Church History, Douglas Morgan
While the story of the Mormons' tumultuous trek through American space is well known, Erickson argues that in the nineteenth-century Mormon experience, a sense of progression through time was also of central importance. Mormon millennialism has received considerable scholarly attention, most notably in recent years from Grant Underwood, but Erickson's contribution is to highlight the pervasiveness and intensity of millennial expectation, not just in the earliest years of the church but throughout most of the nineteenth century. Erickson categorizes the Latter-day Saints as "apocalyptic premillennialists" whose commitment to gathering a separate people to build a temporal Zion in America was driven by expectation of millennial deliverance soon to come through the return of Christ.
The purpose of the restoration of the fullness of the gospel through the revelations given to Joseph Smith, Erickson points out, was to prepare a people, separate from American society, for the "total, imminent, miraculous transformation of the earth into a millennial kingdom at Christ's coming" (53). At a time when the nation, in the words of Ernest Sandeen, was "drunk on the millennium," Mormons, says Erickson, were premillennialists—"but with a difference" (11). Modern revelation directed them not only to reject all existing denominations and sects, but to counter the postmillennial reformism and individualism of Jacksonian America by establishing a visible, alternative society—a "New Jerusalem" that would prepare the way for Christ's cataclysmic return and millennial reign. In building a separate theocratic kingdom in America, the Mormons indeed "blurred the distinction between what should happen prior to and during the millennial reign" (88). However, Erickson contends that they were truly premillennialist in believing that the millennium would only begin with Christ's personal return. Moreover, the Mormon leaders of the early 1830s fully expected to see that return soon. Their generation would experience the Savior's return and thus those faithful to the restored gospel would never taste death.
Keeping his focus on the millennial theme, Erickson provides a succinct and insightful account of the Saint's quest to establish an American Zion in Missouri, Illinois, and finally Utah. The creation of a virtual city-state with its own army in Nauvoo did involve a shift in millennial expectation. In warning his followers in 1843 against Millerite date-setting, Smith prophesied that "the son of man will not come in the clouds of heaven till I am eighty-five years old." This declaration, consistent with a previous prophecy given in 1835, placed the Parousia in 1890 or 1891. However, Erickson argues, the millennial hope remained vivid: the Saints, and certainly their children, could expect to live to welcome Christ, and the extension of time provided the Mormon kingdom an opportunity to develop in its role of preparing the way for the returning Savior. Moreover, the Mormons continued to view their conflict with the United States in apocalyptic terms. Divine judgement would be visited upon the nation for the martyrdom of the prophet in 1844 and the subsequent forced exodus of the Saints. At the same time, the persecution confirmed their convictions about being the distinctive people of God in the latter days and the need for separation from an evil society, and it intensified their longing for millennial deliverance.
Erickson shows how the Mormon leadership again employed apocalyptic rhetoric when federal troops invaded Utah in 1857, to install a territorial governor, and again during the Civil War. Here, though, he fails to convince me that the sentiments expressed were specifically premillennialist. In the 1857 Utah War, the Saints expected divine intervention to defeat the invaders and free them from allegiance to an earthly power but do not appear to have referred to a literal return of Christ to reign in person and bring in a new epoch of millennial glory. During the Civil War, Mormon leaders predicted not only the demise of the United States government. They predicted that the shattered nation would turn to the Mormon hierarchy for leadership. Furthermore, the conflict would also open the way to return to Jackson County, Missouri, the place originally designated "Zion" by Joseph Smith, and there build a temple. Here again, though, these hopes seemed to be connected with the upbuilding of the Saints' temporal kingdom, not the millennial rule of Christ. Erickson does quote Brigham Young declaring in 1862 that he would live to see the Saints possess the Earth for "an Everlasting inheritance, and Jesus reign king of kings" (168). But Young did not here link this ultimate development directly with the Civil War.
