Mormon America - Revised and Updated Edition: The Power and the Promise
by Richard Ostling, Joan K. Ostling
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joan K. Ostling, Richard OstlingEdition: Paperback
Published: 2007-10-01
ISBN: 0061432954
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: HarperOne
Book Reviews of Mormon America - Revised and Updated Edition: The Power and the Promise
Book Review: Good Introduction to the Mormon Church.
Summary: 5 Stars
Richard and Joan Ostling's _Mormon America: The Power and the Promise_ features a rather sensational cover blurb, "The True Story Behind Their Beliefs, Rituals, Business Practices, and Well Guarded Secrets." But the book itself maintains an objective, balanced viewpoint of its subject. _Mormon America_ by no means tries to portray Mormonism as a valid, revealed truth. The book also does not condemn everything Mormons believe and everything Mormons do. So basically, this is a good resource for actually learning about the Mormon religion and how they figure into America's vast religious landscape.
The book gives some history of the early Mormon Church, but refrains from extensive detail about Joseph Smith or Brigham Young's leadership of the early LDS, but it provides a good introduction nevertheless. Essentially everything that distinguishes Mormonism from other churches is covered and is given a chapter of its own. These include tithing and massive business and real estate incomes as a source of funding for the LDS church, missionary efforts, temple rituals, plural marriage (discontinued by church President Kimball's 1890 Manifesto), the former prohibition against anybody of African descent from entering the Mormon priesthood (based on the premise that Africans are blood descendents of Cain), extensive historical archives and genealogy records, and storing food and supplies in case of some kind of natural disaster.
Some particularly interesting chapters in _Mormon America_ discuss some idiosyncratic aspects of Mormon theology and doctrine vis a vis Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christianity. Some aspects of Mormon theology differ fundamentally from Christian theology. These include temple proxy-Baptisms for the dead so that souls of deceased persons from the past couple thousand years can have the option of embracing Joseph Smith's teachings in the afterlife, God as a perfected man with "flesh and bones," God has a wife in heaven whereby he produces spiritual offspring, "celestial marriage" whereby devout Mormons married in a temple ceremony can be married through eternity begetting their own offspring. Mormons consider themselves to be the only true Christian church, while other Churches are uncertain as to whether or not Mormons can be considered Christians. The LDS has fundamentally different views of God and the Bible, in addition to newer "revelations" such as the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, which are not accepted by any other Christian group.
The book spends some time discussing polygamy, which was practiced from Joseph Smith's time as leader of the Church through 1890 when it was prohibited. There very little attention paid to polygamist offshoots of the mainline LDS church that still exist today.
Overall, _Mormon America_ is a great book if one wants to understand Mormonism and its history. Probably the most interesting chapter was on the sects of Mormonism that began while Joseph Smith was still alive, and continued among his followers after his death. Some of Smith's relatives and early associates went on to get involved in Mormon offshoot churches that broke away from the mainstream LDS Church headed by Brigham Young, such as the RLDS or Community of Christ and the Temple Lot Church. I was very surprised to learn that Joseph Smith's early LDS Church spawned more branches than any other church or religious movement originating on American soil.
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