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All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage
All Abraham’s Children is Armand L. Mauss’s long-awaited magnum opus on the evolution of traditional Mormon beliefs and practices concerning minorities. He examines how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have defined themselves and others in terms of racial lineages.
Mauss describes a complex process of the broadening of these self-defined lineages during the last part of the twentieth century as the modern Mormon church continued its world-wide expansion through massive missionary work.
Mauss contends that Mormon constructions of racial identity have not necessarily affected actual behavior negatively and that in some cases Mormons have shown greater tolerance than other groups in the American mainstream.
Employing a broad intellectual historical analysis to identify shifts in LDS behavior over time, All Abraham’s Children is an important commentary on current models of Mormon historiography.
Mauss describes a complex process of the broadening of these self-defined lineages during the last part of the twentieth century as the modern Mormon church continued its world-wide expansion through massive missionary work.
Mauss contends that Mormon constructions of racial identity have not necessarily affected actual behavior negatively and that in some cases Mormons have shown greater tolerance than other groups in the American mainstream.
Employing a broad intellectual historical analysis to identify shifts in LDS behavior over time, All Abraham’s Children is an important commentary on current models of Mormon historiography.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
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January 5, 2026
A SOCIOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SURVEY OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE LDS CHURCH
Armand Lind Mauss (1928-2020) was an American sociologist and lifelong member of the LDS Church. He taught sociology at Washington State University for three decades.
He wrote in the Preface to this 2003 book, “This book…. Analyzes the origin and nature of traditional Mormon attitudes and behavior toward Jews, Native Americans, and people of black African origin… the book employs survey data on Mormons that I and others collected, and it compares ‘racial’ attitudes of Mormons with those in certain other religious denominations for which survey data were available… The theory guiding this book is derived partly from the social psychology of ‘identity formation and attribution,’ for Mormons first had to construct an identity for themselves as a people before they could construct identities for others across the boundaries between ‘them’ and ‘us.’” (Pg. xiii)
He continues, “I found myself dealing with still a different Weberian problem: the relation between ideas and organizational change. Do organizations change under the influence of new ideas, or do ideas change in response to organizational developments and imperatives?… In this present book, I show… how an organizational imperative ---namely, the church’s worldwide missionizing commitment---was driven by its fundamental theological ideas, but I also demonstrate how those ideas, in turn, were changed by more than a century of global proselytizing encounters.” (Pg. xiv)
He states in the first chapter, “Several story lines are intertwined in this book. At the most abstract level, one story illustrates the power of religious ideas and human behavior on each other, indeed on the operational definition of reality itself… this version [of the story] shows how the followers of … Joseph Smith created a spiritual and ideological world within which they encountered and attempted to convert various peoples. In the process, these ideas and the ongoing reconsiderations of their meaning changed both the Mormons and their converts. Another story line implicates religious ideas in the creation of racial prejudice and invidious ethnic distinctions… Still a third story explores the construction and reconstruction of various peoples’ identities. Ethnic, religious, and even family identities are not created in a vacuum but are products of negotiations across time between peoples---often peoples of unequal power, sometimes mutually hostile peoples. The identities at stake here are not only that of the Mormons themselves, but also those of certain other peoples with special definitions in traditional Mormon religious teachings.” (Pg. 1)
He explains, “A distinguishing tenet of Mormonism … has been the doctrine that all of God’s sons and daughters had a conscious ‘preexistence’ as spirits in God’s presence before their mortal birth… Yet it is not clear from the record whether the prophet [Joseph Smith] himself saw the preexistence as a time for divine assignment to mortal roles only on an INDIVIDUAL basis, or if he believed that entire CATEGORIES of spirits were set apart for specified mortal LINEAGES. Clearly some of Smith’s successors, however, did come to infer from the Book of Abraham a collective foreordination to lineages and to other mortal circumstances… The doctrine that the Saints were a royal, Israelite people, chosen and foreordained in the preexistence, was developed most fully, however, by a later generation of LDS leaders, who brought the church into the 20th century… However, it was not until such doctrines about premortal divine plans had been synthesized with certain ideas about specific mortal ancestries that the Mormon framework took on a more overtly racialist cast.” (Pg. 25-26)
