Theories and Assumptions: A Review of William L. Davis’s Visions in a Seer Stone

Abstract: William L. Davis’s Visions in a Seer Stone presents readers with an innovative message that reports how Joseph Smith was able to produce the words of the Book of Mormon without supernatural assistance. His three-month “prodigious flow of verbal art and narrative creation” became the Book of Mormon. Davis’s theory describes a two-part literary pattern in the Book of Mormon where summary outlines in the text are consistently expanded in subsequent sections of the narrative. The primary weaknesses of the theory involve the type and quantity of assumptions routinely accepted throughout the book. The assumptions include beliefs that the historical record does not support and those that describe Smith using oral performance skills beyond those humanly possible. Visions in a Seer Stone will be most useful to individuals who, like the author, are willing to accept these assumptions. To more skeptical readers, the theory presented will be classified as incomplete or inadequate.