American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867–1940

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Denominations, Mormonism, Reference & Language, Education & Teaching, Higher Education
Cover of the book American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867–1940 by Thomas W. Simpson, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Thomas W. Simpson ISBN: 9781469628646
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: August 26, 2016
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Thomas W. Simpson
ISBN: 9781469628646
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: August 26, 2016
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, college-age Latter-day Saints began undertaking a remarkable intellectual pilgrimage to the nation's elite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Chicago, and Stanford. Thomas W. Simpson chronicles the academic migration of hundreds of LDS students from the 1860s through the late 1930s, when church authority J. Reuben Clark Jr., himself a product of the Columbia University Law School, gave a reactionary speech about young Mormons' search for intellectual cultivation. Clark's leadership helped to set conservative parameters that in large part came to characterize Mormon intellectual life.

At the outset, Mormon women and men were purposefully dispatched to such universities to "gather the world's knowledge to Zion." Simpson, drawing on unpublished diaries, among other materials, shows how LDS students commonly described American universities as egalitarian spaces that fostered a personally transformative sense of freedom to explore provisional reconciliations of Mormon and American identities and religious and scientific perspectives. On campus, Simpson argues, Mormon separatism died and a new, modern Mormonism was born: a Mormonism at home in the United States but at odds with itself. Fierce battles among Mormon scholars and church leaders ensued over scientific thought, progressivism, and the historicity of Mormonism's sacred past. The scars and controversy, Simpson concludes, linger.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, college-age Latter-day Saints began undertaking a remarkable intellectual pilgrimage to the nation's elite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Chicago, and Stanford. Thomas W. Simpson chronicles the academic migration of hundreds of LDS students from the 1860s through the late 1930s, when church authority J. Reuben Clark Jr., himself a product of the Columbia University Law School, gave a reactionary speech about young Mormons' search for intellectual cultivation. Clark's leadership helped to set conservative parameters that in large part came to characterize Mormon intellectual life.

At the outset, Mormon women and men were purposefully dispatched to such universities to "gather the world's knowledge to Zion." Simpson, drawing on unpublished diaries, among other materials, shows how LDS students commonly described American universities as egalitarian spaces that fostered a personally transformative sense of freedom to explore provisional reconciliations of Mormon and American identities and religious and scientific perspectives. On campus, Simpson argues, Mormon separatism died and a new, modern Mormonism was born: a Mormonism at home in the United States but at odds with itself. Fierce battles among Mormon scholars and church leaders ensued over scientific thought, progressivism, and the historicity of Mormonism's sacred past. The scars and controversy, Simpson concludes, linger.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book The Piano in America, 1890-1940 by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book Receiving Erin's Children by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book Conceiving the Future by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book The Nation as a Local Metaphor by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book Hitler's Austria by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, 1865 - 1872 by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book The Men and the Moment by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book Battling the Plantation Mentality by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book Sexual Injustice by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book Southeastern Geographer by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book The Lesbian South by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book Iron and Steel by Thomas W. Simpson
Cover of the book A Bitter Peace by Thomas W. Simpson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy