Overview

A Barn Full of Angels: The Spiritual World and Pioneer Journey of Zerah Pulsipher explores the extraordinary life of an early Latter-day Saint whose faith was shaped by visions, spiritual encounters, and unwavering conviction. Born into the religious ferment of early nineteenth-century America, Zerah Pulsipher experienced what he believed were visitations from angels, confrontations with unseen powers, and personal revelations that guided his conversion to Mormonism. From a defining vision in his barn that confirmed the Book of Mormon to a lifetime immersed in an ""enchanted"" spiritual world, Pulsipher's story offers a rare window into how ordinary believers understood heaven, hell, angels, and demons as active forces in daily life. At the same time, this deeply researched biography situates Pulsipher within the gritty realities of the Latter-day Saint pioneer experience. As a president of the Seventy, missionary, migrant leader, and family patriarch, he helped translate prophetic vision into lived reality-organizing mass migrations, enduring persecution, navigating plural marriage, and building communities across the American frontier. Written with both empathy and critical rigor, A Barn Full of Angels presents Pulsipher in all his complexity: faithful yet flawed, visionary yet pragmatic. The result is a compelling ""history from the middle"" that illuminates the spiritual imagination, institutional growth, and human costs of early Mormonism through the life of one remarkable man.

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9781589588332

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Reviews

""Chad Nielsen has written much more than a biography of a forgotten early Latter-day Saint, he has captured a forgotten worldview. Nielsen not only introduces readers to Zerah Pulsipher, an 1832 convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and one of the presidents of the Seventy, he opens our vision to otherworldly encounters with angels, demons, exorcisms, and more. Pulsipher converts a future prophet and runs afoul of Brigham Young. He is the ultimate Forrest Gump of Mormonism. In Nielsen's skillful retelling, readers will delight in the front row seat they are offered into a cosmic contest that played out somewhere between heaven and earth."" - W. Paul Reeve, Simmons Chair of Mormons Studies, University of Utah ""This is one of the most important Mormon biographies of the decade, and one of the first to focus on an early member of the Presidency of the Seventy. As a scholar, Nielsen acts as master tour guide, illuminating key moments in the church's early history through Zerah's eyes. As a descendent, he courageously lets the facts lead where they may-even to Zerah's young teenage wife. Informative, inspiring, and thought-provoking, this is a must-read."" - Kurt Manwaring, editor-in-chief, From the Desk ""For those who want to delve deeper into the complex life of an early Latter-day Saint, this biography offers a compelling narrative. While many of us only know Zerah Pulsipher as the visionary missionary who baptized young Wilford Woodruff, Pulsipher's story is full of contradictions, hard-won life lessons, and doggedly devoted discipleship. In Nielsen's well-researched and thorough examination of Pulsipher and the era in which he lived, we get to know not just this early convert to the Church but his family over decades and the arc of his membership, leadership, and missionary efforts."" - Kristy Wheelwright Taylor, author of Prepare Me for Thy Use: Lessons from Wilford Woodruff's Mission Years

Author Information

Chad L. Nielsen is an independent historian and writer specializing in Latter-day Saint history, theology, music, and documents. He is the author of Fragments of Revelation: Exploring the Book of Doctrine and Covenants and A Barn Full of Angels: The Spiritual World and Pioneer Journey of Zerah Pulsipher.Nielsen's scholarship has appeared in The Journal of Mormon History, Element: A Journal of Mormon Philosophy and Theology, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, as well as on the blogs Times and Seasons and From the Desk. He is a four-time winning contestant in Utah State University's Arrington Writing Award. While his professional career is in biotechnology as a manager at Recursion in Salt Lake City, Utah, Nielsen maintains active passions for history, religious studies, and music.

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