Author: W. Cleon Skousen
Publisher: Verity Publishing
ISBN: 0934364494
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 592
Book Description
This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Two covers Enos 1 to Alma 29. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the original printed format.
Treasures from the Book of Mormon, Volume Two
Author: W. Cleon Skousen
Publisher: Verity Publishing
ISBN: 0934364494
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 592
Book Description
This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Two covers Enos 1 to Alma 29. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the original printed format.
Publisher: Verity Publishing
ISBN: 0934364494
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 592
Book Description
This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Two covers Enos 1 to Alma 29. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the original printed format.
Treasures from the Book of Mormon, Volume One
Author: W. Cleon Skousen
Publisher: Verity Publishing
ISBN: 0934364486
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 699
Book Description
This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume One covers 1 Nephi 1 to Jacob 7. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the printed format.
Publisher: Verity Publishing
ISBN: 0934364486
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 699
Book Description
This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume One covers 1 Nephi 1 to Jacob 7. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the printed format.
Both Swords and Ploughshares
Author: Ineke Bockting
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443884782
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
This collection of essays examines interactions of war, peace and religion in the United States, a country where religious faith was, and still is, often deeply felt and widely held, where faith has provided a set of values to uphold with fervor or to transgress in protest, and where religion has been used to legitimize both armed violence and passive resistance. These essays analyze the mythos of America as a place of religious freedom, yet one imbued with a socially-imposed civil religion and underpinned by a heavy presumption of Protestant dominance. With subjects ranging from the War of Independence to the early 21st century, the contributions to this volume focus on a variety of historical and chronological circumstances in order to consider what concrete, tangible outcomes, what artifacts, were produced by the interface of war, peace and religion – the swords and ploughshares of the title. This volume thus presents a variety of often multifaceted responses that reflect its interdisciplinary scope. Some contributions refer to fine art pieces, including statues, paintings, and murals, and others to works of literature, theology, or public speaking. Some of these interfaces were performed on stage or in film, while yet others were heard on the radio or read in newspapers or journals. Some of the essays gathered here concern individuals working through the meaning of armed conflict in terms of their own, personal faith, while others examine the impact of such conflicts on a larger scale, as with whole faith communities or in the shaping of national or foreign policy. The first part, Communities, looks at interfaces that served to structure a whole community. The second, Margins, examines instances where the relationship between religion and war and peace has occupied a more marginal space within a faith community. The final section turns this interface Outward, situating it away from American soil or noting how foreign war shaped the spirituality of those returning.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443884782
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
This collection of essays examines interactions of war, peace and religion in the United States, a country where religious faith was, and still is, often deeply felt and widely held, where faith has provided a set of values to uphold with fervor or to transgress in protest, and where religion has been used to legitimize both armed violence and passive resistance. These essays analyze the mythos of America as a place of religious freedom, yet one imbued with a socially-imposed civil religion and underpinned by a heavy presumption of Protestant dominance. With subjects ranging from the War of Independence to the early 21st century, the contributions to this volume focus on a variety of historical and chronological circumstances in order to consider what concrete, tangible outcomes, what artifacts, were produced by the interface of war, peace and religion – the swords and ploughshares of the title. This volume thus presents a variety of often multifaceted responses that reflect its interdisciplinary scope. Some contributions refer to fine art pieces, including statues, paintings, and murals, and others to works of literature, theology, or public speaking. Some of these interfaces were performed on stage or in film, while yet others were heard on the radio or read in newspapers or journals. Some of the essays gathered here concern individuals working through the meaning of armed conflict in terms of their own, personal faith, while others examine the impact of such conflicts on a larger scale, as with whole faith communities or in the shaping of national or foreign policy. The first part, Communities, looks at interfaces that served to structure a whole community. The second, Margins, examines instances where the relationship between religion and war and peace has occupied a more marginal space within a faith community. The final section turns this interface Outward, situating it away from American soil or noting how foreign war shaped the spirituality of those returning.
