Other Nonconformist and Evangelical Churches Books

Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities. • Now an acclaimed FX limited series streaming on HULU.“Fantastic.... Right up there with In Cold Blood and The Executioner’s Song.” —San Francisco ChronicleDefying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities.  At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a

Read more less

Book SynopsisBuilt on Kraybill's deep knowledge of Amish life and his contacts within many Amish communities, Renegade Amish highlights one of the strangest and most publicized sagas in contemporary Amish history.Trade ReviewRenegade Amish... provides an insider's perspective into how a small community of Amish people, nurtured in a religious tradition of nonviolence and forgiveness, transformed into a culture of revenge and retaliation. Publishers Weekly For the dimwitted habitues of comments threads, it was the news item that launched a thousand lame puns. But the case of the Bergholz Barbers is funny only as long as it remains a sound bite. Donald B. Kraybill's new book, Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers, digs deep into a story that, for all its seeming quaintness, has the power to both rock the underpinnings of hate crime legislation and to break the human heart. -- Laura Miller Salon Kraybill tells this fascinating story clearly, and has the knowledge and contacts to penetrate a tight-lipped community. -- Damiam Whitworth The Times The apparent dissonance in these opening narratives and the peculiar nature of Amish acting violently to shear helpless victims sets the scene for Kraybill's fascinating exploration of the Bergholz Amish... The case has taken on new significance as the court system works to decide how people will be prosecuted under the Shepherd Byrd act and how broadly hate crimes can be defined. -- Melanie Springer Mock Mennonite World Review An acknowledged expert on Amish life and culture, [Kraybill] explains the religious and social background of the people involved and successfully explains the legal tangle that has not yet completely played out. Journal of Church and State This book will be of interest to those who study the intersection of law and religion or the sociology of closed groups like the Amish Journal of Church and State [Renegade Amish] is a thorough, evenhanded, and accessible volume that provides keen insight on Amish culture. Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies ... Renegade Amish captures a fascinating chapter of legal history and Amish history... That is a tale begging to be told, and Kraybill proves worthy of the task. The Mennonite Quarterly Review Whether you want to learn more about the Amish in general, the Bergholz Amish in particular, are interested in the formation and maintenance of NRMs, interactions between religious groups and the law, or just want to read an informative book that is exceedingly well researched and written, balanced and engaging, Renegade Amish is most definitely worth reading. Nova ReligioTable of ContentsPrefaceChronology1. The Attacks2. The Clan3. The Bishop4. The Cult?5. The FBI6. The Trial7. The Sentencing8. The AftermathEpilogueAppendix IAppendix IINotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow a series of violent Amish-on-Amish attacks shattered the peace of a peace-loving people and led to a new interpretation of the federal hate crime law. On the night of September 6, 2011, terror called at the Amish home of the Millers. Answering a late-night knock from what appeared to be an Amish neighbor, Mrs. Miller opened the door to her five estranged adult sons, a daughter, and their spouses. It wasn't a friendly visit. Within moments, the men, wearing headlamps, had pulled their frightened father out of bed, pinned him into a chair, andignoring his tearful protestssheared his hair and beard, leaving him razor-burned and dripping with blood. The women then turned on Mrs. Miller, yanking her prayer cap from her head and shredding it before cutting off her waist-long hair. About twenty minutes later, the attackers fled into the darkness, taking their parents' hair as a trophy. Four similar beard-cutting attacks followed, disfiguring nine victims and generating a tsunami of mediTrade ReviewAn insider’s perspective into how a small community of Amish people, nurtured in a religious tradition of nonviolence and forgiveness, transformed into a culture of revenge and retaliation.—Publishers WeeklyDigs deep into a story that, for all its seeming quaintness, has the power to both rock the underpinnings of hate crime legislation and to break the human heart.—SalonKraybill tells this fascinating story clearly, and has the knowledge and contacts to penetrate a tight-lipped community.—The TimesAn acknowledged expert on Amish life and culture, [Kraybill] explains the religious and social background of the people involved and successfully explains the legal tangle that has not yet completely played out. This book will be of interest to those who study the intersection of law and religion or the sociology of closed groups like the Amish.—Journal of Church and StateA thorough, evenhanded, and accessible volume that provides keen insight on Amish culture.—Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist StudiesCaptures a fascinating chapter of legal history and Amish history . . . [This] is a tale begging to be told, and Kraybill proves worthy of the task.—The Mennonite Quarterly ReviewWhether you want to learn more about the Amish in general, the Bergholz Amish in particular, are interested in the formation and maintenance of NRMs, interactions between religious groups and the law, or just want to read an informative book that is exceedingly well researched and written, balanced, and engaging, Renegade Amish is most definitely worth reading.