27900

27

165

Book

English

Turner, John G.

The Mormon Jesus : A Biography

Cambridge, MA

Belknap Press

2016

352

The nineteenth-century Mormon prophet Joseph Smith published a new scripture dominated by the figure of Jesus Christ, dictated revelations presented as the words of the Christian savior, spoke of encountering Jesus in visions, and told his followers that their messiah and king would soon return to the earth. From the author of the definitive life of Brigham Young comes a biography of the Mormon Jesus that revises and enriches our understanding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Over the past two hundred years, Jesus has connected the Latter-day Saints to broader currents of Christianity, even while particular Mormon beliefs and practices have been points of differentiation and conflict. The Latter-day Saints came to understand Jesus Christ as the literal son of his father, the exalted brother of God's other spirit children, who should aspire to become like him. They gave new meaning to many titles for Jesus Christ: Father, Son of God, Lord, Savior, Firstborn, Elder Brother, Bridegroom, and Jehovah.

While some early beliefs became canonized and others were discarded, Jesus Christ remains central to Latter-day Saint scripture, doctrine, and religious experience. Contemporary Mormon leaders miss no opportunity to proclaim their church's devotion to the Christian savior, in part because evangelical Protestants denounce Mormonism as a non-Christian cult. This tension between Mormonism's distinctive claims and the church's desire to be accepted as Christian, John G. Turner argues, continues to shape Mormon identity and attract new members to the church.

Doctrinal history, God and the Godhead
Bible, Joseph Smith's translation
Doctrinal history, millenarianism
Smith, Joseph, Jr., First Vision
McLellin, William E.
Freemasonry
Doctrinal history, Adam-God theory
Book of Mormon, use and influence
Doctrinal history, racial concepts
Doctrinal history, human deification
Doctrinal history, Jesus Christ

A Book of Mormon Bibliography for 2016
American Zion: A New History of Mormonism
An Atoning Priority in the Hymns of Calvary and Gethsemane
A Pentecostal Reads the Book of Mormon : A Literary and Theological Introduction
Christology and Theosis in the Revelations and Teachings of Joseph Smith
Correlating Orthodoxy and Style: Institutionally “Approved” Christ-Centered Art in LDS Visual Resources and Meetinghouses, 1990–2021
“Effusions of an Enthusiastic Brain” : Joseph Smith’s First Vision and the Limits of Experiential Religion
Explaining Mormonism: A Believing Skeptic's Guide to the Latter-day Saint Worldview
Finding Peace, Claiming Place : Black South African Women Navigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Harry Edgar Baker and The Word of the Lord
History, Religious Studies, and Book of Mormon Studies
How and What You Worship: Christology and Praxis in the Revelations of Joseph Smith: The 49th Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium
Incarnation, Exaltation, and Christological Tension in Doctrine and Covenants 93:1–20
Jesus Christ, Marriage, and Mormon Christianities : 2016 Smith-Pettit Lecture, Sunstone Symposium
Jesus Christ, Son of Man: James J. Strang's Apologetic Christology
Joseph Smith, Gethsemane, and the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
Latter-day Saints and Images of Christ's Crucifixion
Mormonism and Race
Open Canon: Scriptures of the Latter Day Saint Tradition
Railroading Religion : Mormons, Tourists, and the Corporate Spirit of the West
The Bible and the Latter-day Saint Tradition (book)
The King Follett Sermon: A Biography
The LDS Gospel Topics Series : A Scholarly Engagement
The Triangle and the Sovereign : Logics, Histories, and an Open Canon
What is Mormonism? A Student’s Introduction
Will Things Get Better or Worse Before the Second Coming?: Are Latter-day Saints Premillenarians or Postmillenarians?
Yet to Be Revealed: Open Questions in Latter-day Saint Theology

