Movie/Book Reviews
Emma, Martin Harris, and the Translation Process
Once again, I’ve continued Part 3 of the Mormon Stories interview between John Dehlin and Richard Bushman.  They discuss the actual translation process, as well as Martin Harris and Emma Smith’s role in translating the Book of Mormon.  There are some interesting dynamics as Bushman discusses Joseph’s strained relationship with Emma’s parents due to Joseph and Emma’s […]
Moroni's Visit
In Part 3 of the Mormon Stories interview, John Dehlin gets more details from Richard Bushman about the Angel Moroni’s visit and the environment of Joseph’s Smith’s day between about 1823-1827. This part of the interview continues after Part 2 of the interview. John is a bit ambitious in this, and doesn’t cover the Kinderhook […]
Treasure Digging in the 1800s
One of the problems that some people might have with Joseph Smith is that Joseph was involved in treasure digging and using seer stones. Â Richard Bushman and John Dehlin discuss these issues in Part 2 of John’s interview with Richard Bushman. Â This transcript continues immediately after their discussion of the Multiple First Vision accounts. JD, […]
Multiple First Vision Accounts
One topic I have not discussed in my 4 years of blogging is discrepancies in the First Vision accounts. Basically, there are 4 accounts of the First Vision. The account in the Pearl of Great Price is the last account, and comes from 1838. John Dehlin and Richard Bushman discuss these variations in Part 2 […]
Bushman Talks About "The Facts" of History
This is a continuation from my previous post where John Dehlin interviews Richard Bushman. While some people talk about “objective” history, Bushman states that such a notion is impossible. I thought this was a valuable discussion, and Bushman shows that there can be a lot of interpretations of “The facts”. JD, “Right, ok, yeah. So […]
Acknowledging Tough Church History
John Dehlin of Mormon Stories interviewed Richard Bushman for 4 1/2 hours back in 2007. Â I’ve posted transcripts of the first 50 minutes of this interview (Part 1) in 3 separate posts because it was so long. Growing Up as Richard Bushman How he chose to become a Historian The Church Should Stay Out of […]
Bushman: "The Church Should Stay out of the History Business"
This is the conclusion of Part 1 of the Richard Bushman interview (there are 5 parts–about 5 hours total). I’ve previously talked about Growing Up as Richard Bushman, and How he chose to become a Historian. In this last section of Part 1, Bushman talks about the important, major biographies of Joseph Smith, his experience […]
Why Bushman Became a Historian
This is a continuation of the previous post Growing up as Richard Bushman,  John Dehlin asks Richard Bushman why he became a historian. JD, “Well, let me ask you, how did you become a historian?†Bushman, “You know, I can hardly give an answer to that question. I started at Harvard planning to do science. […]
Growing up as Richard Bushman
John Dehlin interviewed Richard Bushman in a wonderful 5-part series back in 2007. Â Since the interview is so long, I decided to split it up into parts and will publish these serially as I complete the transcription. Â In this first part, Bushman describes growing up in the church. Â I’ve abbreviated John Dehlin as JD. JD, […]
John Hamer Part 2
This is a followup to part 1 of the interview with John Hamer on RLDS church history. JD stands for the interviewer John Dehlin, while JH is John Hamer. JD: So what else defines the RLDS Church sort of post late-1800s, you know between that time and the early 1960s when I started getting really […]
Mormon Heretic 