Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #183

by Richard L. Bushman

Beginning with a handful of members in 1830, the church that Joseph Smith founded has grown into a world-wide organization with over 12 million adherents, playing prominent roles in politics, sports, entertainment, and business. Yet they are an oddity. They are considered wholesome, conservative, and friendly on one hand, and clannish, weird, and self-righteous on the other.

Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction explains who Mormons are: what they believe and how they live their lives. Written by Richard Lyman Bushman, an eminent historian and practicing Mormon, this compact, informative volume ranges from the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the contentious issues of contemporary Mormonism. Bushman argues that Joseph Smith still serves as the Mormons' Moses. Their everyday religious lives are still rooted in his conceptions of true Christianity. They seek revelation to solve life's problems just as he did. They believe the authority to seal families together for eternity was restored through him. They understand their lives as part of a spiritual journey that started in a "council in heaven" before the world began just as he taught. Bushman's account also describes the tensions and sorrows of Mormon life. How are Mormons to hold on to their children in a world of declining moral standards and rampant disbelief? How do rational, educated Mormons stand up to criticisms of their faith? How do single Mormons fare in a church that emphasizes family life? The book also examines polygamy, the various Mormon scriptures, and the renegade fundamentalists who tarnish the LDS image when in fact they're not members.

In a time when Mormons such as Mitt Romney and Harry Reid are playing prominent roles in American society, this engaging introduction enables readers to judge for themselves how Mormon teachings shape the character of believers.

About the Series:

Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, History, Mormonism, Lds, Christianity, Theology

145 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 25, 2008

About the author

Richard Lyman Bushman obtained a Ph.D. from Harvard and published widely in early American social and cultural history before completing his most well-known work, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, a biography of the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among his books were From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1765 and The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities. He teaches courses on Mormonism in its broad social and cultural context and on the history of religion in America, focusing on the early period. He has special interests in the history of Mormon theology and in lived religion among the Mormons. He has taken an active part in explaining Mormonism to a broad public and in negotiating the tensions between Mormonism and modern culture.

Reviews

[Chanele · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the name implies, this was a brief glimpse into the beliefs, history, and lifestyles of the Mormon people. While it does an adequate job of explaining the the theology, there was far less focus on the culture. I am not sure what I expected, but there wasn't much beyond pretty basic stuff. There was not as much about missionary activities as expected, for example, nor what life for the typical Mormon in the 21st Century really is.

I don't know anything about the author's background, but he was trying very hard to paint a positive, non-neutral picture of Mormons. He struggled with the more dismal aspects of the religion (particularly plural marriage and the Mountain Meadows Massacre), recognizing that Mormons don't like to be associated with this, but never really doing much to inspire forgiveness. It was a bit muddy, but the ultimate takeaway seemed to be that the only reason Mormons abandoned plural marriage was because of federal pressure, not based on an honest desire to end it. (And curiously, there wasn't really a clear explanation of why it existed in the first place.) The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a bit harder to swallow because really, Mormons are peaceful people and don't forget the Mormons were victims for a long time, too. And, of course, all of the negatives to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (especially the latter) were glossed over, but that was a bit to be expected.

That said, there were positive to this quick read. I enjoyed learning more about the history of the religion, and I appreciated that the author was straightforward that Mormons recognize their beliefs, especially surrounding Smith, might be hard for others to accept. The author tried hard to reconcile modern concepts of feminism with the traditional belief system, and while he did not do the best job, I appreciated that it was not glossed over. The author also admitted to the racist beliefs that were held for far too long regarding the role of black members of the church.

All in all, it is a decent starting point to learn some basics about the history and theology of Mormonism. It's not the best authority on culture, and I was left with more questions than answers on some points, but I'd still recommend it as a primer because of its short length.

[John Damon Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent and quick overview of the Mormon faith and community. Although at times Bushman strives to be neutrally academic, his justifications of the more controversial aspects of Mormonism betray the more propagandizing tone of the book (eg: arguing that women liked being in polygamist marriages, and the exclusion of black people was never really a part of any prophecy). All that being said, despite it's propagandistic tone and clunky grammar, this very short introduction served its purpose quite admirably.
P.S. His revelation that Mormonism has no theologians and is instead reliant on communal identity, has been a great help in my understanding of this religion.

[Kiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting overview of Mormon beliefs and history. Since I grew up in Utah, but not as a Mormon, I’ve had informal contact with much of this information, but it was interesting to see it all in one place.

I was surprised to learn how strongly the original emphasis on “Zion” was for the early church, with church members expected to join the community and surrender all of their individual property for the good of the whole, but then that didn’t work out very well, and what is left today is the practice of tithing 10% of one’s income.

I was once again struck by the strange success of Joseph Smith in building a following. Even as related by an author who himself is Mormon (thus, informed, but also trying really hard not to come across as proselytizing), the bare facts of Joseph’s actions seem to paint him as an unreliable figure. He was using a “seer stone” to “locate lost property” years before his first religious vision; there was even a court case against him for this practice, which was illegal in New York. Did it not seem somewhat suspect when he later claimed to generate the Book of Mormon with “seer stones”? He “retranslated” the Bible not by examining source texts but instead by inspiration and revelation (i.e., not actually a translation). I can see why this might offend many Christians. Several of his “translations” of other ancient texts have been debunked as fabrications. Surely this leaves any Mormon in an awkward and unsettling place, having anchored your faith to the words of a questionable source.

I was also intrigued to learn of the other Mormon spinoff churches, including the Reorganized LDS (RLDS) church, led by Joseph Smith’s son and with his window (Emma) as a member. Apparently they now grant priesthood to women, which the main LDS church does not.

I struggle with some of these Very Short Introduction books. They are necessarily (as advertised) short, and so they often raise more questions than they answer. I ended up reading some additional Wikipedia content to flesh out some of the details here. I also highly recommend the carefully researched and fascinating book No Man Knows My History for more information about Joseph Smith.

[Rasmus Tillander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jos hävytön puoluellisuus ei haittaa niin tämä on kyllä oikein viehättävä johdanto Myöhempien Aikojen Pyhien Jeesuksen Kristuksen kirkkoon.

Bushman, joka on siis itse MAP-kirkon jäsen, esittelee hyvin mormoniteologiaa ja liikkeen historiaa. Kun omat tiedot mormoneista perustuivat tätä ennen lähinnä South Parkiin niin tälläinen liikkeen sisältä lähtevä maailmankuvan selittäminen oli oikein antoisa. Vaikka siis kirkon jäsenten moraalisen karaktäärin jatkuva korostus kyllä kävi hieman hermoon. Bushman esittelee toki myös jotain kirkolle kriittisiä näkemyksiä, mutta ne kyllä lakaistaan maton alle suhteellisen heppoisesti.

Parasta antia on nimenomaan mormonismin sisäisen logiikan parempi hahmottaminen. Ainakin itse ymmärsin paljon paremmin uskon hohtoa kun joku sisäpiiriläinen avasi sitä. Tästä olisi hyvä jatkaa johonkin enemmän tieteelliseen kuvaukseen. Ja ainakin haluaisin lukea lisää Utahin osavaltion perustamisesta ja muusta mormonismin alkuhistoriasta, todella kiinnostavan kuuloista.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, title is accurate. Nice and short, but thorough and unbiased.

[Bill Hooten · Rating 4 out of 5]

A non-Mormon, and not interested in becoming one, read this for the information about their history and beliefs. Richard Lyman Bushman is a Mormon, and an outstanding historian (Ph.D, and professor emeritus of history at Columbia). He has been called the chief defender and explainer of Mormonism. In this "very short" introduction, he gives a great overview of what the LDS believes, and attempts to explain why they believe it, and how they got to that position. He doesn't back away from any of the issues that have bedeviled the Mormons for the last 100+ years. Even beyond that, he is honest about how these issues have affected Mormons and their faith -- "Mormon memory is selective in what it recalls about the church's nineteenth-century history. Mormons have forgotten or actively suppressed parts of that history." I just have to appreciate that kind of honesty.
If you are looking for a brief overview of the beliefs and history of the Latter Day Saints, I would highly recommend this one. But if you are looking for a lot of detail, or a completely unbiased opinion (remember, Bushman is a Mormon) don't expect to find it here. This is a really good book for what it was intended to do.

