American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church

By Alex Beam
2014
352 pages / 10 hours and 13 minutes
Nonfiction

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It is a little hard to admit, since I am a theology professor, that I have never been able to make heads or tails of Mormonism. I find the theology bizarre, the historiography untenable, and the leadership relentlessly oppressive. But even though it makes no sense to me, there are many honorable, bright, and deeply committed followers in the year 2020. They are our neighbors and friends. How did Mormonism happen? It seems highly unlikely.

Part of my problem is that I really didn’t know very much about the history of Mormonism in North America. At the very least, we should educate ourselves on the history so we can understand where it came from. So I offer to you American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church. First things first: as a piece of historical writing, the book is totally engrossing. It is probably more interesting to those of us who know virtually nothing of this history, but I’m guessing it will be a page-turning read for almost anyone.

I want to share the closing paragraph in Benjamin Moser’s review in the New York Times Book Review:

That is why the weaknesses in Joseph Smith’s character became, for the purposes of preserving his doctrine, an unbreakable strength. An even slightly less outrageous personality could never have ensured that his followers would be hated and exiled — and thus, paradoxically, survive. Mormonism thrived not despite its prophet’s megalomania but because of it. In a common paraphrase of Tertullian’s, Credo quia absurdum est: I believe it because it is absurd. It is a formula that Joseph Smith intuitively understood.

But there’s the rub. Joseph Smith is quite the amazing person, but by the end of the book I still can’t quite figure out why that is. Similarly, I recently read a number of books about Martin Luther due to the resurgence of interest in celebrating the 500th anniversary of his work. And while all of those books are insightful, I’m still left puzzling, “How did this insignificant Augustinian monk come to reshape the world?” And I still have no answer.

On the one hand, Joseph Smith appears to be a charlatan huckster with a narcissistic personality disorder and an insatiable desire for power. He inspired hate and loathing. But he also created devoted followers whose community building accomplishments, at Nauvoo in his lifetime and later after his murder, are stunning.

I have almost become convinced that certain religious and political leaders simply cannot be explained. After you have done historical and sociological and psychological analysis, there is still something left over which has not been explained. And that is certainly the case here.

I knew little about the near miracle of Nauvoo and almost nothing about the events that led to Smith’s murder by a lynch mob. They are now part of American history and the current religious landscape. It is a short book and compulsively readable. So take a few hours and educate yourself – and when you think you understand Joseph Smith, please explain him to me.