He states, “Certain institutional centers of the church were particularly active in disseminating these racialist ideas. One of these was the office of church historian… There can be little doubt that such thinking represented the explicit outside influence of the British-Israelist and Anglo-Saxonist movements. Certain specific ideas from those movements were clearly reflected in the discourse and teachings of LDS leaders; furthermore… these movements and their spokesmen were explicitly cited from time to time… It would be fair to say that British-Israelist and Anglo-Saxonist ideas were common and familiar elements in official and unofficial LDS literature for several decades prior to World War II.” (Pg. 29)
He notes, “the late apostle Bruce R. McConkie’s… teachings in [his] 1966 books seem especially anomalous and anachronistic in the Mormonism of the 21st century, for they perpetuate such 19th century notions as ‘believing blood’; northern Europe as the main locus of the descendants of Ephraim; a literal change in the blood of non-Israelite converts; selection to ‘chosen’ lineages through premortal merit’; and an endorsement of racial and ethnic segregation… for the spiritual protection of favored lineages… Another important change in church policy also required him to drop his long-standing prediction that blacks would not be given the priesthood during mortality… Yet McConkie never recanted any of his other racialist ideas… even during the final years of his life, McConkie continued to teach that merit earned in premortal life determined the races and lineages through which all God’s children were to be born as mortals.” (Pg. 31)
He observes, “The Nephites [in the Book of Mormon] portrayed themselves as the righteous faction… By contrast, they portrayed the Lamanites as a fallen and degraded people who had rejected God and regularly waged war against God’s people. This fallen condition was signified by a divine curse and mark on the Lamanites, according to which they became a ‘filthy,’ ‘loathsome,’ and dark-skinned people, despite sharing an identical Israelite ancestry with the Nephites (1 Nephi 12:23; Jacob 3:5-9; Alma 3:6-19).” (Pg. 49)
He points out, “The various Mormon missionary enterprises to the Indians cannot be considered very successful if measured by the sheer number of converts or their retention in the faith. The more secular accomplishments of the missionaries as church emissaries, pacifiers, and technical advisers seem to have been more extensive and more enduring.” (Pg. 68)
He explains, “there are indications that the divine promise could work both ways---that is, if unrighteousness brought a curse of darkness, then repentance and a return to righteousness might remove the curse. For example… a faction of the Lamanites is converted to the true faith and joins with the Nephites, whereupon ‘their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white’ (3 Nephi 2:15-16).” (Pg. 117)
He states, “The Mormon tradition itself, while mixed and ambiguous about the Jews in some respects, has always contained a strong philo-Judaic… element. Throughout most of Mormon history, that element seems to have suppressed both the proselyting programs and the anti-Semitism so common in the rest of Christianity, despite the well-known Mormon missionary zeal among other peoples. Only in the 20th century, and then only for brief periods, did the Mormons launch any special missionary programs among Jews, and these proved rather unproductive, especially when compared to Mormon missionary success elsewhere.” (Pg. 185)
He states, “Africans and African Americans presented an anomaly to the usual LDS eagerness for missionary outreach to the varied people of the earth, for the church itself resisted proselyting among black populations for more than a century. The anomaly has been difficult to explain, especially for recent church leaders and spokesmen. As a result, even though the troublesome church policy [banning blacks from the priesthood] has finally changed, a contradictory and confusing legacy of racist religious folklore hangs like a cloud over LDS relationships with American blacks, even for those who have joined the church.” (Pg. 212)
He reports, “Both [Joseph] Smith and [Brigham] Young, like their contemporary Abraham Lincoln, would be considered ‘racists’ by today’s norms because they all believed in the natural and inherent inferiority of Africans and their descendants… Smith seems to have attributed black social and intellectual deficits largely to environmental influences, whereas Young found such deficits mainly in the divine curse placed on the entire ‘lineage of Cain.’ Like Lincoln, Smith advocated an eventual end to slavery with a federal ‘buyout’ of slave owners and a wholesale return, or ‘recolonization,’ of the freed slaves to Africa. Young---perhaps like Thomas Jefferson---opposed slavery in principle but was willing to tolerate it (in Utah) temporarily for certain practical reasons.” (Pg. 214-215)
This is a very informative and scholarly book, that will be of great interest to anyone studying these issues.
