Thomas W. Simpson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469628639
- eISBN:
- 9781469628653
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628639.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
By all accounts, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were critical for Mormonism's evolution and modernization. The rapidity of the change, however, leaves nagging questions. After ...
More
By all accounts, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were critical for Mormonism's evolution and modernization. The rapidity of the change, however, leaves nagging questions. After years of costly, principled resistance, how could Mormons, with any semblance of dignity and self-respect, suddenly embrace the institutions and values of their tormentors? How did members of the nineteenth century's "most despised large group" become so loyal to the United States in the twentieth? This chapter explores the unique, crucial role that American universities played in fostering Mormon-Gentile reconciliation. Right when the animosities were at fever pitch—in the decades between the death of Brigham Young (1877) and the incorporation of Utah into the United States (1896)—the American university became a liminal, quasi-sacred space where Mormons experienced a radical transformation of consciousness and identity. In the process, they developed an enduring devotion to non-Mormon institutions and deference to non-Mormon expertise. These extra-ecclesial loyalties would dismantle the ideological framework of Mormon separatism and pave the way for Mormons' voluntary re-immersion into the mainstream of American life.Less
By all accounts, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were critical for Mormonism's evolution and modernization. The rapidity of the change, however, leaves nagging questions. After years of costly, principled resistance, how could Mormons, with any semblance of dignity and self-respect, suddenly embrace the institutions and values of their tormentors? How did members of the nineteenth century's "most despised large group" become so loyal to the United States in the twentieth? This chapter explores the unique, crucial role that American universities played in fostering Mormon-Gentile reconciliation. Right when the animosities were at fever pitch—in the decades between the death of Brigham Young (1877) and the incorporation of Utah into the United States (1896)—the American university became a liminal, quasi-sacred space where Mormons experienced a radical transformation of consciousness and identity. In the process, they developed an enduring devotion to non-Mormon institutions and deference to non-Mormon expertise. These extra-ecclesial loyalties would dismantle the ideological framework of Mormon separatism and pave the way for Mormons' voluntary re-immersion into the mainstream of American life.
Thomas W. Simpson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469628639
- eISBN:
- 9781469628653
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628639.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, college-age Latter-day Saints began undertaking a remarkable intellectual pilgrimage to the nation's elite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, ...
More
In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, college-age Latter-day Saints began undertaking a remarkable intellectual pilgrimage to the nation's elite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Chicago, and Stanford. Thomas W. Simpson chronicles the academic migration of hundreds of LDS students from the 1860s through the late 1930s, when church authority J. Reuben Clark Jr., himself a product of the Columbia University Law School, gave a reactionary speech about young Mormons' search for intellectual cultivation. Clark's leadership helped to set conservative parameters that in large part came to characterize Mormon intellectual life. At the outset, Mormon women and men were purposefully dispatched to such universities to "gather the world's knowledge to Zion." Simpson, drawing on unpublished diaries, among other materials, shows how LDS students commonly described American universities as egalitarian spaces that fostered a personally transformative sense of freedom to explore provisional reconciliations of Mormon and American identities, and religious and scientific perspectives. On campus, Simpson argues, Mormon separatism died and a new, modern Mormonism was born: a Mormonism at home in the United States but at odds with itself. Fierce battles among Mormon scholars and church leaders ensued over scientific thought, progressivism, and the historicity of Mormonism’s sacred past. The scars and controversy, Simpson concludes, linger.Less
In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, college-age Latter-day Saints began undertaking a remarkable intellectual pilgrimage to the nation's elite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Chicago, and Stanford. Thomas W. Simpson chronicles the academic migration of hundreds of LDS students from the 1860s through the late 1930s, when church authority J. Reuben Clark Jr., himself a product of the Columbia University Law School, gave a reactionary speech about young Mormons' search for intellectual cultivation. Clark's leadership helped to set conservative parameters that in large part came to characterize Mormon intellectual life. At the outset, Mormon women and men were purposefully dispatched to such universities to "gather the world's knowledge to Zion." Simpson, drawing on unpublished diaries, among other materials, shows how LDS students commonly described American universities as egalitarian spaces that fostered a personally transformative sense of freedom to explore provisional reconciliations of Mormon and American identities, and religious and scientific perspectives. On campus, Simpson argues, Mormon separatism died and a new, modern Mormonism was born: a Mormonism at home in the United States but at odds with itself. Fierce battles among Mormon scholars and church leaders ensued over scientific thought, progressivism, and the historicity of Mormonism’s sacred past. The scars and controversy, Simpson concludes, linger.
