Item Detail
-
30867
-
1
-
14
-
English
-
Heavenly Mother in the Vernacular Religion of Latter-Day Saint Women
-
Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies
-
2019
-
10
-
1
-
Provo, UT
-
Utah State University
-
29-57
-
"Creativity is one of the few culturally appropriate ways that Latter- day Saint women seek for and learn about Heavenly Mother. In my research, I draw on twenty-six interviews with women ages 21 to 55 from around the world who self-identified as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or “Mormon.” According to their interviews, these women seek Heavenly Mother because She is the manifestation of their potential, a topic I will discuss in more detail. Their beliefs and practices—which I define as vernacular beliefs, that is, personal rather than official expressions of religion—are centered around the idea that creativity is a uniquely female power. For example, some women drew on visual art and music as a vehicle for interacting with the female divine, while others feminized scripture, adopting female pronouns and imagery where women were otherwise absent from the scriptural canon. As such practices are unofficial and have been discouraged at times by the Latter- day Saint Church hierarchy, many informants expressed their fears surrounding unsanctioned practices, most particularly the fear of praying directly to the divine Mother. However, I have found that creativity—both physical art forms and more abstract forms of creativity, such as childbirth—offers women greater freedom to create and express their personal theologies." [Author]
-
Collected Discourses Delivered by President Wilford Woodruff, his two Counselors, the Twelve Apostles and Others, Volumes 1-5, 1886-1898
Foundations of the Restoration : Fulfillment of the Covenant Purposes
Four Zinas : A Story of Mothers and Daughters on the Mormon Frontier
Grassroots Deviance from Official Doctrine : A Study of Latter-day Saint (Mormon) Folk-beliefs
Is There a Place for Heavenly Mother in Mormon Theology? : An Investigation into Discourses of Power
Mormon Women's Agency and Changing Conceptions of the Mother in Heaven
Spirit Babies and Divine Embodiment : PBEs, First Vision Accounts, Bible Scholarship, and the Experience-Centered Approach to Mormon Folklore
Strangers in Paradox : Explorations in Mormon Theology
The King Follett Sermon
The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven
The Significance of 'O My Father' in the Personal Journey of Eliza R. Snow
The Women of Mormondom
Women and Authority : Re-emerging Mormon Feminism
Women and Mormonism : Historical and Contemporary Perspectives