—Nova ReligioThe apparent dissonance in these opening narratives and the peculiar nature of Amish acting violently to shear helpless victims sets the scene for Kraybill’s fascinating exploration of the Bergholz Amish. . . The case has taken on new significance as the court system works to decide how people will be prosecuted under the Shepherd Byrd act and how broadly hate crimes can be defined.—Mennonite World ReviewTable of ContentsPrefaceChronology1. The Attacks2. The Clan3. The Bishop4. The Cult?5. The FBI6. The Trial7. The Sentencing8. The AftermathEpilogueAppendix IAppendix IINotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisUsing Amish Mafia as a window into the interplay between the real and the imagined, this book dissects the peculiar appeals and potential dangers of deception in reality TV and popular entertainment. When Amish Mafia was released in 2012, viewers were fascinated by the stories of this secret group of Amish and Mennonite enforcers who used threats, extortion, and violence to keep members of the Amish community in lineand to line their own pockets. While some of the stories were based loosely on actual events, the group itself was a complete fabrication. Its members were played by ex-Amish and ex-Mennonite young adults acting out scenarios concocted by the show's producers. What is most extraordinary about Amish Mafia is that, even though it was fictional, it was cleverly constructed to appear real. Discovery Channel, which aired it, assiduously maintained that it was real; whole episodes were devoted to proving that it was real; and many viewers (including smart reality TV fans) were Table of ContentsPrologue1. Enquiring Minds Want to Know2. The Roots of Reality Entertainment3. A Chronicle of Contrivance4. The Pleasure in Being Deceived (and Its Limits)5. Gossip and Lies6. Rights and WrongsEpilogueAcknowledgmentsNotesReferencesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst published in 1915, Jesus the Christ is the classic Latter-day Saint presentation of the life and ministry of the Savior. Elder Marion G. Romney said, One who gets the understanding, the vision, and the spirit of the resurrected Lord through a careful study of the text Jesus the Christ by Elder James E. Talmage will find that he has greatly increased his moving faith in our glorified Redeemer. This special edition has been completely retypeset for added readability, and for the first time the chapter endnotes have been included with the footnotes for ready reference.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis collection of interdisciplinary essays explores the prime concern of Mormon Studies the relationship between knowledge and spirituality and how that relationship has been defined and reinterpreted over time. Beginning with an examination of the international prospects for Mormonism at the turn of the century, the volume's overarching theme, from sociological, anthropological and theological approaches, is the examination of changing Mormon identities. The contributors review the expansion of Mormonism, the emotional and social contexts of its historic and contemporary manifestations, the distinction between Utah' Mormons and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and issues in Mormon feminism, concluding with a valuable review of the sources and documents available for studying Mormonism.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Scholars, Saints and Mormonism Douglas J. Davies Part I – Dimensions of Identity 1. Identity and Boundary Maintenance: International Prospects for Mormonism at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century Armand L. Mauss 2. Modernity, History and Latter-Day Saint Faith L. C. Midgley 3. The Book of Mormon Wars: A Non-Mormon Perspective Massimo Introvigne 4. Coffee, Tea and the Ultra-Protestant and Jewish Nature of the Boundaries of Mormonism Christie Davies 5. Latter-Day Saint Exceptionalism and Membership Growth James T. Duke 6. Neither Mormon Nor Protestant? The Reorganized Church and the Challenge of Identity Roger D. Launius Part II – The Expansion of Mormonism 7. Ethnic American Mormons: The Development of a Community Jessie L. Embry 8. Mormonism in Chile David Clark Knowlton 9. Mormonism in Black Africa E. Dale LeBaron 10. India: A Synopsis of Cultural Challenges Roger R. Keller Part III – Emotional and Social Life 11. Childhood in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain Reflected in Some Latter-Day Sources Malcolm R. Thorp 12. Guilt, Fear, Anxiety and Love: Disciplinary Councils Among Latter-Day Saints Today Melvyn Hammarberg 13. An Overview of Mormonism and Mental Health Daniel K. Judd 14. Commitment Making: Mate Selection Process Among Active Mormon American Couples Thomas B. Holman Part IV – Early Mormonism 15. Mormons and the Millennial World-View Grant Underwood 16. Magic and Mormon Religion Douglas J. Davies 17. ‘Companions and Forerunners’: English Romantics and the Restauration Gordon K. Thomas I Part V – Female Factors 18. Issues in Contemporary Mormon Feminism Lynn Matthews Anderson 19. ‘Choose ye this day whom ye will serve’: Latter-Day Saint Mothers’ Reaction To A Church Leader’s Instruction to Remain in the Home Bruce A. Chadwick and H. Dean Garrett Part VI – Mormon Scripture and Theology 20. Does the Book of Mormon Support ‘My Country Right or Wrong,’ Just War or Pacifism? Andrew Bolton 21. The Death/Rebirth Mytheme in the Book of Mormon Seth D. Kunin 22. Must God Be Incorporeal? David