Since 1948, when Fawn Brodie’s No Man Knows My History made Joseph Smith’s story the central element in academic accounts of Mormon beginnings, both LDS and non-Mormon authors have described LDS beginnings as a new religious movement (NRM) with a charismatic leader. In this address, Jan Shipps will return to the Kirtland part of the …
Speaker: Jan Shipps
SL10091: The Fate of New Religious Movements when They Are No Longer New
During the past several decades, sociologists and scholars in Religious Studies have created an additional category, “new religious movements,” to use in the study of religion. This category is proving extremely useful not only in the consideration of new movements in modern times but also in examining the coming into being of such world traditions …
SL10091: The Fate of New Religious Movements when They Are No Longer New
During the past several decades, sociologists and scholars in Religious Studies have created an additional category, “new religious movements,” to use in the study of religion. This category is proving extremely useful not only in the consideration of new movements in modern times but also in examining the coming into being of such world traditions …
SL09271 Panel: Religious Tribalism in the Larger Society
From the perspective of the religious traditions in which they were raised, panelists will discuss various dimensions of the question of religious tribalism as it has existed and as it has interacted with the larger society (however each panelist may choose to define each). Discussion among panelists will be followed by Q&A with the audience. …
Tracking The Sincere Believer: ‘Authentic’ Religion And The Enduring Legacy Of Joseph Smith, Jr.
Who was the real Joseph Smith, Jr.? Over the past two centuries, he has been portrayed as a great spiritual leader, a prophet, a religious charlatan, and a deeply unstable person. Was he a divine conduit or a mountebank? A caring leader or crafty seducer? Biographers and believers continuously have sought the “real” man beneath …
Not Just A Question Of Numbers: Defining Mormonism Yesterday And Today
In her 1985 book, Mormonism, Jan Shipps describes the movement founded by Joseph Smith as a “new religious tradition.” Since then, some have confused her ideas with Rodney Stark’s claim that Mormonism is a “new world religion” and most recently with Douglas Davies’s claim at the Library of Congress symposium on Joseph Smith that Mormonism …
EXCAVATING MORMON PASTS
In a just-published volume entitled Excavating Mormon Pasts: The New Historiography of the Last Half Century, a variety of writers from both the LDS and Community of Christ traditions explore five decades of reconceptualized, revisionist, and resistant Mormon histories. The volume includes essays by such noteworthy writers as Klaus J. Hansen, Roger D. Launius, Glen …
PROPHETS AND PROPHECY IN THE MORMON TRADITION
A work in progress, an exploration of the place of prophets and the function of prophecy in Mormonism, this paper will point both to differences across time—in early versus recent years—and to variations in the role of prophets and the function of prophecy in alternative forms of Mormonism. Jan Shipps, Ron Romig, J. Bonner Ritchie
How Big Is the Mormon Tent? Toward a New Understanding of What It Means To Be “Mormon” How Big Is the Mormon Tent? Toward a New Understanding of What It Means To Be “Mormon”
How Big Is the Mormon Tent? Toward a New Understanding of What It Means To Be “Mormon” How Big Is the Mormon Tent? Toward a New Understanding of What It Means To Be “Mormon” What is in a name? . . .Apparently a lot! As recent interviews and official announcements have indicated, as the Church …
The Continuing Establishment Pattern in Salt Lake City
The Continuing Establishment Pattern in Salt Lake City When the Emperor Constantine made the Catholic Church the official religion of the Roman Empire, he formulated a pattern that held constant throughout western Christendom for nearly 1500 years. Even though the First Amendment to the Constitution legally uncoupled the church and the civil government in the …