Much misunderstood, Mormonism had a colorful beginning in the 19th century, as a visionary named Joseph Smith founded and built a community of believers with their own unique faith. In the late-20th century, the church had to come to terms with its own growth and organization, as well as with the increasing pervasiveness of globalization, secularization, and cultural changes. Today Mormonism is one of the major religions in America, and continues to grow internationally. However, though the church itself remains strong, it is elusive to those of other faiths. Here, a seasoned author and third-generation Mormon sheds light on the everyday lives and practices of faithful Mormons. Bushman's readers will come away with a more thorough appreciation of what it means to be Mormon in the modern world. Much misunderstood, Mormonism had a colorful beginning in the 19th century, as a visionary named Joseph Smith founded and built a community of believers with their own unique faith. In the late-20th century, the church had to come to terms with its own growth and organization, as well as with the increasing pervasiveness of globalization, secularization, and cultural changes. Today Mormonism is one of the major religions in America, and one that continues to grow internationally. However, though the church itself remains strong, it is elusive to those of other faiths. Here, a seasoned author and third-generation Mormon sheds light on the everyday lives and practices of faithful Mormons. Bushman's readers will come away with a more thorough appreciation of what it means to be Mormon in the modern world. Following Brigham Young into the Great Basin and founding communities that have endured for over 100 years, Mormons have forged a rich history in this country even as they built communities around the world. But the origins of this faith and those who adhere to it remain mysterious to many in the United States. Bushman allows readers a vivid glimpse into the lives of Mormons-their beliefs, rituals, and practices, as well as their views on race, ethnicity, social class, gender, and sexual orientation. The voices of actual Mormons reveal much about their inspiration, devotion, patriotism, individualism, and conservatism. With its mythical history and unlikely success, many wonder what has made this religion endure through the years. Here, readers will find answers to their questions about what it means to be Mormon in contemporary America.

Two powerful and interrelated transnational cultural expressions mark our epoch. They are Charismatic spirituality and the global city. This book offers a fresh and challenging articulation of the character of the charismatic renewal of Christianity in the framework of global cities, the socio-economic situation of poor urban residents, and urban space, resulting in a vision for the future city as a religious, ethical, and political space. The book studies the social, economic, and ethical implications of the charismatic renewal on urban living and urban design aimed at promoting human flourishing. From multidisciplinary perspectives Nimi Wariboko investiages the nature and impact of interreligious dialogues and encounters between charismatic Christianity and other religions in global cities.

Drawing from research conducted in Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda, Christianity, Islam, and Liberal Democracy offers a deeper understanding on how Christian and Islamic faith communities affect the political attitudes of those who belong to them and, in turn, prospects for liberal democracy. While many analysts have thought that religious diversity in developing countries is most often an obstacle to liberal democracy that creates political instability, the book concludes just the opposite. Robert A. Dowd draws on narrative accounts, in-depth interviews, and large-scale surveys to show that Christian and Islamic religious communities are more likely to support liberal democracy in religiously diverse and integrated settings than in religiously homogeneous or segregated settings. Religious diversity, in other words, is good for liberal democracy. In religiously diverse environments, religious leaders tend to be more encouraging of civic engagement, democracy, and religious liberty. The evidence, Dowd argues, should prompt policymakers interested in cultivating religiously-inspired support for liberal democracy to aid in the formation of religiously diverse neighborhoods, cities, and political organizations.

Pilgrimage into Pentecost explores the life and legacy of Howard M. Ervin, Th.D., chronicling Ervin's pilgrimage from his beginnings as Baptist pastor to his global influence as a Pentecostal leader. His exegetical theology led him to advocate a distinctively Lukan theology of the Holy Spirit, and he became for a while the leading scholarly apologist for the classical Pentecostal doctrine of Spirit baptism. Ervin's scholarship spurred fruitful theological debate on the contemporary work of the Holy Spirit, especially with New Testament scholar James D.G. Dunn, while his extensive ecumenical pastoral ministry demonstrated the Spirit's work of unifying the body of Christ. Pilgrimage into Pentecost not only pays well-deserved tribute to a pioneer of Pentecostal scholarship but also offers his devout scholarship and distinguished forty-year teaching career at Oral Roberts University (ORU) as an example for others.

Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally wrote, dictated, or commissioned thousands of documents. Among these are several highly significant sources that scholars have used over and over again in their attempts to reconstruct the founding era of Mormonism, usually by focusing solely on content, without a deep appreciation for how and why a document was produced. This book offers case studies of the sources most often used by historians of the early Mormon experience. Each chapter takes a particular document as its primary subject, considering the production of a document as an historical event in itself, with its own background, purpose, circumstances, and consequences. The documents are examined not merely as sources of information but as artifacts that reflect aspects of the general culture and particular circumstances in which they were created. This book will help historians working in the founding era of Mormonism gain a more solid grounding in the period's documentary record by supplying important information on major primary sources.

One of the unique aspects of the religious profession is the high percentage of those who claim to be "called by God" to do their work. This call is particularly important within African American Christian traditions. Divine Callings offers a rare sociological examination of this markedly understudied phenomenon within black ministry. Richard N. Pitt draws on over 100 in-depth interviews with Black Pentecostal ministers in the Church of God in Christ-both those ordained and licensed and those aspiring-to examine how these men and women experience and pursue "the call." Viewing divine calling as much as a social process as it is a spiritual one, Pitt delves into the personal stories of these individuals to explore their work as active agents in the process of fulfilling their calling. In some cases, those called cannot find pastoral work due to gender discrimination, lack of clergy positions, and educational deficiencies. Pitt looks specifically at how those who have not obtained clergy positions understand their call, exploring the influences of psychological experience, the congregational acceptance of their call, and their response to the training process. He emphasizes how those called reconceptualize clericalism in terms of who can be called, how that call has to be certified, and what those called are meant to do, offering insight into how social actors adjust to structural constraints.

The global growth of Pentecostal movements during the course of the twentieth century has been widely documented although, to date, there has been little written on their developing ecclesiology. After making the case for a concrete rather than idealised approach to ecclesiology, this book describes and analyses the transitions that have framed the ways in which Australian Pentecostals have understood church life and mission. From a loosely knit faith missions movement, to congregational free church structures, to the so-called apostolic models of mega-churches, Australian pentecostalism stands as a microcosmos of ecclesial developments that have occurred throughout the world. This book, therefore, provides a means of reflecting upon what has been gained and lost in the process of ecclesiological change.

The Community of True Inspiration, or Inspirationists, was one of the most successful religious communities in the United States. This collection offers a broad variety of Inspirationist texts, almost all of them translated from German and published here for the first time.

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than fifty women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have been distorted by hagiography or polemical expose, John Turner provides a fully realized portrait of a colossal figure in American religion, politics, and westward expansion.

After the 1844 murder of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Young gathered those Latter-day Saints who would follow him and led them over the Rocky Mountains. In Utah, he styled himself after the patriarchs, judges, and prophets of ancient Israel. As charismatic as he was autocratic, he was viewed by his followers as an indispensable protector and by his opponents as a theocratic, treasonous heretic.

Under his fiery tutelage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints defended plural marriage, restricted the place of African Americans within the church, fought the U.S. Army in 1857, and obstructed federal efforts to prosecute perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. At the same time, Young's tenacity and faith brought tens of thousands of Mormons to the American West, imbued their everyday lives with sacred purpose, and sustained his church against adversity. Turner reveals the complexity of this spiritual prophet, whose commitment made a deep imprint on his church and the American Mountain West."

This book presents the history and theology of a remarkable body of Christians, formed as a result of the revival of interest in the prophetic Scriptures stimulated by the events of the French Revolution. Here we have an example of a charismatic renewal within the mainstream Churches, which was rejected by them, and which hence led to a worldwide body, governed by "restored apostles," and with its own structure, liturgy, doctrine, and hierarchy of ministers. It was a movement directed towards the reunion of the Churches, uncompromising in its adherence to Scripture, its typological interpretation of the Old Testament, and in its longing for the Parousia. It sought to bring together all that was best in the various Christian traditions. Eastern as well as Western, in preparation for the return of the Church's Bridegroom in glory. The strong ecumenical purpose of this body; its approach to the reunification of Churches and clergy; the breadth and beauty of its liturgy; its resolution of internal tensions between the charismatic and established hierarchical ministries; and its emphasis on eschatology: all these are of particular relevance to Christians today.