Armand Lind Mauss (1928-2020) was an American sociologist and lifelong member of the LDS Church. He taught sociology at Washington State University for three decades.
He wrote in the Preface to this 2003 book, “This book…. Analyzes the origin and nature of traditional Mormon attitudes and behavior toward Jews, Native Americans, and people of black African origin… the book employs survey data on Mormons that I and others collected, and it compares ‘racial’ attitudes of Mormons with those in certain other religious denominations for which survey data were available… The theory guiding this book is derived partly from the social psychology of ‘identity formation and attribution,’ for Mormons first had to construct an identity for themselves as a people before they could construct identities for others across the boundaries between ‘them’ and ‘us.’” (Pg. xiii)
He continues, “I found myself dealing with still a different Weberian problem: the relation between ideas and organizational change. Do organizations change under the influence of new ideas, or do ideas change in response to organizational developments and imperatives?… In this present book, I show… how an organizational imperative ---namely, the church’s worldwide missionizing commitment---was driven by its fundamental theological ideas, but I also demonstrate how those ideas, in turn, were changed by more than a century of global proselytizing encounters.” (Pg. xiv)
He states in the first chapter, “Several story lines are intertwined in this book. At the most abstract level, one story illustrates the power of religious ideas and human behavior on each other, indeed on the operational definition of reality itself… this version [of the story] shows how the followers of … Joseph Smith created a spiritual and ideological world within which they encountered and attempted to convert various peoples. In the process, these ideas and the ongoing reconsiderations of their meaning changed both the Mormons and their converts. Another story line implicates religious ideas in the creation of racial prejudice and invidious ethnic distinctions… Still a third story explores the construction and reconstruction of various peoples’ identities. Ethnic, religious, and even family identities are not created in a vacuum but are products of negotiations across time between peoples---often peoples of unequal power, sometimes mutually hostile peoples. The identities at stake here are not only that of the Mormons themselves, but also those of certain other peoples with special definitions in traditional Mormon religious teachings.” (Pg. 1)
He explains, “A distinguishing tenet of Mormonism … has been the doctrine that all of God’s sons and daughters had a conscious ‘preexistence’ as spirits in God’s presence before their mortal birth… Yet it is not clear from the record whether the prophet [Joseph Smith] himself saw the preexistence as a time for divine assignment to mortal roles only on an INDIVIDUAL basis, or if he believed that entire CATEGORIES of spirits were set apart for specified mortal LINEAGES. Clearly some of Smith’s successors, however, did come to infer from the Book of Abraham a collective foreordination to lineages and to other mortal circumstances… The doctrine that the Saints were a royal, Israelite people, chosen and foreordained in the preexistence, was developed most fully, however, by a later generation of LDS leaders, who brought the church into the 20th century… However, it was not until such doctrines about premortal divine plans had been synthesized with certain ideas about specific mortal ancestries that the Mormon framework took on a more overtly racialist cast.” (Pg. 25-26)
He states, “Certain institutional centers of the church were particularly active in disseminating these racialist ideas. One of these was the office of church historian… There can be little doubt that such thinking represented the explicit outside influence of the British-Israelist and Anglo-Saxonist movements. Certain specific ideas from those movements were clearly reflected in the discourse and teachings of LDS leaders; furthermore… these movements and their spokesmen were explicitly cited from time to time… It would be fair to say that British-Israelist and Anglo-Saxonist ideas were common and familiar elements in official and unofficial LDS literature for several decades prior to World War II.” (Pg. 29)
