Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
Religion (biographies), Etats-Unis (histoire), Christianisme
Audio avec voix de synthèse, Braille automatisé
Résumé
Joseph Smith America s preeminent visionary and prophet rose from a modest background to found the largest indigenous Christian church in American history Without the benefit of wealth education or social position he… published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was twenty-three organized a church when he was twenty-four and founded cities built temples and attracted thousands of followers before his violent death at age thirty-eight Rather than perishing with him Mormonism migrated to the Rocky Mountains flourished there and now claims millions of followers worldwide In Joseph Smith Rough Stone Rolling Richard Bushman an esteemed American cultural historian and a practicing Mormon tells how Smith formed a new religion from the ground up Moving beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud the book explores the inner workings of his personality-his personal piety his temper his affection for family and friends and his incredible determination It describes how he received revelations and why his followers believed them Smith was a builder of cities He sought to form egalitarian just and open communities under God and laid out a plan for ideal cities which he hoped would fill the world Adopted as the model for hundreds of Mormon settlements in the West Smith s urban vision may have left a more lasting imprint on the landscape than that of any other American He was controversial from his earliest years His followers honored him as a man who spoke for God and restored biblical religion His enemies maligned him as a dangerous religious fanatic an American Mohammad and drove the Mormons from every place in which they settled Smith s ultimate assassination by an armed mob raises the question of whether American democracy can tolerate visionaries The book gives more attention to Joseph Smith s innovative religious thought than any previous biography As Bushman writes His followers derived their energy and purpose from the religious world he brought into being Some of the teachings were controversial such as property redistribution and plural marriage but Smith s revelations also delved into cosmology and the history of God They spoke of the origins of the human personality and the purpose of life While thoroughly Christian Smith radically reconceived the relationship between humans and God The book evaluates the Mormon prophet s bold contributions to Christian theology and situates him culturally in the modern world Published on the two hundredth anniversary of Smith s birth Joseph Smith Rough Stone Rolling is an in-depth portrayal of the mysterious figure behind one of the world s fastest growing faiths From the Hardcover edition