Season 3, Episode 1
The Seer Stone and the Prophet
The seemingly sorcerous origins of The Book of Mormon
November 12th, 2024
In the 1830s, a young farmer named Joseph Smith Jr. experienced a series of visions that would eventually lead to one of the most influential home-grown religious texts in the United States: The Book of Mormon. Smith’s rise to religious fame ended with his violent death at the hands of an extrajudicial mob. But the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are iconic fixtures of American religious history. And their origins reveal the treasures of 19th-century American folk magic as well.
Featuring Christopher Blythe, Practitioner ‘Eva’, Elizabeth Fenton, and Benjamin E. Park
FEATURING
Assistant Professor of English, Brigham Young University and host of the Angels and Seerstones podcast
Christopher James Blythe is an award-winning scholar of apocalyptic literature, reception, and Latter-day Saint folklore. He is a first-generation Latter-day Saint and happily shares his perspectives both as an adherent and a scholar. Blythe is the author of Terrible Revolution: Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse (Oxford, 2020). He runs the podcast Angels and Seerstones with his wife, Christine, who is also a professional folklorist. They live in Salem, Utah, near the famed Dream Mine.
“Eva”
Practitioner
Eva is a former member of the LDS church, and identifies as a Mormon, Catholic, and esotericist.
Professor of English at the University of Vermont
Elizabeth Fenton is a professor of English at the University of Vermont. She is the author of Religious Liberties: Anti-Catholicism and Liberal Democracy in Nineteenth-Century US Literature and Culture, co-author, with Jared Hickman, of Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon, and author of Old Canaan in a New World: Native Americans and the Lost Tribes of Israel.
Associate Professor of History at Sam Houston State University
Dr. Park is the author of American Zion: A New History of Mormonism, Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier, as well as American Nationalisms: Imagining Union in the Age of Revolutions. Dr. Park has become a national voice for issues concerning American religion and politics. He has written op-eds and essays for Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Houston Chronicle, Slate, Religion & Politics, Talking Points Memo, Religion Dispatches, Dallas Morning News, Salt Lake Tribune, Religion News Service, and Patheos.
CREDITS
Host: Heather Freeman; Producer: Amber Walker; Editor: Lucy Perkins; Associate Producer: Noor Gill; Sound Design: Jennie Cataldo; Fact Checker: Dania Suleman; Executive Producer for PRX Productions: Jocelyn Gonzales; Music: APM Music and Epidemic Sound; Project Managers: Edwin Ochoa; Advisors: Helen Berger, Danielle Boaz, Yvonne Chireau, Chas Clifton, Abel Gomez, Daniel Harms, Corey Hutcheson, Sean McLeod, Sabina Magliocco, Thorn Mooney, and Meg Whalen; Guests: Christopher Blythe, “Eva”, Elizabeth Fenton, and Benjamin Park; Additional Thanks: Dr. William Davis; Funding and Support: The National Endowment for the Humanities and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
TRANSCRIPT
LEARN MORE
Angels and Seerstones podcast.
Bushman, R. L. (2007). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. Vintage.
Givens, T. L. (2009). The Book of Mormon: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
Hardy, G. (2010). Understanding the Book of Mormon: A reader's guide. Oxford University Press.
Hauglid, B. M., Ashurst-McGee, M., & MacKay, M. H. (2020). Producing ancient scripture: Joseph Smith's translation projects in the development of Mormon Christianity. University of Utah Press.