He notes, “the late apostle Bruce R. McConkie’s… teachings in [his] 1966 books seem especially anomalous and anachronistic in the Mormonism of the 21st century, for they perpetuate such 19th century notions as ‘believing blood’; northern Europe as the main locus of the descendants of Ephraim; a literal change in the blood of non-Israelite converts; selection to ‘chosen’ lineages through premortal merit’; and an endorsement of racial and ethnic segregation… for the spiritual protection of favored lineages… Another important change in church policy also required him to drop his long-standing prediction that blacks would not be given the priesthood during mortality… Yet McConkie never recanted any of his other racialist ideas… even during the final years of his life, McConkie continued to teach that merit earned in premortal life determined the races and lineages through which all God’s children were to be born as mortals.” (Pg. 31)
He observes, “The Nephites [in the Book of Mormon] portrayed themselves as the righteous faction… By contrast, they portrayed the Lamanites as a fallen and degraded people who had rejected God and regularly waged war against God’s people. This fallen condition was signified by a divine curse and mark on the Lamanites, according to which they became a ‘filthy,’ ‘loathsome,’ and dark-skinned people, despite sharing an identical Israelite ancestry with the Nephites (1 Nephi 12:23; Jacob 3:5-9; Alma 3:6-19).” (Pg. 49)
He points out, “The various Mormon missionary enterprises to the Indians cannot be considered very successful if measured by the sheer number of converts or their retention in the faith. The more secular accomplishments of the missionaries as church emissaries, pacifiers, and technical advisers seem to have been more extensive and more enduring.” (Pg. 68)
He explains, “there are indications that the divine promise could work both ways---that is, if unrighteousness brought a curse of darkness, then repentance and a return to righteousness might remove the curse. For example… a faction of the Lamanites is converted to the true faith and joins with the Nephites, whereupon ‘their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white’ (3 Nephi 2:15-16).” (Pg. 117)
He states, “The Mormon tradition itself, while mixed and ambiguous about the Jews in some respects, has always contained a strong philo-Judaic… element. Throughout most of Mormon history, that element seems to have suppressed both the proselyting programs and the anti-Semitism so common in the rest of Christianity, despite the well-known Mormon missionary zeal among other peoples. Only in the 20th century, and then only for brief periods, did the Mormons launch any special missionary programs among Jews, and these proved rather unproductive, especially when compared to Mormon missionary success elsewhere.” (Pg. 185)
He states, “Africans and African Americans presented an anomaly to the usual LDS eagerness for missionary outreach to the varied people of the earth, for the church itself resisted proselyting among black populations for more than a century. The anomaly has been difficult to explain, especially for recent church leaders and spokesmen. As a result, even though the troublesome church policy [banning blacks from the priesthood] has finally changed, a contradictory and confusing legacy of racist religious folklore hangs like a cloud over LDS relationships with American blacks, even for those who have joined the church.” (Pg. 212)
He reports, “Both [Joseph] Smith and [Brigham] Young, like their contemporary Abraham Lincoln, would be considered ‘racists’ by today’s norms because they all believed in the natural and inherent inferiority of Africans and their descendants… Smith seems to have attributed black social and intellectual deficits largely to environmental influences, whereas Young found such deficits mainly in the divine curse placed on the entire ‘lineage of Cain.’ Like Lincoln, Smith advocated an eventual end to slavery with a federal ‘buyout’ of slave owners and a wholesale return, or ‘recolonization,’ of the freed slaves to Africa. Young---perhaps like Thomas Jefferson---opposed slavery in principle but was willing to tolerate it (in Utah) temporarily for certain practical reasons.” (Pg. 214-215)
This is a very informative and scholarly book, that will be of great interest to anyone studying these issues.
September 9, 2011
In this book sociologist Armand Mauss explores Mormon conceptions of race and lineage and how they have changed over the past century and a half. He analyzes the origin and nature of traditional Mormon attitudes toward three groups in particular; Jews, Lamanites (or those native to the Americas and Polynesia), and people of black African descent.
