E30: Innovations ‘n’ Alterations in Nauvoo

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:10)
If you're trying to understand Mormon theology, then the Nauvoo period is an important piece of the puzzle.
In the short period of time between 1839 and 1846, the Mormon church grew exponentially both in membership and in theological development. In just seven years of church-developed rituals, many modern Latter-day Saints will recognize today. August 15th, 1840, Baptism for the Dead is introduced. November 8th, 1841, you know, a year later after Baptism for the Dead, the Nauvoo Temple Baptismal font was ready for use and dedicated. May 4th, 1842, Joseph Smith introduced the endowment to nine elders in the church. Spring of 1842, there's the Wentworth Letter and the Book of Abraham published in Times and Seasons. And April 7th, 1844, Joseph Smith delivered the Kingfool at discourse. And that is just the beginning.
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:05)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:07)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:34)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:39)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:47)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
Thanks for watching! If you were to convert to early Mormonism from any other Christian sect, the first church ordinances in Mormonism really wouldn't seem that unusual to you. Blessings with the laying on of hands, baptisms by immersion. They might have varied from different religious traditions, but they weren't seen as atypical. Early Mormons also had a form of communion, later called taking the sacrament in modern parlance. And that was pretty standard Christian fare too.
But as things get rolling in Mormonism, especially in Nauvoo, we see some really strong and powerful developments in the doctrines, rituals and theology that would forever shape the Mormonism to follow.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:46)
Joseph Smith sold the idea of the church as a restoration of all things. That's kind of like the shtick that Mormons talk about. He was restoring ancient biblical things. So to understand this idea, you have to realize that Joseph Smith saw himself as basically the guy who takes the things that no longer practice from the Bible and restores them. And simultaneously, it's weird because I was taught in Mormon seminary that the law of Moses that was Christ's role is to sort of get rid of all the Old Testament things. And now Joseph Smith sees himself as restoring some of that. So it's really, really interesting.
Joseph believed or claimed that he was excavating ancient rituals that had long been lost to society due to wickedness and what Mormons call the great apostasy.
We need like dun, dun, dun, the great apostasy.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:35)
And a British accent to say it.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:38)
Where the world was too lost in sin to practice important and essential rituals that God required.
Throughout the Nauvoo period, Smith would introduce these ideas as ancient ideas that were now restored. And some of these practices would become uniquely Mormon like baptisms for the dead and ceilings.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:57)
Hold on, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Want us to explore how the endowment started to come together.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:02)
Okay, sure, but it's important to remember that at least the idea of ceilings came about as early as the Book of Mormon. I always forget that in Helaman 10.7, which is Mormon scripture in the Book of Mormon, God promises that whatever you sail on earth shall be sealed in heaven.
I mean, you could even argue that as early as 1823, when the angel Moroni appeared to young Joseph Smith, that he was promising through the hands of Elijah that the correct priesthood would be restored. So, some of these doctrines find seeds right out the gate.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:34)
It's a good point. Book of Mormon really does lay some theological groundwork. There's no question there.
What's interesting, though, is that of all the breakoff groups, schisms, splinter groups from the original church that Joseph founded, it's the early ones that break off before Nauvoo, but still incorporate the Book of Mormon, that resemble the closest to these other Protestant groups that are around them.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:56)
So, my read on the Book of Mormon isn't as divergent from Christian themes as some of us would believe. Some people say it's, like, completely, like, extant.

**Bryan Buchanan** (5:06)
All of the Gospels in there.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (5:07)
Yeah.
Of course, I say that as a born and raised Mormon who has a very limited worldview. But when it first started and in the Kirtland period, these people were still Trinitarian. I didn't even know that till a couple of years ago, because I just, it was so drilled into me that one of the things that Joseph restored was the idea of the Godhead, right? So I didn't even understand that there was, like, this development over time and it wasn't always that way. When they were first practicing, they were practicing a God that they were all familiar with. And in my opinion, the Book of Mormon was really compatible with 19th century social ideas and with 19th century spiritual ideas. So it's not really in Tel Navu that things get a little weird.