Item Detail
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33148
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0
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23
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English
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Men and the Priesthood
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Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender
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London
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Routledge
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580-597
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"The identity, subjectivity, and masculinity of male members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is defined, shaped, supported, but also problematized, by the powers, practices, beliefs, and discourse surrounding priesthood. But how? What issues and expectations, conformities, and resistances about maleness are evoked for church members—male and female—by LDS ecclesiastical and priesthood structures and by its historical narratives and theological paradigms?
"The LDS Church trains its male members from their early youth to accept the doctrines and rituals of priesthood as part of their maturation. Mormon priesthood is a lay priesthood. Almost every boy is ordained by age 12, or now younger. Priesthood ordination serves as a male rite of passage that confers status in the church community, defines personal identity, and facilitates spirituality and worthiness that reinforce male bonding and organizational loyalty on a foundational level. Being a priesthood bearer is a normal and essential part of being a male member of the LDS Church. It is not something to question; it just is. The connection between priesthood and maleness is so deeply entrenched in Latter-day Saints that, in the past, LDS men as a group were often referred to as 'The Priesthood'—though recently church leaders have rejected this equation and usage (Nelson, 2018). Whether Mormon men are called 'The Priesthood' or more accurately 'Priesthood holders,' the two terms are interchangeable because only males— not females—can be ordained. Thus, priesthood defines those ordained against those unordained such that Mormon priesthood pits maleness against femaleness. Over time the rights, powers, privileges, and practices of the priesthood have become inextricably intertwined with Mormon male subjectivity and with how the Mormon male self is constructed. To be a Mormon priesthood bearer is to embody the divine. The ordained LDS male is the incarnation of godly power and, thus, enacts the authority of God even in his everyday actions. Both the doctrines and the practices surrounding priesthood provide the underlying framework that gives ordained Mormon men identity, purpose, and meaning, as well as setting patterns for how they should act within the LDS Church and community." [Author]
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Discourses in Mormon Theology : Philosophical and Theological Possibilities
Encyclopedia of Mormonism : The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Female Sexual Agency in Patriarchal Culture : The Case of Mormon Women
Is There a Place for Heavenly Mother in Mormon Theology? : An Investigation into Discourses of Power
"It'll be Zion to me" : Ideal Mormon Masculinity in Legacy
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Mormon Masculinity : Changing Gender Expectations in the Era of Transition from Polygamy to Monogamy, 1890-1920
Muscular Mormonism
Navigating Mormonism's Gendered Theology and Practice : Mormon Women in a Global Context
On Mormon Masculinity
Out of Obscurity : Mormonism Since 1945
Power from on High : The Development of Mormon Priesthood
Priesthood and Church Government
Saying Goodbye to the Final Say : The Softening and Reimagining of Mormon Male Headship Ideologies
Sister Saints : Mormon Women since the End of Polygamy
Strangers in Paradox : Explorations in Mormon Theology
The Mormon Hierarchy : Origins of Power
The Mormon Hierarchy : Wealth and Corporate Power
The Power of Godliness : Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology
Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology
Voices for Equality : Ordain Women and Resurgent Mormon Feminism
Women and Mormonism : Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Women at church : Magnifying LDS women's local impact