| Description |
229 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
On familiarity and contempt -- Religious liberty as an American problem -- "Impostor" : the Mormon prophet. Authenticity and disestablishment ; Interlopers in the Protestant historical pantheon ; Counterfeiters of faith and currency -- "Delusion" : early Mormon religiosity. Mormon spirituality and the threat of enthusiasm ; Religion, madness, and the search for rational faith ; Enlightened Christianity and the problem of Mormon evidence -- "Fanaticism" : the church as (un)holy city. The political burden of the Mormon gathering ; The discovery of a Mormon theology ; The politics of expulsion -- "Barbarism" : rhetorics of alienation. Empire(s) in the West ; The problem of Mormon whiteness ; Mormon women, the ungrateful objects of American pity -- "Heresy" : Americanizing the American religion. Mormonism in the crowd of world religions ; Textbook Mormons and the weight of Mormon history ; Mormonism (almost) defanged |
| Summary |
Though the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion, it does not specify what counts as a religion. From its founding in the 1830s, Mormonism, a homegrown American faith, drew thousands of converts but far more critics. In A Peculiar People, J. Spencer Fluhman offers a comprehensive history of anti-Mormon thought and the associated passionate debates about religious authenticity in nineteenth-century America. He argues that understanding anti-Mormonism provides critical insight into the American psyche because Mormonism became a potent symbol around which ideas about religion and the state took shape. - Jacket flap |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Controversial literature.
|
|
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- History.
|
|
Mormon Church -- Controversial literature.
|
|
Mormon Church -- History.
|
| SUBJECT |
United States -- Church history -- 19th century.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85139928
|
| Genre/Form |
Church history.
|
|
Controversial literature.
|
|
History.
|
| LC no. |
2012004089 |
| ISBN |
9780807835715 (cloth ; alk. paper) |
|
0807835714 (cloth ; alk. paper) |
|
9781469618852 |
|
1469618850 |
|
