mason Kamana Allred, Matthew Godfrey, Courtney Jensen Peacock, Joseph Spencer, Joseph Stuart, Jeff Turner, and Kris Wright.
Works Cited
Manuscripts
The Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.
General Church Minutes.
MS 1862
MS 8988
MS 9628
MS 14590
Newspapers
Common Sense: A Journal of Lived Ideas
Elders’ Journal
Elder’s Journal of the Southern States Mission
Improvement Era
Juvenile Instructor
Millennial Star
New York Herald
Saints’ Advocate
Seer
Spiritualistic Free Press
Times and Seasons
True Latter Day Saints Herald
Printed Books:
Anon. 1889. A Debate on Spiritualism between Moses Hull and Eld. W. R. Covert. Chicago: Progressive Thinker Publishing House.Suche in Google Scholar
Allred, Rulon C. 1982. Treasures of Knowledge: Selected Discourses and Excerpts from Talks by Rulon C. Allred. Hamilton, Montana: Bitterroot Publishing Company.Suche in Google Scholar
Angert-Quilter, Theresa and Lynne Wall. 2001. “The ‘Spirit Wife’ at Endor.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 92: 55–72.10.1177/030908920102509204Suche in Google Scholar
Barlow, Philip. 1991. Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion. New York: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Brown, Samuel. 2012. In Heaven as it is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793570.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Brown, Samuel. 2008. “The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and W. W. Phelps.” Journal of Mormon History 34: 26–62.Suche in Google Scholar
Carroll, Bret E. 1997. Spiritualism in Antebellum America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.10.2979/3039.0Suche in Google Scholar
Clayton, William. 1991. An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton, edited by George D. Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Corbett, Pearson H. 1963. Hyrum Smith, Patriarch. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1963.Suche in Google Scholar
Derr, Jill Mulvay, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher. 1992. Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company and Brigham Young University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013 [1981].Suche in Google Scholar
Forster, Thomas Gales. 1868. What is Spiritualism? Boston: William White and Co.Suche in Google Scholar
Greer, Rowan and Margaret M. Mitchell. 2007. The “Belly-Myther” of Endor: Interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 in the Early Church. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.Suche in Google Scholar
Harris, Martin. 1855. A Proclamation and a Warning Voice to All People. Cleveland, OH.Suche in Google Scholar
Hickman, William. 1872. Brigham’s Destroying Angel. New York: George A. Crofutt.Suche in Google Scholar
Holy Scriptures, Translated and Corrected by the Spirit of Revelation by Joseph Smith, Jr., the Seer. Philadelphia, Penn.: [Reorganized] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1867.Suche in Google Scholar
Homer, Michael W. 1994. “Spiritualism and Mormonism: Some Thoughts on Similarities and Differences.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27: 171–190.10.4000/books.pul.10770Suche in Google Scholar
Josephus. 1934. Jewish Antiquities, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray and Ralph Marcus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Edited by George D. Watt, et al. Liverpool: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.Suche in Google Scholar
King James VI of Scotland. 1597. Daemonologie. Edinburgh, Scotland.Suche in Google Scholar
Kramer, Heinrich and James Sprenger. 1928 [1480]. Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated by Montague Summers. London: John Rodker.Suche in Google Scholar
Matthews, Robert J. 1985. “A Plainer Translation”: Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, A History and Commentary. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Ogden, D. Kelly and Andrew C. Skinner. 2013. Verse By Verse The Old Testament, vol. 1, Genesis through 2 Samuel, Psalms. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.Suche in Google Scholar
Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003 [1980].Suche in Google Scholar
Pimple, Kenneth D. 1995. “Ghosts, Spirits, and Scholars: The Origins of Modern Spiritualism,” In Out of the Ordinary: Folklore and the Supernatural, edited by Barbara Walker. Logan: Utah State University Press.10.2307/j.ctt46nwn8.10Suche in Google Scholar
Pratt, Parley P. 1855. Key to the Science of Theology. London: L. D. Saints’ Book Depot.Suche in Google Scholar
Quinn, D. Michael. 1998. Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview, revised and enlarged. Salt Lake City: Signature Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Schmidt, Leigh Eric. 2000. Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Smelik, K. A. D. 1979. “The Witch of Endor: 1 Samuel 28 in Rabbinic and Christian Exegesis till 800 AD.” Vigiliae Christianae 33: 160–179.10.1163/157007279X00048Suche in Google Scholar
Smith, Elizabeth Oakes. 1852. Shadow Land; or the Seer. New York: Fowlers and Wells.Suche in Google Scholar
Smith, Joseph. 2008. The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, vol. 1, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen. Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Smith, Joseph. 2015. The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, vol. 3, edited by Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, and Brent M. Rogers. Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Tanner, Annie Clark. 2006. A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography of Annie Clark Tanner, 4th edition. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Tanner Trust Fund.Suche in Google Scholar
Taves, Ann. 1999. Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691212722Suche in Google Scholar
The Book of Mormon. Palmyra, New York: E. B. Grandin, 1830.Suche in Google Scholar
The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013 [1981].Suche in Google Scholar
Tullidge, Edward William. 1878. Women of Mormondom. New York: Tullidge and Crandall.Suche in Google Scholar
Underwood, Grant. 1984. “Book of Mormon Usage in Early LDS Theology.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17: 35–74.10.2307/45227937Suche in Google Scholar
Walker, Charles. 1980. Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, edited by A. Karl Larson and Katherine Miles Larson. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Walker, Ronald W. 1998. Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Whitmer, David. 1887. An Address to All Believers in Christ. Richmond, Missouri.Suche in Google Scholar
Zucker, Louis C. 1968. “Joseph Smith as Student of Hebrew.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 3 (2): 41–55.10.2307/45227257Suche in Google Scholar
©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Rachel Weeping: Intertextuality as a Means of Transforming the Readers’ Worldview
- Divisio Textus and the Interpretive Logic Of Thomas Aquinas’ Lectura Ad Ephesios
- The Prophetess of Endor: Reception of 1 Samuel 28 in Nineteenth Century Mormon History
- Stalin’s Biblical Hermeneutics: From 2 Thessalonians 3 to Acts 4
- Celluloid Esther: The Literary Carnivalesque as Transformed through the Lens of the Cinematic Epic
- Elie Wiesel and the Biblical Archetypes of the Contemporary Middle East
- Christian Terror in Europe? The Bible in Anders Behring Breivik’s Manifesto
- Book Review
- The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers. Studies of the Bible and Its Reception 5
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Rachel Weeping: Intertextuality as a Means of Transforming the Readers’ Worldview
- Divisio Textus and the Interpretive Logic Of Thomas Aquinas’ Lectura Ad Ephesios
- The Prophetess of Endor: Reception of 1 Samuel 28 in Nineteenth Century Mormon History
- Stalin’s Biblical Hermeneutics: From 2 Thessalonians 3 to Acts 4
- Celluloid Esther: The Literary Carnivalesque as Transformed through the Lens of the Cinematic Epic
- Elie Wiesel and the Biblical Archetypes of the Contemporary Middle East
- Christian Terror in Europe? The Bible in Anders Behring Breivik’s Manifesto
- Book Review
- The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers. Studies of the Bible and Its Reception 5