Description

From back cover:

Until around the latter part of the 20th century, Mormonism has been presented in scholarly reconstructions as a religion that has not changed significantly from its beginnings, whose presently-held beliefs existed as a central core of doctrine at the church's founding in 1830.

The author argues, instead, that the development of Mormonism has been primarily due to external events, popular, cultural, philosophical, religious and scientific, and that these influences have led to the emergence of several streams of thought that are actually in opposition to the early beliefs of the church. Mormonism can be seen as a reflection of the development of American society and culture from the early 1800s to the present. The major aim of this work is to establish a proper chronology for the development of Mormon thought, specifically in its concept of the nature of God.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Irving Hexham

Introduction: Mormonism Yesterday and Today

1. Ye Mountains Roll Down Your Thunder
   Mormonism from Monotheism to Cosmic Henotheism
2. Out of the Ground a Voice Speaks
   The Book of Mormon in Its Nineteenth-Century Religious Context
3. Knowing the Only True God
   The Revelations of Moses, the Joseph Smith Translation, and the Rewriting of Genesis
4. Among the School of the Prophets in Ohio
   Teachings from the Lectures of Faith
5. In the Grand Council of the Gods
   Redacting the Writings of Abraham
6. If Any Man Lack Wisdom
   The First Vision and the Mormon Quest for Legitimization
7. And Ye Shall Be Gods
   Placing the King Follet Discourse in Its Historical Perspective
8. Adam Our Father and Our God
   Doctrinal Development During the Early Utah Period
9. Unity From Diversity
   Apostle James E. Talmage and the Birth of Mormonism