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Eliza R. Snow: Poet of a New American Religion

Edward Whitley

in American Bards: Walt Whitman and Other Unlikely Candidates for National Poet

This chapter examines Walt Whitman's collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass, focusing on his claim that it was an American sacred text, the “Bible of the New Religion.” It compares Whitman's ambition ... More

This chapter examines Walt Whitman's collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass, focusing on his claim that it was an American sacred text, the “Bible of the New Religion.” It compares Whitman's ambition to be the poet of a new American religion with that of Eliza R. Snow, the recognized poet laureate of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was regarded by the Mormons not only as a poetess but also a “priestess” and a “prophetess.” The chapter considers how Snow used her poetry to depict the recovery of such ancient practices as polygamy and theocracy as an essential precondition for an American millennium, rather than as a historical aberration. It also offers a close reading of “Time and Change,” the major poem of Snow's 1856 collection, before concluding with an analysis of the issue of gender, particularly with respect to Snow's efforts to have her female voice heard by an androcentric nation.Less

Joseph Smith and Nineteenth-Century Mormon Mappings of Asian Religions

Reid L. Neilson

in Joseph Smith, Jr.: Reappraisals After Two Centuries

This chapter turns to the subject of what Joseph Smith himself had to say about Mormonism's relationship to other religions, and ways of accommodating religious pluralism. It further traces the ... More

This chapter turns to the subject of what Joseph Smith himself had to say about Mormonism's relationship to other religions, and ways of accommodating religious pluralism. It further traces the trajectories of Mormon thought on Eastern religious traditions, following the death of Smith, during the balance of the 19th century. Rather than fitting neatly into conventional religious studies paradigms, the chapter argues that the Latter-day Saints warrant their own categorization as restoration inclusivists.Less

Introduction

Jeffrey A. Trumbower

in Rescue for the Dead: The Posthumous Salvation of Non-Christians in Early Christianity

The introduction looks at the posthumous salvation of non‐Christians in the nineteenth‐century American context as practiced by Shakers and Latter‐day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons), in order to set the ... More

The introduction looks at the posthumous salvation of non‐Christians in the nineteenth‐century American context as practiced by Shakers and Latter‐day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons), in order to set the stage for the study of the ancient texts. The Shakers experienced a form of spirit possession by which dead non‐Christians, especially Native Americans, would enter into the bodies of living Shakers and thereby be saved. Joseph Smith, prophet and founder of the Latter‐day Saints, introduced the ritual of vicarious baptism for the dead based on his reading of 1 Corinthians 15:29 and his encounter with the biblical prophet Elijah. This ritual is still practiced today in the LDS church.Less

Mormons and Materialism: Struggling against the Ideology of Separation

Colleen McDannell

in Secularization and Religious Innovation in the North Atlantic World

By consistently conflating spirit and matter, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has steadfastly resisted secularization theory’s prediction of the inevitable decline and marginalization ... More

By consistently conflating spirit and matter, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has steadfastly resisted secularization theory’s prediction of the inevitable decline and marginalization of religion. This chapter argues that successful use of material and popular culture by Mormons in the USA and Great Britain has enabled its expansion. I maintain that Mormonism is a ‘material Christianity’, demonstrated by the Book of Mormon’s embodied Jesus and the 1847 establishment of a religious community in Utah. Latter-day Saints now run church museums and historic sites, put on musical pageants, and produce film sagas—all intended to inspire the faithful and proselytize to the rest. Successful church public relations campaigns dovetail with secular depictions of Mormons in film, on television, and in Broadway and West End theatre. The church’s foray into popular culture is funded partially through for-profit companies that creatively combine the business world with the world of faith.Less

Introduction: Not Exceptional, Typical, or Americanized: The Latter-day Saint Experience with American Politics

Keith A. Erekson (ed.)

in Contingent Citizens: Shifting Perceptions of Latter-day Saints in American Political Culture

This chapter explores the different ways politicians, lawmakers, and the general public perceived the place of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in American political ... More

