In 2000, a lengthy review of D. Michael Quinn's Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (rev. ed; 1998) was published by the late Bill Hamblin:
"That Old Black Magic"
So devastating was this view that one long-standing anti-Mormon was forced to admit the following:
"That Old Black Magic"
So devastating was this view that one long-standing anti-Mormon was forced to admit the following:
There is evidence that Joseph Smith and his
family were involved in activities at least significantly influenced by magic,
but much of the evidence comes from the testimonies of people who knew the
Smiths before Joseph published the Book of Mormon and who were for various
reasons critical of the new religion. Quinn’s book Early Mormonism and the Magic World View provided an exhaustive (or
at least exhausting) case for seeing magical objects and activities as
pervasive in the lives of the Smiths family, though Mormon scholars such as Hamblin have effectively questioned many
of the detail’s of Quinn’s argument (See also John Gee, “Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View,
revised and enlarged edition, by D. Michael Quinn,” FARMS Review of Books 12.2. [2000]:185-224). Nevertheless, some
evidence of magical influences simply cannot be explained away. (Robert
M. Bowman Jr., Jesus’ Resurrection and
Joseph’s Visions: Examining the Foundations of Christianity and Mormonism [Tampa,
Fla.: DeWard Publishing Company, 2020], 179)
John Gee's review, referenced above, can be found here:
