The Rise of Mormonism

by Rodney Stark, Reid Neilson (Editor)

Will Mormonism be the next world faith, one that will rival Catholicism, Islam, and other major religions in terms of numbers and global appeal? This was the question Rodney Stark addressed in his much-discussed and much-debated article, "The Rise of a New World Faith" (1984), one of several essays on Mormonism included in this new collection. Examining the religion's growing appeal, Rodney Stark concluded that Mormons could number 267 million members by 2080. In what would become known as "the Stark argument," Stark suggested that the Mormon Church offered contemporary sociologists and historians of religion an opportunity to observe a rare the birth of a new world religion.In the years following that article, Stark has become one of the foremost scholars of Mormonism and the sociology of religion. This new work, the first to collect his influential writings on the Mormon Church, includes previously published essays, revised and rewritten for this volume. His work sheds light on both the growth of Mormonism and on how and why certain religions continue to grow while others fade away. Stark examines the reasons behind the spread of Mormonism, exploring such factors as cultural continuity with the faiths from which it seeks converts, a volunteer missionary force, and birth rates. He explains why a demanding faith like Mormonism has such broad appeal in today's world and considers the importance of social networks in finding new converts. Stark's work also presents groundbreaking perspectives on larger issues in the study of religion, including the nature of revelation and the reasons for religious growth in an age of modernization and secularization.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Mormonism, Lds

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Rodney Stark grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota, and began his career as a newspaper reporter. Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, he received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he held appointments as a research sociologist at the Survey Research Center and at the Center for the Study of Law and Society. He left Berkeley to become Professor of Sociology and of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington. In 2004 he joined the faculty of Baylor University. He has published 30 books and more than 140 scholarly articles on subjects as diverse as prejudice, crime, suicide, and city life in ancient Rome. However, the greater part of his work has been on religion. He is past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. He also has won a number of national and international awards for distinguished scholarship. Many of his books and articles have been translated and published in foreign languages, including Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Slovene, and Turkish.

Reviews

[Brant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rodney Stark is a sociologist of religion, and this book is on the sociology of religion--using Mormonism as the example and test subject. Stark made some remarkable predictions for the growth of the Mormon church by 2080, and so far he is on track. In the last chapter he defends his analysis.

There are lots of fascinating insights in this book that apply to any religion. The question is why a new religion succeeds. There have been so many that have failed. Mormonism provides a unique look at one that is flourishing in a sufficiently modern time that its rise and successes can be studied and analyzed. Stark spends a good deal of time speaking directly to why the church is successful.

Fascinating read.

[Liz Busby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting book for a view of Mormonism based purely on numbers and sociology. The article that sparked the book is one where the author predicts, based on conversion rates, that Mormonism is the next major world religion. You can see why a non-Mormon saying this would be controversial. All of the other articles are also super interesting.

[[Name Redacted]]

Stark is an odd contrast to Jenkins. He doesn't belong to any branch of "Mormonism", but he really seems to love and respect Mormons. Perhaps it's because he finds them so useful for reconstructing the history of early Christianity? In any event, I do wonder what he's got to say about "Mormonism" itself rather than simply as an analogue for the growth of an ancient Christianity, so I'll probably wind up reading this book.

[Scott Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book I thought. Stark isn't LDS himself but has done quite a bit of research on the church, particularly with regards to its growth and success. He is certainly admires the church and seems to know quite a lot about the culture. This should be very useful for a research paper I'm doing.

[Martine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about 2/5th Mormons, 3/5th social theories. It does not tell you a lot about Mormonism itself, it documents and explains its rise - as the title says. Rodney Stark's theories are extremely fascinating, however, I already knew a lot of them from his Rise of Christianity, which is why I give this book three stars instead of four.

[Swhe641200 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a non-lds but very interesting. Good Read just picked up at library

[Walker Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

***1/2