Steven L. Olsen
STEVEN L. OLSEN is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of Chicago. This material was presented at the fifteenth annual meeting of the Mormon History Association, Canandaigua, New York, May 1-4, 1980.
Joseph Smith and the Structure of Mormon Identity
Articles/Essays – Volume 14, No. 3
Dialogue 14.3 (Fall 1981): 89–100
Joseph Smith’s 1838 account of the First Vision has taken priority in structuring Mormon identity, despite the existence of different versions. This article explores why that version is so meaningful to Latter-day Saints, reflecting on the symbolic strucutre of the account.