AMERICAN ZION

A history professor takes on the history of a faith that has “been contested from the very start.”

Mormonism—officially, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—is the product of a period of religious fervor that swept the northeastern U.S. in the 1820s and ’30s, a venue for enough fire-and-brimstone sermonizing that the area was called the “burned-over district.” In that context, Joseph Smith unveiled a story of a lost Christianity native to America in which his “religious and supernatural obsessions…intersected.” Moreover, it emerged in a time of schismatic religions, otherworldly obsessions, and a widespread belief that buried treasure awaited discovery everywhere. Smith’s story became the Book of Mormon, “America’s most substantial contribution to the world’s scriptural canon.” Park, the author of Kingdom of Nauvoo, is respectful but not uncritical. He is particularly interested in the near-reversal of two of Mormonism’s foundational tenets, the first being an independent theocratic state, the second polygamy, “Utah’s worst-kept secret.” Both gave Mormonism the reputation of being anti-American, even if early Mormons “nearly canonized” the Constitution. In response, the church’s leadership decreed an ultra-patriotic, conservative worldview. Whereas Utah overwhelmingly voted for Franklin Roosevelt during the 1930s and ’40s, its voters chose Donald Trump over Joseph Biden even more enthusiastically in 2016 and 2020. One of its leaders, Ezra Taft Benson, was so committed to his racist doctrine that he came close to signing on as segregationist Strom Thurmond’s running mate in 1968. Today, even as the Mormon leadership has adopted a policy allowing unencumbered historical research such as Park’s, there are ongoing doctrinal battles involving race, gender, and politics—battles that may soon take a surprising turn, given that Republicans are in the minority among Mormon millennials, who espouse many progressive ideas.

A welcome updating of earlier studies, and a readable, engaging work of religious history.