Religious historian Jan Shipps says if a prophet is defined as one who speaks for God, then Mormon founder Joseph Smith could have been one.

He could also be everything else it's suggested he may have been, including a magician, Shipps said in an address sponsored by Sunstone Magazine at the Salt Lake City Public Library Tuesday, Nov. 17.

"That's what religious studies can bring to Mormonism," Shipps said, "You don't have to believe it to study it. This Methodist has been doing it for almost 50 years."

Shipps outlined the story of how she came to study and teach religions starting with trying to find something to do while her husband taught at a university in Indiana and her son took violin lessons.

"I got a job at the Institute for Sex Research," she said. After she wrote a book for the institute and failed to get any recognition as its author, she told the administrators she was "tired of sex and wanted to get back to history!"

That led to an adjunct position and being asked to start a program in religious studies.

"I didn't know anything about religious studies," she said. But when she tried to turn down the job she was told she already knew the history of a religious people.

Thus she began to teach a course on American Religion and Civil Law which led to a book that is used at Harvard, Yale and other prestigious schools.

"I knew a single example, the history of Mormons but my book is not Mormon history. It has to do with making an argument of what Mormonism is," she said.

Shipps said to study religious teaching she divides religions into six dimensions.

First, she asks, what is the story, the mythological basis for the religion? (She emphasized that mythological doesn't mean it's untrue.)

Second, what is the doctrine or explanation behind the story?

The third dimension involves the ritual associated with the religion which in Mormonism is the temple and the accompanying rites.

Fourth, the social aspect or people involved comes into play.

Fifth, the ethics of a particular religion has to be looked at.

Today, Shipps said, it's hard to separate ethics out as the LDS Church involves itself heavily in humanitarian causes but polygamy confuses the issue.

Lastly, the experiential component or direct contact between man and divinity is examined.

Shipps said the method that works well for her is an "XYZ" methodology where X is the unknown, Y is what is known and Z is the difference between known and unknown.

"I stumbled along for two long years reading all I could written mostly by people who didn't believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, especially writings by those who'd left the Mormon Church. What did they say? I'd go over to one side for a while and then back to the other.

"I'd read for a while then I'd think about my friends like Leonard Arrington (the LDS Church's official historian). He believes and he's not nuts," Shipps said. "Then I'd read the other side's material. Finally I used the historian's best friend which is chronology. I separated all the stories about Joseph Smith being a magician and a prophet and put dates to all of them and said, 'He could've been both.'

"The plates? Maybe he saw real gold plates. Maybe he saw plates with spiritual eyes. What we've got is a person who is the producer of the Book of Mormon, a tangible artifact."

Shipps said she can see why people bought into the story once they read the section that declares that a book will come forth and a prophet will come forth and his name will be like unto his father's.

"I tell the story making it clear that I am bracketing truth," Shipps said. "If you can't bracket truth, you can't study any religion but your own."

E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com