The Prophet Puzzle

Unraveling the complexities of Joseph Smith's character and motives is difficult, but before the puzzle can be solved, all the pieces must be gathered and correctly interpreted. Parts of the picture are still missing only because they have been overlooked, ignored, or mishandled--pieces which reveal previously hidden features of Smith's complex, conflicted, and gifted personality. Some of the contributors to this anthology look at the religious side of the prophet and explore his inner, spiritual world. Others look at secular issues. Some view the relevance of his activity as a treasure seer since this is one part of the puzzle that has not been fully investigated by Mormons generally. In pursuing the prophet puzzle, contributors seek to understand Joseph Smith, not to judge him, knowing that he is an enigma for believer and skeptic alike. As non-Mormon historian Jan Shipps, a contributor to this collection, observes, "The mystery of Mormonism cannot be solved until we solve the mystery of Joseph Smith." Contributors include Thomas G. Alexander, Robert D. Anderson, Gary James Bergera, Newell G. Bringhurst, Richard L. Bushman, Eugene England, Lawrence Foster, Ronald V. Huggins, Lance S. Owens, Karl C. Sandberg, Jan Shipps, Joseph Smith, Susan Staker, Alan Taylor, Richard S. Van Wagoner, Dan Vogel, and Steven C. Walker.

This book documents and details the Biblical profile of the Prophet Joseph Smith and provides the prophetic narrative behind his public Ministry.The book explains and makes sense out of the otherwise bizarre history of Mormonism and demonstrates that up until December of 1834, the Lord was using Joseph Smith to restore the fulness of the Gospel and Biblical Christianity. Following the breaking of the law of consecration and the everlasting covenant, the Latter day Saints were pronounced by God to be under condemnation and were promised that the fulness would return to the earth after a little season of chastisement, preparation and learning.The book provides the necessary context to understand why all of the very strange events of the LDS restoration movement took place.It provides contextual proof from the scriptures, of the veracity of the LDS Restoration Movement and the fact that Joseph Smith was a true prophet.This is the preliminary manuscript version of the book for those interested in participating in a peer review of the book and/or listening in on what is being said by members of a peer review.Much of the interpretation of LDS church history and scripture in the book, is the result of over 10,000 keyword search and corroboration from many readers of the authors blog, making the book, largely a crowdsourced work. To view comments and critique by members of the peer review up to this point, visit www.onewhoiswatching.wordpress.com or youtube and look for the series titled "Piece by piece: A peer review of the Book, Solving the Prophet Puzzle"The book is a large 8 1/2 by 11 with over 600 pages and over 1200 references and footnotes

Best Book of the Year NPR • The Washington Post • Boston Globe • TIME • USA Today • Entertainment Weekly • Real Simple • Parade • Buzzfeed • Electric Literature • LitHub • BookRiot • PopSugar • Goop • Library Journal • BookBub • KCRW • Finalist for the National Book Award • One of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year • One of the New York Times Best Historical Fiction of the Year • Instant New York Times Bestseller A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel's love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.

Edited by Murray Stein and Thomas Arzt, the essays in the series Jung's Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions are geared to the recognition that the posthumous publication of The Red Book: Liber Novus by C. G. Jung in 2009 was a meaningful gift to our contemporary world. "To give birth to the ancient in a new time is creation," Jung inscribed in his Red Book. The essays in this volume continue what was begun in Volume 1 of Jung's Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions by further contextualizing The Red Book culturally and interpreting it for our time. It is significant that this long sequestered work was published during a period in human history marked by disruption, cultural disintegration, broken boundaries, and acute anxiety. The Red Book offers an antidote for this collective illness and can be seen as a link in the aurea catena, the "golden chain" of spiritual wisdom extending down through the ages from biblical times, ancient Greek philosophy, early Christian and Jewish Gnosis, and alchemy. The Red Book is itself a work of creation that gives birth to the old in a new time. This is the second volume of a three-volume series set up on a global und multicultural level and includes essays from the following distinguished Jungian analysts and scholars: - Murray Stein and Thomas Arzt Introduction - John Beebe The Way Cultural Attitudes are Developed in Jung's Red Book - An "Interview" - Kate Burns Soul's Desire to become New: Jung's Journey, Our Initiation - QiRe Ching Aging with The Red Book - Al Collins Dreaming The Red Book Onward: What Do the Dead Seek Today? - Lionel Corbett The Red Book as a Religious d104 - John Dourley Jung, the Nothing and the All - Randy Fertel Trickster, His Apocalyptic Brother, and a World's Unmaking: An Archetypal Reading of Donald Trump - Noa Schwartz Feuerstein India in The Red Book Overtones and Undertones - Grazina Gudaite Integrating Horizontal and Vertical Dimensions of Experience under Postmodern Conditions - Lev Khegai The Red Book of C.G. Jung and Russian Thought - Günter Langwieler A Lesson in Peacemaking: The Mystery of Self-Sacrifice in The Red Book - Keiron Le Grice The Metamorphosis of the Gods: Archetypal Astrology and the Transforma­tion of the God-Image in The Red Book - Ann Chia-Yi Li The Receptive and the Creative: Jung's Red Book for Our Time in Light of Daoist Alchemy - Romano Màdera The Quest for Meaning after God's Death in an Era of Chaos - Joerg Rasche On Salome and the Emancipation of Woman in The Red Book - J. Gary Sparks Abraxas: Then and Now - David Tacey The Return of the Sacred in an Age of Terror - Ann Belford Ulanov Blundering into the Work of Redemption

Sojourner in the Promised Land presents an unusual parallel history in which Shipps surrounds her professional writings about the Latter-day Saints with an ongoing personal description of her encounters with them. By combining a portrait of the dynamic evolution of contemporary Mormonism with absorbing intellectual autobiography, Shipps illuminates the Mormons and at the same time shares with the reader what it has been like to be an intimate outsider in a culture that remains for her both familiar and strange.

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"The church today is in great need of the prophet's ministry. And yet, there exist much ignorance and misunderstanding of this important and vital ministry. This is partly due to the lack of teaching on the subject of the prophetic ministry, the lack of depth in the understanding of spiritual matters concerning the church, fear, distrust between leaders, pride, jealousy and disobedience to the Spirit of God and the will and plan of God for end-time-ministry. All of these things and such like are to be blamed for the ignorance and misunderstanding that currently exist concerning the prophet's ministry. As the church draws nearer to the end of the church-age prophets, prophetess and prophetic ministries will become more necessary and in increasing demand. The purpose of this book is to show biblical evidence for the ministry of the modern-day prophet/prophetess and to show they still exist within the New Testament Church. The purpose is also to establish knowledge of the workings of, the need of and the importance of the modern-day prophetic ministry. Without the ministry of the prophet/prophetess the body of Christ would indeed be incomplete. " Why The Church Needs The Prophet's Ministry" is an excellent guide for opening the doors of awareness to the prophet's ministry and for the bringing about of understanding that can lead to cooperation between the five-fold-ministry, as well as the entire body of Christian workers, adding to the completion of the end-time work of the ministry."

Mormon founder Joseph Smith is one of the most controversial figures of nineteenth-century American history, and a virtually inexhaustible subject for analysis. In this volume, fifteen scholars offer essays on how to interpret and understand Smith and his legacy. Including essays by both Mormons and non-Mormons, this wide-ranging collection is the only available survey of contemporary scholarly opinion on the extraordinary man who started one of the fastest growing religious traditions in the modern world.