Thomas W. Simpson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469628639
- eISBN:
- 9781469628653
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628639.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Mormon intellectual life suffered acutely in the wake of turmoil at Brigham Young University in 1911, but less than a decade later, major changes in church leadership and educational policy would ...
More
Mormon intellectual life suffered acutely in the wake of turmoil at Brigham Young University in 1911, but less than a decade later, major changes in church leadership and educational policy would help stimulate renewal. At the same time, Mormon scholars began gravitating to new disciplines like history, sociology, and the academic study of religion. A number of these students would become scholarly authorities on the Mormon community and the Mormon past. The students' epistemology, which placed supreme value on documentary and statistical evidence, was bound eventually to clash with that of theologically conservative church authorities, who exalted the private tutorings of the spirit. J. Reuben Clark Jr., a member of the LDS First Presidency, was the most forceful critic of Mormon scholars who, in his mind, threatened to lead Mormon youth astray. His 1938 "Charted Course of the Church in Education" remains a profoundly influential statement, and warning, about the "fundamentals" of church teaching and education.Less
Mormon intellectual life suffered acutely in the wake of turmoil at Brigham Young University in 1911, but less than a decade later, major changes in church leadership and educational policy would help stimulate renewal. At the same time, Mormon scholars began gravitating to new disciplines like history, sociology, and the academic study of religion. A number of these students would become scholarly authorities on the Mormon community and the Mormon past. The students' epistemology, which placed supreme value on documentary and statistical evidence, was bound eventually to clash with that of theologically conservative church authorities, who exalted the private tutorings of the spirit. J. Reuben Clark Jr., a member of the LDS First Presidency, was the most forceful critic of Mormon scholars who, in his mind, threatened to lead Mormon youth astray. His 1938 "Charted Course of the Church in Education" remains a profoundly influential statement, and warning, about the "fundamentals" of church teaching and education.
Thomas W. Simpson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469628639
- eISBN:
- 9781469628653
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628639.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
In the late 1860s, Mormons began knocking at the doors of American colleges and universities. Reversing the course of the westward-bound pioneer ancestors, these academic emigrants sought to retrieve ...
More
In the late 1860s, Mormons began knocking at the doors of American colleges and universities. Reversing the course of the westward-bound pioneer ancestors, these academic emigrants sought to retrieve what their forerunners had left behind, by force or by choice: their access to higher education. In the earliest cases, church leaders like Brigham Young sent the students as missionaries, but not to proselytize. Rather, they tapped these women and men for specialized training in professions ranging from law, medicine, and engineering to education. Mormons saw education in "Gentile" universities as a means to realize a corporate hope: a kingdom of God in the Mountain West. The goal was, in the words fo Brigham Young, to gather the world's knowledge to Zion, to help build the perfect society in the "latter days" before God's millennial reign. Unwittingly, church leaders had helped set the stage for American universities to become sites of a profound transformation of Mormon consciousness and identity.Less
In the late 1860s, Mormons began knocking at the doors of American colleges and universities. Reversing the course of the westward-bound pioneer ancestors, these academic emigrants sought to retrieve what their forerunners had left behind, by force or by choice: their access to higher education. In the earliest cases, church leaders like Brigham Young sent the students as missionaries, but not to proselytize. Rather, they tapped these women and men for specialized training in professions ranging from law, medicine, and engineering to education. Mormons saw education in "Gentile" universities as a means to realize a corporate hope: a kingdom of God in the Mountain West. The goal was, in the words fo Brigham Young, to gather the world's knowledge to Zion, to help build the perfect society in the "latter days" before God's millennial reign. Unwittingly, church leaders had helped set the stage for American universities to become sites of a profound transformation of Mormon consciousness and identity.
Thomas W. Simpson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469628639
- eISBN:
- 9781469628653
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628639.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Because nineteenth-century Mormons could never fully realize their separatist dream of building the Kingdom of God in North America, the history of Mormonism has involved highly complex contacts and ...
