In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
Samuel Morris Brown
Abstract
This book of cultural history reinterprets earliest Mormonism by viewing it through the lens of founder Joseph Smith Jr.'s complex, intimate, and conflicted relationship with death and dying. When approached from this perspective, many of the unusual or striking aspects of earliest Mormonism make sense, allowing outsiders and insiders a refreshing new look at a much-discussed but poorly understood religious tradition. While contextualizing Mormonism within a broad protest against American Protestantism and long-standing folk responses to life's difficult questions, the book also demonstrates t ... More
This book of cultural history reinterprets earliest Mormonism by viewing it through the lens of founder Joseph Smith Jr.'s complex, intimate, and conflicted relationship with death and dying. When approached from this perspective, many of the unusual or striking aspects of earliest Mormonism make sense, allowing outsiders and insiders a refreshing new look at a much-discussed but poorly understood religious tradition. While contextualizing Mormonism within a broad protest against American Protestantism and long-standing folk responses to life's difficult questions, the book also demonstrates the coherence and scope of the early Mormon worldview. The book also provides insight into the ongoing problem of the tragedy of early mortality through the eloquent and complex response to death that early Mormonism provided. Through this detailed and contextualized case study of one remarkable new religious tradition, the book extends the fields of American religious history, lived religion, and Mormon studies.
Keywords:
death and dying,
Mormonism,
Mormon studies,
cultural history,
lived religion,
American religious history,
Joseph Smith Jr.,
new religious movements
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199793570 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793570.001.0001 |