L. Paulsen Part VII – The Future of Mormon Studies 23. Mormon Studies: Progress and Prospects David J. Whittaker 24. Views of an International Religion Douglas J. Davies Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisExplores the role of race and consumer culture in attracting urban congregants to an evangelical church The Urban Church Imagined illuminates the dynamics surrounding white urban evangelical congregations' approaches to organizational vitality and diversifying membership. Many evangelical churches are moving to urban, downtown areas to build their congregations and attract younger, millennial members. The urban environment fosters two expectations. First, a deep familiarity and reverence for popular consumer culture, and second, the presence of racial diversity. Church leaders use these ideas when they imagine what a city church should look like, but they must balance that with what it actually takes to make this happen. In part, racial diversity is seen as key to urban churches presenting themselves as in touch and authentic. Yet, in an effort to seduce religious consumers, church leaders often and inadvertently end up reproducing racial and economic inequality, an unexpected contradiTrade Review"The authors demonstrate how the racialized urban imaginary affects the religious practices, organizations, and identity of this recently formed congregation, and the complex interactions among race, religion, class, gender, cultural consumption, and the city. The discussion revolves around the key concepts of racialized urban imaginary, managed diversity, and racial utility. A significant contribution to religion, race, and urban studies." * Choice *"In The Urban Church Imagined, Jessica M. Barron and Rhys H. Williams examine the 'dueling imaginations' posited by Downtown Churchs [DC] suburban-based leaders and city-based congregants as their new congregation negotiates racial, class, and gender boundaries. The depth and accessibility of this book make it an excellent read for scholars, students, and religious leaders interested in the sociology of religion, race theory, and/or the urban landscape." * Reading Religion *"The Urban Church Imagined offers a compelling insight on the organizational practices of white-led religious institutions as they attempt to interact with diversity … they offer a provocative salvo in furthering our understanding of the shallow adaptations of diversity and inclusion occurring in white evangelical organizations throughout the United States. In an era where racial coding and antagonism continue to resonate throughout social and political discourse, Barron and Williams have given good cause for further examination of the intersection of race, religion, and the city." -- American Journal of Sociology"This book serves as a useful guide for how churches may approach attracting new members in a period of increasing racial diversity and declining worship attendance." -- Review of Religious Research"The Urban Church Imagined sheds light on this problematic dichotomy of the desire to reach the urban population and to be relevant in the racially diverse context of urban areas on the one hand, and the implicit racism, sexism, and classism undergirding their history on the other hand … The critical perspective offered in the book has a massive potential as a working tool for professionals involved in urban ministry, both lay and ordained … Overall, The Urban Church Imagined is a practical, insightful, and well written exploration of the challenges of social aspects in urban ministry that carries massive potential for the modern church as a whole, both the urban and the rural, both the diverse and the homogeneous." -- Anglican Theological Review"The City Imagined expertly takes us into the heart of 'new urban' Christianity, a Christianity reflecting a renewed interest in the city, but a city highly constructed to serve idealized purposes. With richness of analysis and deep insight, we learn about the very heart of new America--thegood, the bad, and the ugly. A fascinating read." -- Michael O. Emerson,Provost and Professor, North Park University and author of Blacks and Whites in Christian America"Ambitious evangelicals want to reach the citya dynamic place filled with connotations of fashion, power, and cosmopolitanism. But the desire of evangelical churches to be relevant and racially diverse is colliding with the implicit racism still underlying their history. Drawing from observations in a multiracial evangelical church in downtown Chicago, The Urban Church Imagined reveals how modern evangelicalism is deeply entangled in the desire for contemporary relevance while persisting in racial prejudices and outright discrimination." -- Gerardo Marti,author of A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church"Barron and her coauthor, Rhys H. Williams, closely observe church members and leaders through interviews and ethnographic work. In doing so, they establish a better understanding of the links between city culture and modern evangelicalism that make Downtown Church appealing to its young members who desire an interracial and hip churchgoing experience." * Religious Studies Review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Pure, Linda Kay Klein uses a potent combination of journalism, cultural commentary, and memoir to take us “inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can” (Gloria Steinem) and reveals the devastating effects evangelical Christianity’s views on female sexuality has had on a generation of young women.In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls—resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—and