Here I basically place the work of Quinn, Brooke, and Owens within the context of Christian Platonism that I described in my earlier posts (3.1 and 3.2).  It’s not an in-depth discussion of the sources, but more of an overview.

Sources and Data: The data that suggests that Smith had contact with Neoplatonism comes primarily from three studies:  D. Michael Quinn?s Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (1987), John Brooke?s Refiner?s Fire (1994), and Lance Owens?s ?Joseph Smith and the Kabbalah: The Occult Connection? (1994).[1]  Yet these studies labeled the Neoplatonic tenets ?magic,? Hermetic, or ?occult,? and thus need to be reinterpreted in the context of Neoplatonism.  Quinn?s Magic World View surfaces the most extensive evidence.  Problems with the term ?magic? as a scholarly category are evident in Quinn?s work, but the scope of Quinn?s research was tremendous and suggests many of the ways in which Neoplatonic ideas could have gotten to Joseph Smith.

Quinn documented the Smiths? involvement in various folk rites, including ritual treasure digging, Smith?s use of a seer stone, and other folk rituals.  Most significantly, he surfaced three manuscripts with various diagrams that are owned by the descendants of Joseph Smith?s brother Hyrum (the family kept a number of artifacts).  Quinn?s extensive research showed that the diagrams were taken from grimoires of Reginald Scot and Ebenezer Sibley for the purposes of what is often called ?ritual magic.?[2]  Quinn argued that the Smiths? likely had what he calls ?occult mentors? to teach them such practices.  One such was Lumen Walter, who claimed to have come from a well-off family that sent him to Europe to study.[3]  As I elaborate below, the purposed of these ?lamens? were in line with Neoplatonic theurgy (conjuring angels and protection from harm) and the books from which the diagrams were copied use the term theurgy.[4]

Critics of Quinn charged that these grimoires were rare and expensive and that the Smiths? were unlikely to have owned them.  Owen Davies?s weighed in on the issue in his study of the history of grimoires.  Davies concurred with Quinn that the diagrams on the Smith?s lamens derived from Scot and Sibly, which Davies referred to as ?hefty compilations of early modern Neoplatonist wisdom.?  Though Davies agreed that the Smiths were not likely to have owned the books, ?Quinn?s thesis,? he asserted, ?does not stand or fall on the basis that Smith owned copies of Scot and Sibly, since extracts from all three were to be found in the manuscript grimoires and charms kept by some English cunning-folk and in those sold by the London occult dealer John Denly.  It is quite likely that some of those found their way to America where they were copied once again.?  Thus the Smiths? lamens and ritual practices can be considered part of what Davies describes as the ?democratization of high magic.?[5]

Most impressive was Quinn?s exhaustive study of print texts in Joseph Smith?s environment.  Quinn not only examined the content listings of the libraries in Smith?s vicinity but he also went through the local newspapers for advertisements of books sold in the area.  He compiled a massive list of books available in the area. One book store in Bloomfield claimed to have 12,000 to 14,000 volumes, which came to 3 books for each person in the area; heavy competition forced sellers to offer very cheap prices. A number of works for sale in Smith?s vicinity were influenced by Neoplatonic ideas, including works of Romantic poets Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth, David Ramsey?s The Travels of Cyrus, and Edmund Spencer?s The Fairie Queen.[6]  Smith?s mother said that Joseph ?was less inclined to the study of books than any childe we had but much more given to reflection and deep study.?[7]  However a neighbor wrote that as a youth, Smith was part of a debating club that met to ?solve some portenous [sic] questions of moral or political ethics,? suggesting that Smith was engaged with the ideas circulating in his vicinity.[8]

Quinn also studied numerous belief systems and practices deemed occult including Swedenborgianism.  Mormonism had a number of parallels with the visions of Emmanuel Swedenborg including a three-tired heaven (also in Proclus), marriage in heaven (as in Plato?s Symposium), among others (discussed below).  An early Mormon convert who had an interest in Swedenborg asked Smith?s opinion of the visionary in 1839.  Smith replied, ?Emmanuel Swedenborg had a view of the world to come, but for daily food he perished.?  Quinn found summaries of Swedenborg in Smith?s local library.[9]

Other occult practices that the Smiths believed, according to Quinn, were astrology and Freemasonry.  The idea that powers emanated from the heavens was central in Neoplatonism and explained in Proclus.[10]  Mormons noticed the similarities between Mormon temple rites and Freemasonry from the beginning.  Quinn noticed these as well but argued that the similarities were ?superficial.?  Instead, Quinn argued that Smith?s temple ritual more closely resembled ancient mystery rites and found numerous descriptions of such rites in contemporary sources including in a book that Smith owned.[11]  Mystery rites were very important to the Neoplatonists: both Proclus and the Emperor Julian sought to be initiated into as many mysteries as they could and Proclus saw mystery rites as essential to assent.[12]  Thus Quinn?s research suggests several sources of Smith?s contact with Neoplatonism: theurgical rites suggested by the family lamens and Neoplatonic ideas available in numerous books for sale and on loan in Smith?s vicinity.

