While such philosophical beliefs are fully accepted in the modern world of academia, the very practice of Hegelian dialectics in the realm of history not only muddies the waters of history, but induces in the reader a mental virus of the double-mind. Instead Joseph was giving a warning to all those that would oppose him and his prophetic calling from God in describing the refining affect opposition to him would bring. Something Joseph Smith never intended when he used the metaphor. Thus Bushman chose to use the imagery of an unrefined quarried stone to reflect Joseph Smith’s character.

Bushman desires to show a flawed Joseph Smith.

Interestingly, Bushman’s title to his biography is a fragmented quote from the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is long over-due that Rough Stone Rolling be revisited. Richard Bushman’s book Rough Stone Rolling has been offered for sale on LDS store shelves for almost a decade now. Isn’t it interesting that someone with Bushman’s credentials can over night turn anti-Mormon literature into a collected and respected source of scholarship. In Bushman’s mind those that have broken away from Mormonism have produced “a large amount of scholarship” concerning this topic. He tells us that they come from apostates of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He’s not interested in “perfection.” He’s interested in “mistakes and flaws.” Bushman tells us he knows just where to find those “mistakes and flaws” about the Prophet Joseph Smith. What makes Bushman’s biography so different than previously written biographies on Joseph Smith? Bushman is quick to tell us. A biography unlike any other previously written, especially by a self proclaimed “believing historian.” Richard Lyman Bushman, the author of a biography of Joseph Smith entitled Joseph Smith Rough Stone Rolling A Cultural Biography of Mormonism’s Founder, tells us that “two hundred years should be long enough to gain perspective on Joseph Smith.” He then proceeds to give us a “cultural biography” of the prophet.

Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon - 2015.

Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon.

Robert Cundick: A Sacred Service of Music.

Joseph Smith by Richard L. Bushman