Item Detail
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20098
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2
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0
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English
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The Ascension Theology of Joseph Smith : Leaving Modernity and Returning to the Ancient World
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University of Wales, Lampeter
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Ph.D. diss.
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"This study examines the ascension theology of the Prophet Joseph Smith (1805-1844), founder of Mormonism. Smith espoused a soteriological model in which it is necessary for each man to work out his own salvation by achieving heavenly ascension. As Smith's followers purified, sanctified, and perfected themselves, they developed the faith necessary to pierce the veil between the natural and unseen worlds and achieve a vision of God. To help his followers achieve ascension, Smith presented an elaborate series of temple rituals symbolically simulating the tangible ascent. Smith's ascension theology represents a radical departure from the normative Nicene tradition that dominated Smith's contemporary religious landscape. These Nicenes did not generally accept visionary religion and tended to marginalize mantics. Nicenes also objected to Smith's finite, anthropomorphic, and pluralistic conceptions of God; which were antithetical to their understanding of God as philosophically infinite, transcendent, and united." [Author's abstract]