18349

82

258

Book

English

Givens, Terryl L.

People of Paradox : A History of Mormon Culture

New York

Oxford University Press

2007

[2008 Mormon Historical Association Winner for Best Book]
[2007 Association for Mormon Letters Winner for Best Criticism]

In People of Paradox, Terryl Givens traces the rise and development of Mormon culture from the days of Joseph Smith in upstate New York, through Brigham Young's founding of the Territory of Deseret on the shores of Great Salt Lake, to the spread of the Latter-Day Saints around the globe.

Throughout the last century and a half, Givens notes, distinctive traditions have emerged among the Latter-Day Saints, shaped by dynamic tensions--or paradoxes--that give Mormon cultural expression much of its vitality. Here is a religion shaped by a rigid authoritarian hierarchy and radical individualism; by prophetic certainty and a celebration of learning and intellectual investigation; by existence in exile and a yearning for integration and acceptance by the larger world. Givens divides Mormon history into two periods, separated by the renunciation of polygamy in 1890. In each, he explores the life of the mind, the emphasis on education, the importance of architecture and urban planning (so apparent in Salt Lake City and Mormon temples around the world), and Mormon accomplishments in music and dance, theater, film, literature, and the visual arts. He situates such cultural practices in the context of the society of the larger nation and, in more recent years, the world. Today, he observes, only fourteen percent of Mormon believers live in the United States.

Mormonism has never been more prominent in public life. But there is a rich inner life beneath the public surface, one deftly captured in this sympathetic, nuanced account by a leading authority on Mormon history and thought. [Publisher's summary]

Later reprinted in 2012.

Social and cultural history, historiography
Social and cultural history
Award Winner
'Cultural Mormonism'
Public image, U.S., 19th century

A Foreign Kingdom : Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852-1890
"After the Body of My Spirit" : Embodiment, Empathy, and Mormon Aesthetics
A Home for the Saints : Developments in LDS Worship Accommodation in Lancashire, England
A Home for the Saints : Developments in Worship Accommodation
A House Full of Females : Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870
Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon
A Theology of Possibilities : Mormon Doctrine and Open Folk Beliefs
Authority in Mormonism : A Rational Choice Analysis
Brigham Young : Pioneer Prophet
Can There Be A Second Harvest? : Controlling the Costs of Latter-day Saint Membership in Europe
Church Unity and the Challenge of Cultural Diversity : A View from across the Sahara
Critical Foundations of Mormon Apologetics
Debating Succession, March 1846 : John E. Page, Orson Hyde, and the Trajectories of Joseph Smith's Legacy
Embodiment in Mormon Thought : Ambiguity, Contradiction and Consensus
Embracing the Law Reading Doctrine and Covenants 42
Eternity in the Ether
Exhibiting Mormonism : The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair
Father, Jesus and Lucifer in Pre-Mortal Council
In God's Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel
In Search of Mormon Identity : Mormon Culture, Gospel Culture, and an American Worldwide Church
Institutional Gender Negotiations within Irish Mormon Congregations
In the Footsteps of Peter and Paul : Modern Pioneers in Italy
Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-making Heresy
Joseph F. Smith: Reflections on the Man and His Times
Joseph Smith's Gold Plates: A Cultural History
Kirtland Temple : The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space
LDS Understandings of Religious Freedom : Responding to the Shifting Cultural Pendulum
Learning about Other Religions : False Obstacles and Rich Opportunities
Meaning and Authority in Mormon Ritual
Mormon Gender in the Mid-Twentieth Century
Mormon Hermeneutics: Five Approaches to the Bible by the LDS Church
Mormonism and the Movies
Mormonism : A Very Short Introduction
Mormons and Lineage : The Complicated History of Blacks and Patriarchal Blessings, 1830-2018
Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America
Mormon Women at the Crossroads: Global Narratives and the Power of Connectedness
Mormon Women's History : Beyond Biography
New Perspectives in Mormon Studies : Creating and Crossing Boundaries
"Only Our Hearts Know"--Part I : Sunstone During the Daniel Rector, Elbert Peck and Linda Jean Stephenson Years, 1986-92
On Signifiers and Signified: Terryl Givens and Twenty-First-Century Book of Mormon Studies
Out of Obscurity : Mormonism Since 1945
Paradox and Discipleship
Peculiar Portrayals : Mormons on the Page, Stage, and Screen
Performing Mormon History
Perspectives on Latter-day Saints Names and Naming: Names, Identity, and Belief
Rethinking Mormonism's Heavenly Mother
Ritual as a Process of Deification
Robert Newton Baskin and the Making of Modern Utah
Salvation through a Tabernacle : Joseph Smith, Parley P. Pratt, and Early Mormon Theologies of Embodiment
Science and Mormonism
Seeking a "Second Harvest" : Controlling the Costs of LDS Membership in Europe
Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport :
Intellectual journeys of a Mormon academic
Social and Cultural History
Spirit Babies and Divine Embodiment : PBEs, First Vision Accounts, Bible Scholarship, and the Experience-Centered Approach to Mormon Folklore
Susa Young Gates: Daughter of Mormonism
The 1890s Mormon Culture of Letters and the Post-Manifesto Marriage Crisis : A New Approach to Home Literature
The Bible and the Latter-day Saint Tradition (book)
The Brief History and Perpetually Exciting Future of Mormon Literary Studies
The Complete Record of the Nauvoo Library and Literary Institute
The Historian's Craft : A Conversation with Richard Lyman Bushman
The Infallibility Trap : The Sacralisation of Religious Authority
The Intellectual Cultures of Mormonism : Faith, Reason, and the Apologetic Enterprise
The Latter-day Saints, the Doughnut, and Post-Christian Canada
The Mormon Image in the American Mind : Fifty Years of Public Perception
The Mormon Jesus : A Biography
The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism
"There Is Room for Both" : Mormon Cinema and the Paradoxes of Mormon Culture
The Religious "Other" : Reflecting upon Mormon Perceptions
The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender
The Site of Mormon Political Theology
The Species Debate : God and Humanity in Irenaeus and the Latter-day Saints
The Teachings of Church Leaders Regarding the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ : 1852–2018
To Fill up the World : Joseph Smith as Urban Planner
To Mend A Fractured Reality : Joseph Smith's Project
Toward a Mormon Literary Theory
True and Faithful : Joseph Fielding Smith as Mormon Historian and Theologian
Uniting Faith and History
What We Will Do Now That New Mormon History is Old : A Roundtable
Will Things Get Better or Worse Before the Second Coming?: Are Latter-day Saints Premillenarians or Postmillenarians?
Women and Mormonism : Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Wrestling the Angel : The Foundations of Mormon Thought : Cosmos, God, Humanity
Your Sister in the Gospel : The Life of Jane Manning James, a Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon

A Believing People : Literature of the Latter-day Saints
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War, 1846-1847
Adventures of a Church Historian
A Jewel in the Gardens of Paradise : The Art and Architecture of the Hawaii Temple
All Abraham's Children : Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage
'All Is Well. . .' : The Story of 'the Hymn That Went around the World'
Alternate Voices : The Calling and its Implications
Among the Mormons : Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers
An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon
An Economic Analysis of the United Order
An Economic Interpretation of the 'Word of Wisdom'
A New Witness for Christ in America
A New Witness for Christ in America : Evidence of Divine Power in the "Coming Forth" of the Book of Mormon
A New Witness for God
An Interview with Sterling M. McMurrin
An Investigation of Influences on Representative Examples of Mormon Art
A Note on the Nauvoo Library and Literary Institute
Anti-Intellectualism in Mormon History
A Rascal by Nature, a Christian by Yearning : A Mormon Autobiography
Art and Belief
Art and the Church
Arts and Inspiration : Mormon Perspectives
Assimilation and Ambivalence : The Mormon Reaction to Americanization
Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (Classics in Mormon Literature)
A Visit to Salt Lake : Being a Journey Across the Plains and a Residence in the Mormon Settlement at Utah.
A Woman's View : Helen Mar Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History
Belief, Metaphor, and Rhetoric : The Mormon Practice of Testimony Bearing
B. H. Roberts and the Book of Mormon
B. H. Roberts : Studies of the Book of Mormon
Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, One of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Black Images and White Images : The Combustibility of Common Misconceptions
Blessed Damozels : Women in Mormon History
Blood of the Prophets : Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Brigham's Gospel Kingdom
Brigham Young at Home
Brigham Young University : A House of Faith
Brigham Young University : A School of Destiny
Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints
Building the Kingdom of God : Mormon Architecture before 1847
By the Hand of Mormon : The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion
Campus in Crisis : BYU, 1911
'Choose Ye This Day Whom Ye Will Serve' : Latter-day Saint Mothers' Reaction to a Church Leader's Instruction to Remain in the Home
Church and Politics at the Utah IWY Conference
Conflict in the Quorum : Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith
Cultural Continuity and Tension : A Test of Stark's Theory of Church Growth
Dancing as an Aspect of Early Mormon and Utah Culture
Darryl F. Zanuck's Brigham Young : A Film in Context
David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
David Whitmer Interviews : A Restoration Witness
Delusions : An Analysis of the Book of Mormon ; with an Examination of Its internal and External Evidences, and a Refutation of Its pretences to Divine Authority
Detached from Their Homeland : The Latter-day Saints of Chihuahua, Mexico
Discourses of Brigham Young : Second President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith
Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
Early Mormon Pamphleteering
Educating the Saints--A Brigham Young Mosaic
Effects of College Education on the Religious Involvement of Latter-day Saints
Encyclopedia of Mormonism : The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Eternity, Capacity and Will : Three Puzzles for a Mormon Aesthetics
Europe, The Church in
Evangelical America and Early Mormonism
Faith and History : The Snell Controversy
Faithful History : Essays on Writing Mormon History
Fawn Brodie and Her Quest for Independence
From Antagonism to Acceptance : Mormons and the Silver Screen
Gathering and Election : Israelite Descent and Universalism in Mormon Discourse
Growing Up in Early Utah : The Wasatch Literary Association, 1874-1878
Heaven : A History
Henry Eyring, Mormon Scientist
History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, and Morris' Reserve
History of Utah
Homeward to Zion : The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia
Hugh Nibley : A Consecrated Life
In Old Nauvoo : Everyday Life in the City of Joseph
In Search of Ephraim : Traditional Mormon Conceptions of Lineage and Race
Intellect and Faith : The Controversy Over Revisionist Mormon History
John Lyon : The Life of a Pioneer Poet
Joseph B. Keeler, Print Culture, and the Modernization of Mormonism, 1885-1918
Joseph, Brigham and the Twelve : A Succession of Continuity
Joseph Smith and Kabbalah : The Occult Connection
