Mormon Polyandry in Nauvoo
1985; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 18; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/45227986
ISSN1554-9631
Autores Tópico(s)Archaeology and Natural History
Resumooseph Smith emerged from the ferment of Jacksonian America during a time when religion was regaining its hold over American life, when abolitionist groups, temperance movements, and benevolent societies were thriving.Utopian experiments testified to the exuberance of a nation advancing from infancy to childhood.Innocent vitality, limitless resources, a booming economy, and westward expansion nurtured a profound belief in America as the land of destiny, a light to the world.God could not have chosen a better place, a better time, or a better people than the people of early nineteenth-century America for the "restitution of all things."After a decade of religious revivalism, the booming economy of the 1830s had ripened millennial expectations.Word of angelic visitations was greeted with enthusiasm.The heavens were being rolled back.Old men were dreaming dreams, young men saw visions.Women spoke in tongues, and children conversed with angels.New faiths mushroomed.Western New York, where the Prophet grew up, was so frequently swept by the fires of religious enthusiasm that it came to be known as the "burnedover district."It was in this milieu, on 6 April 1830, that Joseph Smith organized the Church of Christ, later renamed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.Like other dynamic movements of the day, the fledgling church was influenced not only by restoration Protestant sectarianism but by flourishing contemporary social experiments.Joseph Smith's unique ability to blend current ideas with his own visionary experiences is evident in the growth of his communal vision.The Prophet's earliest exposure to Utopian thought and practices may have stemmed from a religious sect called the United Society of True Believers in Christ's Second Appearing.Popularly known as the Shakers, the
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