His exploration focuses on church discourse that views descendants of Abraham as chosen people who carry special favor from God. He provides historical context as he delves into theology and policy implications, and he considers some of the sociological consequences of designating one group as different than another. Do we see someone from an un-chosen race or lineage as inferior or less worthy than another, and how does that impact our interactions with others? Is there such thing as a cursed lineage, and how does that label affect someone from that group?
Mauss discusses significant events in the church such as the Indian Student Placement Program (which was discontinued in 1996), and the revelation in 1978, which granted full participation to all church members regardless of race. He argues that while the Mormon Church still faces a “residual racialist legacy”, it has more recently shifted focus away from literal Israelite ancestry in its public discourse. “The church now emphasizes more than ever the traditional Christian inclusiveness and universalism of the Apostle Paul. Today the world is called to come unto Christ. All who do so are Abraham’s Children, whether by lineage or adoption.” p 32.
I find that scholarly analyses (like those found in this book) help expand my worldview as it relates to empathy and understanding. I feel a deeper appreciation for my own faith tradition after reading this book.
His exploration focuses on church discourse that views descendants of Abraham as chosen people who carry special favor from God. He provides historical context as he delves into theology and policy implications, and he considers some of the sociological consequences of designating one group as different than another. Do we see someone from an un-chosen race or lineage as inferior or less worthy than another, and how does that impact our interactions with others? Is there such thing as a cursed lineage, and how does that label affect someone from that group?
Mauss discusses significant events in the church such as the Indian Student Placement Program (which was discontinued in 1996), and the revelation in 1978, which granted full participation to all church members regardless of race. He argues that while the Mormon Church still faces a “residual racialist legacy”, it has more recently shifted focus away from literal Israelite ancestry in its public discourse. “The church now emphasizes more than ever the traditional Christian inclusiveness and universalism of the Apostle Paul. Today the world is called to come unto Christ. All who do so are Abraham’s Children, whether by lineage or adoption.” p 32.
I find that scholarly analyses (like those found in this book) help expand my worldview as it relates to empathy and understanding. I feel a deeper appreciation for my own faith tradition after reading this book.
September 1, 2020
I became familiar with Armand Mauss and his work in college and law school as I discovered Sunstone and Dialogue. A few years later I met his brother, Gordon, who was serving as Mission President of the Rochester, NY mission. Gordon occasionally shared insights and articles with me. When Armand came to Rochester to visit his brother, I met him in person and asked him to speak at a fireside in our ward when I was serving as Bishop. It was unforgettable. Armand was one of those individuals that was faithful in every way but did not wear rose colored glasses that tinted the flaws. He was not a harsh chest thumping critic either. He saw the good in the Church and worked to improve doctrinal and cultural challenges.
In “All of Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage”, Mauss examines the extensive historical record through a sociological lens. Indeed, the history more complicated, contradictory, and even conflicted than most LDS would imagine. Mauss’s recounting of the history is both insightful and unsettling. Mauss describes how early Church members adopted the racist thinking common in 19th century America which then was incorporated it into Mormon folklore to explain the ancestry of various groups. The thinking consisted of three elements: British Israelism (the notion among the British that they were part of the House of Israel), Anglo-Saxon triumphalism, and LDS understanding of premortal life. Church leaders’ views have not remained static, however.
Mauss argues, the change was a consequence of Mormon missionaries and membership to increasingly diverse parts of the world” Mauss provides an excellent summary of the contorted and erratic federal policies toward Native Americans and outreach efforts by the Church to Native peoples led by President Spencer W. Kimball’s interest in the welfare of Native Americans. As LDS missionaries experienced increased success in Mesoamerica and South America, Mauss explains, the Church’s efforts to help the descendants of the Book of Mormon peoples shifted away from American Indians to these other populations. Mauss does a tremendous job explaining the identity conflict of Native Americans and Mesoamerican native people experience in the Church. Many members of the Church fail to understand how strong the bonds to native communities are.
