The refiner's fire : the making of Mormon cosmology, 1644-1844 / John L. Brooke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brooke, John L., author.

Series:

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Latter Day Saint cosmology--History of doctrines--19th century.

Latter Day Saint cosmology.

Occultism--Religious aspects--Mormon Church--History of doctrines--19th century.

Occultism.

Latter Day Saint churches--History--19th century.

Latter Day Saint churches.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 421 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This 1995 book presents an alternative and comprehensive understanding of the roots of Mormon religion, which proposes that the faithful will become gods. The book's central thesis is that the origins of Mormonism lie in the fusion of radical religion with magical ideas about recovering the divine powers of Adam lost in the fall from Paradise (ideas known as the hermetic philosophy) that occurred during the Reformation and the English Revolution. The book is organised around the two problems of demonstrating the survival of these ideas into the nineteenth century and of how they were manifested in Mormon doctrine. A final chapter outlines how Mormonism gradually has moved toward traditional Protestant Christianity since the 1850s. Besides religion, this book deals with magic, witchcraft, alchemy, Freemasonry, counterfeiting, and state-formation.

Contents:

Part I.A prepared people. Dreams of the primal Adam

The true spiritual seed

Something of our ancestors

Part II. Hermetic purity and hermetic danger. A Urim spiritual

Alchymical experiments

I was born in Sharon

Part III. The Mormon dispensation. Secret combinations and slippery treasures in the land of Zarahemla

The mysteries defined

Temples, wives, bogus-making, and war

The keys to the kingdom

A tangle of strings and the kingdom of God

Let mysteries alone.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 314-404) and index.

ISBN:

9780511097317

051109731X

9780511583568

0511583567

Publisher Number:

2027/heb00708 hdl