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Sins of Christendom: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Evangelicalism
Evangelical criticism of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dates back to the earliest days of the Church. Nathaniel Wiewora uses the diverse animus expressed by evangelicals to illuminate how they used an imaginary Church as a proxy to disagree, attack, compromise, and settle differences among themselves. As Wiewora shows, the evangelical practice to contrast itself with the emerging faith not only encompassed but also went beyond religious matters. If Joseph Smith was accused of muddling religious truth, he and his followers also faced accusations of immoral economic practices and a sinful regard for wealth that reflected worries within the evangelical world. Attacks on Latter-day Saints’ emotional religious displays, the Book of Mormon’s authenticity, and the dangerous ideas represented by Nauvoo paralleled similar conflicts. Wiewora traces how the failure to blunt the Church’s success led evangelicals to change their own methods and pursue the religious education infrastructure that came to define parts of the movement.
232 pages, Paperback
Published March 12, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 31, 2024
A really interesting study of how antebellum evangelicals navigated their own disagreements by using Mormonism as a rhetorical crutch. Wiewora shows that some, especially eastern, evangelicals used Mormon heresies to demonize and delegitimate other evangelical factions, especially those westerners and southerners deemed too revivalistic or emotional. Wiewora also teaches at Harding, so he's more plugged in to the Stone-Campbell Movement's contributions to these debates, which is a refreshing change of pace from the usual suspects that often get the lion's share of the focus in studies of evangelicalism and Mormonism.
The meat of the book is easily four stars from me, but it gets stretched thin by excessive repetition and other editing failures. It felt like this book should have been about a third shorter (several of the categorical frames structuring the book seemed indistinguishable from others, and consolidating these categories and limiting the examples to a smaller handful of the most evocative examples would have been welcome), and I noticed several examples of first names missing on first reference, as well as biographical info and even quotes repeated as if we hadn't just read them, no doubt the product of sections being moved around in the editing process – and the kind of mistakes a good proofreader should have caught, which is disappointing but perhaps unsurprising from a presumably under-resourced academic press. None of that should keep people interested in the subject matter from reading the book, however. It's a good addition to the burgeoning mini-genre of books exploring the history of anti-Mormon rhetoric before the Civil War.
The meat of the book is easily four stars from me, but it gets stretched thin by excessive repetition and other editing failures. It felt like this book should have been about a third shorter (several of the categorical frames structuring the book seemed indistinguishable from others, and consolidating these categories and limiting the examples to a smaller handful of the most evocative examples would have been welcome), and I noticed several examples of first names missing on first reference, as well as biographical info and even quotes repeated as if we hadn't just read them, no doubt the product of sections being moved around in the editing process – and the kind of mistakes a good proofreader should have caught, which is disappointing but perhaps unsurprising from a presumably under-resourced academic press. None of that should keep people interested in the subject matter from reading the book, however. It's a good addition to the burgeoning mini-genre of books exploring the history of anti-Mormon rhetoric before the Civil War.
March 18, 2024
Anti-Mormon literature is always a touchy subject, but Sins of Christendom: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Evangelicalism by Nathaniel Wiewora handles it deftly, putting it in a broader context of change and debate within Evangelical Christianity.
Sins of Christendom tells the story of how and why Evangelicals handled the topic of Mormonism as it emerged in the 1830s and 1840s. A core idea of the book is that Evangelicals engaged in writing anti-Mormon literature not only to attack a rival religion, but also to use it as a proxy for discussions internal to Evangelicalism as a way to delineate acceptable behavior and belief. Topics discussed include charismatic displays of religious enthusiasm, the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, interpretation of the Bible, money making through religion, and religious fanaticism. It also discusses how Evangelicals saw aspects of Mormonism that were worthy of emulation and tried to learn from a religion they despised to outdo the Mormons.
One of the chapters that proved very salient to current discussions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the one on relationship to the market. Joseph Smith and his fellow leaders were often accused of being poor, lazy people who were using religion to make themselves rich without having to work hard. The Kirtland Safety Society featured heavily in the anti-Mormon rhetoric of the time in this regard, but the accusations that Smith had accumulated too much power and wealth through his ministry was an ongoing point of contention from Evangelicals. Weiwora points out, however, that similar debates about making money from religion were going on within Evangelical Christianity. For example, the American Bible Society was proving controversial for making money off of selling the Bible. Critics accused them of using the word of God to enrich themselves and lowering ministers to common peddlers or setting them up for a life of crime through their merchandising in the cities. Advocates indicated that the people purchasing the Bible would be more invested in the word of God because they had spent money on it and that the money also allowed the ABS to continue its work of spreading the word of God. Later, the work of celebrity preachers continued to be an area of contention about the role of money in Christianity, just as concerns about Latter-day Saint leaders using the Church to enrich themselves has endured as a topic of discussion.
