27550

22

125

Book

Buerger, David John

Mysteries of Godliness : A History of Mormon Temple Worship

San Francisco; Salt Lake City, UT

Smith Research Associates; Distributed by Signature Books, 2nd ed.

2002

234

A veil of secrecy surrounds Mormon temple worship. While officially intended to preserve the sacredness of the experience, the silence leaves many Latter-day Saints mystified. What are the derivation and development of the holy endowment, and if these were known, would the experience be more meaningful? Modern parishioners lack context to interpret the arcane and syncretistic elements of the symbolism.
For instance, David Buerger traces the evolution of the initiatory rites, including the New Testament-like foot washings, which originated in the Ohio period of Mormon history; the more elaborate Old Testament-like washings and anointings, which began in Illinois and were performed in large bathtubs, with oil poured over the initiate s head; and the vestigial contemporary sprinkling and dabbing, which were begun in Utah. He shows why the dramatic portions of the ceremony blend anachronistic events an innovation foreign to the original drama.
Buerger addresses the abandonment of the adoption sealing, which once linked unrelated families, and the near-disappearance of the second anointing, which is the crowning ordinance of the temple. He notes other recent changes as well. Biblical models, Masonic prototypes, folk beliefs, and frontier resourcefulness all went into the creation of this highest form of Mormon Temple worship. Diary entries and other primary sources document its evolution."

Temple ritual
Smith, Joseph, Jr., teachings
Temples, concept of
Doctrinal history, temples
Temples

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B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena
Black and Mormon
Brigham Young : Pioneer Prophet
Doing the Works of Abraham : Mormon Polygamy―Its Origin, Practice, and Demise
In Heaven as It Is on Earth : Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents
John C. Bennett, Joseph Smith, and the Beginnings of Mormon Plural Marriage in Nauvoo
Joseph Smith Jr. : Reappraisals After Two Centuries
Kirtland Temple : The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space
Kirtland Through the Christian-Masonic, Neo-Hebraic, Neo-Pagan Looking Glass : Architecture, Ritual, Gender, and Race
Mormon Commitment Mechanisms
"Shake Off the Dust of Thy Feet" : The Rise and Fall of Mormon Ritual Cursing
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The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days
The Doctrinal and Commitment Functions of Patriarchal Blessings in Early Mormon Development
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir : A Biography
The Social-Historical Context of Mormon Beliefs
Toward a Mormon Sense of Time
What is Mormon Cinema? Defining the Genre
Wrestling the Angel : The Foundations of Mormon Thought : Cosmos, God, Humanity
Writing Mormon History : Historians and Their Books

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A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints (Commonly Called Mormons)
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Additional Studies in Mormonism and Masonry
After 150 Years : The Latter-day Saints in Sesquicentennial Perspective
A Journey to Great Salt Lake City, with a Sketch of the History, Religion, and Customs of the Mormons, and an Introduction on The Religious Movement in the United States
A Kingdom Transformed : Themes in the Development of Mormonism
A Ministry of Meetings : The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson
A Mormon Bibliography, 1830-1930 : Books, Pamphlets, Periodicals, and Broadsides Relating to the First Century of Mormonism
An Address to All Believers in Christ. By a Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon
An American Prophet's Record : The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith
An Englishwoman in Utah : The Story of a Life's Experience in Mormonism
An Intimate Chronicle : The Journals of William Clayton
A Strange Thing in the Land : The Return of the Book of Enoch
A Translation and Commentary of the Joseph Smith Hypocephalus
Brigham Young : American Moses
David O. McKay : Apostle to the World, Prophet of God
Doctrines and Dogmas of Brighamism Exposed
Doctrines of Salvation : Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith
Echoes from the Rocky Mountains
Far West Record : Minutes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1844
Fifteen Years among the Mormons : Being the Narrative of Mrs. Mary Ettie V. Smith
Founding Minutes of the Nauvoo Lodge, U. D
Freemasonry and Nauvoo, 1839-1846
Fundamental differences between the Reorganized Church and the Church in Utah
Heber C. Kimball and Family, The Nauvoo Years
Heber C. Kimball : Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer
History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Period I : History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself
History of Utah
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Psychological Tests for the Authorship of the Book of Mormon
Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith
Register of LDS Church Records
Reminiscences of a Missionary Bishop
Reminiscences of Early Utah
Scenes in Nauvoo, and Incidents from H. C. Kimball's Journal
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Testimony and Technology : A Phase of the Modernization of Mormonism since 1950
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The Adam-God Maze
The Book of Mormon as a Modern Expansion of an Ancient Source
The Catholic Liturgy and the Mormon Temple
The Changing World of Mormonism
The Diary of Charles Lowell Walker
The Earliest Reference Guides to the Book of Mormon : Windows Into the Past
The Early Temples of the Mormons : The Architecture of the Millennial Kingdom in the American West
The Endowment House 1855-1889
The Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham : A Reappraisal
The History of Mormonism; Its Rise, Progress, Present Condition and Mysteries
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The House of the Lord : A Study of Holy Sanctuaries Ancient and Modern
The Kirtland Elders' Quorum Record, 1836-1841
The Latter-day Saints : A Study of the Mormons in the Light of Economic Conditions
The Latter-day Saints in the Modern Day World : An Account of Contemporary Mormonism
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The Mormon Churches : A Comparison From Within
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The Mormon Mirage : A Former Mormon Tells Why She Left the Church
The Mormon Monster : Or, The Story of Mormonism
The Mormon Murders : A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit, and Death
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The Mormon Temple Experience
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The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 2 : Journal, 1832-1842
The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith
The Relationship of 'Mormonism' and Freemasonry
The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith : A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants
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The Writing of Joseph Smith's History
'They Might Have Known That He Was Not a Fallen Prophet' : The Nauvoo Journal of Joseph Fielding
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