Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church and the Question of Succession

Joseph Fielding SmithProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9

Word count: 309K words
Chapters: 31

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church and the Question of Succession by SmithAuthor: Smith, Joseph Fielding, 1876-1972,Language: English, Class: BX: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements, Release Date: Oct 31, 2015

Editor's review

This is Joseph Fielding Smith's polemical work on the origin of the "Reorganized" Church and the question of succession, drawn from Project Gutenberg's public-domain English eBook. Its value lies not in a neutral account of church history but in presenting a systematic late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Latter-day Saint argument on the succession controversy: the author draws on doctrine and historical context to answer the Reorganized Church's claims to prophetic succession. Readers will encounter a clearly apologetic stance and period vocabulary; the book is best used as a primary source and polemical text in religious history, not as a general church history. For those studying Mormon denominational splits, American religious history, or polemical writing, it offers a first-hand voice; general readers will need an external introduction to understand the persons and events involved. The style is chiefly argumentation and citation, the length is short, and it rewards close, question-driven reading alongside comparative sources.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers of religious history studying Mormon denominational splits and succession disputes
Scholarly writers who need early-twentieth-century apologetic polemic as a primary text
Libraries and archives interested in primary sources of American religious history
Advanced learners seeking to train their reading of English polemical texts

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking a neutral general church history or introductory overview
Casual readers without background who do not wish to consult external materials
Readers expecting literary narrative or vivid character stories

Reading tips

Read a brief introduction to the early Mormon schisms first to establish the persons and timeline, then turn to the main text.
Mark the author's cited sources and argumentative steps as you read, distinguishing historical statements from doctrinal judgments.
Read alongside Reorganized Church sources to see how the same controversy is narrated differently.
After finishing, restate the author's core argument and main evidence on one page to test your understanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a neutral historical study?

No. The author answers the succession controversy from his own church's standpoint; it is an apologetic polemic. It offers one side's systematic argument and citations and is best used as a primary source; for a full understanding of events, read it alongside a neutral general history and the opposing side's materials.

How difficult is the English, and what background is needed?

The text is chiefly argument and citation in fairly formal prose, at an upper-intermediate to advanced reading level. Readers should first know the basic outline of early Mormon history and the "Reorganized" Church; otherwise names of people and institutions and doctrinal terms will hinder understanding.

It is short; how can I read it effectively?

Read closely with the question "How does the author argue for the legitimacy of succession?" and record the argument and evidence paragraph by paragraph; afterward check them against an external introduction. Note-taking and comparison with other sources will capture its argumentative structure better than a single cover-to-cover pass.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Joseph Fielding Smith Author · American · 1876–1972

Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) was an American religious leader and writer who served as the tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1970 to 1972. A grandnephew of church founder Joseph Smith, he was for decades a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the church historian. His writings focus mainly on doctrinal exposition and church history; representative works include Essentials in Church History, Salvation Universal, Origin of the ‘Reorganized’ Church and the Question of Succession, and Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage: A Discussion. Four of his works are held in this collection. The author of more than twenty books, he wrote in a steady, substantive style grounded in historical sources and doctrinal analysis, and is regarded as an important defender of the faith in his time.