[Tatiana Gomez]

A very quick but thorough overview of the Mormon religion, this book covers the revelations of Joseph Smith through modern-day Mormonism in just shy of 100 pages. Although it didn't really contain any new information for me I did appreciate the simplicity of the book and its overarching question of why Mormons believe. I found Bushman to be objective most of the time, however, in describing controversial subjects (plural marriage, black priesthood, women's roles, the Mountain Meadows massacre) he leans towards the explanation that puts Mormons in a better light.

Don't read this if you want any understanding of fundamentalist sects, they are only briefly mentioned in passing, but otherwise this is a great beginner's introduction to mainstream, modern Mormonism and its origins.

[Blair Hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost forgot to add this one, read it a few weeks ago. A brilliant and concise overview of Mormonism from then to now. He tackles all sorts of issues but the overall narrative sweep makes it easy to mentally organize.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history is very basic, the stuff I already learned when I was in school but had half-forgotten. The cosmology section was wild; it sounds like a rockin' sci-fi story. Multiple worlds with intelligences working toward becoming gods in their own right? That sounds like the start of a movie franchise that would be either really good or really boring. The rest of it though... Bushman was working his socks off to paint everything in a positive light but it was a thankless task quite frankly. So woman have more than enough to do in the church and don't have time for the responsibility of the priesthood and they don't want it anyway and every member has an equal voice in church affairs but they want more of a voice because they don't have enough of one? Huh? So the massacre was inexcusable but they were justified because they were only doing what was done to them? Young tried so hard to find the perpetrators to bring them to justice but he also tried to cover the whole thing up? They could only locate one participant in the massacre? That seems a little suspect. But at least black men can be priests now, since 1978 because if they hadn't heard God say black people are okay they would continue to have a hard time making inroads in the non-European and Asian countries.

Also, I found him talking about how hard it is to shelter children from the evils of modern American society telling when in the next sentence (same paragraph) he brought up homosexuality and women's rights. Anyway, there was a lot more insight into the Mormon way of life he probably didn't intend; he apparently thinks never having time for activities away from your tiny, homogenous world to meet new people and learn new things and gain a new perspective is a good thing. I don't count the missions only boys are sent on because who gains a new perspective and learns new things when your whole purpose is to do all the teaching and talking and convince other people you're right?

The other stuff that made me go hmm...was his portrayal of the clash between non-Mormons and Mormons as an entirely one-sided affair which makes me wonder what he was glossing over. He portrays polygamy as something women were perfectly fine with and that was actually beneficial because otherwise many of them would be destitute, not being able to find a husband to earn a living for them which clashes with the idea he puts forward of the Mormon woman as being able to stand tall in her own right. Usually the problem in these sorts of frontier situations is more men than women so it seems odd that multiple wives would be the solution to keep them from prostitution and the poor house.

There's a lot that is clearly being glossed over and manipulated to be shown in a positive light. But it was easy to read and interesting. I'm going to look for other sources though.

I don't care if people believe weird things. I believe weird things. But I take issue with such massive conformity coupled with a wish to hide from the bad things in the past.

[Jackson T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is actually the first title in the Oxford "A Very Short Introduction" series that I have read. While Bushman gives a soup to nuts overview of the Mormon faith (most of which was balanced and generally informative, if accompanied by prosaic prose), beneath this unassuming veneer is a constant missionary attitude. Bushman desperately tries to clear away any supposedly wrong assumption you had about the faith, especially if you a Christian (which, to Bushman, Mormons are). Yet, any critical reader knows how obvious he is being. Bushman should have given examples of Mormon figures/attempts at interfaith interaction with Christianity, contemporary monotheism, et al. instead of his own presumptuous attempts of theological clarification (see. Chapter 1).