The most fascinating part of Erickson's work may be his treatment of the final conflict between the United States and the Mormons over polygamy, which reached its climax in 1890, the very time that Joseph Smith had designated for Christ's return. Here the pronouncements of Wilford Woodruff, who would become the church's fourth president in 1889, provide particularly striking evidence of reheating apocalypticism. Soon after the Supreme Court upheld antipolygamy legislation in the Reynolds ruling of 1878, Woodruff declared to a conference of Saints in northern Arizona that "[t]here will be no United States in the year 1890" (188). With church leaders forced underground in the 1880s, Woodruff declared the antipolygamy persecution to be a final sign of the Second Coming. As senior apostle he asserted in May 1888 that "we are not going to stop the practice of plural marriage until the coming of the Son of man" (200). As president of the church in 1889 he told members that many of them would live to see Christ come in the clouds of glory and insisted that the Lord would never give a revelation to abandon plural marriage. The following year, however, with federal pressure intensifying, Woodruff issued the famous Manifesto calling for an end to polygamy, opening the way for Utah statehood.
The apocalyptic rhetoric of Woodruff and other church leaders in the buildup to 1890, their trenchant defense of polygamy, and the convergence of the time predicted by Joseph Smith for the Second Coming with the dramatic reversal on polygamy all make for an intriguing drama. In the end, Erickson never fully sorts out the coexistence of millennialist fervor with the sudden accommodation, but perhaps he has done the best that is possible with the evidence. At any rate, though Woodruff and others continued apocalyptic preaching in the next few years, the Manifesto and Utah statehood marked a major transition in the church's eschatological stance. Though the Latter-day Saints would continue to look forward to the Second Coming of Christ in the future, Erickson concludes that millennialism, along with polygamy, theocracy, and economic communitarianism, gave way to the need for survival, the quest for statehood, and accommodation.
Erickson writes with admirable clarity and demonstrates command of a vast body of primary sources. He also engages the work of major scholars and theorists of millennialism. This is a rich contribution to understanding both of Mormon millennialism and of millennialism in America.
Utah Historical Quarterly, Kenneth W. Godfrey
"Anyone who wants to understand the early Mormon mind and how their [sic] cosmology influenced Mormon-gentile interaction," Dan Erickson asserts in his book "As a Thief in the Night," must examine the early Mormon belief in an imminent millennium, and Erickson's book does just that. While Robert N. Hullinger argues that the crux of Mormonism is its answer to skepticism and its defense of faith in Jesus (Mormon Answer to Skepticism, [St. Louis: Clayton Publishing House Inc., 1960]), Marvin S. Hill found at the core of Latter-day Saint history a quest for refuge and a flight from American pluralism (Quest for Refuge, [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989]). Kenneth H. Winn believes that Mormonism emerged as "a potent movement decrying the religious anarchy created by the 'priestcraft' of the major denominations and, implicitly, the growing inegalitarianism of Jacksonian Society" (Exiles in a Land of Liberty, [Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989]). Erickson, in contrast, argues that the best way to understand the Latter-day Saints is to study Mormon history within the framework of its millennial aspirations. The Mormons were, he asserts, "a people commissioned to build a literal kingdom of God on the American continent to prepare for the imminent return of the promised Messiah. Thus, the history of the Mormons can best be seen as "a millennial passage, ambiguous, evolving, always waiting, anticipating, and eventually capitulating to the dominant American society."
Well-documented (it appears that Erickson has mined every smidgen of ore from the Mormon millennial mine) and well-written, the book romps through American millennialism, the doctrinal roots of Mormon millennial expectations, and early Mormon millennialism. It even finds millennialism at the very core of the Mormon experience in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Latter-day Saint involvement in such historical events as the Utah War, the anti-polygamy campaign, the gathering, and even the Civil War, Erickson argues, is best understood when viewed through the glasses tinted by millennialism. He does not believe that early Mormonism was more concerned with preparing a place to which Christ could come than with the time of his advent. Nor does he accept the view that Latter-day Saints shifted their millennial expectations and focused, instead, on building temples and redeeming the dead. In fact, Erickson finds millennial fever reaching new highs as church members approached the twentieth century, only to decline as new leaders were chosen and the new century dawned. Realizing that Christ would not return and deliver them from their enemies, these men molded Mormonism into a religion of accommodation.
