The Mormon Jesus: A Biography

by John G. Turner

Overview

The nineteenth-century Mormon prophet Joseph Smith published a new scripture dominated by the figure of Jesus Christ, dictated revelations presented as the words of the Christian savior, spoke of encountering Jesus in visions, and told his followers that their messiah and king would soon return to the earth. From the author of the definitive life of Brigham Young comes a biography of the Mormon Jesus that revises and enriches our understanding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Over the past two hundred years, Jesus has connected the Latter-day Saints to broader currents of Christianity, even while particular Mormon beliefs and practices have been points of differentiation and conflict. The Latter-day Saints came to understand Jesus Christ as the literal son of his father, the exalted brother of God’s other spirit children, who should aspire to become like him. They gave new meaning to many titles for Jesus Christ: Father, Son of God, Lord, Savior, Firstborn, Elder Brother, Bridegroom, and Jehovah.

While some early beliefs became canonized and others were discarded, Jesus Christ remains central to Latter-day Saint scripture, doctrine, and religious experience. Contemporary Mormon leaders miss no opportunity to proclaim their church’s devotion to the Christian savior, in part because evangelical Protestants denounce Mormonism as a non-Christian cult. This tension between Mormonism's distinctive claims and the church’s desire to be accepted as Christian, John G. Turner argues, continues to shape Mormon identity and attract new members to the church.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674737433
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	04/25/2016
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

John G. Turner is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Another Testament of Jesus Christ 19

2 Jesus Meets Genesis 49

3 Seeing the Savior's Face 59

4 The Words of the Lord 89

5 I Come Quickly 121

6 Elder Brother 153

7 The Jehovah of the Temple 185

8 The Great Bridegroom 217

9 The Great White God 247

Conclusion 283

Notes 297

Acknowledgments 343

Index 345

Editorial Reviews

Richly researched and beautifully written, The Mormon Jesus moves far beyond biography to survey the entirety of Mormon history through a focus on the ways that believers see, hear, pray to, and depict Jesus. This groundbreaking new book renders Mormonism as both quintessentially Christian and utterly distinctive.

Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp

Mormon Jesus is an excellent treatise on the Mormon Christology in its development and current form. It provides a breathtaking overview of Christ in Mormon thought from the pre-Book of Mormon era to the present. Regardless of whether one agrees with Turner’s conclusion—that Mormonism is a non-peculiar, albeit new and unique, branch of Christianity—he provides the field of Mormon studies with a valuable resource that should prove useful for years to come.

H-Net Reviews - Kyle Beshears

The Mormon understanding of Jesus has never been static. This excellent and perceptive history traces the development of Mormon ideas about the Savior through nearly two centuries of history and theology, with those beliefs sometimes coinciding with and sometimes diverging sharply from broader currents of Christian thinking.

Jana Riess

The Mormon Jesus is much more than a treatise on Christology. It is a lively cultural history of how Mormons have thought of Christ from the Book of Mormon to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Scriptural translations, visions and revelations, temple ceremonies, songs, Sunday school lessons, paintings, sculpture, and poetry all figure in the story of Mormonism’s distinctive Jesus.

Richard Lyman Bushman

The Mormon Jesus is an example of excellent Mormon scholarship that can be found from authors outside the faith…A worthy look at the LDS faith.

Standard-Examiner - Doug Gibson

The Mormon Jesus is much more than a treatise on Christology. It is a lively cultural history of how Mormons thought of Christ from the Book of Mormon to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Scriptural translations, visions and revelations, temple ceremonies, songs, Sunday School lessons, paintings, sculpture, and poetry all figure in the story of Mormonism’s distinctive Jesus.

Richard Bushman

04/01/2016
No religion exists in a steady state, and Mormonism is no exception. Mormon understanding of Jesus has changed since the church was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Turner (religious studies, George Mason Univ.; Brigham Young) demonstrates how this is the case in this well-documented biography. The early church, like many sects of its era, was far more apocalyptic than it is now and looked forward to Christ's imminent return. One of the more controversial teachings of religious leader Brigham Young was the so-called Adam-God doctrine, which has long been disowned by church leaders as has his teaching that God the Father was the literal physical partner of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Turner also probes another touchy subject from the Mormon past—the notion that Jesus was married and likely a polygamist. Of course, this idea must be understood in the polemics of the 19th-century defense of the doctrine. In his conclusion, Turner argues that the church's emphasis on Jesus in the past few decades, such as referring to the Book of Mormon as "Another Testament of Christ," are to an extent cosmetic; there is a difference between Mormonism now and that of 50 years ago. VERDICT This work deserves a wide academic audience in religious studies and will be read profitably by laypersons.—David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia

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