This chapter explores the different ways politicians, lawmakers, and the general public perceived the place of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in American political culture throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It explains the difficulty Americans experience in deciding where Latter-day Saints belong in the country's political realm. It also explains why American Latter-day Saints exist on an ambiguous plane somewhere between citizens and foreigners in terms of rights and identity. The chapter tracks Latter-day Saints and their experience in certain historical events or as a lens through which to view particular moments of the American past over a period of nearly two centuries. It demonstrates the endurance and evolution of the American political problem that Latter-day Saints experience the feeling that they were not quite fully American.Less

Mormons at Midcentury: “Crushed Politically, Curtailed Economically,” but Winning “Universal Respect for Their Devotion and Achievements”

J. B. Haws (ed.)

in Contingent Citizens: Shifting Perceptions of Latter-day Saints in American Political Culture

This chapter describes the American national mood in the middle of the twentieth century that made things feel so welcoming for Latter-day Saints. It highlights the golden era of Mormonism that ... More

This chapter describes the American national mood in the middle of the twentieth century that made things feel so welcoming for Latter-day Saints. It highlights the golden era of Mormonism that happened between the end of World War II and the end of John F. Kennedy's presidency. It also talks about the era of the 1950s when Latter-day Saints may have felt that they were in step with the wider American culture. The chapter analyzes the press's treatment of Mormonism at mid-century that implies an underlying message that the matters of politics trumped matters of theology. It discusses American journalists that were writing about Mormons in 1947, which was the year that marked the centennial of the Latter-day Saints' epic trek west to their new Great Basin home.Less

Joseph Smith’s Missouri Prison Letters and the Mormon Textual Community

David W. Grua

in Foundational Texts of Mormonism

During winter 1838–1839, the Mormon community faced existential crisis. On 27 October 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs declared all Mormons to be enemies of the state, and unless they ... More

During winter 1838–1839, the Mormon community faced existential crisis. On 27 October 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs declared all Mormons to be enemies of the state, and unless they disavowed their religion they would be required to depart Missouri or risk “extermination.” Missouri officials charged Joseph Smith and other church leaders with treason and other crimes and confined them in a county jail. David W. Grua’s chapter, “Joseph Smith’s Missouri Prison Letters and the Latter-day Saint Textual Community,” places Smith’s letters from jail within the historical genre of the prison letter. Grua contends that Smith’s letters sought to make the church’s catastrophe in Missouri comprehensible by connecting suffering with a foundational tenet of the Mormon religion—revelation. Smith’s prison epistles functioned as ligatures that textually bound the scattered Latter-day Saint community together.Less

The Historic Conflicts of Our Time: Ezra Taft Benson and Twentieth-Century Media Representations of Latter-Day Saints

Patrick Q. Mason (ed.)

in Contingent Citizens: Shifting Perceptions of Latter-day Saints in American Political Culture

This chapter talks about Ezra Taft Benson who commenced work as secretary of agriculture in the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration in 1953, while serving as one of the twelve apostles of the Church ... More

This chapter talks about Ezra Taft Benson who commenced work as secretary of agriculture in the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration in 1953, while serving as one of the twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It describes Benson as a central figure in postwar American politics who represented the confluence and conflict between the various stripes of Mormon and American conservatism. It also discusses how Benson was the subject of national media interest and scrutiny in the 1950s and 1960. The chapter points out how Benson often took clear and controversially conservative positions on many of the historic conflicts of the twentieth century, such as anticommunism, the women's movement, international and domestic conflicts, and the culture wars. It traces American public representations of Mormonism by looking at Benson as a media filter.Less

The Samoan Mission

David O. McKay

Reid L. Neilson and Carson V. Teuscher (eds)

in Pacific Apostle: The 1920-21 Diary of David O. McKay in the Latter-day Saint Island Missions

McKay arrived in Samoa on May 10, 1921 and spent time on all three principal islands—Savai’i, Upolu, and Tutuila. During his visit, he toured plantations, humble meetinghouses, and two of the ... More