trapped them in a cycle of shame. This is the sex education Linda Kay Klein grew up with. Fearing being marked a JeTrade Review"Linda Kay Klein takes us inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can. She shows us how the system of mind-and-body shaming works within a religious movement so culturally and politically influential that it must be understood by us all." —Gloria Steinem"Linda Kay Klein’s PURE is an important book for this moment in history, as women come to the collective understanding that the institutions we spend our lives serving are not created to serve us. Women are canaries in religious coal mines—and PURE emboldens us to escape toxic misogyny and experience a fresh breath of freedom." —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of LOVE WARRIOR and founder of Together Rising"Klein’s book will get God up doing a standing ovation in creation for revealing that God’s message is to love all of ourselves—mind, body, and spirit. This is to embrace the gift of life and to live in freedom with integrity and joy. Any form of purity that does not celebrate this, does not celebrate God working in our lives." —Emilie M. Townes, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University Divinity School"More and more young adults are speaking openly about the harm done to them by churches that treated sex as if it were an illicit drug. When 'Just say no' was their only message, and when the language of purity was their main ethical category, deep and lasting personal damage were inevitable. That's why Linda Kay Klein's new book is so important. It pulls back the covers on 'purity culture' and the harm it has done to a whole generation. An important book from an important new voice." —Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration"Linda Kay Klein’s book about the devastating effects of Christianity’s obsession with purity culture is a revelation... Part memoir and part journalism, Pure is a horrendous, granular, relentless, emotionally true account." * The Cut *“A potent account of purity culture that deserves our attention.” * Library Journal, starred review *“A young woman raised as a conservative Evangelical Christian reflects on her community's sexual shaming and the psychological scars that it left… Klein's personal story is fascinating, but it is the larger context that makes the book important… Timely and relevant, particularly in the age of Trump and #MeToo.” * Kirkus Reviews *“Klein explores how purity culture within evangelical Christianity causes girls and young women to feel shame about sex and sexuality… will surely cause debate within evangelical circles.” * Publishers Weekly *"Eye-opening....compelling....For those who seek spiritual community without gender bias, Klein offers empathy and new choices." * BookPage *"Pure is above all for those who came out of the purity movement ---a guidebook for survivors...its final message is healing through the movements that have arisen to combat purity culture." * Women's Review of Books *"She combines memoir with survivor interviews and research on shame, sexuality, and religion to effectively argue that the evangelical sexual purity movement has done lasting harm to many of the women who embraced its message as teens in the ‘90s and early 2000s." * Rewire.news *"Riveting and important... The relevance for this both inside and outside of the Christian community is immense, and this is a book that should stir intense thought about the way we all live." * Santa Barbara News-Press *"Klein’s jarring reporting is impossible to forget." * Bust.com *"Pure is a thorough and focused study on the effects of the purity movement’s rhetoric on women and girls, but Klein stresses that her findings aren’t relevant only to religious conservatives. Rather, they represent an extreme microcosm of a broader culture of gendered sexual shaming to which we should all be paying attention." * Vice Broadly *"Linda Kay Klein is the perfect woman for the job, with her personal experience with the subject matter, willingness to critically examine long-held beliefs, and deep empathy for her interview subjects. Every woman–in fact, every person, religious or not–would do well to read this heartbreaking but hopeful book." * Splash Magazine *“To those outside the church, Klein offers a well-researched insider’s point of view. To those affected by the purity movement, Klein offers a healing balm through personal testimony. To both she offers an invitation to further discourse as we seek to make our culture a safer place for all people.” * Chapter 16 *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisBest known for his focus on the intuitive force within, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) also anticipated major modern discoveries in mineralogy, psychology, and anatomy. In this succinct and readable collection, Stanley expertly brings the most significant writings from Swedenborg''s oeuvre together, showing readers a man who created a hieroglyphic language, reimagined the Genesis story, influenced Blake, Balzac, Strindberg, and Yeats, and authored a number of anonymous works that put the Swedish clergy of his day on high alert. This is the fourth title in the Western Esoteric Masters Series from North Atlantic Books.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisToday, as the number of Shakers has dwindled to only a handful, the story of the Shakers has never been more important to record and understand. In this classic book featuring a brand new introduction, Flo Morse offers a stimulating, graceful summary of Shaker beliefs and the way of life that still endures among a chosen few.

