Wayward Saints: THE GODBEITES AND BRIGHAM YOUNG Rating :
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Readable Account of Mormon Dissenters
By R. W. Rasband
The Godbeites were a group of Mormon intellectuals and businessmen who dissented from the allegedly autocratic rule of LDS President Brigham Young during the 19th century. Ron Walker, a professor of History at Brigham Young University, probably knows more about the Godbeites than anyone else alive. This book is the summation of his career-long researches into the controversy. Previous accounts have emphasized the dissenter's platform of capitalism, free speech, and separation of church and state (features which finally became part of Utah life 30 years later.) Walker stresses a lesser-known and lesser understood aspect of the Godbeites: their adventures into 19th century spiritualism. They were fond of seances and contacting the dead. In Walker's view, this made them unstable and too subject to their own subjective whims, and cut them off fron mainstream Mormonism. This book is partially sponsored by the Smith Institute of Church History at BYU which suggests they want to present a less flattering portrait of the Godbeites, as an indirect way of commenting on more recent dissenters from the church. This possible agenda, however, doesn't really detract from a fine job of history-writing.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Opposition to Brigham Young
By Just Judy
William Godbe, a prominent Utah merchant during the late 1860s, along with several other successful businessmen, dared to challenge Brigham Young's religious authority. These men founded a new church which they called New Zion, originally meant to be a reformation of Mormonism. These men were leading citizens; intellectuals with sufficient wealth to support their position. While Brigham advised his elders to ignore the Godbeites, as they became known, this was no small matter. William Godbe and several of his cohorts had been long time friends with Brigham and were prominent members of the church as well as the community. This book does an excellent job of explaining the many facets of their dissent and thoroughly examines the several characters, their backgrounds, and what influenced them to take such a strong stand against the man who had been their leader. I found it to be an easy read, but hard to put down until I reached the last page.
Product Description
A story that includes spiritualist seances, conspiracy, and an important church trial, Wayward Saints chronicles the 1870s challenge of a group of British Mormon intellectuals to Brigham Young's leadership and authority. William S. Godbe and his associates revolted because they disliked Young's authoritarian community and resented what they perceived as the church's intrusion into matters of personal choice. Expelled from the church, they established the "New Movement, " which eventually faltered. Both a study in intellectual history and an investigation of religious dissent, Wayward Saints explores nineteenth-century American spiritualism as well as the ideas and institutional structure of first- and second-generation Mormonism.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2698734 in Books
- Published on: 1998-01-01
- Original language:English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 432 pages
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