While biblical material is evident in 1, 2, and 3 Nephi and elsewhere in the Book of Mormon, the inspiration for Jacob, Enos, Mosiah, and Alma seems to be partly drawn from Joseph Smith’s own spiritual odyssey. Elements of his own life and experiences, his observations of circuit preachers and conversion in western New York, form a backdrop for the discourses and religious experiences of Abinadi, Alma, Ammon, Amulek, Benjamin, and others.

Reviews of the Book of Mormon in the 1830s detected this coloring from Joseph’s own life. Alexander Campbell observed in 1831 that the book’s author was “skilled in the controversies in New York.” Johnson Whitman, editor of the Boston *Unitarian*, noted in January 1834 the popular western New York prejudices “against fine clothing,” a paid “regular ministry,” and “the institution of Masonry,” which he believed were given “artful adaptations” in the Book of Mormon. He further reported that the book followed (1) “the camp-meeting” ground and (2) the evangelical “style of preaching,” and (3) “conversion,” (4) and “dissent,” and (5) that the “exhortations are strongly tinctured with the doctrines of modern [Protestant] Orthodoxy.”

Evangelical camp meetings in western New York n the 1820s were characterized by (1) camp setting; (2) preaching that interlaced paraphrased biblical passages with revival terminology designed to produce a powerful emotional impact; (3) a conversion pattern characterized by a conviction of sin, intense prayer for forgiveness, and a sweet calming assurance of being forgiven, often accompanied by trembling, tears, falling, and other physical manifestations; (4) denunciation of Deists, Unitarians, Universalists, and agnostics; and (5) vivid descriptions of the degenerate state of human beings. While all five of these elements formed a pattern that was typical in Joseph Smith’s environment, one would not expect to find them packaged together in the discourses and experiences of ancient Americans. It is more believable that the Protestant Reformation, including its evolving doctrines and practices down to Joseph Smith’s era, influenced these sections of the Book of Mormon.

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