Read more less

Book Synopsis"Never make more free with your inferiors than you are willing they should make with you; it learns them to be saucy." Such sage words of advice come from Mother Ann Lee's Society of the Shakers, who in 1844 published A Juvenile Guide, or Manual of Good Manners, Consisting of Counsels, Instructions, & Rules of Deportment for the Young. Known for their piety, their economy, and (perhaps most famously) their celibacy, the Shakers knew a thing or two about etiquette and proper decorum. With this incredible artifact of a bygone era, you can experience what it was like to live in a rural 19th century religious community, where children were taught to "be careful not to talk too loud, nor too much" and to "always have a place for every thing, and keep every thing in its place."

Read more less

Book SynopsisTo survive in an often disapproving society, the LDS Church has made adaptive changes in belief, practice, and organization over time. Gordon and Gary Shepherd elucidate these changes through statistical analyses of the rhetoric found in proceedings of the church’s semiannual General Conference. The first edition of A Kingdom Transformed covered the years 1830 to 1979. This new edition revises that work and adds to it by examining the subsequent thirty years of conference talks, revealing what new trends have emerged. Every chapter has been rewritten and updated with theoretical and empirical support from contemporary sources and a new conceptual framework for interpreting findings.Early twentieth-century LDS leaders mainstreamed church doctrines, but by the mid-twentieth century, church authorities began emphasizing a more conservative theology that coincided with an increasingly conservative political orientation. This new edition adds such current issues as the roles of women in the church and of international growth versus member retention.Trade Review“A valuable addition, both substantively and methodologically, to the study of the transformations that have occurred in institutional Mormonism across time… It will be an easy and interesting read.”—Armand L. Mauss, author of Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport: Intellectual Journeys of a Mormon Academic “The book is already an essential work on Mormonism in the twentieth century; this new edition, expanding its reach into the twenty-first century, is quite welcome.”—Matthew Bowman, author of The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith “Shepherd and Shepherd have produced a remarkable piece of scholarship in A Kingdom Transformed. By zooming out and examining aggregate trends in emphasis over time, they have provided a real contribution to the study of the development of the church, and one can hope that the authors or others picking up their legacy will continue to update this important study going into the future.” —Mormon Studies Review “This book is surprisingly easy to read, virtually jargon-free, and provides a substantial overview of Mormonism’s core beliefs, practices, and history. For those interested, this book includes three appendices that detail this study’s statistical method and data. And as a theoretical approach to Mormonism, A Kingdom Transformed yields new insights and suggests new directions for those interested in Mormon studies.”—Nova Religio

Read more less

Book SynopsisStories of the ordinary people who helped build Salt Lake City emerge from a study of their often humble adobe houses. Rather than focusing on men and women in positions of power and influence, the emphasis here is on the lives of people who built their sturdy, simple homes from mud.A Modest Homestead provides architectural descriptions of ninety-four extant adobe houses. They are as basic as the people who built them—small tradesmen and farmers, laborers and domestics. Author Laurie Bryant discusses the neighbourhoods in Salt Lake City where adobe houses have survived, often much renovated and disguised, and she showcases the houses not just as they appear today but as they were originally built. Almost all the houses now have additions and improvements, and without some dissection they are not always recognisable, often being both more comfortable and pleasant than might have been the case in the nineteenth century. What emerges through Bryant’s research is an enlarged picture of the roughhewn life of many early Utahns. Includes 120 historic and contemporary photographs.Trade Review“Madsen’s absorbing biography is meticulously researched and elegantly composed. No Mormon studies education is complete without this book.” —Kate Holbrook, specialist in Women’s History, LDS Church History Department, and coeditor of Women and Mormonism: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives “Carol Madsen, having previously dealt with Emmeline Wells’ public life, now ably explores her interior landscape, tracing the contrast between her public triumph and her private pain, from her ‘wild and fanciful’ youth to her unexpected humiliations. Wells’ excellent record-keeping habit enables the rich detail of her story. This extended and sympathetic inner biography of the best known Mormon woman of her time is told largely in her own words, linked by Madsen’s steady and judicious narrative.” —Claudia L. Bushman, author of Contemporary Mormonism “A significant contribution to women’s history, Utah history, and LDS history that will also appeal to the general reader.” —Kathryn L. McKay, professor of history, Weber State University “Emmeline B. Wells is an admirable and engaging work of historical research and imagination. It offers a compelling portrait of an ambitious, loving, often unhappy but always striving human being, and as it does so it offers readers also a refreshing new perspective on domestic and political possibilities in the nineteenth century.” —Mormon Studies Review "A thorough and engaging biography of Emmeline Wells’s private life. Massive amounts of careful research create a three-dimensional picture of Mormon society from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City as Emmeline moved through it, as well as the late 19th- and early 20th-century American suffrage and national political circles she became part of. The biography is as readable as a good novel and even more engaging because the story it tells is of a real woman whose extraordinary achievements were made despite personal tragedies that would have defeated someone less hopeful and resilient." —Susan Elizabeth Howe, poet and retired professor of English, Brigham Young University “Despite the daunting physical presence of the book, its prose and short chapter structure makes it accessible for a broad audience. . . . The intimate biography is important because it recognizes the multiple ways we can know this woman who is famous for her remarkable public achievements. Readers not only see someone who writes, leads, and organizes. We see someone who feels.” —Juvenile Instructor “Few historians have written as well or as much on Mormon history as author Carol Madsen, and in this work she does not disappoint in the least. Required reading for anyone associated with Mormon studies as well as researchers studying 19th century American religion more generally or women’s history, and certainly recommended for anyone who enjoys a good biography." —Association for Mormon Letters “This attractively designed book is a moving and well-told introduction to an unforgettable woman.” —Western Historical Quarterly “Every chapter, every page invites the reader into the thinking and the social world of Emmeline and her contemporaries. … This era of female writers and defenders of the faith, of innovators and preservers of tradition, and of socially alert women in times of transition will undoubtedly be better understood and valued because of Carol Madsen’s notable achievement.”—BYU Studies Quarterly

