Journal Article

Early Latter-Day Saint Communalism and The Joseph Smith Papers

Grow, Matthew J

2022

Overview

Latter-day Saint Communalism The outlines of early Latter-day Saint communalism have long been understood by scholars.1 The Latter-day Saint gospel, with its emphasis on the restoration of the primitive Christian chinch of the New Testament, appealed to those who read in the Book of Acts that early Christians had \"all things common.\" In 1830, for instance, in the same year as the establishment of the Church of Christ by Joseph Smith, but before Sidney Rigdon had become acquainted with Latter-day Saint missionaries, Rigdon had stated at a gathering of the Mahoning Baptist Association that \"our pretension to follow the apostles in all their New Testament teachings, required a community of goods; that as they established this order in the model church at Jerusalem, we were bound to imitate their example. According to the editors of The Joseph Smith Papers, the core shift was to establish \"a new basis for economic reorganization that featured individual stewardships rather than common ownership. When an inquirer asked Joseph Smith in 1835 if \"a member of our church could move into this vicinity and purchase lands and enjoy his own possessions & property with out making it common Stock,\" Joseph replied that he himself owned a \"valuable farm\" and that we have no commonstock business among us, that every man enjoys his own property, or can if he is disposed, consecrate liberally or illiberally to the support of the poor & needy, or the building up of Zion.10 In 183 8, in a Church newspaper, Joseph Smith and others published a series of questions and answers.

• Publisher: Communal Studies Association
• Subject: Christianity / Donations / Economic crisis / Free will / Mormonism / Rigdon, Sidney