I will admit, while reading Wiewora’s work was fascinating, as a believing Latter-day Saint, it could be quite exhausting to slog through all the anti-Mormon literature that was brought up. It also proved difficult to discern what was meant as a summary of the points that Evangelicals were making in the anti-Mormon literature and what was Wiewora’s attempts at stating facts (accepting the anti-Mormon literature as basically true in most details). He does state that “the specific components and truthfulness of religious prejudice matter less than how certain evangelicals used them to further their own religious interests” (30), which would indicate that Wiewora was sumarizing, but it still created some jarring moments in the book.
I was deeply impressed by the thoroughness of Wiewora’s investigations into anti-Mormon literature in the time of Joseph Smith. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of sources (both obscure and well-known) that were brought into the discussion, which signals an incredible amount of time and effort spent on researching. Wiewora also displays that he is very capable in both contexts of Evangelical and Mormon history.
In summary, Sins of Christendom is an important investigation of the ways in which anti-Mormon literature produced by Evangelicals shaped the Evangelical movement itself, while putting the anti-Mormon literature in a broader context of tensions that were occurring in the early United States. It is fascinating to see what anti-Mormon literature says about the people who wrote it, though it is also challenging to wade through the anti-Mormon literature as a believing Latter-day Saint.
Sins of Christendom tells the story of how and why Evangelicals handled the topic of Mormonism as it emerged in the 1830s and 1840s. A core idea of the book is that Evangelicals engaged in writing anti-Mormon literature not only to attack a rival religion, but also to use it as a proxy for discussions internal to Evangelicalism as a way to delineate acceptable behavior and belief. Topics discussed include charismatic displays of religious enthusiasm, the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, interpretation of the Bible, money making through religion, and religious fanaticism. It also discusses how Evangelicals saw aspects of Mormonism that were worthy of emulation and tried to learn from a religion they despised to outdo the Mormons.
One of the chapters that proved very salient to current discussions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the one on relationship to the market. Joseph Smith and his fellow leaders were often accused of being poor, lazy people who were using religion to make themselves rich without having to work hard. The Kirtland Safety Society featured heavily in the anti-Mormon rhetoric of the time in this regard, but the accusations that Smith had accumulated too much power and wealth through his ministry was an ongoing point of contention from Evangelicals. Weiwora points out, however, that similar debates about making money from religion were going on within Evangelical Christianity. For example, the American Bible Society was proving controversial for making money off of selling the Bible. Critics accused them of using the word of God to enrich themselves and lowering ministers to common peddlers or setting them up for a life of crime through their merchandising in the cities. Advocates indicated that the people purchasing the Bible would be more invested in the word of God because they had spent money on it and that the money also allowed the ABS to continue its work of spreading the word of God. Later, the work of celebrity preachers continued to be an area of contention about the role of money in Christianity, just as concerns about Latter-day Saint leaders using the Church to enrich themselves has endured as a topic of discussion.
I will admit, while reading Wiewora’s work was fascinating, as a believing Latter-day Saint, it could be quite exhausting to slog through all the anti-Mormon literature that was brought up. It also proved difficult to discern what was meant as a summary of the points that Evangelicals were making in the anti-Mormon literature and what was Wiewora’s attempts at stating facts (accepting the anti-Mormon literature as basically true in most details). He does state that “the specific components and truthfulness of religious prejudice matter less than how certain evangelicals used them to further their own religious interests” (30), which would indicate that Wiewora was sumarizing, but it still created some jarring moments in the book.
I was deeply impressed by the thoroughness of Wiewora’s investigations into anti-Mormon literature in the time of Joseph Smith. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of sources (both obscure and well-known) that were brought into the discussion, which signals an incredible amount of time and effort spent on researching. Wiewora also displays that he is very capable in both contexts of Evangelical and Mormon history.
In summary, Sins of Christendom is an important investigation of the ways in which anti-Mormon literature produced by Evangelicals shaped the Evangelical movement itself, while putting the anti-Mormon literature in a broader context of tensions that were occurring in the early United States. It is fascinating to see what anti-Mormon literature says about the people who wrote it, though it is also challenging to wade through the anti-Mormon literature as a believing Latter-day Saint.
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July 17, 2024Review forthcoming in the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, 2025.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews