Item Detail
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18478
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0
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12
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English
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Testing Stark's Thesis : Is Mormonism the First New World Religion since Islam?
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BYU Studies
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2005
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44
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no.4
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271-292
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McDermott evaluates Rodney Stark's proposal that Mormonism is the first new world religion since Islam. He concludes that it is in fact a new religion, but that the Church is not the first significant religious group since Islam; it is not even the fastest growing new American religion. Mormonism can roughly be compared with groups such as True Pure Land Buddhism, Sokka Gakkai, Baha'I, and Sufism. McDermott compares Mormonism extensively with the Jehovah's Witness movement using Stark's ten criteria for church growth. He concludes that while the LDS church has many advantages which suggest further growth, the Church is only one among many growing religious communities. Unless the Church changes its American character and comes more into harmony with traditional Christian theology, current growth patterns will be difficult to maintain.
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Contemporary Mormonism : Latter-day Saints in Modern America
'Is Mormonism Christian?' Reflections on a Complicated Question
Mormon Identities in Transition
Mormonism : The Story of a New Religious Tradition
Mormons and Mormonism : An Introduction to an American World Religion
Mormons and the Bible : The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion
So Far, So Good : A Brief Assessment of Mormon Membership Projections
Sojourner in the Promised Land : Forty years among the Mormons
The Book of Mormon and Religious Epistemology
The Mormon Culture of Salvation : Force, Grace, and Glory
The Rise of a New World Faith
World Religion : Dynamics and Constraints