Flake reads the 1832 and 1838 accounts as narratives explaining why a church capable of mediating salvation was necessary. She argues that the later narrative shifts from personal forgiveness toward institutional authority, with Smith’s Kirtland experience informing its meaning; her concern is the story’s religious function rather than deciding whether the vision occurred.
- Kathleen Flake, “The First Vision as a Prehistory of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” BYU Studies Quarterly 59, no. 2 (2020): 59–72.
Smith’s history is also less autobiographical than institutional.