Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy

ISBN-13: 9780199348145 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 384 str.

Miranda Wilcox; John D. Young

Opis

Winner of the Best Anthology Award from John Whitmer Historical Association

Latter-day Saints have a paradoxical relationship to the past; even as they invest their own history with sacred meaning, celebrating the restoration of ancient truths and the fulfillment of biblical prophecies, they repudiate the eighteen centuries of Christianity that preceded the founding of their church as apostate distortions of the truth. Since the early days of Mormonism, Latter-day Saints have used the paradigm of apostasy and restoration in their narratives about the origin of their church. This has generated a powerful and enduring binary of categorization that has profoundly impacted Mormon self-perception and relations with others. Standing Apart explores how the idea of apostasy has functioned as a category to mark, define, and set apart "the other" in Mormon historical consciousness and in the construction of Mormon narrative identity. The volume's fifteen contributors trace the development of LDS narratives of apostasy within the context of both Mormon history and American Protestant historiography. They suggest ways in which these narratives might be reformulated to engage with the past, as well as offering new models for interfaith relations. This volume provides a novel approach for understanding and resolving some of the challenges faced by the LDS church in the twenty-first century.

Recenzje

No religion has more consistently defined itself against a religious other than the Latter-day Saints. Now Mormon intellectuals are asking what a Great Apostasy from early Christianity means in light of current historical scholarship and growing Mormon respect for other religions. This is one of the most significant books on Mormon thought in this generation and relevant to all religions who define themselves against a religious other.

O autorze

Miranda Wilcox is Assistant Professor of English at Brigham Young University where she teaches medieval literature. John D. Young is Assistant Professor of History at Flagler College where he teaches medieval history.