Joseph Smith and the Manchester (New York) Library
Joseph Smith and the Preexilic Israelite Religion
Joseph Smith and the Tragic Quest
Joseph Smith and the University of Nauvoo
Joseph Smith as a Student of Hebrew
Joseph Smith as a Writer
Joseph Smith as Scientist : A Contribution to Mormon Philosophy
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Juanita Brooks : Mormon Woman Historian
Latter-day Saint Social Life : Social Research on the LDS Church and its Members
LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904
Learning to Play : The Mormon Way and the Way of Other Americans
Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites
Lengthening Our Stride : The Remarkable Administration of Spencer W. Kimball
Leroy Robertson and the Oratorio from the Book of Mormon : Reminiscences of a Daughter
Losing a Lost Tribe : Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church
Matters of Conscience : Conversations with Sterling M. McMurrin on Philosophy, Education, and Religion
Men with a Mission : The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles 1837-1841
Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Mormon Arts
Mormon Doctrine
Mormondom's Lost Generation : The Novelists of the 1940s
Mormon History
Mormonism and Capital Punishment : A Doctrinal Perspective, Past and Present
Mormonism and Evolution : The Authoritative LDS Statements
Mormonism and Literature
Mormonism and Music : A History
Mormonism and the Avoidance of Sectarian Stagnation : A Study of Church, Sect, and Incipient Nationality
Mormonism and the Negro : Faith, Folklore, and Civil Rights
Mormonism in the Nineteen-Seventies : The Popular Perception
Mormonism : Its Leaders and Designs
Mormonism's Negro Doctrine : An Historical Overview
Mormonism : The Story of a New Religious Tradition
Mormonism : Views from Without and Within
Mormon Literature : Progress and Prospects
Mormon Moderne : Latter-day Saint Architecture, 1925-1945
Mormon Recreation in Theory and Practice : A Study of Social Change
Mormons
Mormons and the Visual Arts
Mormons at the University of Chicago Divinity School : A Personal Reminiscence
Mormon Scholarship, Apologetics, and Evangelical Neglect : Losing the Battle and Not Knowing It?
Mormon Shakespeares : A Study of Contemporary Mormon Theatre
Mormon Sisters : Women in Early Utah
Mormon World View and American Culture
Nauvoo, the Beautiful
New Documents and Mormon Beginnings
Nineteenth-Century Mormon Architecture and City Planning
No Man Knows My History : The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet
Not Just Another Theatre?
One Lord, One Faith, Two Universities : Tensions between 'Religion' and 'Thought' at BYU
On Mormon Theology
Orson Pratt--Early Mormon Leader
Parley P. Pratt : Father of Mormon Pamphleteering
Paul Henning : The First Mormon Archaeologist
Peace Initiative : Using the Mormons to Rethink Culture and Ethnicity in American History
Philosophy
Priesthood and Philosophy
Publishing a Book of Mormon Poetry : The Harp of Zion
Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith
Reflections on the Mormon 'Canon'
Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History : Illinois
Religion and Economics in Mormon History
Religious Architecture of the LDS Church : Influences and Changes since 1847
Riding Herd : A Conversation with Juanita Brooks
Salamander : The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders
Sarah De Armon Pea Rich
Scholarly Studies of Mormonism in the Twentieth Century
Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology
Seers, Savants, and Evolution : The Uncomfortable Interface
Since 1950 : Creators and Creations of Mormon History
Sister Saints
Social Origins of American Scientists and Scholars
Some Reflections on the New Mormon History
Something to Move Mountains : The Book of Mormon in Hugh Nibley's Correspondence
Some Thoughts on the Gospel and the Behavioral Sciences
Some Thoughts Regarding an Unwritten History of Nauvoo
Strangers in a Strange Land : The Rise and Demise of the Early LDS Japan Mission, 1901-24
Strangers in Paradox : Explorations in Mormon Theology
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
Telling It Slant : Aiming for Truth in Contemporary Mormon Literature
Ten Years in Camelot : A Personal Memoir
The American Religion : The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation
The Angel and the Beehive : The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation
The Autobiography of B. H. Roberts
The Bible in the Church
The Blasphemy of Indifference
The Book of Mormon at the Bar of DNA "Evidence"
The Book of Mormon Authorship : New Light on Ancient Origins
The Book of Mormon in Latter-day Saint Hymnody
The Changing Image of Mormonism