Buried Treasures
Author: Michael Austin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781948218252
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Over the course of a year, Michael Austin--an English professor and literary critic who was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--read the Book of Mormon for the first time in more than 30 years and wrote weekly blog posts detailing his insights and challenges with the text. The 44 essays in Buried Treasures, adapted from those original posts, show a trained scholar and literary critic grappling with the foundational text of his own religious tradition and finding surprising things that he had never seen before. The essays in this volume draw a picture of the Book of Mormon that is rarely seen in the devotional writings of those who consider it a scripture or the polemical writings of those who consider it a fraud. For Austin, the Book of Mormon, whatever its origin, is a complex literary and spiritual text full of sophisticated narratives, recurring patterns, and big ideas that can sustain a high level of critical analysis. Buried Treasures shows what happens when a well-trained reader approaches this text with fresh eyes and an open mind and unearths the treasures that have been hidden in plain sight for almost 200 years. Michael Austin is the author of seven previous books, including Rereading Job, We Must Not Be Enemies, and the bestselling textbook, Reading the World: Ideas that Matter. He is currently the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Evansville in Evansville Indiana. "I discovered in the Book of Mormon a profoundly human record of people struggling with their relationship to God and to each other. It has all the messiness one would expect of a record compiled over a thousand years, with multiple narrative perspectives, biases, agendas, and blind spots-as the authors and narrators groped towards an understanding of the Kingdom of God. It is a book that can bear multiple readings from multiple perspectives without exhausting its treasures. And it is a book that Latter-day Saints should never be ashamed to place alongside the great books of the world's traditions, both religious and secular." --Michael Austin, from the Introduction
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781948218252
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Over the course of a year, Michael Austin--an English professor and literary critic who was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--read the Book of Mormon for the first time in more than 30 years and wrote weekly blog posts detailing his insights and challenges with the text. The 44 essays in Buried Treasures, adapted from those original posts, show a trained scholar and literary critic grappling with the foundational text of his own religious tradition and finding surprising things that he had never seen before. The essays in this volume draw a picture of the Book of Mormon that is rarely seen in the devotional writings of those who consider it a scripture or the polemical writings of those who consider it a fraud. For Austin, the Book of Mormon, whatever its origin, is a complex literary and spiritual text full of sophisticated narratives, recurring patterns, and big ideas that can sustain a high level of critical analysis. Buried Treasures shows what happens when a well-trained reader approaches this text with fresh eyes and an open mind and unearths the treasures that have been hidden in plain sight for almost 200 years. Michael Austin is the author of seven previous books, including Rereading Job, We Must Not Be Enemies, and the bestselling textbook, Reading the World: Ideas that Matter. He is currently the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Evansville in Evansville Indiana. "I discovered in the Book of Mormon a profoundly human record of people struggling with their relationship to God and to each other. It has all the messiness one would expect of a record compiled over a thousand years, with multiple narrative perspectives, biases, agendas, and blind spots-as the authors and narrators groped towards an understanding of the Kingdom of God. It is a book that can bear multiple readings from multiple perspectives without exhausting its treasures. And it is a book that Latter-day Saints should never be ashamed to place alongside the great books of the world's traditions, both religious and secular." --Michael Austin, from the Introduction
VOLUME II THE CREATION OF MORMONISM: JOSEPH SMITH JR. IN THE 1820S
Author: JOHN J HAMMOND
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462878520
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 411
Book Description
