Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History

by Roger D. Launius (Contributor)

The first serious attempt to analyze the careers of converts who later left the Mormon church, this book contains selections about 18 Mormon dissenters--David Whitmer, Fawn Brody, and Sonia Johnson, among them--contributed by Richard N. Holzapfel, John S. McCormick, Kenneth M. Godfrey, William D. Russell, Dan Vogel, Jessie L. Embry, and many others.

Genres: Religion, Mormonism, Nonfiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Eric Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book. Has some people worth reading about. For instance, I thought the essay on the Tanners was extremely useful. Some of the essays weren't that interesting. But overall I'd recommend it.

[John Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite frankly this book is not all that interesting. I can't imagine that anyone would want to read this book unless you are trying to become a scholar of Mormonism or are thinking about becoming Mormon. This book might also serve for Mormons who seek a wider knowledge of their faith's history played out in the lives of real Mormons. Overall, though, the appeal of this book is simply not great enough for anything more than an 'ok' rating. For the same reason I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone except those who ask me directly for information on Mormons who have argued against the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

The only thing that I take away from this book is that Mormonism is not, apparently, a brainwashing cult. Dissenters in Mormonism have not been treated particularly well (but then, neither have dissenters been treated well in Christian history... or in the history of any religion), but they are out there. If you happen to want to know how Mormons in history have argued against the church of which they were apart, this book is for you.

If you are interested, though, don't expect a lively presentation of the stories. The book is dry. Thatcher relies heavily on the quality of the stories themselves rather than making the stories interesting in any way.