Erickson's conclusions come from a mountain of evidence, and his footnotes reveal that no stone has been left unturned in his search for facts to support his thesis. When Mormonism began the Saints believed that the second coming was nigh, but as their eyes turned to the twentieth century, "the Saints' deliverance remained on the horizon, further from sight than ever before." Thus, their quest for deliverance was filled with frustration, disappointment, and failed hopes, he concludes.
Though this book represents fine scholarship in many respects, it does have some deficiencies. Erickson seems to believe, or implies at least, that all nineteenth-century Mormons held the opinions with respect to the coming of the Lord. My own study of Latter-day Saint history has led me to conclude that some Mormons were less enthusiastic about millennialism than were others, and for many it had little, if any, appeal. Many anchored their faith, instead, in doctrines such as faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, eternal marriage, priesthood authority, and missionary work and in making the desert blossom as the rose, building a Zion society, and doing temple work.
Not all church leaders believed that Christ's return was imminent; instead, some held the view that the gospel must be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people before the Messiah would return. The Jewish people, Mormon scriptures clearly taught, would have to gather to Jerusalem, the Lamanites needed to be converted, and temples must dot the earth before the second advent would take place. Serious students of Mormon scripture learned that there was much work left to be done before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords came to reign for a thousand years. In spite of the book's impressive bibliography, the complexity of Mormon millennialism is not fully probed and explained.
Erickson, too, at times, cuts too wide a swath as he leads readers through the Mormon past. Some historians would question his characterization of the Book of Mormon as being an anti-Masonic text (57), while others would seriously doubt that Mormon millenarianism "must be identified as a major source of animosity felt toward the Saints," (58), or that apocalypticism was the predominant early Mormon cosmology (66). Millennialism was not the principal cause of "the new outbreak of anti-Mormonism in Hancock County, Illinois in 1845" (145); nor is it accurate to write that in the West the saints "would patiently await Christ's call to usher in his millennial reign" (147). Missionaries, hardly waiting patiently in Utah, were sent to preach to the nations of the earth, and in those early territorial years these emissaries of Mormonism traveling east passed wagon trains of Saints headed west. Brigham Young and other Saints were convinced that Zion's future lay in the tops of the mountains where Mormons could become an ensign to the world. Latter-day Saints constructed solid homes and planted oak and other trees. Only a few believers thought this kingdom building to be a waste of time because the new Jerusalem was soon to be erected in Jackson County, Missouri.
There are a few minor mistakes, too, that tend to mislead readers. For example, Thomas B. H. Stenhouse was not the church's Eastern States Mission president when he wrote The Rocky Mountain Saints, as Erickson implies. Instead, at the time he wrote, he had been excommunicated from the church (163). Charles W. Penrose was not an apostle in 1879 (188). Moses Thatcher, in a letter to John Taylor, denied that he had said some of the things attributed to him in his talk in Lewiston, Utah, in 1886; Erickson seems either to be unaware of his denial or to disbelieve Thatcher (197).
In spite of these few flaws, "As a Thief in the Night" reveals much about early Mormon millennialism and, together with Grant Underwood's The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), provides a solid base for understanding this aspect of Mormon history. Readers can only hope that Erickson will write a second volume detailing millennialism as it existed among Mormons in the twentieth century, because I believe that many Latter-day Saints, during the last hundred years, have clung to their faith that the time of His coming is nigh, even at the door.
Journal of Latter Day Saint History
The years 1890-91 play a significant role in the developing history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These years were singled out and published as an official teaching of the Church in the Doctrine and Covenants as being the years when Jesus Christ would return and establish His Kingdom—predominated by members of the Mormon Church who represented Zion in all of its aspects. Church officials clearly taught that faithful members would "not taste death til Christ comes."
This text, written by Dan Erickson, analyzes the development of the teaching and its clear teaching during the first eight years of Mormon history.
"As a Thief in the Night" is an insightful and very detailed volume of research which relates the doctrine of the millennium to other teachings of the Church and the eventual collapse and change of the entire concept.
The text goes further to relate the impact of the failed prophecy on members and their continued involvement with the Church itself.