This is Volume II of an epic, multi-volume work entitled The Quest for the New Jerusalem: A Mormon Generational Saga, which combines family, Mormon, and American history, focusing upon how the author’s ancestors were affected by their conversion to the Mormon religion. In Volume I, four of the author’s ancestral families—the Carters, Hammonds, Knowltons, and Spencer’s—and the ancestors of Mormon Church founders Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, are followed from the time they enter the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in the 1600s down to the early 1800s. Their private lives are described, as well as how they are affected by such events and situations as King Philip’s War, the Salem Witch Trials, the institution of black slavery, the French and Indian War, and the American Revolution. Toward the end of Volume I, the focus is upon Joseph Smith and his family, including their move from Vermont to western New York, their religious and “magic world views,” the latter involving astrology, ritual magic, and treasure-seer and treasure-digging activities. Volume II takes up the narrative at about the year 1820, and involves a detailed, comprehensive, and critical look at the events in the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., during the decade in which he purportedly was visited by numerous heavenly messengers, received the “golden plates,” translated the writing on the plates to produce the Book of Mormon, received priesthood authority from other heavenly messengers, published the Book of Mormon, and organized the Mormon/LDS Church. Making use of the most recent historical research, the author tackles the controversial issues surrounding the First Vision (the supposed appearance to Joseph Jr. of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in 1820), the Second Vision (1823 to 1827) which produced the Book of Mormon, and the Third Vision (late 1820s or early 1830s) which involved the “restoration” of priesthood authority. The author looks at original sources/documents and also compares the perspectives of major loyal Mormon, non-Mormon, and ex-Mormon scholars on these controversial questions. There is a discussion of the serious lack of congruence between how Joseph Smith, Jr., described these events “officially” after 1837, and what was being said by the Smith family, their neighbors, early Mormon converts, and by newspaper accounts during the 1820s and early 1830s. There is, for example, no mention of a First Vision for at least twelve years after it supposedly occurred, and there are several conflicting versions of it by Joseph Jr. in the 1830s, once he started talking about it. Primary focus, however, is upon what the author collectively calls the Second Vision, which purportedly involved multiple visitations by an angel/spirit between 1823 and 1827. It was from this heavenly messenger that Joseph Jr. obtained “golden plates,” and the Book of Mormon was, he maintained, a “translation” by him of the ancient American writings on these plates. There is a thorough examination of the complex and contentious issues surrounding the origin of the Book of Mormon, and several chapters look closely at the evidence regarding its “authenticity”—the question whether it was written by Joseph Jr. or by ancient American prophets/scribes. The author also thoroughly discusses the “testimony” in the Book of Mormon of the Three Witnesses and Eight Witnesses, and offers an alternative narrative regarding what really transpired with Joseph Jr. during the 1820s. Later in Volume II several chapters look at how Mormon Church organization went through a significant evolution during its earliest years, moving against the American democratic grain toward an increasingly centralized, authoritarian structure. There is a detailed look at Joseph Jr.’s claims regarding a “restoration” of priesthood authority during the late 1820s and early 1830s, and the considerable controver
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462878520
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 411
Book Description
This is Volume II of an epic, multi-volume work entitled The Quest for the New Jerusalem: A Mormon Generational Saga, which combines family, Mormon, and American history, focusing upon how the author’s ancestors were affected by their conversion to the Mormon religion. In Volume I, four of the author’s ancestral families—the Carters, Hammonds, Knowltons, and Spencer’s—and the ancestors of Mormon Church founders Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, are followed from the time they enter the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in the 1600s down to the early 1800s. Their private lives are described, as well as how they are affected by such events and situations as King Philip’s War, the Salem Witch Trials, the institution of black slavery, the French and Indian War, and the American Revolution. Toward the end of Volume I, the focus is upon Joseph Smith and his family, including their move from Vermont to western New York, their religious and “magic world views,” the latter involving astrology, ritual magic, and treasure-seer and treasure-digging activities. Volume II takes up the narrative at about the year 1820, and involves a detailed, comprehensive, and critical look at the events in the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., during the decade in which he purportedly was visited by numerous heavenly messengers, received the “golden plates,” translated the writing on the plates to produce the Book of Mormon, received priesthood authority from other heavenly messengers, published the Book of Mormon, and organized the Mormon/LDS Church. Making use of the most recent historical research, the author tackles the controversial issues surrounding the First Vision (the supposed appearance to Joseph Jr. of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in 1820), the Second Vision (1823 to 