Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years among the Mormons

by Jan Shipps

Over the course of four decades, Jan Shipps has become the preeminent non-Mormon interpreter of Mormonism. This important work assembles Shipps's writing about this tradition over the past thirty years, much of it published here for the first time. It also does something more. "Sojourner in the Promised Land" presents an unusual parallel history in which Shipps surrounds her professional writings about the Latter-day Saints with an ongoing personal description of her encounters with them. By combining a portrait of the dynamic evolution of contemporary Mormonism with absorbing intellectual autobiography, Shipps illuminates the Mormons and at the same time reveals her experience of being an intimate outsider in a culture that remains for her both familiar and strange. Among an array of other topics, Shipps discusses the methods she developed for researching and writing about the Mormon religion and its history. She reflects on how her circumstances made her - even as she maintained her Methodist standing - a virtual extension of the LDS public communications division. She also assesses media images of the Mormons and addresses the question of whether Mormonism is Christian. Most important, this volume reveals how, by being in the right place at the right time, Shipps was able to observe firsthand Mormonism's conversion from an provincial to a universal belief system. Her insights into this dramatic transformation reveal the implications, highly pertinent to contexts far removed from Mormonism, of dislodging a faith system from the specific cultural context of its origins and translating it into an adaptive system capable of adjusting to the conditions of many cultures. Infused with Shipps's lively curiosity, her scholarly rigor, and her contagious fascination with a significant subculture, "Sojourner in the Promised Land" stands as a major addition to Mormon scholarship.

Genres: Nonfiction, Lds, Religion, Mormonism

416 pages, Hardcover

First published December 19, 2000

About the author

Jo Ann Barnett Shipps, known as Jan Shipps, was an American historian specializing in Mormon history, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century to the present. Shipps was generally regarded as the foremost non-Mormon scholar of the Latter Day Saint movement, having given particular attention to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Her first book on the subject was Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition published by the University of Illinois Press. In 2000, the University of Illinois Press published her book Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years Among the Mormons, in which she interweaves her own history of Mormon-watching with 16 essays on Mormon history and culture.

Reviews

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a fascinating collection of essays by the most famous non-mormon historian who specializes in mormon history. Some of the work she has done focused on determining how mormons were portrayed in the news media and applying objective standards to try and measure and quantify that data (not so interesting). I enjoyed the summaries of mormon histroy she has written and her thoughts about trying to write about religious groups by a non-believer. The parts I found most fascinating were her comments on the work of other historians both mormon and non-mormon (from Fawn Brodie, to Ed Decker to Richard Bushman and Leonard Arrington). I thought her discussions of the struggles between church leaders and those who write about controversial topics were also very good because she makes an effort to acknowledge the reasons underlying each paries' position. Although most of the topics are dated, I really liked seeing how someone who tries to be very even-handed deals with these faith based issues. At the end I was very impressed by her ability to identify those beliefs that make Mormons unique and her attempts to deal honestly with a broad range of issues.

[Bryan Samuelsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some essays were fascinating, others were soporific — but worth the read on the whole.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book would lead a casual library browser astray. Jan Shipps, perhaps the most influential non-Mormon historian of Mormonism, does not present a true memoir here but instead anthologizes her unpublished essays, some of which go back to the 1960s. As is often the case with collections of essays, their importance and quality varies widely, and everyone will have his own favorites and non-favorites.

Personally, I like Shipps’ review of John Brooke’s Refiner’s Fire and her many autobiographical asides (Too bad she decided not to discuss the rearing of her son, the noted violinist Stephen Shipps.) Also highly recommended for any student of Mormonism are the notes, which follow each chapter and were definitely written to be read.

On the other hand, I began wincing every time Shipps invoked the mantra of her Methodism—especially since John Wesley would have pronounced her a heretic out of hand. For instance, Shipps’ essay on “Is Mormonism Christian?” commences with mention of her Methodism and then runs on for twenty pages without defining either “Mormon” or “Christian.”

[Bill Hooten · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most fascinating books that I have ever read! At the writing of this volume, Jan Shipps (staunch member of the First United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Indiana") had spent 40 years studying and writing about the Mormons. Written in 2000, it is an anthology of her writings as a most unusual member of this most unusual choice of field of study. Most would expect a Mormon to be the ones that write about Mormon history, but she has been the "inside outsider" of the historians writing about the history of this American religion. In my opinion, she has done a marvelous job, and has whetted my appetite to learn more; which has to be the greatest compliment that a historian writer can receive.The two chapters that I enjoyed the most was Chapter 2: "From Satyr to Saint: American Perceptions of the Mormons, 1860-1960"; and, Chapter 16: "Is Mormonism Christian? Reflections on a Complicated Question." If you have any interest in the Latter-day Saints, their history, the evolution of their church, and its conflict in our culture -- I would highly recommend this book.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book for Latter-day Saints and people who wish to study our history--Jan Shipps is the most excellent example of an insider-outsider writing history about someone else's faith, or their own. Highly recommended.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jan Shipps is a non-Mormon scholar and observer of the faith and she shares in these essays her observations about Mormonism over the last forty years. She looks at the perceptions of Mormons over time, the origins of the religion, whether they are Christians or not, and what it's like to be an "insider but outsider." I loved this book.

[Joe Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very interesting papers on various aspects of Mormon history.

[Ruth]

This was way more academic than I'd been anticipating. I also had assumed (perhaps wrongly...perhaps not?) that the author would offer personal reflections on her forty years living in the heart of Mormon America. That turned out not to have been the case.