Item Detail
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14570
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1
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0
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English
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The Genesis of Mormonism
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Religion and American Culture
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New York
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Routledge
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167-184
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'The Mormon religion traces its origins to the revelations received by Joseph Smith, Jr., in upstate New York during the religious ferment of the early nineteenth century. Smith's vision of God and Christ, the Angel Moroni's appearances to him, and his discovery of buried golden plates containing lost books of holy scriptures represent the intrusion of sacred power into secular history for Mormons. The subsequent story of persecution, martyrdom of the Prophet Smith, and exodus to the promised land of Salt Lake City enriches the meaning of this sacred history. Unlike previous interpretations that have explained away Mormonism as an idiosyncratic Christian sect, Jan Shipps argues that Mormonism did not seek to reform Protestant Christianity. Rather, utilizing a comparative approach to religion and the insights of cultural anthropologists and theoretical sociologists, Shipps holds that the emergence of Mormonism is best seen as the birth of a new religion.' (book's abstract)