Kalaupapa: The Mormon Experience in an Exiled Community by Fred E. Woods (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center,

Authors

Emily Cook

Keywords

Kalaupapa, notice

Abstract

As Hansen’s Disease (also known as leprosy) spread rapidly throughout Hawaii in the nineteenth century, the Kalaupapa peninsula was selected as an “isolation settlement for confirmed cases” of leprosy and the location of “a receiving hospital where suspected cases could be treated” (20–21). These individuals were essentially exiled, and one might think that such an isolated community would be a place of loneliness, but Kalaupapa: The Mormon Experience in an Exiled Community explores how, instead, the community was built on love and inclusion and began to thrive and became a sacred space. According to author Fred E. Woods, professor of religious education at Brigham Young University, Kalaupapa “is the story of community— community unlike anywhere else in the world—not a space divided by borders and barriers or fences and enclosures, but a place which beckons every race and religion, every color and creed”.

Recommended Citation

Cook, Emily (2019) "Kalaupapa: The Mormon Experience in an Exiled Community by Fred E. Woods (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center,," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 58: Iss. 1, Article 20.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol58/iss1/20