Mauss presents the history of the relationship between the LDS Church and the Jews. He described a short lived proselyting program aimed at American Jews in the 60’s and 70’s. I was well aware of this program having served as a missionary in NYC in the waning days of that effort that ultimately was abandoned. He presents evidence, his own research dating back to the 1960s, that anti-Semitism has always been lower in the LDS Church than in the general population.
Mauss then turns to the complicated and painful Church history of the relationship with blacks. He details some of the events and thinking that ultimately led to the priesthood revelation in June 1978. He does an outstanding job in summarizing how Black American members deal with conflicted identities and the anguish that some experience when offended by others within the Church. Mauss acknowledges how the general Church leadership modified their views post 1978. He quotes McConkie’s in a talk he gave shortly after the announcement: “There are statements in our literature by the early brethren that we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same thing. . .. It is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed. . .. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whosoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that has now come into the world.”
Mauss is optimistic about the future of race relations in the Church. He genuinely applauds President Gordon B. Hinckley’s outreach to minorities and public statements decrying racism.
All Abraham’s Children is a book that needs to read widely by church members and leaders. The book is an excellent testament to the compassion, integrity, balance, and enduring legacy of one of Mormonism’s best social scientists.
In “All of Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage”, Mauss examines the extensive historical record through a sociological lens. Indeed, the history more complicated, contradictory, and even conflicted than most LDS would imagine. Mauss’s recounting of the history is both insightful and unsettling. Mauss describes how early Church members adopted the racist thinking common in 19th century America which then was incorporated it into Mormon folklore to explain the ancestry of various groups. The thinking consisted of three elements: British Israelism (the notion among the British that they were part of the House of Israel), Anglo-Saxon triumphalism, and LDS understanding of premortal life. Church leaders’ views have not remained static, however.
Mauss argues, the change was a consequence of Mormon missionaries and membership to increasingly diverse parts of the world” Mauss provides an excellent summary of the contorted and erratic federal policies toward Native Americans and outreach efforts by the Church to Native peoples led by President Spencer W. Kimball’s interest in the welfare of Native Americans. As LDS missionaries experienced increased success in Mesoamerica and South America, Mauss explains, the Church’s efforts to help the descendants of the Book of Mormon peoples shifted away from American Indians to these other populations. Mauss does a tremendous job explaining the identity conflict of Native Americans and Mesoamerican native people experience in the Church. Many members of the Church fail to understand how strong the bonds to native communities are.
Mauss presents the history of the relationship between the LDS Church and the Jews. He described a short lived proselyting program aimed at American Jews in the 60’s and 70’s. I was well aware of this program having served as a missionary in NYC in the waning days of that effort that ultimately was abandoned. He presents evidence, his own research dating back to the 1960s, that anti-Semitism has always been lower in the LDS Church than in the general population.
Mauss then turns to the complicated and painful Church history of the relationship with blacks. He details some of the events and thinking that ultimately led to the priesthood revelation in June 1978. He does an outstanding job in summarizing how Black American members deal with conflicted identities and the anguish that some experience when offended by others within the Church. Mauss acknowledges how the general Church leadership modified their views post 1978. He quotes McConkie’s in a talk he gave shortly after the announcement: “There are statements in our literature by the early brethren that we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same thing. . .. It is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed. . .. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whosoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that has now come into the world.”
Mauss is optimistic about the future of race relations in the Church. He genuinely applauds President Gordon B. Hinckley’s outreach to minorities and public statements decrying racism.
All Abraham’s Children is a book that needs to read widely by church members and leaders. The book is an excellent testament to the compassion, integrity, balance, and enduring legacy of one of Mormonism’s best social scientists.
November 26, 2020
I have to say that so far I have really found each of the Mauss books I have read to be fascinating and it resonates with my understanding (even those that I had not explicitly thought about).
This topic is very interesting partly because most LDS individuals so much want to say they are not racist in the least, but the doctrine has racists themes. Not all these themes are oppressive, but it is hard to say "race doesn't matter" when what you hear growing up is that you have to become part of a specific ancient middle eastern tribe" and have your blood literally changed. It is a tension that has only increased as much of the rest of the world has started facing racism.
