BYU historian, assistant church historian
James B. Allen
1 topic · 1 dated event · 1 source
Their part in each topic
The First Vision
BYU historian, assistant church historian
Allen's 1966 Dialogue article established, from inside the faith, that the story of the vision was not in general circulation in the 1830s — not in the Book of Commandments, not in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, not in early missionary literature. It remains the single most-cited finding on the topic, quoted approvingly by apologists and critics alike.
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1 events across 1 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
James B. Allen publishes in Dialogue
Allen, later assistant church historian, traced the vision's absence from 1830s publications and concluded that 'an understanding of the story of Joseph Smith's vision dawned only gradually upon the membership of the Church during his lifetime, and that new and important uses were made of the story after his death.' The article is quoted approvingly by apologists and critics to this day.
Sources in their own name
Source records in the database whose author line names this person. Each links to the topic that uses it.
"The Significance of Joseph Smith's 'First Vision' in Mormon Thought," Dialogue 1, no. 3
James B. Allen
That the vision was absent from the Book of Commandments, the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, early church periodicals and missionary literature, and that understanding of it 'dawned only gradually' on the membership.
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