Item Detail
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24201
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0
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1
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English
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The Forms and the Power : The Development of Mormon Ritual Healing to 1847
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Dimensions of Faith : A Mormon Studies Reader
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Salt Lake City
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Signature Books
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135-176
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"In antebellum America, Mormonism stands out in its vigorous development of ritual healing. However, the most striking aspect of the Mormon healing liturgy is the adaptation of salvific rites to healing. The first Mormon ritual employed for healing was laying hands on the afflicted area of the sick. Over time this practice evolved to follow the pattern set when the heavenly messengers laid hands on Joseoh Smith's head for the conferral of priestly authority. Smith took oil from the temple, which for mellennia had been used to consecrate priests and kings to make them holy, and poured it on the sick. The imagery of priests being anointed on preparation for entering the presence of God, and the Mormon parallel of having such anointings 'sealed' in its temples, a term connoting the binding of heaven and earth, heightens the potency of the symbolism when applied to the afflicted. Later and more explicitly in Nauvoo, Church leaders adapted baptism and the new temple rites as healing rituals." [From author's conclusion]