The bigger impact of this failed prophecy is pointed out in their text to be the collapse of the separatist view of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the gradual incorporation of the Church and its teachings into the mainstream of Christianity.
This failed prediction actually connected Mormonism with other Christian denominations which had made similar predictions. These include the Jehovah's Witnesses, Millerites, Shakers and others who were looking at the last decade of the 1800s as being the significant time related to Millennial Change.
From its founding, the Mormon Church saw itself as separate from American religion and American values. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Mormon Church was forced to conform with basic American values, which included the abandonment of the primary teaching on polygamy. This text points out that the Mormon Church accommodation replicated social reality and change in creating and recreating Mormonism.
This study further details the absolute certainty of Mormon belief in the establishment of God's separate Kingdom on earth as an impetus for Mormon separatist behavior which focused on millennialism.
The significance of where Mormonism ended up is of particular significance on this piece of research as the doctrines and beliefs of this Church were so different from traditional Christianity that it was actually classified as a brand new religious tradition. This viewpoint is also shared by early Church leaders and teachers who pointed out that Mormonism was actually the restoration of the original teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles.
Confusion as to how this religion should actually be classified in its early days is referenced in the text as relating it to a sect, a mystery cult, a new religion, a Church, a people, a nation, or an American subculture. Actually, in its history, the Mormon world has been all of these.
The methodology used in this study approaches the search for historical understanding of social causes of world events and consequences by relating the history from the viewpoint of people who actually experienced them.
A careful weight is then given to these sometimes conflicting elements of history as the study attempts to evaluate critically the importance of that early Mormon millennial enthusiasm played in nineteenth-century Mormon history.
The goal for the researcher is to allow his/her mind to be critical and careful, as the task of making the account of public affairs credible plays out in reports.
This research approaches Mormon history within a framework of millennial goals and points out that for the first sixty years of its history, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was apocalyptic and pre-millennial in its teaching—but with a different gospel message. This difference resulted in a new religion with a new modern set of scripture and living prophets who received divine revelation directly from God as well as a people who were commissioned to build Zion—a literal Kingdom of God on the American Continent to prepare for the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The millennial change, ambiguous, evolving, waiting endlessly, anticipating and eventually accommodating to the larger American Society is the core of the research of this text.
The author, Dan Erickson, has extensively published research in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, The Journal of Mormon History, The Pacific Northwest Quarterly and Welebaethan. He teaches as an adjunct professor of history at Chaffey College and holds BA and BS degrees from Brigham Young University; an MA from California State University, Fullerton; and an MBA from California State University, San Bernardino. As of this writing, he is a Ph.D. Candidate in history at Claremont Graduate University.
The text is well researched based, listing the detailed footnotes on each page. In many cases, the footnotes make up about half of each page.
The extensive bibliography cited in the research footnotes quote from newspapers, manuscripts, printed sources, theses, and dissertations.
The text contains ten chapters which include:
Chapter One Introduction
Chapter Two American Millennialism
Chapter Three Modern Revelation: Origins of a Separated Theology
Chapter Four Early Mormon Millennialism
Chapter Five Gathering: Separatism Shapes a Society
Chapter Six Mormon Nauvoo: Separatism Shapes a City
Chapter Seven Mormons Versus the United States: The Utah War and Civil War Periods
Chapter Eight Millennialism and the Anti-Polygamy Campaign
Chapter Nine The Decline of Millennialism
Chapter Ten Conclusion
The long range impact of change in Mormon thought as referenced in the text forced Latter-day Saints into cognitive dissonance, compelling them to discard eschatological assumptions. Many failures broke the cycle. Under collective stress, the Church faced either dissolution or revitalization, and when continuance of an Apocalyptic cosmology was no longer feasible, transformation and accommodation became necessary. If they continued in the same mode of thought and behavior, they risked losing continuity, unable to meet the new demands of a changing environment. By changing their World View, they could use new energies and talents to effect a new perception of reality. Such is the content of this text.
In order to have a complete picture of the world of Latter Day Saintism and its development, this is a needed volume.
|
