The Destroyer and the Peacemakers, 1984–1990

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Howlett
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
End Of History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Temple

This chapter explores the 1980s Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' schism by the ways individuals mapped the Kirtland Temple within their sacred universes. Such mapping involved revelations about temples, conferences at or near the building, the construction of worship spaces near the temple, the creation of eschatological maps about the temple and its role in the end of history, and the creation of collective memories through commemorative rituals. In this, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members followed practices that had helped establish their church's collective identity in previous decades. What was different, of course, was the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' schism that allowed for an opening to extreme, even violent, mappings of the Kirtland Temple. The chapter then recounts the history of Jeffrey Lundgren, his apocalyptic group, and his violent mapping and actions.

Creating a Cursed and Sanctified Temple, 1965–1984

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Howlett
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
The Creation ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Ambiguous Site

This chapter examines the transformation of the Kirtland Temple as a site of interest into a site of contagion, only then to be blessed along with the surrounding land as a place of promise. While the Kirtland Temple still remained an ambiguous site for many Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pilgrims, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agents on the ground in Cleveland worked out a story that could explain Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' possession of the temple while still embracing it as a holy site. This resanctification of sacred space offers several insights into the study of sacred space that may be “useful to think with.” First, this case study illustrates the power of middling agents in creating and sustaining sacred spaces. Second, it illustrates that the creation and maintenance of sacred space may be one strategy that religious groups use to answer theodical questions, or questions about the presence of evil.

Kirtland Temple

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Howlett
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Sacred Site ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Community Of Christ ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Two Sides

The only temple completed by Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith Jr., the Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio, receives 30,000 Mormon pilgrims every year. Though the site is sacred to all Mormons, the temple's religious significance and the space itself are contested by rival Mormon denominations: its owner, the relatively liberal Community of Christ, and the larger Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This biography of Kirtland Temple is set against the backdrop of religious rivalry. The two sides have long contested the temple's ownership, purpose, and significance in both the courts and Mormon literature. Yet members of each denomination have occasionally cooperated to establish periods of co-worship, host joint tours, and create friendships. The book uses the temple to build a model for understanding what he calls parallel pilgrimage—the set of dynamics of disagreement and alliance by religious rivals at a shared sacred site. At the same time, it illuminates social and intellectual changes in the two main branches of Mormonism since the 1830s, providing a much-needed history of the lesser-known Community of Christ.

The Reconstructed Nauvoo Temple

2018 ◽  
pp. 123-141
Author(s):  
Scott C. Esplin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Church

At the end of the twentieth century, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) embarked on the most ambitious project in the history of Nauvoo’s restoration, the reconstruction of the famed Nauvoo temple. While the branches of Mormonism had settled their differences and established their separate paths in the years leading up to the temple reconstruction, the project opened new wounds within the greater Nauvoo community. This chapter examines the construction of the Nauvoo temple and the resulting reaction by the residents of Nauvoo. It explores the changes the project brought to the city and the contest that developed for the legacy of Nauvoo.

scholarly journals Historiography at the Crossroads

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (33) ◽  
pp. 229-270
Author(s):  
Dmitri Starostin
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
End Of History ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Times ◽  
First Time ◽  
Sacred History

This article suggests that the Carolingian effort in resetting the calendar of history at the time of Charlemagne’s coronation to the year 6000 from the Creation and 801 from the Incarnation of Christ must be considered as only one of the period in the cycle of the processes of realigning, resetting and redeploying the calendar since the times of Augustine. During this period, the calculations necessary for the construction of the calendars and timelines lead to concerns regarding the end of history and the “end of times”. The first time scholars like Jerome and Augustine had to address the ending of the calendar of the universal sacred history that the Christians inherited from the Old Testament was during the 4th and 5th centuries. The Carolingian period witnessed the second “time of reckoning” when Eusebius’ date for the Incarnation of the Anno Mundi 5199 prompted scholars to reconsider the meaning of the Carolingian rule around the year 801, that is, the Anno Mundi 6000.

Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1830-1900

1990 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
James B. Allen ◽  
Edwin Brown Firmage ◽  
Richard Collin Mangrum
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Ashurst-McGee ◽  
Robin Scott Jensen ◽  
Sharalyn D Howcroft
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Early History ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Church

Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen, and Sharalyn D. Howcroft introduce Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources by noting the rich documentary record of the early history of Mormonism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among these the documents from the founding era under Joseph Smith are several major sources to which historians continually turn for information. However, as the authors explain, this is often with little appreciation for the complexity of the circumstances under which these documents were produced. The volume provides several examples of how understanding the complexity of documentary production helps historians to use these sources more critically. The authors individually introduce the chapters of the book.

The Necessity of Historicism

1961 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 560-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Tinder
Keyword(s):  
General View ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
End Of History ◽  
American Students ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Living Person

American students of society and politics for the most part view “historicism”—the ascription to history of an overall direction and goal—with attitudes ranging from skepticism to overt hostility. In the general view, no valid propositions can be framed concerning matters so shrouded in darkness as the course and the end of history. Indeed it may well be asked, when we use such terms, whether we are referring to realities or merely to inventions of the imagination. Historicist theories are also said to tend to undermine concern for the individual; the needs of the present, living person are likely to shrink into apparent insignificance before the imagined events of a future age. On the part of those who in recent years have seen the bloody trails left by pretended ministers of historical missions, such misgivings are understandable.Are social scientists and political thinkers at liberty, however, dogmatically to reject historicism? It is the purpose of this article to argue that they are not. For if history is without meaning, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that social and political affairs, which make up a large part of what we treat as history, are also without meaning. Why then should one study, or take part in, these affairs? What is at stake, in the last analysis, is our right—or duty—to regard the world we inhabit, not merely as alien material to be used or ignored as we please, but as a realm of being with which we are fundamentally united and in which, consequently, we are properly participants.

Recognition, Deference, and Respect: Generalizing the Lessons of an Asymmetric Asian Order

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brantly Womack
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Meiji Japan ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
History Of ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractAs many distinguished academics and officials have pointed out, the current rise of China is not a completely new phenomenon, but rather the return of China to a position of regional centrality and world economic share that were considered normal less than two hundred years ago.1 This fact underlines the importance of history in putting the present into perspective, and at the same time, to the extent that all history is history of the present, it requires a reevaluation of the structure of China's traditional relationships. Hitherto, China's place in modern social science has been in an exotic corner, a failed oriental despotism. To be sure, traditional China did collapse, and today's China is a different China rising in a different world. We might assume that China is rising now precisely because of its differences from traditional China, that it is the last step toward the end of history rather than a resonance with the past. However, the convenience of such an assumption makes it suspect. If China is simply the latest avatar of Western modernity, then it requires of the West some readjustment, but not rethinking. However, the only certainty about China's rise is that it is a complex phenomenon, and the convenience of constructions such as China-as-Prussia or China-as-Meiji Japan derives from their preemption of open-ended study rather than from their insight into complexity. To the extent that China is China, both past and present require reconsideration.

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