1827) which produced the Book of Mormon, and the Third Vision (late 1820s or early 1830s) which involved the “restoration” of priesthood authority. The author looks at original sources/documents and also compares the perspectives of major loyal Mormon, non-Mormon, and ex-Mormon scholars on these controversial questions. There is a discussion of the serious lack of congruence between how Joseph Smith, Jr., described these events “officially” after 1837, and what was being said by the Smith family, their neighbors, early Mormon converts, and by newspaper accounts during the 1820s and early 1830s. There is, for example, no mention of a First Vision for at least twelve years after it supposedly occurred, and there are several conflicting versions of it by Joseph Jr. in the 1830s, once he started talking about it. Primary focus, however, is upon what the author collectively calls the Second Vision, which purportedly involved multiple visitations by an angel/spirit between 1823 and 1827. It was from this heavenly messenger that Joseph Jr. obtained “golden plates,” and the Book of Mormon was, he maintained, a “translation” by him of the ancient American writings on these plates. There is a thorough examination of the complex and contentious issues surrounding the origin of the Book of Mormon, and several chapters look closely at the evidence regarding its “authenticity”—the question whether it was written by Joseph Jr. or by ancient American prophets/scribes. The author also thoroughly discusses the “testimony” in the Book of Mormon of the Three Witnesses and Eight Witnesses, and offers an alternative narrative regarding what really transpired with Joseph Jr. during the 1820s. Later in Volume II several chapters look at how Mormon Church organization went through a significant evolution during its earliest years, moving against the American democratic grain toward an increasingly centralized, authoritarian structure. There is a detailed look at Joseph Jr.’s claims regarding a “restoration” of priesthood authority during the late 1820s and early 1830s, and the considerable controver
Joseph Smith
Author: Dan Vogel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 760
Book Description
A psychological biography of Joseph Smith presents a comprehensive account of his life, set against a backdrop of theology, local and national politics, Smith family dynamics, organizational issues, and interpersonal relations.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 760
Book Description
A psychological biography of Joseph Smith presents a comprehensive account of his life, set against a backdrop of theology, local and national politics, Smith family dynamics, organizational issues, and interpersonal relations.
Teaching the Book of Mormon, Part 2
Author: John S. Bushman
Publisher: Cedar Fort Publishing & Media
ISBN: 1462105378
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 683
Book Description
Teaching the Book of Mormon is full of powerful teaching ideas to change lives. Helpful components include creative object lessons, group activities, discussion questions and more to build an influential atmosphere of learning and interaction. With this all-inclusive resource, you will engage your children, your seminary students, or your Sunday School class in powerful learning.
Publisher: Cedar Fort Publishing & Media
ISBN: 1462105378
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 683
Book Description
Teaching the Book of Mormon is full of powerful teaching ideas to change lives. Helpful components include creative object lessons, group activities, discussion questions and more to build an influential atmosphere of learning and interaction. With this all-inclusive resource, you will engage your children, your seminary students, or your Sunday School class in powerful learning.
Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon
Author: Brant A. Gardner
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 630
Book Description
Stop looking for the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica and start looking for Mesoamerica in the Book of Mormon! Second Witness, a new six-volume series from Greg Kofford Books, takes a detailed, verse-by-verse look at the Book of Mormon. It marshals the best of modern scholarship and new insights into a consistent picture of the Book of Mormon as a historical document. Taking a faithful but scholarly approach to the text and reading it through the insights of linguistics, anthropology, and ethnohistory, the commentary approaches the text from a variety of perspectives: how it was created, how it relates to history and culture, and what religious insights it provides. The commentary accepts the best modern scholarship, which focuses on a particular region of Mesoamerica as the most plausible location for the Book of Mormon’s setting. For the first time, that location—its peoples, cultures, and historical trends—are used as the backdrop for reading the text. The historical background is not presented as proof, but rather as an explanatory context. The commentary does not forget Mormon’s purpose in writing. It discusses the doctrinal and theological aspects of the text and highlights the way in which Mormon created it to meet his goal of “convincing . . . the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.”
