A Kingdom Transformed: Early Mormonism and the Modern LDS Church - Softcover

Gordon Shepherd (author) & Gary Shepard (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607814447 ISBN 13: 9781607814443

Publisher: University of Utah Press, 2015

Synopsis

To survive in an often disapproving society, the LDS Church has made adaptive changes in belief, practice, and organization over time. Gordon and Gary Shepherd elucidate these changes through statistical analyses of the rhetoric found in proceedings of the church’s semiannual General Conference. The first edition of A Kingdom Transformed covered the years 1830 to 1979. This new edition revises that work and adds to it by examining the subsequent thirty years of conference talks, revealing what new trends have emerged. Every chapter has been rewritten and updated with theoretical and empirical support from contemporary sources and a new conceptual framework for interpreting findings.

Early twentieth-century LDS leaders mainstreamed church doctrines, but by the mid-twentieth century, church authorities began emphasizing a more conservative theology that coincided with an increasingly conservative political orientation. This new edition adds such current issues as the roles of women in the church and of international growth versus member retention.

About this title

Review:

"This book is surprisingly easy to read, virtually jargon-free, and provides a substantial overview of Mormonism's core beliefs, practices, and history. For those interested, this book includes three appendices that detail this study's statistical method and data. And as a theoretical approach to Mormonism, A Kingdom Transformed yields new insights and suggests new directions for those interested in Mormon studies."--Nova Religio

"A valuable addition, both substantively and methodologically, to the study of the transformations that have occurred in institutional Mormonism across time... It will be an easy and interesting read."
--Armand L. Mauss, author of Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport: Intellectual Journeys of a Mormon Academic
"The book is already an essential work on Mormonism in the twentieth century; this new edition, expanding its reach into the twenty-first century, is quite welcome."
--Matthew Bowman, author of The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith

"Shepherd and Shepherd have produced a remarkable piece of scholarship in A Kingdom Transformed. By zooming out and examining aggregate trends in emphasis over time, they have provided a real contribution to the study of the development of the church, and one can hope that the authors or others picking up their legacy will continue to update this important study going into the future."
--Mormon Studies Review

About the Author:

Gordon Shepherd is a professor of sociology at the University of Central Arkansas, USA.

Gary Shepherd is Professor Emeritus of sociology at Oakland University in Michigan, USA. The Shepherds (identical twins) have collaborated on a number of scholarly projects over many years, including six books.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Utah Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1607814447
• ISBN 13: 9781607814443
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 368