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Mormon Church entered the public square on LGBT issues by joining forces with traditional-marriage proponents in Hawaii in 1993. Since then, the church has been a significant player in the ongoing saga of LGBT rights within the United States and at times has carried decisive political clout.Gregory Prince draws from over 50,000 pages of public records, private documents, and interview transcripts to capture the past half-century of the Mormon Church's attitudes on homosexuality. Initially that principally involved only its own members, but with its entry into the Hawaiian political arena, the church signaled an intent to shape the outcome of the marriage equality battle. That involvement reached a peak in 2008 during California's fight over Proposition 8, which many came to call the “Mormon Proposition.” In 2015, when the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land, the Mormon Church turned its attention inward, declaring same-sex couples “apostates” and denying their children access to key Mormon rites of passage, including the blessing (christening) of infants and the baptism of children.Trade ReviewFocusing on the place held by three immensely popular Sufi saints—Rumi, Yunus Emre, and Haji Bektash—in the Turkish imagination, Soileau provides a fascinating insight into the religious sensibilities and social and political conflicts of modern Turkey. He perceptively reconstructs contestations about the nature of their sainthood that allowed socialists and nationalists, Alevis and Sunnis, humanists and Islamists to appropriate these saints as icons symbolising their own world view."" - Martin van Bruinessen, co-author of Sufism and the ""Modern"" in Islam

Read more less

Book SynopsisJoseph Smith, the founding prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and of the broader Latter-day Saint movement, produced several volumes of scripture between 1829, when he translated the Book of Mormon, and 1844, when he was murdered. The Book of Mormon, published in 1830, is well known. Less read and studied are the subsequent texts that Smith translated after the Book of Mormon, texts that he presented as the writings of ancient Old World and New World prophets. These works were published and received by early Latter-day Saints as prophetic scripture that included important revelations and commandments from God. This collaborative volume is the first to study Joseph Smith's translation projects in their entirety. In this carefully curated collection, experts contribute cutting-edge research and incisive analysis. The chapters explore Smith's translation projects in focused detail and in broad contexts, as well as in comparison and conversation with one another. Authors approach Smith's sacred texts historically, textually, linguistically, and literarily to offer a multidisciplinary view. Scrupulous examination of the production and content of Smith's translations opens new avenues for understanding the foundations of Mormonism, provides insight on aspects of early American religious culture, and helps conceptualize the production and transmission of sacred texts.

