Why, when traditionally organized religious groups are seeing declining membership and participation, are networks of independent churches growing so explosively? Drawing on in-depth interviews with leaders and participants, The Rise of Network Christianity explains the social forces behind the fastest growing form of Christianity in the U.S., which Brad Christerson and Richard Flory have labeled "Independent Network Christianity" (INC). This form of Christianity emphasizes aggressive engagement with the supernatural, including healing, direct prophecies from God, engaging in "spiritual warfare" against demonic spirits, and social transformation. Christerson and Flory argue that large-scale social changes since the 1970s, including globalization and the digital revolution have given competitive advantages to religious groups organized by networks rather than traditionally organized congregations and denominations. Network forms of church governance allow for experimentation with controversial supernatural practices, innovative finances and marketing, and a highly participatory, unorthodox, and experiential faith, which is attractive in today's unstable religious marketplace. Christerson and Flory argue that as more religious groups imitate this type of governance, religious belief and practice will become more experimental, more oriented around practice than belief, more shaped by the individual religious "consumer" and that authority will become more highly concentrated in the hands of individuals rather than institutions.

From 1945 to 1990 communist East Germany was an officially atheistic state. Nevertheless, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced their religion there. "Mormons as Citizens of a Communist State "is based on primary sources---government and church documents, interviews, and private leters ---to create a documentary history of the church during that historical period.

The history of church-state relations begins with attempts to terminate the church's legal status in the early 1950s, continues with the building of the Freiberg Temple from 1983 to 1985 (the only LDS temple ever built in a communist state), and concludes with the historic meeting in 1988 between current LDS Church President Tomas S. Monson and Chairman Erich Honecker that permitted the entry of LDS missionaries from the West.

The relationship between the Latter-day Saint citizens and their atheistic government is a major theme of this book. Did church members manage to be true to their faith and simultaneously function as citizens within that state, and if so, how did they achieve that balance?

Mormons as Citizens of a Communist State was originally published in German in 2008 by Leipzig University Press.

Born in Kentucky in 1810 and raised for a time in both Quaker and Shaker communities, Hosea Stout converted to Mormonism in his late twenties. He eventually rose to great rank within the religion, serving in Nauvoo as clerk of the High Council, officer in the militia and in the Nauvoo Legion, and chief of police. After the murder of Joseph Smith he was made acting brigadier general of the Nauvoo Legion and later directed the exodus from Nauvoo. In Utah, Stout served as captain of the guard in the Brigham Young Company of 1848 and, in 1849, became the first attorney general of the Territory of Utah. Two years later he became a representative to the Utah Legislature, filling for a time the role of Speaker of the House.
Stout's two autobiographies provide a glimpse into his early life and conversion to Mormonism. Though Stout received only a frontier education, he nonetheless became literate and his writings are filled with wonderful prose. He was a complex man who held a tender and genuine love for his family and an enduring commitment to his religion, but who was at the same time an imposing figure with a sharp temper, ready at all times to rebuke through force.
Originally published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in 1962, Stout's two autobiographies have never been reprinted. The shorter autobiography, written in 1845 for his Seventies Quorum in Nauvoo, covers a later time period than does the first and is written in almost abridged form. Stout commenced his second, more engaging autobiography while at Winter Quarters in 1847. Though incomplete (the final entry is for the year 1835), the work gives great insight into the complexities of Stout and the early life experiences that helped to shape an important and controversial man, a figure who deserves to be much better known in the annals of Mormon history.