In 1994 Brook published his study, which relied heavily on Quinn.  Brooke proposed Hermeticism as an overarching theme and argued that the various ?magic? and ?occult? sources that Quinn noted were transmitters of Hermetic thought.  Yet Brooke went beyond Quinn?s paradigm, arguing that ?Mormonism springs from the sectarian tradition of the Radical Reformation, in fact from its most extreme fringe.?[13]  Steven Ozment argues that early modern radicals were heavily influenced by late medieval mysticism, which was heavily influenced by Neoplatonism.[14]  Brooke tied Mormonism back to the radical sectarians of the English Civil War (Quakers, Baptists, Fifth Monarchist, Ranters, Diggers, Levelers), but also argued for similarities with German sectarians who settled in Pennsylvania.  Smith had direct contact with Quakers and Universalists (two groups that Brooke highlighted).  The Quakers had a meetinghouse in Palmyra and Smith?s earliest backer, Martin Harris, had a Quaker ancestry.[15]  Scholars have argued that the Quaker doctrine of the inner light is Neoplatonic; John Everarde, who promoted ideas similar to the Quakers just prior to their rise, translated Pseudo-Dionysius into English along with the works of early modern Neoplatonic mystics.[16]  Joseph Smith?s grandfather was a Universalist; Proclus taught universal salvation.[17]

Finally, Lance Owens, also in 1994, argued for the influence of Kabbalah, which has considerable similarities to Neoplatonism.[18]  Owens noted the many similarities between Mormonism and Kabbalah and argued for the influence of Alexander Niebaur on Smith.  Niebaur was a Prussian Jew, who converted to Christianity then moved to England, where he converted to Mormonism in 1839.  Neibaur emigrated to Nauvoo in 1841 and ?immediately went to work for Joseph Smith.?  Neibaur showed his knowledge of Kabbalah in a two-piece article he wrote on transmigration of souls (a Neoplatonic and Kabbalistic idea) for the Mormon periodical in 1842, where he cited numerous Kabbalistic sources.  In 1844, the year Smith died, Neibaur spent time tutoring Smith in Hebrew and German.  Owens argued that Smith?s King Follett Discourse (at the funeral of King Follett, discussed below) was heavily influenced by Neibaur and Kabbalah.  In the speech, Smith referred to the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1, arguing that it should say that ?the head God called forth the Gods? and told them to create, a reading in keeping with both the Kabbalah and Plato?s Timaeus.[19]

Yet Smith had suggested a number of these radical ideas prior to the arrival of Neibaur.  Richard Bushman agrees with Owens that Smith?s later doctrines show similarities to Kabbalah, ?but these came on the scene a decade after Joseph?s revelations defined the endowment of power as an encounter with God.  We can scarcely imagine him steeping himself in Kabbalistic literature in Manchester and Harmony,? New York, where Smith started his church.[20]  In his second edition of Magic World View published in 1998, Quinn added a section on Kabbalah in which he identified lengthy descriptions of Kabbalah in histories of the Jews in print in Smith?s day.  John Allen?s Modern Judaism (first edition 1816, second 1830) had a thirty-page summary of the Kabbalah that had wording similar to some of Smith?s Neoplatonic-sounding revelations.[21]  Furthermore, theurgical practices, like the ones suggested by the Smith?s lamens, had long been influenced by Kabbalah.  Richard Kieckhefer argues that the Sworn Book of Honorius, a medieval theurgical text that claimed to create a vision of God, drew on Kabbalah because seeing God was a central purpose in Kabbalah but was a violation of orthodox Christianity.[22]  Early modern theurgist Cornelius Agrippa was also influenced by Kabbalah and made seeing God a central purpose.[23]  Smith?s revelations likewise made seeing God a priority.[24]  Although Smith never immersed himself in Kabbalah, certain aspects of the practice could have influenced him early on.

These studies unearthed the bulk of the evidence.  Additional evidence includes an early Mormon poem that speaks of Adam ?emanating? from God similar to a line from John Allen?s summary of Kabbalah in his Modern Judaism (first edition 1816, second 1830) that spoke of ?the first emanation of Deity, called Adam Kadmon.?[25]  The poem was likely written by one of Smith?s close associates, perhaps Sydney Rigdon. An adaptation of this poem was printed in the Mormon?s periodical in 1833 that changed the line to say that God ?emanated man? rather than Adam.  The change was likely made by W. W. Phelps, the editor of the periodical.[26]  Rigdon and Phelps were both older and better educated than Smith so that this particular incident suggest the possibility of these and others of Smith followers being sources for Neoplatonic ideas.

This dissertation will also expand the discussion to include Joseph Smith?s political thought and utopianism.  Smith long sought to create the perfect society and espoused many ideas found in Plato that were espoused by contemporary utopians.  Thomas More?s Utopia was sold in Smith?s neighborhood and utopian Robert Owen proselytized and set up communities near Mormonism first headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio.[27]