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prophet and the presidency: Mormonism and politics in Joseph Smith's 1844 Presidential campaign, The

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2000 by Wood, Timothy L

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The contents of The Book of Mormon seemed to offer compelling solutions to the spiritual dilemmas faced by religious seekers during the Second Great Awakening. Instead of the fractious denominationalism and theological quarreling of evangelical Protestantism, Smith offered a pristinely restored gospel which contained authoritative answers via direct divine revelations. The movement slowly began to win adherents, and by April 6, 1830 Smith had gathered enough followers to officially form what was then known simply as the "Church of Christ."

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During the remaining fourteen years of Joseph Smith's life, the theological landscape of Mormonism underwent rapid expansion and development. By the time of Smith's murder the summer of 1844, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had emerged, not as merely another eccentric Protestant sect, but as what historian Jan Shipps has called a religion that distinguished its "tradition from the Christian tradition as surely as early Christianity was distinguished from its Hebraic context."7 On the most basic level, the God of Mormonism was believed to be the same deity worshipped in both the Jewish and Christian faiths. Indeed, the contemporary LDS theologian Bruce R. McConkie argued that Adam himself had practiced a proto-Mormonism during humanity's first generation, which was later lost through apostasy.8 Thus, Mormonism was always referred to as "the Restoration," due to the belief that many of the doctrines introduced by Joseph Smith had been known and practiced both in ancient Israel and during the apostolic period of the early church. However, the reintroduction of true gospel doctrine into those periods of apostasy required a belief in continued divine revelation. God must have the leeway to speak to humanity, correcting their errors and proclaiming lost principles anew. Thus, in contrast to the closed Biblical canon of most Christian churches, the Latter-day Saints have consistently argued that new revelations, with scriptural authority on the same level as the Bible, can be and have actually been, handed down to believers during this latest dispensation.

Because of that restorationist theology, Mormonism has rejected the religious creeds and confessions that have emerged throughout the course of post-apostolic Christianity as the products of a "Great Apostasy." Consequently, Smith had the opportunity to reconstruct the Mormon image of God from the ground up, unencumbered by the trinitarian formulations of such statements of faith as the Nicene Creed.9 Instead, the Saints began to conceive of a God who differed dramatically in nature from the triune deity worshipped in Christendom, and one who bridged the chasm between divinity and humanity in ways never before thought possible.

First of all, Smith construed the concept of monotheism far more loosely than was common within the Judeo-Christian tradition. Again, as McConkie put it, Mormon monotheism "properly interpreted ... mean[s] that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost - each of whom is a separate and distinct godly personage - are one God, meaning one Godhead." However, McConkie is quick to stipulate, that "it is evident, from this standpoint alone, that a plurality of Gods exist."10

prophet and the presidency: Mormonism and politics in Joseph Smith's 1844 Presidential campaign, The

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2000 by Wood, Timothy L

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