Read more less

Book SynopsisEzra Taft Benson is perhaps the most controversial apostle-president in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For nearly fifty years he delivered impassioned sermons in Utah and elsewhere, mixing religion with ultraconservative right-wing political views and conspiracy theories. His teachings inspired Mormon extremists to stockpile weapons, predict the end of the world, and commit acts of violence against their government. The First Presidency rebuked him, his fellow apostles wanted him disciplined, and grassroots Mormons called for his removal from the Quorum of the Twelve. Yet Benson was beloved by millions of Latter-day Saints, who praised him for his stances against communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and admired his service as secretary of agriculture under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Using previously restricted documents from archives across the United States, Matthew L. Harris breaks new ground as the first to evaluate why Benson embraced a radical form of conservatism, and how under his leadership Mormons became the most reliable supporters of the Republican Party of any religious group in America.Trade Review“Ezra Taft Benson was one of the most significant and controversial figures in the twentieth-century Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thanks to Matt Harris’s outstanding book, we can now make better sense of Benson’s far-right political ideology and activism, substantial influence on the church, and consequential legacy. Deeply researched, hard-hitting but always fair, and written with a lively pace, Watchman on the Tower is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding modern Mormonism."- Patrick Q. Mason, Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture, Utah State University;"In this well-researched and timely book, Matt Harris reveals that Ezra Taft Benson once chided professional historians for “inordinately” humanizing “the prophets of God.” Here it is Benson himself who is sensitively and carefully humanized, and thank goodness. Harris skillfully positions Benson’s firebrand politics and anti-communist rhetoric within the ethos of their time, and our understanding is the better for it."- Jana Riess, senior columnist for Religion News Service and author of The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church"This is a wonderfully engaging book and the first of its kind. It is not a general biography of Benson. Instead it is a very well researched study of how his far-right political views affected relationships with his political party, with his apostolic colleagues, and with the LDS Church membership."- Armand L. Mauss, professor emeritus of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University and author of All Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage;"Documenting Benson’s extended controversial foray in politics makes a major contribution to the history of the LDS Church during the 1960s, especially in view of later attempts to diminish Benson’s participation in such activities. This work is one of the best discussions of the subject now available"- Gary James Bergera, editor of Confessions of a Mormon Historian: The Diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971 to 1997"The significance of Ezra Taft Benson has not been fully appreciated. This book will be of interest to Latter-day Saint scholars and students of twentieth-century religious and political history."- Robert Alan Goldberg, author of Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisPresidential candidate Mitt Romney''s Mormon tradition is revealed as no real religion but a cult invented by a charlatan, a disguise for a subversive ideology opposing all that is best in the American tradition. The British recruited Mormon leaders into their 19th century plot to break up the US, leading to the cult''s strategic occupation of Utah territory. Mormonism has never abandoned its secrecy and its enmity to America. Mitt Romney is the hoped-for figure who will fulfil Mormon prophecy and take over the United States. This book provides warning insights into a possible Romney presidency by exploring over 182 years of Latter-day Saints tradition. As Romney is a notorious liar and flip-flopper, it is useless to examine his political positions at any given moment. He attempts to pose as an ultra-patriot, but his family considered the barbaric Mormon practice of polygamy more important than loyalty to the United States. Romney spent years attempting to recruit for the cult, in which black Americans were regarded as inferior. Although Romney demands an aggressive foreign policy, nobody in his family every served this country in uniform -- although at least one ancestor fought against the Union in the attempted 1857 Mormon secession of Utah. As president, Romney would rely on and build up the Mormon Mafia in the intelligence community. He might try to carry out Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith''s apocalyptic White Horse Prophecy, which calls for a Mormon take-over of the United States, followed by a campaign to conquer the world for their theocracy. Every voter needs to read this book.

Read more less

Book SynopsisKim Osterholzer, a midwife who's caught over 500 babies since 1993, ushers readers behind the doors of Amish homes as she recounts her lively, entertaining, and life-changing adventures learning the heart and art and craft of midwifery. In A Midwife in Amish Country, Kim chronicles the escapades of her nine-year apprenticeship grappling with the nuance and idiosyncrasies of homebirth as she tagged along after the woman who helped her birth her own babies at home. With drama and insight, she recounts the beauty and painstaking effort of those early years spent catching babies next to crackling woodstoves, by oil lamp and lantern light, and in farmhouses powered by windmills for running water and sporting outhouses for the unmentionables. She found herself catching babies born into leaky wading pools and through howling snow storms: huge babies, tiny babies, breech babies, and twin babies. Some births kept her from home for days on end, others she missed by heart-pounding seconds, yet every birth enthralled her, whether halting hemorrhages, sharing breath with tiny lungs, or bouncing through wild rides in ambulances. Too many times to count, Kim stumbled home feeling overwhelmed and inadequate, yet as she strained against her misgivings, self-doubts, and seemingly insurmountable challenges, those intimate, sacred moments transformed her as time after time she rocked back upon her heels to soak in the spellbinding magic of hearty cries filling the air–the cries of brand-new lives with newly expanding lungs, of hardy men with overflowing hearts, of life-bearing women with the reward of their labors filling their arms–a harmony of cries that mingled with Kim's own and that, together, rose heavenward from rumpled beds speckled and splattered with the sweat, tears, and blood of those births. The very beds of those conceptions became sacred spaces awash with love and joy and gratitude. She persevered, and her experiences became profoundly empowering as she unearthed the foundation and cornerstone of true midwifery–how to use her heart as well as her hands to serve, and to serve in the simplest of womanly ways---stroking, smoothing, wiping, tidying, nourishing, comforting, hearing, encouraging, validating, and witnessing. Slowly, steadily, Kim learned to play her part as midwife to the Amish–her part in a symphony of inimitable women–a single, piping strain among the melodies of those skilled, focused, strong, and harmonious–women unflagging in their passion to welcome new lives earth-side effectively and gently. And at last, tried and tested, Kim took her rightful place among them.

