Item Detail
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25021
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0
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0
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English
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The Mormon Perspective
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Religion in Contemporary America
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London; New York
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Routledge
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180-191
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This chapter looks at many of the trends in American religious life since World War II that we have discussed in earlier chapters, using one religious group – the Latter-day Saints (LDS) or Mormons – to illustrate shifts and changes. It first considers how the LDS began as a new religious movement that became a religious tradition. Then it explores how the LDS moved from the margins toward the mainstream of American religious culture, growing steadily in the decades when mainline Protestant bodies experienced numerical decline. The third section examines how the Mormons responded to the cultural turmoil of the 1960s and movements emerging from that ferment. The chapter also addresses how the Mormons reflect ways in which religious bodies engage themselves in the public sector, echoing the shift from political aloofness to political involvement of many evangelical groups. The chapter concludes with observations about the nature of American religious life in the twenty-first century based on the Mormon experience. [From the text]