William L. Davis has published an astoundingly good book, one of the best works of religious and intellectual history I have read in years. Visions in a Seer Stone engages a range of academic fields, historical methods, and exegetical close readings in examining the development of the Book of Mormon, and above all helps his readers understand the dynamics of American religious culture during Joseph Smith's lifetime. In the end, he develops an argument impressive for both its conceptual rigor and its sweeping breadth: that the Book of Mormon is less a conventional text than an oral performance, and that all the elements that signal its spoken-word delivery reveal the extent to which it should be considered a part of a larger oratorical culture of the nineteenth century, “the artifact of a grander, multifaceted oratorical effort” (2). In building his case, Davis seeks to sidestep the more familiar historiographical conflicts...
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