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emiged's review against another edition
4.0
So many names from early Church history are familiar, heard over and over again as characters in a handful of stories in Sunday School class: Oliver Cowdrey, Edward Partridge, Eliza R. Snow, Thomas B. Marsh. It's not very often that we get a three-dimensional picture of the complex people they truly were, real, living breathing individuals with strengths and weaknesses, nobility and foibles, virtues and vices. With Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism, Givens and Grow have painted a detailed and intriguing portrait of one of the more fascinating early leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Parley P. Pratt was a strong personality, a loyal friend, a loving family man, a "missionary without subtlety", a preacher with a "bold, blunt, outspoken style that led to frequent controversies", and an intellectual with a brilliant mind for theology. He served as "Mormonism's leading voice to the world" from the late 1830s to the mid-1840s. His prolific writings "systematized and popularized" Joseph Smith's teachings and he held the Prophet in high esteem with "respect for the office he held and the role he filled in the latter-day restoration", but Pratt was dedicated wholeheartedly to the religion, not just the man. "Just as Paul clashed with Peter, Pratt dissented at times from both Smith and [Brigham] Young, making clear that his commitment to Mormonism rested not on devotion to a charismatic leader but spiritual and intellectual assent to the religion's doctrines."
Givens and Grow's biography draws heavily from Pratt's own autobiography, but also from many private letters, journals, articles and other papers that flesh out his more personal opinions and feelings as well as his family life. They note that while his autobiography, similar to other contemporary autobiographies, leaves out information about his family, his letters "demonstrate great concern and longing for his family when absent, suggesting the abiding tension in Pratt's life between a religion that exalted family life...and yet required his continual absence from it for short preaching tours and long missionary journeys." His love for and attachment to his increasingly large family (he eventually had twelve wives and thirty children) is evident through his touching correspondence with them.
The Book of Mormon was key to Pratt's conversion and faith. One of Givens's earlier books, By the Hand of Mormon, explores how many early Saints focused less on the content of the Book of Mormon and more on its origin story. Pratt was an exception. "Whereas many Mormons of his generation used the Book of Mormon primarily as a sign of a divinely sanctioned restoration (a point with which Pratt wholeheartedly agreed), Pratt was one of the few who seriously probed the book's content and often preached from its pages." His description of his conversion is well known and, I think, quite moving:
In the Book of Mormon, Pratt found "an appeal to his intellect, a spiritual confirmation of what he considered the restored gospel's reasonableness...From then on, Pratt's life would be dedicated to articulating the reasonableness, even the rational inevitability, of the book's appearance and message."
To read the rest of this review, visit Build Enough Bookshelves
Parley P. Pratt was a strong personality, a loyal friend, a loving family man, a "missionary without subtlety", a preacher with a "bold, blunt, outspoken style that led to frequent controversies", and an intellectual with a brilliant mind for theology. He served as "Mormonism's leading voice to the world" from the late 1830s to the mid-1840s. His prolific writings "systematized and popularized" Joseph Smith's teachings and he held the Prophet in high esteem with "respect for the office he held and the role he filled in the latter-day restoration", but Pratt was dedicated wholeheartedly to the religion, not just the man. "Just as Paul clashed with Peter, Pratt dissented at times from both Smith and [Brigham] Young, making clear that his commitment to Mormonism rested not on devotion to a charismatic leader but spiritual and intellectual assent to the religion's doctrines."
Givens and Grow's biography draws heavily from Pratt's own autobiography, but also from many private letters, journals, articles and other papers that flesh out his more personal opinions and feelings as well as his family life. They note that while his autobiography, similar to other contemporary autobiographies, leaves out information about his family, his letters "demonstrate great concern and longing for his family when absent, suggesting the abiding tension in Pratt's life between a religion that exalted family life...and yet required his continual absence from it for short preaching tours and long missionary journeys." His love for and attachment to his increasingly large family (he eventually had twelve wives and thirty children) is evident through his touching correspondence with them.
The Book of Mormon was key to Pratt's conversion and faith. One of Givens's earlier books, By the Hand of Mormon, explores how many early Saints focused less on the content of the Book of Mormon and more on its origin story. Pratt was an exception. "Whereas many Mormons of his generation used the Book of Mormon primarily as a sign of a divinely sanctioned restoration (a point with which Pratt wholeheartedly agreed), Pratt was one of the few who seriously probed the book's content and often preached from its pages." His description of his conversion is well known and, I think, quite moving:
[I] opened [the Book of Mormon] with eagerness, and read its title page. I then read the testimony of several witnesses in relation to the manner of its being found and translated. After this I commenced its contents by course. I read all day; eating was a burden, I had no desire for food; sleep was a burden when the night came, for I preferred reading to sleep.
In the Book of Mormon, Pratt found "an appeal to his intellect, a spiritual confirmation of what he considered the restored gospel's reasonableness...From then on, Pratt's life would be dedicated to articulating the reasonableness, even the rational inevitability, of the book's appearance and message."
To read the rest of this review, visit Build Enough Bookshelves
tanyarobinson's review against another edition
3.0
As I think about why I didn't enjoy this book more, I realize the 3-star rating is more about me than about the strengths and weaknesses of the biography. It's not that I wanted white-washed history, because generally I appreciate the more objective scholarly approach that this Oxford University Press publication provides. It really comes down to this: I didn't like the Parley P. Pratt presented in Givens' work, and I am uncomfortable with not liking apostles!
I can appreciate his wide-ranging missionary efforts. I recognize the incredible contribution he made to systematizing Mormon doctrine (though I thought he was awfully presumptuous in his expansion of revealed ideas). I'm bothered by the fact that Brigham Young censured Pratt for unauthorized polygamous marriages and for disobeying council on the trek West. I found myself annoyed by his debtor's lifestyle; even before he joined the church and devoted his time to missionary service he was continually in debt. And as a modern woman, how could I not be turned off when he writes in a group letter to all his wives that one of them "has improved much in Education and in Spirit," and then says of another "O Could I get my mouth as near her lips as I did in a dream, I would immediately snatch one good Long hearty kiss." I'm sure Parley was a good and worthy man, and in the early days of the church with its spiritual, doctrinal, and cultural immaturity was about the best there was to choose from for leadership. I just have no desire to ever bump into him in the spirit world!
I can appreciate his wide-ranging missionary efforts. I recognize the incredible contribution he made to systematizing Mormon doctrine (though I thought he was awfully presumptuous in his expansion of revealed ideas). I'm bothered by the fact that Brigham Young censured Pratt for unauthorized polygamous marriages and for disobeying council on the trek West. I found myself annoyed by his debtor's lifestyle; even before he joined the church and devoted his time to missionary service he was continually in debt. And as a modern woman, how could I not be turned off when he writes in a group letter to all his wives that one of them "has improved much in Education and in Spirit," and then says of another "O Could I get my mouth as near her lips as I did in a dream, I would immediately snatch one good Long hearty kiss." I'm sure Parley was a good and worthy man, and in the early days of the church with its spiritual, doctrinal, and cultural immaturity was about the best there was to choose from for leadership. I just have no desire to ever bump into him in the spirit world!
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