Item Detail
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22715
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1
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0
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English
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Latter-Day Anguish and the Epic of Greater Mormonism
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Gainesville, Florida
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University of Florida
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122
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Master's thesis
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"For believers, the Mormon cosmos is integral to all aspects of their lives. More than a denomination, but having undergone a process of ethnogenesis, Mormonism is an ethnic identity as well as a religion, culture, and worldview. It is potentially troublesome for some believers when, through processes of institutionalization, certain doctrines have been deemphasized or retired to ensure institutional perpetuity. Using what I term ''moving-target orthodoxy,'' Mormon prophet-presidents--who claim sole guardianship to the essence of Mormonism--potentially threaten the unified cosmos of believers who see the deemphasized or retired doctrines as central to their life and worldview. The resulting existential anguish drives some to rediscover themselves still within a Mormon cosmos but outside of institutional sanction. I examined Orson Pratt's life, and two dissident splinter groups, the Morrisites and Godbeites. Through a study of nineteenth-century Mormon experience and dissent, my study offers insights into the functioning of religious institutions. I assert that a larger or greater Mormonism exists beyond institutional definition. I also stress that studies of Mormonism are remiss if histories are not decentered from institutional definitions. My findings support that Mormon dissidents still perceived themselves active contributors to Zion and being within Mormonism or the message of the Restoration first presented by Joseph Smith. My research into the experience of these believing dissidents was largely from primary source materials at several archives in Utah, as well as from secondary sources by Mormon historians. The significance of these findings is that they expand Mormon identity and notions of a Mormon cosmos beyond the normative parameters established within a mainstream, faith-based perspective (which is often represented, even if at a subconscious level, within Mormon histories). Further, my study regarding the intersection between institutionally defined orthodoxy and popular religious identity and resistance provides insights for religious studies at large." [Author's abstract]