Synopses & Reviews
Scholarship in Mormon studies has often focused on a few key events and individuals in Mormon history. The essays collected by Quincy D. Newell and Eric F. Mason in this interdisciplinary volume expand the conversation.
One of the main purposes of this volume is to define and cross boundaries. Part 1 addresses internal boundaries—walls that divide some Mormons from others. One chapter examines Joseph Smith’s writings on economic matters and argues that he sought to make social distinctions irrelevant. Another considers Jane James, an African American Latter-day Saint, and her experiences at the intersection of religious and racial identity
In part 2, contributors consider Mormonism's influence on Pentecostal leader John Alexander Dowie and relationships between Mormonism and other religious movements, including Methodism and Presbyterianism. Other chapters compare Mormonism and Islam and examine the group Ex-Mormons for Jesus/Saints Alive in Jesus.
Part 3 deals with Mormonism in the academy and the ongoing evolution of Mormon studies. Written by contributors from a variety of backgrounds, these essays will spark scholarly dialogue across the disciplines.
Review
“Fresh angles of vision abound in this diverse, elegantly written collection that both illuminates the current state of Mormon studies and points to several possible futures for the field. Readers will be fascinated by stories included here that have too long gone untold.”—
J. Spencer Fluhman, author of
A Peculiar People: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century AmericaReview
“This volume demonstrates how data on Mormonism, so long ghettoized by insiders and outsiders, can be incorporated into various fields across the social sciences and humanities. Each chapter taught me, as a scholar of Mormonism, something that I had not known before.”—
Susanna Morrill, author of
White Roses on the Floor of Heaven: Mormon Women’s Popular Theology, 1880–1920Synopsis
One of the main purposes of this volume is to define and cross boundaries. Part 1 addresses internal boundaries—walls that divide some Mormons from others. In part 2, contributors consider Mormonism's influence on Pentecostal leader John Alexander Dowie and relationships between Mormonism and other religious movements, including Methodism and Presbyterianism.Part 3 deals with Mormonism in the academy and the ongoing evolution of Mormon studies.
About the Author
Quincy D. Newell is the author of Constructing Lives at Mission San Francisco: Native Californians and Hispanic Colonists, 1776–1821. Eric F. Mason is the author of ‘You Are a Priest Forever: Second Temple Jewish Messianism and the Priestly Christology of the Epistle to the HebrewsJan Shipps is the author or editor of several books on Mormonism, including Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years among the Mormons.