Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition

Rating:
Summary: Shipps fails to address controversial aspects of LDS church
Review: I found this book to be a generally accurate account of Mormonism by a non-mormon apologist. It's very disappointing that the author did not address adequately any of the many controversial aspects of the historical or present-day LDS church.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent explanation on how new religions form
Review: Shipps book is not so much a history of the Mormon church as a case study for how new religions comes into being. Theoretically, this is an extremely helpful book for anyone attempting to understand the nuts and bolts of how a religion comes to explain itself to both outsiders and its own members. Shipps argues that new religions must be studied from both the inside and outside as the people on either side of the new "truth" have different paradigms and thus diferent realities. New religions are built on "foundational tripods" of a prophet, a new scripture, and a shared history. They have to form a new history to justify and explain their existence and they usually do this through a process of Reiteration, Reinterpretation, Recapitulation, and Ritual Re-Creation of the older tradition they are springing from (Christianity did this as it separated from Judaism just as Mormonism did it as it separated from Protestantism). Shipps shows how a group's history must be guarded and defended for it is what grounds and justifies the group. She concludes by presenting a remarkably clear section on how groups' identities depend on their ability to set themselves apart as special and different from the outside world. When this can't be done corporately (through a widely recognized variance with mainstream society, like polygamy), then it must be done personally (such as through a distinctive diet, dress, or ceremonial tradition). All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and informative book. A must-read for all students of American religion.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent explanation on how new religions form
Review: Shipps book is not so much a history of the Mormon church as a case study for how new religions comes into being. Theoretically, this is an extremely helpful book for anyone attempting to understand the nuts and bolts of how a religion comes to explain itself to both outsiders and its own members. Shipps argues that new religions must be studied from both the inside and outside as the people on either side of the new "truth" have different paradigms and thus diferent realities. New religions are built on "foundational tripods" of a prophet, a new scripture, and a shared history. They have to form a new history to justify and explain their existence and they usually do this through a process of Reiteration, Reinterpretation, Recapitulation, and Ritual Re-Creation of the older tradition they are springing from (Christianity did this as it separated from Judaism just as Mormonism did it as it separated from Protestantism). Shipps shows how a group's history must be guarded and defended for it is what grounds and justifies the group. She concludes by presenting a remarkably clear section on how groups' identities depend on their ability to set themselves apart as special and different from the outside world. When this can't be done corporately (through a widely recognized variance with mainstream society, like polygamy), then it must be done personally (such as through a distinctive diet, dress, or ceremonial tradition). All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and informative book. A must-read for all students of American religion.

Rating:
Summary: Persuasive work on the development of the LDS church.
Review: The book focuses on the development of the Mormon church from its small beginnings to the 10.5 million members it has today. Her arugement is that Mormonism is a new religious tradition in the sense that it grew outside of the mainstream Protestantism of America in the 1830's. She argues that although it has aspects of Old Testament Judaism and New Testament Christianity the Mormon church should be considered another Religious tradition that is developing into a world religion. Overall the book is persuasive, but I found some of the logic or proofs strained and hard to follow. It is favorable towards the church and does tend to gloss over the controversial parts of the LDS faith.

Rating:
Summary: Persuasive work on the development of the LDS church.
Review: The book focuses on the development of the Mormon church from its small beginnings to the 10.5 million members it has today. Her arugement is that Mormonism is a new religious tradition in the sense that it grew outside of the mainstream Protestantism of America in the 1830's. She argues that although it has aspects of Old Testament Judaism and New Testament Christianity the Mormon church should be considered another Religious tradition that is developing into a world religion. Overall the book is persuasive, but I found some of the logic or proofs strained and hard to follow. It is favorable towards the church and does tend to gloss over the controversial parts of the LDS faith.