Read more less

Book SynopsisBorn into a traditional culture in 1833, Emanuel Suter cultivated the art of pottery and expanded markets across the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, creating a thriving company and leaving thousands of examples of utilitarian ceramic ware that have survived down to the present. Drawing on Suter's diary-rich with meticulous descriptions of his ceramic wares, along with glazing recipes and the quotidian details of nineteenth-century business-as well as myriad other primary and secondary sources, Suter's great-great-grandson Scott Hamilton Suter tells the story of how a farmer with a seasonal sideline developed into a technologically advanced entrepreneur who operated a modern industrial company. As a farmer, Emanuel Suter innovated by adopting new time-saving equipment; this progressive thinking bled over into his religious life, as he endeavored to change the traditional way of choosing ministers by lot and advocated for the formation of Sunday schools in the Mennonite Church. But Suter largely made his mark as a potter, and A Potter's Progress is enhanced by nearly two dozen color images and a close study of the techniques (including kilns and jigger wheels), products, shop organization, marketing, and labor of Suter's shops, revealing the revolutionary role they played in the world of Rockingham County, Virginia, pottery manufacture. This tightly focused case study of the trials and triumphs of one craftsman as he moved from a cottage industry to a full-scale industrial enterprise-prefiguring the market economy that would characterize the twentieth century-serves as a microcosm for examining the American spirit of progress in late nineteenth-century America.Trade ReviewThis is a well-researched, engaging, and easily accessible case study that will be a welcome addition to the scholarship to Progressive Era history, material culture studies, Mennonite history, and Shenandoah Valley regional history." - Mark Metzler Swain, author of Raising Kane: Dr. Kane and the Culture of Fame in Anetbellum America

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisMore than three hundred Latter-day Saint settlements were founded by LDS Church President Brigham Young. Colonization—often outside of Utah—continued under the next three LDS Church presidents, fueled by Utah's overpopulation relative to its arable, productive land. In this book, John Gary Maxwell takes a detailed look at the Bighorn Basin colonization of 1900–1901, placing it in the political and socioeconomic climate of the time while examining whether the move to this out-of-the-way frontier was motivated in part by the desire to practice polygamy unnoticed.The LDS Church officially abandoned polygamy in 1890, but evidence that the practice was still tolerated (if not officially sanctioned) by the church circulated widely, resulting in intense investigations by the U.S. Senate. In 1896 Abraham Owen Woodruff, a rising star in LDS leadership and an ardent believer in polygamy, was appointed to head the LDS Colonization Company. Maxwell explores whether under Woodruff's leadership the Bighorn Basin colony was intended as a means to insure the secret survival of polygamy and if his untimely death in 1904, together with the excommunication of two equally dedicated proponents of polygamy—Apostles John Whitaker Taylor and Matthias Foss Cowley—led to its collapse.Maxwell also details how Mormon settlers in Wyoming struggled with finance, irrigation, and farming and how they brought the same violence to indigenous peoples over land and other rights as did non-Mormons.The 1900 Bighorn Basin colonization provides an early twentieth-century example of a Mormon syndicate operating at the intersection of religious conformity, polygamy, nepotism, kinship, corporate business ventures, wealth, and high priesthood status. Maxwell offers evidence that although in many ways the Bighorn Basin colonization failed, Owen Woodruff's prophecy remains unbroken: "No year will ever pass, from now until the coming of the Savior, when children will not be born in plural marriage.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNobody knows what to do about queer Mormons. The institutional Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prefers to pretend they don’t exist, that they can choose their way out of who they are, leave, or at least stay quiet in a community that has no place for them. Even queer Mormons don’t know what to do about queer Mormons. Their lived experience is shrouded by a doctrine in which heteronormative marriage is non-negotiable and gender is unchangeable. For women, trans Mormons, and Mormons of other marginalized genders, this invisibility is compounded by social norms which elevate (implicitly white) cisgender male voices above those of everyone else. This collection of essays gives voice to queer Mormons. The authors who share their stories—many speaking for the first time from the closet—do so here in simple narrative prose. They talk about their identities, their experiences, their relationships, their heartbreaks, their beliefs, and the challenges they face. Some stay in the church, some do not, some are in constant battles with themselves and the people around them as they make agonizing decisions about love and faith and community. Their stories bravely convey what it means to be queer, Mormon, and marginalized—what it means to have no voice and yet to speak anyway.

Read more less