Portland Public Library

A peculiar people, anti-Mormonism and the making of religion in nineteenth-century America, J. Spencer Fluhman

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

A peculiar people

bibliography

778244920

J. Spencer Fluhman

anti-Mormonism and the making of religion in nineteenth-century America

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

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