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 630
Book Description
Stop looking for the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica and start looking for Mesoamerica in the Book of Mormon! Second Witness, a new six-volume series from Greg Kofford Books, takes a detailed, verse-by-verse look at the Book of Mormon. It marshals the best of modern scholarship and new insights into a consistent picture of the Book of Mormon as a historical document. Taking a faithful but scholarly approach to the text and reading it through the insights of linguistics, anthropology, and ethnohistory, the commentary approaches the text from a variety of perspectives: how it was created, how it relates to history and culture, and what religious insights it provides. The commentary accepts the best modern scholarship, which focuses on a particular region of Mesoamerica as the most plausible location for the Book of Mormon’s setting. For the first time, that location—its peoples, cultures, and historical trends—are used as the backdrop for reading the text. The historical background is not presented as proof, but rather as an explanatory context. The commentary does not forget Mormon’s purpose in writing. It discusses the doctrinal and theological aspects of the text and highlights the way in which Mormon created it to meet his goal of “convincing . . . the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.”
The Mormon Delusion. Volume 2. the Secret Truth Withheld from 13 Million Mormons.
Author: Jim Whitefield
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1409280721
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Book Description
An exposé of Joseph Smith's fraud which spawned the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). Conclusive evidence that every aspect of Smith's Church was a hoax and that the modern Mormon (LDS) Church continues in a conspiracy to deceive rank and file Mormons with lies and suppression of the real historical truth. Visit http://themormondelusion.com for further information on this and other work.
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1409280721
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Book Description
An exposé of Joseph Smith's fraud which spawned the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). Conclusive evidence that every aspect of Smith's Church was a hoax and that the modern Mormon (LDS) Church continues in a conspiracy to deceive rank and file Mormons with lies and suppression of the real historical truth. Visit http://themormondelusion.com for further information on this and other work.
Volume 1 Family and Mormon Church Roots: Colonial Period to 1820
Author: JOHN J HAMMOND
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462873650
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 477
Book Description
This is the first volume of a multi-volume work entitled The Quest for the New Jerusalem: Mormon Generational Saga , and it ends with a listing of the titles of all sixteen volumes in this series which have been written to this point. Before discussing the first volume, it is necessary to describe the entire series. Around the year 2000 the author began a thorough investigation of his genealogical roots, and to his surprise discovered that many of his ancestors had played significant roles in the early history of America and central roles in the history of Mormonism. Wherever he looked, his ancestors were there: during the colonial King Phillip’s and French and Indian Wars in New England; at the Battle of Bunker (actually Breed’s) Hill and on a prison ship for two years on the Hudson River during the American Revolution; on whaling ships in the south Atlantic and northern Pacific during the 1840s; at Mormon Kirtland, Far West and Nauvoo during the turbulent and often bloody events of the 1830s and 1840s; in the earliest Mormon experiments with polygamy (almost all of the author’s ancestors were polygamists); in San Francisco and Sacramento during the earliest stages of the California Gold Rush; in the immigrant ships filled with Mormon converts crossing the Atlantic; in the wagon trains carrying the “saints” across the plains to Salt Lake City; during the establishment of the Mormon Church in Hawaii in the early 1850s; in the first haltering steps toward elementary and higher education in Utah; during the “Mormon War” with the U.S. army in Utah in 1857-58; in the operation of the early Salt Lake Theater; in the building of the transcontinental railroad across Utah in 1869; in the settlement of the wild “four corners area” during the 1880s and 1890s; in the rather secret and somewhat underhanded process by which Utah became a state; and in the pioneer settlement of southern Idaho in the early 1900s. The author felt impelled to tell these wonderful ancestral stories, and it became obvious that this could not be done without giving an account of the history of the Mormon Church—the two subjects were intimately interwoven. Furthermore, telling the linked ancestral/Mormon story, beginning in the American colonial period, could not be adequately undertaken without giving an account of significant events in the larger American story. In recent years a number of writers have given us fascinating, generational family stories; Alex Haley’s Roots is a well known