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The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power Hardcover – December 15, 1994

by D. Michael Quinn (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 83 ratings
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 Converts to Joseph Smith’s 1828 restoration of primitive Christianity were attracted to the non-hierarchical nature of the movement. It was precisely because there were no priests, ordinances, or dogma that people joined in such numbers. Smith intended everyone to be a prophet, and anyone who felt called was invited to minister freely without formal office.

Not until seven years later did Mormons first learn that authority had been restored by angels or of the need for a hierarchy mirroring the Pauline model. That same year (1835) a Quorum of Twelve Apostles was organized, but their jurisdiction was limited to areas outside established stakes (dioceses). Stakes were led by a president, who oversaw spiritual development, and by a bishop, who supervised temporal needs.

At Smith’s martyrdom in 1844, the church had five leading quorums of authority. The most obvious successor to Smith, Illinois stake president William Marks, opposed the secret rites of polygamy, anointing, endowments, and the clandestine political activity that had characterized the church in Illinois. The secret Council of Fifty had recently ordained Smith as King on Earth and sent ambassadors abroad to form alliances against the United States.

The majority of church members knew nothing of these developments, but they followed Brigham Young, head of the Quorum of the Twelve, who spoke forcefully and moved decisively to eliminate contenders for the presidency. He continued to build on Smith’s political and doctrinal innovations and social stratification. Young’s twentieth-century legacy is a well-defined structure without the charismatic spontaneity or egalitarian chaos of the early church.

Historian D. Michael Quinn examines the contradictions and confusion of the first two tumultuous decades of LDS history. He demonstrates how events and doctrines were silently, retroactively inserted into the published form of scriptures and records to smooth out the stormy, haphazard development. The bureaucratization of Mormonism was inevitable, but the manner in which it occurred was unpredictable and will be, for readers, fascinating.

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  1. Print length
    686 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Signature Books
  4. Publication date
    December 15, 1994
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 2.6 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1560850566
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1560850564
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

D. Michael Quinn (Ph.D., history, Yale University) is an Affiliated Scholar at the University of Southern California’s Center for Feminist Research. He has been a full-time researcher and writer, a professor of history at Brigham Young University, and a visiting professor of history (2002-03) at Yale. His accolades include Best Book awards from the American Historical Association and the Mormon History Association.

His major works include Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark, the two-volume Mormon Hierarchy series (Origins of Power, Extensions of Power), and Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example. He is the editor of The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past and a contributor to American National Biography;Encyclopedia of New York State; Fundamentalisms and Society: Reclaiming the Sciences, the Family, and Education; the New Encyclopedia of the American West; Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America’s Western Past; and others.

He has also received honors—fellowships and grants—from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Henry E. Huntington Library, Indiana-Purdue University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition, he has been a keynote speaker at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, the Chicago Humanities Symposium, Claremont Graduate University, University of Paris (France), Washington State Historical Society, and elsewhere, and a consultant for television documentaries carried by the Arts and Entertainment Channel, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the History Channel, and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

 Chapter 1

The Evolution of Authority

Before it was an organization, Mormonism was a private religious awakening in a single family. Born in December 1805, Joseph Smith, Jr., became the most prominent seer in his family. His parents Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack nurtured all their children in a home where the wondrous, mundane, and spiritual commingled.1 In the beginning, their religious activities did not differ dramatically from the experiences of their contemporaries. The impulse which led to founding a church developed gradually as did the structure of that church once it began. Eventually Mormonism became a hierarchical institution with a complex “priesthood” system. Understanding the growing sense of “church” and the increasingly structured view of authority as priesthood is necessary to comprehend the currently elaborate organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Signature Books; 1st edition (December 15, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 686 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1560850566
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1560850564
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.83 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 2.6 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 83 ratings

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D. Michael Quinn

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4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
83 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Scott M Jensen
5.0 out of 5 stars Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2023
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Page 24-25 is one of the great pearls of LDS Church History in my view and the book is worth purchase if you only buy it for that purpose. I am grateful for the author finding this.
2 people found this helpful
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Maximus Dad
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Research / A Must Read
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2013
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This is a spectacular effort of Scholarly Research. My hat off to Quinn for 'Idolizing the Truth' as a dedicated researcher of history.

