)

SOURCE: "The Restoration of all Things," in his Mormon Polygamy: A History, second edition, Signature Books, 1989, pp. 1-16.

[In the following excerpt, first published in 1986, Van Wagoner describes the philosophical and theological influences on Joseph Smith's attempt at creating a Mormon utopia in the United States.]

Joseph Smith, Jr., the charismatic founder of Mormonism, emerged from the ferment of Jacksonian America during a time when religion was regaining its hold over American life, when abolitionist groups, temperance movements, and benevolent societies were thriving. Utopian experiments testified to the exuberance of a nation advancing from infancy to childhood. Innocent vitality, limitless resources, a booming economy, and westward expansion nurtured a profound belief in America as a land of new hope, a light to the world.

Into this light came Joseph Smith, the twenty-four-year-old New York farmer who founded a religion based on his translation of a set of gold...