Mormonism : An Introduction Paperback / softback
by Malise Ruthven
Part of the I.B. Tauris Introductions to Religion series
Paperback / softback
Description
Mormonism is often viewed as the quintessential American faith.
Indeed, 'they teach the American religion' was how Tolstoy once responded to a question about the Mormons.
Mormonism was the first and most successful new religion to appear in the New World where, despite the biblical language of its narrative, it created a novel and dynamic theology that was vitally different from the Protestant Christianity from which it originated.
Today the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is one of the wealthiest and most powerful institutions in the USA.
Its clean-cut, youthful missionaries appear as representative of American values as the executives of Citibank and comparable US institutions.
Yet at the heart of the Mormon story is a remarkable paradox.
Despite their present-day image as 'archetypal Yankees', Mormons were long perceived as 'un-American' in their utopian socialism and in the hard battle they fought - and eventually lost - to preserve the sacred principle of polygamy, or 'plural marriage'. In his lively and timely reappraisal of its apparent contradictions, Malise Ruthven discusses the emergence of Mormonism as a world religion; its theology, structure and rituals; the career of the Saints' charismatic founder, Joseph Smith, culminating in his assassination in 1844; the theocratic rule of Smith's successor, Brigham Young; the 1890 'Manifesto', when polygamy was abandoned in exchange for Utah statehood; the emergence of a Mormon Diaspora after World War 1; and the impressive growth of Mormonism outside the old American West after World War 2.
Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:264 pages, 20 integrated bw illustrations
- Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication Date:28/02/2020
- Category:
- ISBN:9781780760117
Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:264 pages, 20 integrated bw illustrations
- Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication Date:28/02/2020
- Category:
- ISBN:9781780760117