Ironically, correlated LDS Sunday School is focused on Church History for 2013, and in this respect, Quinn's Tome is the advanced PhD 'Scholarly/Research' Manual and the weekly LDS Gospel Doctrine Church History Guide simply is proof that maintaining 'Religious Faith' has, does, and will always force the Salt Lake City LDS Church to present a watered down and severely altered view of history and reality.

I'm looking forward to 'Extensions of Power' now to arrive from Amazon.

mg
7 people found this helpful
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Matthew Bryde
4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough research of retroactive LDS church history
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2014
Verified Purchase
D. Michael Quinn, a former research assistant to the Church Historian's Office, has accumulated many sources to paint the history he portrays. He shows the reader that the "church" as it is structured today with defined Priesthood offices and responsibilities was not how it always was. These offices evolved over time and as such required previous revelations to be revised and events from the past to be retroactively documented to fit Joseph Smith's evolving concept of "church" and authority.

Quinn then moves onto the succession crisis after the death of Joseph Smith and how there were MANY valid succession claims, each with considered merit. The problem being that Joseph Smith never felt the need to declare his replacement as he believed he would usher in the millennium and there would be no need to prepare a replacement any time soon (despite the fact he named various men as his successor over the years). This section ends with the manoeuvring of Brigham Young in making the Twelve the ultimate in authority and in establishing succession of future presidents.

Half the book (as with all Quinn books) is made up of footnotes and sources. As Joseph Smith himself stated "No man knows my history" and this rendition is Quinn's (informed) version and subject to rare cases of personal conjecture. However, whatever your view, you cannot fault his research efforts.

In summary, this book, provides evidence that the early LDS church had no qualms in rewriting history to hide or change previously recorded events that either contradict the current doctrinal standpoint, or past accounts that undermine their authority claims as God's true church.
20 people found this helpful
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Mike
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible detail. Quinn's books are some of the most ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2015
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Incredible detail. Quinn's books are some of the most well-documented history books I've ever read. Although Mormon history is a genre that has a tendency to be divisive, Quinn's straight-forward and detailed presentation of the facts relies on the story itself and leaves the reader to decide what it means. He gets details that no other historian seems to get. I rely on Michael Quinn's recitation of Mormon history more than that of any other historian, including those of the LDS Church itself.
10 people found this helpful
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Amanshall
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read to understand the Mormon Priesthood
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2017
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Incredibly thorough recounting of the origin and evolution of the Mormon Priesthood...the interplay of the numerous and sprawling succession options is the most interesting part of the book. It can be a little bit of a tedious read in parts due to the dense dates, timelines, characters, and sources. Overall it is a must read for those wanting to really understand the origin and evolution of the priesthood.
4 people found this helpful
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Aaron
5.0 out of 5 stars it will blow your socks off. mike quinn's well ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2015
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it will blow your socks off. mike quinn's well documented book allows you in to see how the LDS church has evolved in process, doctrine and decision making. a must read for all history buffs.
8 people found this helpful
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Irene Ringworm
4.0 out of 5 stars For your consideration
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2017
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Getting the straight dope on LDS Church History often seems to be a tug-o-war between sanitized 'official' histories and provocative 'anti-Mormon' works. Quinn opts instead for a descriptive approach, laying out the facts as he sees them and leaving the analysis largely to the reader. Quinn occasionally tips his hand by including sensational (and sometimes poorly substantiated) claims but 'reels it in' elsewhere by providing context for points of history that are easily misinterpreted. The end result is neither objective nor even-handed - simply an organized warts-and-all history. Faithful Latter-Day Saints may find some of the material discomfiting or surprising but will not be put off by Quinn's approach.

Quinn's work is meticulously documented but there is a wide range in the veracity of the referenced source material that is not immediately apparent from the primary text. Quinn is generally careful to comment when sources disagree, but there are a few places where an outlier viewpoint is presented as an 'official' LDS Church position. This is a minor concern for an otherwise valuable work, but the discerning reader should understand that all footnotes are not created equal.
6 people found this helpful
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D. Darby
5.0 out of 5 stars Awake and Arise
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2010
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If you are interested in a well researched and documented (over 50% of the pages are notes) history of LDS origins then this is a good book to read. It is not limited to 'faithful history'.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

John R D Brady
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on July 20, 2015
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Quinn MUST NVER BE DROPPED...EXCELLENT
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