Fawn Brodie (No Man Knows my History) and a few other critics have claimed that Joseph Smith derived elements of his theology from the writings of Thomas Dick (e.g., The Philosophy of a future state). Ted Jones wrote a very good M.A. dissertation on the alleged relationship between Joseph Smith's theology and the writings of Thomas Dick:
Ted Jones, The Theology of Tomas Dick and Its Possible Relationship to that of Joseph Smith (M.A. Thesis, BYU Provo, 1969)
Ted Jones, The Theology of Tomas Dick and Its Possible Relationship to that of Joseph Smith (M.A. Thesis, BYU Provo, 1969)
Needless to
say, when one engages in a careful, scholarly analysis of Joseph Smith’s
theology and the writings of Thomas Dick, the resounding answer is “no.” As the
author concludes on p. 96 of the dissertation:
If Joseph Smith had recently been reading Thomas Dick,
Mrs. Fawn Brodie had not. The former rejected theological concepts embraced by
Dick; the latter mis-represented Dick's theology.