Overview

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 6 million members in the United States today (and 13 million worldwide). Yet, while there has been extensive study of Mormon history, comparatively little scholarly attention has been paid to contemporary Mormons. The best sociological study of Mormon life, Thomas O'Dea's The Mormons, is now over fifty years old. What is it like to be a Mormon in America today? Melvyn Hammarberg attempts to answer this question by offering an ethnography of contemporary Mormons. In The Mormon Quest for Glory, Hammarberg examines Mormon history, rituals, social organization, family connections, gender roles, artistic traditions, use of media, and missionary work. He writes as a sympathetic outsider who has studied Mormon life for decades, and strives to explain the religious world of the Latter-day Saints through the lens of their own spiritual understanding. Drawing on a survey, participant observation, interviews, focus groups, attendance at religious gatherings, diaries, church periodicals, lesson manuals, and other church literature, Hammarberg aims to present a comprehensive picture of the religious world of the Latter-day Saints.

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9780199737628

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Reviews

Anyone reading The Mormon Quest for Glory will come away with a good grasp of the Mormon way of life-what it's like to believe and live as a Mormon from day to day. It is also authentic: Anyone living as a Mormon in a local Mormon ward (congregation, community) would agree, 'Yeah-that's us. That's the way it is.' Such is quite an accomplishment for a non-Mormon ethnographer, and Hammarberg is to be congratulated. -- Armand L. Mauss, Washington State University Hammarberg's engaging ethnography of modern Mormonism systematically demonstrates how a cohesive religious culture effectively shapes the values, identities, and lives of its members, providing humanizing insights into the actual practice of the LDS faith not previously assembled in a single volume. -- Gordon Shepherd, co-author of Binding Heaven and Earth: Patriarchal Blessings in the Prophetic Development of Early Mormonism Meticulously researched with engaging interviews and observations, The Mormon Quest for Glory is an excellent ethnography of Mormonism. Hammarberg's extensive research on Mormonism will provide anyone interested in the religion, regardless of how little or much they know, with an 'insider's' perspective on Mormonism by carefully translating the details of a complex religious 'life-world' into a language that 'outsiders' can understand. -- Ryan Cragun, University of Tampa

Author Information

Melvyn Hammarberg is Associate Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at University of Pennsylvania.

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