More
Because nineteenth-century Mormons could never fully realize their separatist dream of building the Kingdom of God in North America, the history of Mormonism has involved highly complex contacts and negotiations with non-Mormons. In their attempts to convert, resist, or appease powerful outsiders, Mormons have engaged in a distinctive dialectic of secrecy and self-disclosure, of esoteric rites and strategic public relations. The result has been an extended process of controlled modernization, the evolution of a dynamic, global faith. This book focuses on a crucial aspect of that process of modernization and evolution: academic migration to the elite universities of the United States, which offered exiled and ambitious Mormons a unique, quasi-sacred cultural space of freedom and dignity. At schools like Johns Hopkins, Penn, Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Michigan, Chicago, Stanford, and Berkeley, a rising, influential generation of Mormon women and men would undergo a radical transformation of consciousness and identity. Outsiders became insiders; those on the margins entered the mainstream. This revised cultural and intellectual history of Mormonism sheds light on the emergence and domestication of nineteenth-century Mormon feminism, the evolution of Mormon ethnicity, the development of Mormon intellectual life and anti-intellectualism, and the history of outsiders in American higher education.Less
Because nineteenth-century Mormons could never fully realize their separatist dream of building the Kingdom of God in North America, the history of Mormonism has involved highly complex contacts and negotiations with non-Mormons. In their attempts to convert, resist, or appease powerful outsiders, Mormons have engaged in a distinctive dialectic of secrecy and self-disclosure, of esoteric rites and strategic public relations. The result has been an extended process of controlled modernization, the evolution of a dynamic, global faith. This book focuses on a crucial aspect of that process of modernization and evolution: academic migration to the elite universities of the United States, which offered exiled and ambitious Mormons a unique, quasi-sacred cultural space of freedom and dignity. At schools like Johns Hopkins, Penn, Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Michigan, Chicago, Stanford, and Berkeley, a rising, influential generation of Mormon women and men would undergo a radical transformation of consciousness and identity. Outsiders became insiders; those on the margins entered the mainstream. This revised cultural and intellectual history of Mormonism sheds light on the emergence and domestication of nineteenth-century Mormon feminism, the evolution of Mormon ethnicity, the development of Mormon intellectual life and anti-intellectualism, and the history of outsiders in American higher education.
Thomas W. Simpson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469628639
- eISBN:
- 9781469628653
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628639.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Scholars studying the Mormon past have documented the manifold ways in which external pressure—economic, political, and legal—forced Mormons to abandon their isolated quest for purity and their deep ...
More
Scholars studying the Mormon past have documented the manifold ways in which external pressure—economic, political, and legal—forced Mormons to abandon their isolated quest for purity and their deep hostility toward the outside world. The power of those forces cannot be denied. Yet more subtle eroding influences were also long at work among Mormons themselves. As Mormon students gravitated to the growing universities of the United States, they began to develop extra-ecclesial and transregional loyalties to their schools, their mentors, and their disciplines. Those loyalties, wide-ranging and difficult for theologically conservative authorities to control, became engines for institutional conflict and change. Other Mormon activities—proselytizing, secular business affairs, and increasing contact with non-Mormons in the Intermountain West—encouraged a certain anti-parochialism, but nothing nourished strong, competing loyalties like studying in the American university. Yet the tensions and scars linger from this long struggle for the soul of modern Mormonism. Accordingly, after a century and a half of immersion in American higher education, genuine reconciliation between Mormon scholars and the Mormon hierarchy seems destined to elude the church until the millennium, indefinitely postponed, comes at last.Less
Scholars studying the Mormon past have documented the manifold ways in which external pressure—economic, political, and legal—forced Mormons to abandon their isolated quest for purity and their deep hostility toward the outside world. The power of those forces cannot be denied. Yet more subtle eroding influences were also long at work among Mormons themselves. As Mormon students gravitated to the growing universities of the United States, they began to develop extra-ecclesial and transregional loyalties to their schools, their mentors, and their disciplines. Those loyalties, wide-ranging and difficult for theologically conservative authorities to control, became engines for institutional conflict and change. Other Mormon activities—proselytizing, secular business affairs, and increasing contact with non-Mormons in the Intermountain West—encouraged a certain anti-parochialism, but nothing nourished strong, competing loyalties like studying in the American university. Yet the tensions and scars linger from this long struggle for the soul of modern Mormonism. Accordingly, after a century and a half of immersion in American higher education, genuine reconciliation between Mormon scholars and the Mormon hierarchy seems destined to elude the church until the millennium, indefinitely postponed, comes at last.
