Mormonism In Transition

This history covers a period of Mormonism's development from 1890 to 1930. Portraying the turn-of-the-century Church in a state of flux, Alexander demonstrates the process of solidification of its organizational structure, external affairs policy, and cultural institutions over the 30 years that followed. Thoroughly documenting his arguments, he answers many questions about the origins of contemporary Mormon practices.

1988 Best Book Award, Mormon History Association More than two decades after its original publication, Thomas G. Alexander’s Mormonism in Transition still engages audiences with its insightful study of the pivotal, early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Serving as a vital read for both students and scholars of American religious and social history, Alexander’s book explains and charts the Church’s transformation over this 40-year period of both religious and American history. For those familiar with the LDS Church in modern times, it is impossible to study Mormonism in Transition without pondering the enormous amount of changes the Church has been through since 1890. For those new to the study of Mormonism, this book will give them a clear understanding the challenges the Church went through to go from a persecuted and scorned society to the rapidly growing, respected community it is today. From the Second Edition Foreword by Stephen J. Stein: “Thomas Alexander confronts the reality of change and does not try to disguise it or hide it in the shadow of earlier traditions. Rather, he acknowledges that Mormonism in 1930 was radically different from what it was in 1890 or at the time of its origins. He catalogues change without apology. In fact, Alexander celebrates change as the basis for the continuing success the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints enjoys.”

This 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.

Based on interviews with former Mormons and with those in various stages of disenchantment or doubt, this second edition of Mormons in Transition will help:

What do you do when your religious beliefs differ from your spouse, parent, child, sibling, or friend? For many Mormons, these differences can be heartbreaking. This book explores how truth, beauty, and goodness can save our relationships even when we disagree with those we love. This book is for: 1) Mormons who want to better understand a family member or friend who doubts 2) Unorthodox or former Mormons who are looking for ways to talk about their transition with believing family members and friends 3) People who are experiencing a Mormon faith crisis and wondering where to turn Excerpts from this book can be found at jonogden.com

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, college-age Latter-day Saints began undertaking a remarkable intellectual pilgrimage to the nation's elite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Chicago, and Stanford. Thomas W. Simpson chronicles the academic migration of hundreds of LDS students from the 1860s through the late 1930s, when church authority J. Reuben Clark Jr., himself a product of the Columbia University Law School, gave a reactionary speech about young Mormons' search for intellectual cultivation. Clark's leadership helped to set conservative parameters that in large part came to characterize Mormon intellectual life. At the outset, Mormon women and men were purposefully dispatched to such universities to "gather the world's knowledge to Zion." Simpson, drawing on unpublished diaries, among other materials, shows how LDS students commonly described American universities as egalitarian spaces that fostered a personally transformative sense of freedom to explore provisional reconciliations of Mormon and American identities and religious and scientific perspectives. On campus, Simpson argues, Mormon separatism died and a new, modern Mormonism was born: a Mormonism at home in the United States but at odds with itself. Fierce battles among Mormon scholars and church leaders ensued over scientific thought, progressivism, and the historicity of Mormonism's sacred past. The scars and controversy, Simpson concludes, linger.