Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition [Paperback]

Jan Shipps (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0252014170 | ISBN-13: 978-0252014178 | Publication Date: January 1, 1987

"Shipps has found a way to understand the Mormons that will truly please both believers and non-believers". ("New York Times Book Review"). "This may be the most brilliant book ever written on Mormonism. It is insightful, inspiring, and original and sure to become a landmark work on the subject". (Richard L. Bushman, author of "Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism").

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Shipps has found a way to understand the Mormons that will truly please both believers and non-believers." New York Times Book Review "This may be the most brilliant book ever written on Mormonism. It is insightful, inspiring, and original and sure to become a landmark work on the subject." Richard L. Bushman, author of Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (January 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252014170
• ISBN-13: 978-0252014178
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent explanation on how new religions form, July 14, 1999

By 

[e-mail] Mark Metzler Sawin (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Paperback)

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Major Statement of the Origins and Development of the Latter-day Saint Faith in the Nineteenth Century, February 9, 2006

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Paperback)

Jan Shipps has been the modern equivalent of Thomas L. Kane, a sympathetic outsider who helps explain Mormonism to the world beyond the borders of Deseret. "Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition" is her master statement. I read this book when it first came out more than twenty years ago; on rereading it, I recognize even more clearly than previously how it was a benchmark in the historiography of the LDS religion. Shipps's thesis is encapsulated in this book's subtitle, that the Latter-day Saint religion is completely separate from the Protestant tradition that spawned it in the early nineteenth century--perhaps as distinct from it as Christianity is from Judaism. She writes, "Of the cultic movements whose members accepted radically revised or fundamentally altered versions of the faith stories regnant in their cultures, only Christianity and Mormonism are now full-scale religious traditions" (p. 50). It is a powerful thesis, and Shipps argues on behalf of it with eloquence and alacrity. It is also a thesis that is at its base attractive to members of the Latter-day Saint church, since they view themselves as a "peculiar people," and therefore it has been embraced as an explanation for the exceptionalism of the religion.

Using the literature of both cultural anthropology and sociology to buttress her thesis, Shipps makes explicit comparisons between the Mormon/Protestant and the Christian/Jewish traditions. She unabashedly draws parallels and makes insightful comparisons. More to the point, she also questions many of Mormonism's cherished principles about a restoration of ancient Christianity. At the same time, she gives full measure to the religious innovations, such as esoteric temple rituals, plural marriage, and a host of other oddities. I am especially taken with her discussion of the role of historical investigation in her analysis. Shipps believes that the depiction of events in the Mormon past is more significant to the health of the religion than for most other faiths. Accordingly, an overtly mythic history has emerged and there is exceptionally little wiggle room for reinterpretation of the agreed upon "master narrative." Since I am personally enthralled with the power of myth in the making of image and memory I find these observations fascinating.

There is much to praise in this important book, and little to criticize. Some have questioned Shipps's thesis in the context of the twentieth century, for Mormonism appears to many observers more American than America and not all that distinctive, certainly not a religious tradition comparable to early Christianity's relationship to Judaism. For those immersed in Mormon studies, however, her thesis holds up quite well for the more recent past just as it does for earlier eras.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Persuasive work on the development of the LDS church., December 17, 1999

By 

L. Troy Beals (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Paperback)

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.