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Description
The Mormon tradition's emphasis on prophetic authority makes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unique within America's religious culture. The religion that Joseph Smith created established a kingdom of God in a land distrustful of monarchy while positioning Smith as Christ's voice on earth, with the power to form cities, establish economies, and arrange governments.
Prophetic Authority traces the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' claim to religious authority and sets it within the context of its times. Delving into the evolution of the concept of prophetic authority, MacKay shows how the Church emerged as a hierarchical democracy with power diffused among leaders Smith chose. At the same time, Smith's settled place atop the hierarchy granted him an authority that spared early Mormonism the internal conflict that doomed other religious movements. Though Smith faced challenges from other leaders, the nascent Church repeatedly turned to him to decide civic plans and define the order of both the cosmos and the priesthood.
”Was early Mormonism excessively democratic, representative of a newly disestablished society? Or deeply theocratic, echoing the skeptical backlash against those same liberating impulses? In this exhaustively researched and sophisticatedly argued book, Michael MacKay argues that it is not an 'either, or' but 'yes, and.' And in doing so, MacKay digs into some of founding—and foundational—paradoxes concerning religion in the early American republic.”
—Benjamin E Park, author of American Nationalisms: Imagining Union in an Age of Revolutions, 1783–1833
”In Prophetic Authority, MacKay gives us the most thorough and painstaking description of the slow blossoming of the Mormon priesthood hierarchy available, embedding the story in the raucous context of antebellum American democracy. Valuable for anyone who wants to understand either of those worlds better.”
—Matthew Bowman, author of Christian: The Politics of a Word in America
Table of Contents
Introduction: Antebellum Religious Authority and the Development of Mormon Priesthood 1
1 Prophetic Authority: The Prophet of the Burned-Over District
2 Authority, Baptism, and Angelic Restoration
3 Apostleship and the Authority of Change
4 Church: Materializing Authority and Ordaining the Prophet
5 The Development of Mormon Priesthood
6 The Kingdom of God: The Authority of Peter, James, and John
7 Calculating Salvation: Priesthood Practice and Mormon Ritual
Epilogue: The Fullness of the Priesthood
Keywords
authority, Mormon, religious authority, Antebellum America
Language
English
ISBN
025208487X
Publication Date
2020-04-06
Rights
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
College
Religious Education
Department
Church History and Doctrine