The history and insight given by this book on this topic are from what I can see a very accurate snapshot of the time of the writing. It may be a bit dated, but that can be helpful to see the issue as a snapshot in time.
This topic is very interesting partly because most LDS individuals so much want to say they are not racist in the least, but the doctrine has racists themes. Not all these themes are oppressive, but it is hard to say "race doesn't matter" when what you hear growing up is that you have to become part of a specific ancient middle eastern tribe" and have your blood literally changed. It is a tension that has only increased as much of the rest of the world has started facing racism.
The history and insight given by this book on this topic are from what I can see a very accurate snapshot of the time of the writing. It may be a bit dated, but that can be helpful to see the issue as a snapshot in time.
December 27, 2010
Dr. Mauss has had an indelible effect on how I approach difficult religious questions. He has an air of erudite caution and humble confidence that makes me trust him implicitly. I've read the last two chapters of this book (about the LDS church and its struggle with institutional and grassroots racism towards people of African descent) many times, and his well-reasoned, cautious, and diligently referenced argument is able to helpfully delimit the area of debate while still raising troubling questions. The bulk of this book deals with Mormonism's evolving relationship with America's First Nations, and a few chapters look at Mormonism's relationship with Jews. Each chapter demonstrates over and over again why Mauss leads an elite group of Mormon scholars including the likes of Richard Bushman and Ronald Walker. He draws only those conclusions justified by his data, never presumptuously attempting to "explain" all about a particular faith--a method, unfortunately, so often lacking on Mormon studies scholarship. While this book likely appeals to only a smaller, specialized audience, I encourage its perusal to all those who prefer facts to folklore in learning about Mormonism's changing conceptions of race and lineage.
May 18, 2009
The book was more than I expected. Since living in Jamaica and acquiring friendships with many great people there, LDS race relations (and doctrine) with blacks has been a personally important topic. Ironically this topic was the final chapter and I was first taken through a more expansive reading on race, with the evolution and analysis of LDS terms such as "Israelite", "Lamanite", "Jew" and "Black". Mauss (a faithful LDS scholar) does a fine job exploring all.
Anti-black LDS doctrine, which Mauss consistently terms as "folklore", was not official LDS policy until 2nd church president Brigham Young. While access to the priesthood is now open to all since 1978, statements from past LDS leaders remain an undercurrent to LDS theolological thinking on the matter.
The book is a fine reading on understanding all LDS race relations, especially blacks. I would have loved a whole book from Mauss on relations between the LDS church and African Americans. He was insightful but I know he purposefully left out several interesting facts out of expediency since his goal was a more expansive coverage of all LDS racial topics.
Anti-black LDS doctrine, which Mauss consistently terms as "folklore", was not official LDS policy until 2nd church president Brigham Young. While access to the priesthood is now open to all since 1978, statements from past LDS leaders remain an undercurrent to LDS theolological thinking on the matter.
The book is a fine reading on understanding all LDS race relations, especially blacks. I would have loved a whole book from Mauss on relations between the LDS church and African Americans. He was insightful but I know he purposefully left out several interesting facts out of expediency since his goal was a more expansive coverage of all LDS racial topics.
July 25, 2007
A facinating look at "changing mormon conceptions of race and lineage". Mauss, himself a faithful LDS scholar of sociology and religious studies, shows how the LDS notion of race with regard to "Israelite", "Jew", "Black", "Lamanite" (an LDS term for native americans), "Indian" and others have morphed over time relative to sociological pressures.
Contrary to common belief, early LDS thought did not show the anti-black biases that came to be offical policy under church leader Brigham Young and his heirs to power. Mauss unpacks the notion of race and lineage and shows how it has evolved.
A facinating read that I would like to re-read (I didn't read the entire book during the class I took on the Anthropology of Mormonism, so I'm shelving this one as "currently-reading", but the truth is, I'm going to re-read it from the beginning.
