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Question: Did Joseph Smith produce the Book of Mormon by using a Methodist homiletic composition technique known as “laying down heads”?
Question: Did Joseph Smith produce the Book of Mormon by using the Methodist preaching device known as “laying down heads”?
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Introduction to Criticism
Author William Davis in his book Visions in a Seer Stone alleges that Joseph Smith may have been able to produce the text of the Book of Mormon by using a Methodist homiletic composition technique known as “laying down heads.”
The process is described as coming up with a basic list of points (perhaps on a paper or in his/her memory) that a person would like to address within a given sermon. Then, throughout the course of his/her sermon, the preacher extemporaneously connects those heads into the most coherent and powerful homily possible.
Davis alleges that Joseph Smith came up with such "heads" prior to the dictation of the Book of Mormon and then, at the time of alleged creation of the book during translation, interlaced them with his own extemporaneous creation of text that we today have as the Book of Mormon. Davis is very sympathetic to Latter-day Saints and welcomes ways in which the faithful might make sense of the data that he provides in his book.
This article will remain without response for now as there are much lengthier reviews and rebuttals currently forthcoming in academic Latter-day Saint journals which FairMormon believes will be helpful for readers who wish to get the most scholarly apologetic possible for this new naturalistic theory of the Book of Mormon’s origins. This article will make use of that material to guide readers through an informed response to Davis’ theory.
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