A Book of Commandments for the Government of the Church of Christ
Adoptive Sealing Ritual in Mormonism
A Kingdom Transformed : Themes in the Development of Mormonism
All Abraham's Children : Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage
Amasa Mason Lyman : Trailblazer and Pioneer from the Atlantic to the Pacific
American Crucifixion : The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church
A Ministry of Meetings : The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson
Among the Mormons : Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers
An Address to All Believers in Christ. By a Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon
An Intimate Chronicle : The Journals of William Clayton
A Peculiar People : Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America
"A Picturesque and Dramatic History" : George Reynolds's Story of the Book of Mormon
As a Thief in the Night : The Mormon Millennialist View
A Voice from Jerusalem
Banishing the Cross : The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo
Bertel Thorvaldsen's Christus : A Mormon Icon
Between Heaven and Earth : Mormon Theology of the Family in Comparative Perspective
Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, One of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Book of Mormon Usage in Early LDS Theology
"Build, Therefore, Your Own World" : Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joseph Smith, and American Antebellum Thought
By the Hand of Mormon : The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion
Candid Insights of a Mormon Apostle : The Diaries of Abraham H. Cannon, 1889-1895
Champion of Liberty : John Taylor
Concealing the Body, Concealing the Sacred : The Decline of Ritual Nudity in Mormon Temples
Conflict in the Quorum : Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith
"Congenial to Almost Every Shade of Radicalism" : The Delaware Valley and the Success of Early Mormonism
Cowboy Apostle : The diaries of Anthony W. Ivins, 1875-1932
Culture, Charisma, and Change : Reflections on Mormon Temple Worship
Curses and Marks : Racial Dispensations and Dispensations of Race in Joseph Smith's Bible Revision and the Book of Abraham
Dancing with the Devil : The Making of the Mormon-Republican Pact
David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
Delusions : An Analysis of the Book of Mormon ; with an Examination of Its internal and External Evidences, and a Refutation of Its pretences to Divine Authority
Development : 1831-1844
Doctrines of Salvation: Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith
Doing the Works of Abraham : Mormon Polygamy : Its Origin, Practice, and Demise
Dynasty of the Holy Grail :
Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline
Early Mormon Adoption Theology and the Mechanics of Salvation
Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Eliza R. Snow : The Complete Poetry
Exhibiting Mormonism : The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair
Exhibiting Theology : James E. Talmage and Mormon Public Relations, 1915-20
Far West Record : Minutes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1844
Fire and Sword : A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 1836-39
"God Has Made Us a Kingdom" : James Strang and the Midwest Mormons
Hearken, O Ye People : The Historical Setting for Joseph Smith's Ohio Revelations
Heaven : A History
Images of Christ in Latter-day Saint Visual Culture, 1900-1999
Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon : Religious Solutions from Columbus to Joseph Smith
In Heaven as It Is on Earth : Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
In Sacred Loneliness : The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith
In the President's Office : The Diaries of L. John Nuttall, 1879-1892
'Is Mormonism Christian?' Reflections on a Complicated Question
James J. Strang, Weighed in the Balance of Truth, and Found Wanting
Jesus Christ as Elder Brother
Jesus Christ, Eternal God : Heavenly Flesh and the Metaphysics of Matter
"John the Revelator" : The Written Revelations of John Taylor
Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History
Joseph Smith as Scientist : A Contribution to Mormon Philosophy
Joseph Smith, Jesus, and Satanic Opposition : Atonement, Evil, and the Mormon Vision
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
Joseph Smith's Cooperstown Bible : The Historical Context of the Bible Used in the Joseph Smith Translation
Joseph Smith's First Vision : The First Vision in its Historical Context
Joseph Smith's Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844 Mormon Succession Question
Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible
Joseph Smith's Polygamy
Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845
Kirtland Council Minute Book
Kirtland Temple : The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space
Later Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Leaders in the Mormon Reform Movement
Liahona The Elders' Journal
Life in Utah; or, The Mysteries and Crimes of Mormonism
Lucy's Book : A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir
Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Minerva's Calling
Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto
Mormon Christianity : What Other Christians can learn from the Latter-day Saints
Mormon Doctrine
Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith
Mormonism : A Historical Encyclopedia
Mormonism and Music : A History
Mormonism In All Ages : Or, The Rise, Progress and Causes of Mormonism
Mormonism in Transition : A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930
Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs
Mormonism : The Story of a New Religious Tradition
Mormonism Unvailed : Or, a Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion From Its Rise to the Present Time
Mormons and Jews : Early Mormon Theologies of Israel
Mormons and the Bible : The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion
Mormons Seeking Mormonism : Strangite Success and the Conceptualization of Mormon Ideology, 1844-50
Muscular Mormonism
Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi
Nauvoo Sealings, Adoptions, and Anointings: A Comprehensive Register of Persons Receiving LDS Temple Ordinances, 1841-1846
Neither White nor Black : Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church
New Approaches to the Book of Mormon : Explorations in Critical Methodology
New Perspectives in Mormon Studies : Creating and Crossing Boundaries
No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet
No Place to Call Home : The 1807-1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities
Offenders for a Word : How Anti-Mormons Play Word Games to Attack the Latter-day Saints
Of Prophets and Pale Horses : Joseph Smith, Benjamin West, and the American Millenarian Tradition
Oliver Cowdery's Kirtland, Ohio, 'Sketch Book'
'One of the Most Interesting Sceneries That Can be Found in Zion' : Philo Dibble's Museum and Panorama
"One Soul Shall Not Be Lost" : The War in Heaven in Mormon Thought
On the Potter's Wheel : The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball
Out of Obscurity : Mormonism Since 1945
Parley P. Pratt : The Apostle Paul of Mormonism
Pentecost Continued : A Contemporaneous Account of the Kirtland Temple Dedication
People of Paradox : A History of Mormon Culture
Proselyting Techniques of Mormon Missionaries
"Reasonings Sufficient" : Joseph Smith, Thomas Dick, and the context(s) of early Mormonism
Recollections of Past Days : The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer
Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History : Missouri
Reinventing Mormonism : Guatemala as a Harbinger of the Future?
Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
Sacred Borders : Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America
Saints, Slaves, and Blacks : The Changing Place of Black People within Mormonism
Scattering of the Saints : Schism within Mormonism
Seeking the 'Remnant' : The Native American during the Joseph Smith Period
Setting a Standard in LDS Art : Four Illustrators of the Mid-Twentieth Century
Sidney Rigdon : A Portrait of Religious Excess
Sojourner in the Promised Land : Forty years among the Mormons
Solomon Chamberlain-Early Missionary
Stand By My Servant Joseph : The Story of the Joseph Knight Family and the Restoration
Take Up Your Mission: Mormon Colonizing Along the Little Colorado River, 1870-1900
"That Most Important of All Books" : A Printing History of The Book of Mormon
The Adam-God Doctrine
The Angel and the Beehive : The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation
The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt
The Book of Mormon Art of Arnold Friberg : 'Painter of Scripture'
The Book of Mormon as Amerindian Apocalypse
The Book of Mormon Girl : A Memoir of an American Faith
The Church of Christ (Temple Lot) and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints : 130 Years of Crossroads and Controversies
The Development of Latter-day Saint Temple Worship, 1846-2000 : A Documentary History
The Diary of Charles Lowell Walker
The Hill Cumorah Pageant : A Historical Perspective
The History of LDS Temple Admission Standards
The History of the Saints: Or, An Expose of Joe Smith and Mormonism
The Josiah Stowell Jr.-John S. Fullmer Correspondence
The Journals of William E. McLellin 1831-1836
The Life Story of Orson F. Whitney, As Told by Himself
The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism
The Mormon Culture of Salvation : Force, Grace, and Glory
The Mormon Image in the American Mind: Fifty Years of Public Perception
The Mormon Pavilion : Mainstreaming the Saints at the New York World's Fair, 1964-65
The Mormon Question : Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America
The Mormons
The Mormons and the Bible in the 1830s
The Mormons, or Latter-day Saints, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake
The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845-1846: A Documentary History
The Pageantry of Protest in Temple Square
The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle
The Polygamous Wives Writing Club : From the Diaries of Mormon Pioneer Women
The Refiner's Fire : The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844
The Riches of Mormon Materialism : Parley P. Pratt's "Materiality" and Early Mormon Theology
The Rise of a New World Faith
The Rise of Mormonism
The Salt Lake Tabernacle in the Nineteenth Century : A Glimpse of Early Mormonism
The Significance of Joseph Smith's 'First Vision' In Mormon Thought
'They Might Have Known That He Was Not a Fallen Prophet' : The Nauvoo Journal of Joseph Fielding
This is My Doctrine : The Development of Mormon Theology
Understanding the Book of Mormon : A Reader's Guide
Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
William E. McLellin's Testimony of the Book of Mormon
Women of Faith in the Latter Days : Volume 1, 1775-1820
Wrestling the Angel : The Foundations of Mormon Thought : Cosmos, God, Humanity
Zion's Trumpet : 1850 Welsh Mormon Periodical