Contrary to common belief, early LDS thought did not show the anti-black biases that came to be offical policy under church leader Brigham Young and his heirs to power. Mauss unpacks the notion of race and lineage and shows how it has evolved.
A facinating read that I would like to re-read (I didn't read the entire book during the class I took on the Anthropology of Mormonism, so I'm shelving this one as "currently-reading", but the truth is, I'm going to re-read it from the beginning.
September 7, 2009
تغییر برداشت مرمونها از نژاد و تبار
این مجموعه شاهکاری در زمینه تکامل تدریجی سنتها اعتقادات باورهاوتجارب اقلیتها مذهبی مسیحی به ویژه فرقه مورمون است .نویسنده در این کتاب علاوه بر بیان چگونگی وشرح محدودیتهاو الزامات کلیساهای دوران گذشته به بازگویی مطالب وحکایت های گفته شده از زبان روحانیون حاضر درکلیساهای نویین مسیحی در ارتباط با مقولات نژاد پرستانه می پردازد و سپس گسترش جریان پیچیده مورمونها در اوخر قرن بیستم را مورد بحث قرار میدهد .وی در ادامه به بسط وتوسعه شهرت جهانی آنان در اثرسعی و کوشش مبلغان مذهبی اشاره می کند .در آخر بحثی مجادله آمیز رادرباره ساختار هویتی نژاد پرستی در قرون گذشته پیش می کشد وعنوان میکند که این موضوع نمی توانسته است اثری مستقیم منفیگرایانه نسبت به مورمونها داشته باشد .چون همان گونه که تاریخ نشان می دهد صبر و شکیبایی آنان در مقایسه با دیگر اقلیتها بیشتر بوده است ودر نتیجه همواره توانسته اند ثبات خود راطی گذشت دوران حفظ کنند
این مجموعه شاهکاری در زمینه تکامل تدریجی سنتها اعتقادات باورهاوتجارب اقلیتها مذهبی مسیحی به ویژه فرقه مورمون است .نویسنده در این کتاب علاوه بر بیان چگونگی وشرح محدودیتهاو الزامات کلیساهای دوران گذشته به بازگویی مطالب وحکایت های گفته شده از زبان روحانیون حاضر درکلیساهای نویین مسیحی در ارتباط با مقولات نژاد پرستانه می پردازد و سپس گسترش جریان پیچیده مورمونها در اوخر قرن بیستم را مورد بحث قرار میدهد .وی در ادامه به بسط وتوسعه شهرت جهانی آنان در اثرسعی و کوشش مبلغان مذهبی اشاره می کند .در آخر بحثی مجادله آمیز رادرباره ساختار هویتی نژاد پرستی در قرون گذشته پیش می کشد وعنوان میکند که این موضوع نمی توانسته است اثری مستقیم منفیگرایانه نسبت به مورمونها داشته باشد .چون همان گونه که تاریخ نشان می دهد صبر و شکیبایی آنان در مقایسه با دیگر اقلیتها بیشتر بوده است ودر نتیجه همواره توانسته اند ثبات خود راطی گذشت دوران حفظ کنند
February 27, 2013
Very very dense book. Written as an extended dissertation from the author's graduate studies. This took me a very long time to get through. I'm not used to reading textbook style books anymore. It is an interesting look at how church policy has evolved over time compared to the nation as a whole. This book first explores the "Mormons as Isrealites" idea; then proceeds to examine LDS relations with and opinions of the Native American peoples, the Jewish people, and the black people. I'm glad I read it even though I'm not sure I agree with everything he says 100%.
June 18, 2009
As a Mormon, I found this book helpful in affirming my impressions of what I had been taught as a child regarding "doctrines" on race, and how they have actually evolved considerably over time. As usual, the evolution is quiet and presented by leaders as nothing new. But today's ideas within Mormonism are new and Armand Mauss skillfully exposes the subtle but important changes. I am grateful.
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May 9, 2013Quite academic in style. Learned some things I didn't know. Armand Mauss, although I had never heard his name before, seems to have written a lot of the subject.
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