The reality is "there is far more to Joseph Smith" than in either simplistic approach, said Hughes, whose college is affiliated with Alexander Campbell, a contemporary and outspoken critic of Joseph Smith who founded his own restoration movement with many of the same restoration underpinnings as the LDS religion.

In fact, the idea that prophets would restore the primitive church was prevalent in America, which was founded by visionaries who believed their experiment in democracy was, in fact, a restoration of God-given inalienable rights. In effect, the restoration of a true religion was a natural extension of the restoration of democracy, "a new order for the ages" and a "final golden age for all human kind."

Grant Underwood, a professor of history at Brigham Young University, a co-sponsor of the conference with the Library of Congress, pointed to one study that showed there were at least 400 modern prophets preaching in the early 1800s, many of whom claimed to have received revelations from God and who recorded their visions.

And many of the movements attracted thousands of followers, many were persecuted and many were based on the teachings of charismatic prophets.

"Visions are very common among born-again Christians. Who's to say they are not divinely inspired?" added Remini.

But as Joseph Smith is examined and re-examined through the different lenses of historians, Underwood said it is important to keep the perspective that "histories are the creation of authors, not photographs of the past. There are many histories of Joseph Smith, as many as there are authors. But none captures the man in his fullness."

Historians will debate the life and legacy of Joseph Smith for generations to come, but members of the LDS Church will base their convictions on faith in the teachings of a man they believe talked with God.

"Revelation is the key to the uniqueness of Joseph Smith's message," Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve, said in written remarks he had prepared as Friday night's featured speaker.

"Joseph taught that he was directed by a continuing flow of revelation throughout his life and that everyone could enjoy personal revelation or inspiration to guide them in their individual lives," he stated.

Elder Oaks said the significance of revelation is the principal difference between the LDS Church and those of other religious traditions.

"It is the foundation of our church doctrine and governance, and it is also fundamental to personal conversion, personal decisionmaking and how we understand and apply the inspired texts we call scriptures," he asserts in his speech.

But LDS and non-LDS historians agree that histories are complex, and historians will always be unraveling the threads of Joseph Smith's life, each one looking at his life and legacy from a different perspective.

A Danish historian is examining the life of Joseph Smith within the context of the philosopher Kierkegard. Another is looking at similarities between how an uneducated Joseph Smith translated sacred hidden texts and a similar Tibetan tradition where monks hide sacred texts to be discovered and translated at a later time.

Bushman said that if scholars truly want to understand Joseph Smith they must look beyond the "American prophet" and examine him within a "trans-national" context.

"Only in the larger field will we see his true dimensions," he said.

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com