In academia it is assumed that differences Smith's first vision accounts reflect an evolving concept of the Godhead. For example, references to God in the early writings by Smith, including the Book of Mormon, can be seen as more Trinitarian or modalistic, where God is a single entity, but manifests himself in different modes, sometimes as the Father, sometimes as the Son, but always as an expression of the same one God. Modalism was common in upstate New York at the time, so the appearance of a single personage (Jesus) in Smith's 1832 account would be consistent with prevailing modalistic thought.