The Church in the Twentieth Century
The Church Moves Outside the United States : Some Observations from Latin America
The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California
The Cloning of Mormon Architecture
The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley
The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon in the Twentieth Century
The Dawning of a Brighter Day : Mormon Literature after 150 Years
The Democratization of American Christianity
The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony
The Didactic Heresy as Orthodox Text : B. H. Roberts as Writer of Home Literature
The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff
The Drama in Utah : The Story of the Salt Lake Theatre
The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision
The Early Temples of the Mormons : The Architecture of the Millennial Kingdom in the American West
The Economic Content of Early Mormon Doctrine
The Eliza Enigma
The First Mormon Temple : Design, Construction, and Historic Context of the Kirtland Temple
The Four Mormon Temples in Utah
The Fundamentalist Emphasis at Brigham Young University : 1935-1973
The Heavens Resound : A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830-1838
The Historians' Corner
The Impact of the First Preaching in Ohio
The Intellectual Tradition of the Latter-day Saints
The King Follett Discourse : A Newly Amalgamated Text
The Kirtland Diary of Wilford Woodruff
The Larger Issue
The Latter-Day Saint Experience in America
The Latter-day Saints on the Missouri Frontier
The LDS Church's Campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment
The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt
'The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect'
The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism
The Mormon Cross
The Mormon Culture Region : Strategies and Patterns in the Geography of the American West, 1847-1964
The Mormon Experience : A History of the Latter-day Saints
The Mormon Landscape : Existence, Creation, and Perception of a Unique Image in the American West
The Mormon Relief Society and the International Women's Year
The Mormons
The Mormons and the Theatre, or the History of Theatricals in Utah, with Reminiscences and Comments, Humorous and Critical
The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
The Nauvoo Years
The New Mormon History
The Odyssey of Sonia Johnson
The Origin and Evolution of the Sunstone Species : Twenty-Five Years of Creative Adaptation
The Origins of Superior Men
The Orson Pratt--Brigham Young Controversies : Conflict Within the Quorums, 1853-1868
The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith
The Philosophical Foundations of Mormon Theology
The Pink Dialogue and Beyond
The Poetics of Provincialism : Mormon Regional Fiction
The Reconciliation of Faith and Science : Henry Eyring's Achievement
The Refiner's Fire : The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844
The Reverend W. R. Davies vs. Captain Dan Jones
The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
The River, the Ditch and the Volcano : Bluff, 1879-1884
The Second American Revolution : Era of Preparation
'These Licentious Days' : Dancing among the Mormons
The Significance of Joseph Smith's 'First Vision' In Mormon Thought
The Story of the Latter-day Saints
The Story of The Truth, The Way, The Life
The Tabernacle Choir
The Temple as a Symbol
The Tragedy of Vietnam and the Responsibility of Mormons
The Uniquely True Church
The Vietnam War through the Eyes of a Mormon Subculture
The Viper on the Hearth : Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph
They Knew the Prophet
Things in Heaven and Earth : The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet
Three Women and the Life of the Mind
Tolstoy and Mormonism
Toward a Mormon Aesthetic
Toward a New Mormon History : An Examination of the Literature of the Latter-day Saints in the Far West
Toward a Social Science of Contemporary Mormondom
Two Integrities : An Address to the Crisis in Mormon Historiography
Two Paths to Utopia : An Investigation of Robert Owen in New Lanark and Brigham Young in Salt Lake City
Utah Painting and Sculpture
Victims : The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case
Vietnam : Just a War, or a Just War?
Wayward Saints : The Godbeites and Brigham Young
'We Can See No Advantage to a Continuation of the Discussion' : The Roberts/Smith/Talmage Affair
What the Church Means to People Like Me
Why the Church is as True as the Gospel
William Weeks, Architect of the Nauvoo Temple
Women of Covenant : The Story of Relief Society
Writing 'Mormonism's Negro Doctrine : An Historical Overview' (1973) : Context and Reflections, 1998