Is is appropriate to even cite this texts? If this entry resembles the standard entry in this series, what difference is there from Wikipedia?

[Guillermo Frausto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good background on the history, deviations from Christianity, and the culture associated with the LDS Church. Having Bushman be a participating member of the church made me nervous if he could demonstrate a critical view on Mormonism. These feelings were not realized reading through material. They were however some topics that lacked a critical view and presented more passively than I expected. These were not the norm, but the exception to the rule. Great reading material if you live near a Mormon community or just curious on the subject itself.

[Reagan Faith Waggoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emphasis on “Zion” fascinating in the early days of Mormonism, then the transfer to tithing as the method rather than complete property surrender and communal living.

Joseph Smith is dodgy indeed... finding the first plate, not translating for four years, translating with a seer stone only he could use, then finding a new “translation” and going off that??

And the pluralism idea is dodgy as well. He didn’t tell his wife about it and married 30 other women, many of them in secret??

However, there are many cultural things Mormonism does very well - absence of paid clergy, emphasis of community, etc.. these factors bond their followers, certainly, as well as the mandated missionary work and additional church service.

Altogether informative book

[Bronte Page · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was okay in the sense I learned a lot about Mormonism that I didn’t already know (who knew there are denominations of Mormonism? I certainly didn’t).

However I found it off putting how dismissive of serious concerns about the Mormon church (eg the horrific baptising of dead people) the author is. However as the author is one of foremost Mormon academics who is actually Mormon I guess some bias was to be expected.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative about Mormon theology but obviously biased and reads as fairly dismissive of inequalities in the church (e.g. saying that the women don't mind having less power than the men), then going on to give gay marriage and women's rights as examples of 'societal moral decline'. The church's history of racism was addressed in a more balanced way.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is clear and succinct. I'm not Mormon, so I can't speak to the veracity of it, but it aligned with what I read in American Zion: A New History of Mormonism last year, so it seemed to be legitimate.

[Russel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know it was supposed to be a "Very Short Introduction", but I felt like it was probably too short. It seemed like parts were just glossed over, and if I weren't already reading other books on Mormonism, I would most likely have just had more questions.

[Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I disliked that this book was written by a Morman. He seemed to be very selective in topics covered and quite biased in general. (Although I suppose it is almost impossible to write a book of this type with no bias either way...) Still, it was worth reading.

[M Pereira · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting primer on Mormonism. I don't know anything on the subject but it seemed like a potted history as well as an exploration on the dissenting trends and modern day state of affairs for the religion

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many, in my mind Mormonism conjures up Utah, Mitt Romney, polygamy, young, polite men marching two-by-two dressed in white shirts and black pants. This little book was a helpful primer on Mormon basics, including Mormon theology, history, and everyday Mormon living.

[Vincent Broman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expert introduction by an observant Mormon intellectual, with admirable restraint in not proselyting or promoting. Covers customs and practices and beliefs that are important but not discussed so much, such as: what makes a member "active", and what beliefs are most salient in lived practice.

[G Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and solid for a short guide. As others have mentioned, Bushman leans toward apologetics more than an outsider would, but this isn't at all unexpected.

[Maud-Maylis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and very informative.

[Verity W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful overview of the basics of Mormonism.

[Ryan Haueter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very general and fair overview of Mormonism

[Daniel Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Revelation
Chapter 3: Zion
Chapter 4: Priesthood
Chapter 5: Cosmology
Chapter 6: Nineteenth-century Utah
Chapter 7: The Mormon world

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very helpful--even if sanitized--introduction to Mormonism by an articulate insider.

[MSN · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of the history and beliefs of Mormonism, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young etc. Good foundation to get a general idea.

[Lydia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned a lot that I did not know, but the writing felt pretty biased. 2.5 stars because it was nice to have an intro.

[Antonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It is sometimes said that Mormonism is to Christianity as Christianity is to Judaism”

[Monica St. Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the whole Very Short Introductions series.