McKay arrived in Samoa on May 10, 1921 and spent time on all three principal islands—Savai’i, Upolu, and Tutuila. During his visit, he toured plantations, humble meetinghouses, and two of the church’s schools in Misusage and Sauniatu. McKay and Cannon were repeatedly feted as honored guests by local tribal chiefs at cultural celebrations, concerts, and dances; received ornate handmade gifts; and were well fed by local church members. Bidding the Saints farewell to the islanders was never an easy task; one memorable experience unfolded at Sauniatu, when McKay felt impressed to turn back to a group of church members and give them his apostolic blessing. In memory of his act, the local saints erected a concrete obelisk. For decades thereafter, May 31 was referred to and celebrated as “McKay Day.”Less

Meeting the Mormons

Matthew J. Grow

in "Liberty to the Downtrodden": Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer

This chapter focuses on Thomas L. Kane's first meeting with the Mormons on May 13, 1846. It explains that Mormonism had proved tumultuous since it was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 and that ... More

This chapter focuses on Thomas L. Kane's first meeting with the Mormons on May 13, 1846. It explains that Mormonism had proved tumultuous since it was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 and that Mormonism's critique of contemporary Christianity and American culture and its unorthodox doctrines and practices led to clashes, sometimes violent, with neighbors. It discusses how Kane's visit to Mormon refugee camps inspired him to protect the Latter-day Saints and their religious liberty from evangelical reformers.Less

Philosophy and Theology, 1800–1900

Terryl L. Givens

in When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence in Western Thought

German idealists such as Friedrich Schelling and theologians such as Wilhelm Benecke and Julius Müller build on Kant's foundation of preexistence as a basis for freedom. Joseph Smith makes Mormonism ... More

German idealists such as Friedrich Schelling and theologians such as Wilhelm Benecke and Julius Müller build on Kant's foundation of preexistence as a basis for freedom. Joseph Smith makes Mormonism (Latter-day Saints) the only Christian denomination to embrace preexistence. Edward Beecher gives the doctrine its fullest exposition ever.Less

Why the King James Version?

Philip L. Barlow

in Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion

Though few Latter-day Saints are conscious of the change, the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible underwent a subtle metamorphosis in the corporate Mormon mind between 1867 and 1979. This chapter ... More

Though few Latter-day Saints are conscious of the change, the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible underwent a subtle metamorphosis in the corporate Mormon mind between 1867 and 1979. This chapter examines the historical, theological, and emotional reasons for the transformation of the KJV from the common into the official version of English-speaking Mormonism. The discussion centers on J. Reuben Clark Jr., a longtime member of the Church's First Presidency. By 1956, Clark had appropriated the arguments of Protestant KJV defenders and mingled them with his uniquely Mormon perspectives. In so doing, he made virtually all subsequent Mormon spokesmen for the KJV dependent on his logic.Less

Political Perceptions of Mormon Polygamy and the Struggle for Utah Statehood, 1847–1896

Stephen Eliot Smith (ed.)

in Contingent Citizens: Shifting Perceptions of Latter-day Saints in American Political Culture

This chapter explains the culture war being waged by the federal government against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It describes how Mormons were typically characterized as ... More

This chapter explains the culture war being waged by the federal government against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It describes how Mormons were typically characterized as representatives of systems and practices that were quintessentially un-American or even anti-American. It also recounts the admission of Utah as the forty-fifth state of the Union in 1896, which was a momentous occasion for both the Mormon church and the United States. The chapter focuses on polygamy as one of the reasons for the unprecedented delay of Utah's admission as a state. It analyzes the religious doctrine of plural marriage that was openly practiced by Mormons from 1852 to 1890, which was unanimously disapproved by members of Congress and American citizens in general.Less

The Hawaiian Mission

David O. McKay

Reid L. Neilson and Carson V. Teuscher (eds)

in Pacific Apostle: The 1920-21 Diary of David O. McKay in the Latter-day Saint Island Missions

McKay’s steamship docked at Honolulu, Hawaii, on February 4, 1921. The tropical beauty of the islands impressed McKay as he ventured throughout the islands. Mormon missionaries had enjoyed ... More

McKay’s steamship docked at Honolulu, Hawaii, on February 4, 1921. The tropical beauty of the islands impressed McKay as he ventured throughout the islands. Mormon missionaries had enjoyed proselyting success in the Hawaiian Islands since their arrival in the 1850s. McKay spoke at well-attended conferences across the islands, visited church-owned plantations and schools, and were immersed in the local culture. McKay noted the multicultural composition of the local church membership, enjoyed homemade luaus prepared by local Latter-day Saints, offered guidance to young missionaries, and marveled at geographic landmarks, including volcanoes, coral reefs, and waterfalls. On February 26, 1921, McKay and Cannon boarded a steamer bound for San Francisco, California, where they planned to transfer steamers and travel to French Polynesia.Less

The New Zealand Mission

David O. McKay

Reid L. Neilson and Carson V. Teuscher (eds)

in Pacific Apostle: The 1920-21 Diary of David O. McKay in the Latter-day Saint Island Missions

McKay and Cannon’s steamship plied into the port at Wellington, New Zealand before dawn on April 21, 1921. They spent just over a week on the North Island, visiting missionaries, local members of ... More

McKay and Cannon’s steamship plied into the port at Wellington, New Zealand before dawn on April 21, 1921. They spent just over a week on the North Island, visiting missionaries, local members of European descent known as “Pakehas,” and native Maori Latter-day Saints. By the time of McKay’s visit, Maori converts and their descendants composed the majority of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand. Their traditions enamored McKay—most notably the “Hui Tau,” an annual multiday conference that included dancing, feasts, and community discussions ranging from church administration to local needs and unit organization. On many occasions, McKay was “hongied” by Maori members, an intimate nose-to-nose greeting. McKay bid farewell to the New Zealand Saints on April 30, 1921, departing for the next leg of his journey.Less

La‘ie, a Promised Land, and Pu‘uhonua: Spatial Struggles for Land and Identity

Hokulani K. Aikau

in A Chosen People, a Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawai'i

In 1865 the Mormon Church purchased 6000 acres of the Lāʻie ahupuaʻa to provide Hawaiian Latter-day Saints with a gathering place in Hawaiʻi where they could live among coreligionists. It also became ... More

In 1865 the Mormon Church purchased 6000 acres of the Lāʻie ahupuaʻa to provide Hawaiian Latter-day Saints with a gathering place in Hawaiʻi where they could live among coreligionists. It also became a site where many Native Hawaiians could revive their cultural relationship to the land and the sea. This chapter discusses how Lāʻie served the institutional needs of the church while also meeting the cultural needs and desires of Hawaiian Latter-day Saints. It traces the spatial struggles over land and identity in Hawaiʻi beginning in the mid-nineteenth century when ʻāina (land, that which feeds) was transformed into a commodity that could be bought and sold. These spatial struggles were produced through the daily interactions of differentially empowered people living side by side and the meanings and desires they brought to this place.Less

The Suffering Saints

Matthew J. Grow

in "Liberty to the Downtrodden": Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer

This chapter discusses the efforts of Thomas L. Kane to transform the public image of the Mormons. It explains how that crusade started at a particularly propitious moment and that the mob murders of ... More

This chapter discusses the efforts of Thomas L. Kane to transform the public image of the Mormons. It explains how that crusade started at a particularly propitious moment and that the mob murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844 and the subsequent exodus of the Latter-day Saints from Nauvoo created an opportunity to alter public perceptions. It describes Kane's strategy of appealing to culturally powerful narratives of religious liberty, persecution, and suffering in forging a pro-Mormon alliance.Less

Creating a Cursed and Sanctified Temple, 1965–1984

David J. Howlett

in Kirtland Temple: The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space

This chapter examines the transformation of the Kirtland Temple as a site of interest into a site of contagion, only then to be blessed along with the surrounding land as a place of promise. While ... More

This chapter examines the transformation of the Kirtland Temple as a site of interest into a site of contagion, only then to be blessed along with the surrounding land as a place of promise. While the Kirtland Temple still remained an ambiguous site for many Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pilgrims, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agents on the ground in Cleveland worked out a story that could explain Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' possession of the temple while still embracing it as a holy site. This resanctification of sacred space offers several insights into the study of sacred space that may be “useful to think with.” First, this case study illustrates the power of middling agents in creating and sustaining sacred spaces. Second, it illustrates that the creation and maintenance of sacred space may be one strategy that religious groups use to answer theodical questions, or questions about the presence of evil.Less