example. Haley traced his African-American family all the way back to a slave taken from a village in Africa. In 1991 Chinese-American Jung Chang’s, in her Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, told a wonderful story of three generations of Chinese women--her great grandmother, grandmother, and mother--reaching back to China. Adele Logan Alexander’s Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family is an account of several generations of the author’s African-American family. Concerning another example--James Fox’s The Langhornes of Virginia --reviewer Robert Skidelsky wrote: “It was a clever idea to use family history to write about social and political history.” What Fox does is to use “the Langhorne sisters as a peg on which to hang the story of the decline of the British aristocracy, or Empire, or both.” John Hammond’s multi-volume Mormon Generational Saga evolved into something very similar to Fox’s, but he utilizes family history to write about religious as well as social and political history. In fact, what has emerged is a very detailed examination of the early history of the Mormon Church, with a special focus upon how that history affected his ancestors. The series opens in the earliest years of colonial New England with an account of four of the author’s ancestral families and the early lives and ancesto
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462873650
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 477
Book Description
This is the first volume of a multi-volume work entitled The Quest for the New Jerusalem: Mormon Generational Saga , and it ends with a listing of the titles of all sixteen volumes in this series which have been written to this point. Before discussing the first volume, it is necessary to describe the entire series. Around the year 2000 the author began a thorough investigation of his genealogical roots, and to his surprise discovered that many of his ancestors had played significant roles in the early history of America and central roles in the history of Mormonism. Wherever he looked, his ancestors were there: during the colonial King Phillip’s and French and Indian Wars in New England; at the Battle of Bunker (actually Breed’s) Hill and on a prison ship for two years on the Hudson River during the American Revolution; on whaling ships in the south Atlantic and northern Pacific during the 1840s; at Mormon Kirtland, Far West and Nauvoo during the turbulent and often bloody events of the 1830s and 1840s; in the earliest Mormon experiments with polygamy (almost all of the author’s ancestors were polygamists); in San Francisco and Sacramento during the earliest stages of the California Gold Rush; in the immigrant ships filled with Mormon converts crossing the Atlantic; in the wagon trains carrying the “saints” across the plains to Salt Lake City; during the establishment of the Mormon Church in Hawaii in the early 1850s; in the first haltering steps toward elementary and higher education in Utah; during the “Mormon War” with the U.S. army in Utah in 1857-58; in the operation of the early Salt Lake Theater; in the building of the transcontinental railroad across Utah in 1869; in the settlement of the wild “four corners area” during the 1880s and 1890s; in the rather secret and somewhat underhanded process by which Utah became a state; and in the pioneer settlement of southern Idaho in the early 1900s. The author felt impelled to tell these wonderful ancestral stories, and it became obvious that this could not be done without giving an account of the history of the Mormon Church—the two subjects were intimately interwoven. Furthermore, telling the linked ancestral/Mormon story, beginning in the American colonial period, could not be adequately undertaken without giving an account of significant events in the larger American story. In recent years a number of writers have given us fascinating, generational family stories; Alex Haley’s Roots is a well known example. Haley traced his African-American family all the way back to a slave taken from a village in Africa. In 1991 Chinese-American Jung Chang’s, in her Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, told a wonderful story of three generations of Chinese women--her great grandmother, grandmother, and mother--reaching back to China. Adele Logan Alexander’s Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family is an account of several generations of the author’s African-American family. Concerning another example--James Fox’s The Langhornes of Virginia --reviewer Robert Skidelsky wrote: “It was a clever idea to use family history to write about social and political history.” What Fox does is to use “the Langhorne sisters as a peg on which to hang the story of the decline of the British aristocracy, or Empire, or both.” John Hammond’s multi-volume Mormon Generational Saga evolved into something very similar to Fox’s, but he utilizes family history to write about religious as well as social and political history. In fact, what has emerged is a very detailed examination of the early history of the Mormon Church, with a special focus upon how that history affected his ancestors. The series opens in the earliest years of colonial New England with an account of four of the author’s ancestral families and the early lives and ancesto