John L. Brooke

Historian of early American religion and the hermetic contexts of Mormon cosmology.

history · religious studies

Degree: PhD, History, University of Pennsylvania
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John Brooke received his B.A. from Cornell University (1975) and his M.A. (1977) and Ph.D. (1982) from the University of Pennsylvania
John Brooke — Department of History
The Ohio State University · as of 2026-10-02
Original · Archived
Affiliation: Emeritus Professor of History, The Ohio State University
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Emeritus Professor; Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of History
John Brooke — Department of History
The Ohio State University · as of 2026-10-02
Original · Archived

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Positions

What is the relationship between the Nauvoo endowment and Freemasonry?

Esoteric or hermetic tradition

Brooke interprets Joseph Smith’s cosmology as a renewal of traditions joining radical Christianity with hermetic ideas about recovering divine powers lost by Adam. In this account, Freemasonry helped transmit an esoteric cultural inheritance that informed Mormon priesthood and temple theology.

John L. Brooke, The Refiner’s Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844 (Cambridge University Press, 1994).

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