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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Other Protestant & Nonconformist Churches > General
Parley P. Pratt's memoirs impress with their vivid and eventful
accounts of the author's life. Foremost however is the author's
supreme devotion to the Mormon church and the Lord God. Pratt
begins by reminiscing on his youth. The early 19th century was an
exciting but dangerous time to be alive; the United States was a
fledgling nation, and its westward expansion was fraught with a
variety of dangers and hardships. Some trusted only in what they
believed they knew, but Pratt placed his trust in Jesus Christ's
principles from an early age and was in youth part of the Baptist
movement. However, he felt he could go further in God's name, and
this led him to Joseph Smith and the Mormon church. As one of the
earliest members of the Latter Day Saints, Pratt enjoyed a good
degree of influence at the forefront of the church's activity. He
was present as the denomination grew from its roots as a small,
regional group of frontier settlers to a national and international
creed with its base in Utah.
Wife No. 19 is the compelling, informative and emotionally fraught
biography of Ann Eliza Young, a member and wife within the Mormon
church during the 19th century. Young sets out to chronicle a
lengthy expos of the various misdeeds she witnessed or was
personally part of. She describes the character of the founder and
prophet of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, in the context of his
interpersonal relationships. The gradual emergence of polygamy, and
its uptake among the higher ranking members of the church, is
detailed. Although the title highlights the polygamous
relationships for which Mormonism gained notoriety, this book does
not shy away from the other scandals or controversies. For example;
the means via which Brigham Young dishonestly relieved his
followers of their money, possessions and cattle via a number of
schemes, and the frequent use of the local Native American
populations as scapegoats.
Celestial Marriage - the ""doctrine of the plurality of wives"" -
polygamy. No issue in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (popularly known as the Mormon Church) has
attracted more attention. From its contentious and secretive
beginnings in the 1830s to its public proclamation in 1852, and
through almost four decades of bitter conflict with the federal
government to Church renunciation of the practice in 1890, this
belief helped define a new religious identity and unify the Mormon
people, just as it scandalized their neighbors and handed their
enemies the most effective weapon they wielded in their battle
against Mormon theocracy. Doing the Works of Abraham provides the
basic documents supporting and challenging Mormon polygamy,
supported by the concise commentary and documentation of editor B.
Carmon Hardy. Plural marriage is everywhere at hand in Mormon
history. However, despite its omnipresence, including a broad and
continuing stream of publications devoted to it, few attempts have
been made to assemble a documentary history of the topic. Hardy has
drawn on years of research and writing on the controversial and
complex subject to make this narrative collection of documents
illuminating and myth-shattering. The second ""relic of
barbarism,"" as the Republican Party platform of 1856 characterized
polygamy, was believed by the Saints to be God's law, trumping the
laws of a mere republic. The long struggle for what was, and for
some fundamentalists remains, religious freedom still resonates in
American religious law. Throughout the West, thousands of families
continue the practice, even In the face of LDS Church opposition.
C. S. Lewis, long renowned for his children's books as well as his
Christian apologetics, has been the subject of wide interest since
he first stepped-up to the BBC's microphone during the Second World
War. Until now, however, the reasons why this medievalist began
writing books for a popular audience, and why these books have
continued to be so popular, had not been fully explored. In fact
Lewis, who once described himself as by nature an 'extreme
anarchist', was a critical controversialist in his time-and not to
everyone's liking. Yet, somehow, Lewis's books directed at children
and middlebrow Christians have continued to resonate in the decades
since his death in 1963. Stephanie L. Derrick considers why this is
the case, and why it is more true in America than in Lewis's
home-country of Britain. The story of C. S. Lewis's fame is one
that takes us from his childhood in Edwardian Belfast, to the
height of international conflict during the 1940s, to the rapid
expansion of the paperback market, and on to readers' experiences
in the 1980s and 1990s, and, finally, to London in November 2013,
where Lewis was honoured with a stone in Poet's Corner in
Westminster Abbey. Derrick shows that, in fact, the author himself
was only one actor among many shaping a multi-faceted image. The
Fame of C. S. Lewis is the most comprehensive account of Lewis's
popularity to date, drawing on a wealth of fresh material and with
much to interest scholars and C. S. Lewis admirers alike.
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