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Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity
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About Wrestling The Angel: The Foundations Of Mormon
Product Description In this first volume of his magisterial study of the foundations of Mormon thought and practice, Terryl L. Givens offers a sweeping account of Mormon belief from its founding to the present day. Situating the relatively new movement in the context of the Christian tradition, he reveals that Mormonism continues to change and grow. Givens shows that despite Mormonism's origins in a biblical culture strongly influenced by nineteenth-century Restorationist thought, which advocated a return to the Christianity of the early Church, the new movement diverges radically from the Christianity of the creeds. Mormonism proposes its own cosmology and metaphysics, in which human identity is rooted in a premortal world as eternal as God. Mormons view mortal life as an enlightening ascent rather than a catastrophic fall, and reject traditional Christian concepts of human depravity and destiny. Popular fascination with Mormonism's social innovations, such as polygamy and communalism, and its supernatural and esoteric elements-angels, gold plates, seer stones, a New World Garden of Eden, and sacred undergarments-have long overshadowed the fact that it is the most enduring and even thriving product of the nineteenth century's religious upheavals and innovations. Wrestling the Angel traces the essential contours of Mormon thought from the time of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to the contemporary LDS church, illuminating both the seminal influence of the founding generation of Mormon thinkers and the significant developments in the church over almost 200 years. The most comprehensive account of the development of Mormon thought ever written, Wrestling the Angel will be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Mormon faith. Review "Givens has embraced a certain reading of the Mormon intellectual project and has found the tools of the academy a means for its expression...Therefore, scholarship is an essential tool for fully comprehending Mormonism's truths. These moments reveal that Givens is as much a Mormon intellectual as a scholar of Mormonism, and like Lowry Nelson or Juanita Brooks has taken upon himself the task of vitalizing his tradition by healing the wound ripped open in the Arrington era." -- Matthew Bowman, Nova Religio "[A]s an introduction 'to the intellectual richness and depth of Mormonism's theological heritage' (p. xi), Givens' volume has much to recommend it Undoubtedly, Wrestling the Angel will spark considerable debate within the Mormon tradition, but it will also be of great interest to scholars of Mormonism, New Religious Movements, and American religion in general, as well as to those working in comparative theology. It will likewise be useful for graduate seminars on these topics since it will undoubtedly inspire some interesting and lively discussions about this fascinating, complex American tradition."--Brian C. Wilson, Religion "A sweeping survey ambitiously conceived, ably crafted, capable of unlocking new mental worlds. Wrestling the Angel finally puts a fair assessment of the 'Mormon mind' on full display...[A] magisterial project."--Nova Religio "Terryl Givens, an unusually creative and eloquent exponent of the Mormon thought he outlines in Wrestling the Angel."--Journal of Religion "[A] wonderful and capacious contextualization of Mormon theology...I found it a distinct pleasure to work through Givens's work and to witness the Mormon theological tradition emerge from those pages with the kind of complexity and integrity that it rightly deserves."--Mormon Studies Review "Givens successfully tackles a mountain of logistical, chronological, and topical challenges in an astonishing work of scholarship. This comprehensive and impressive volume is fundamental in the study of an important, multifaceted, and understudied piece of religious history." --Library Journal "Givens has given us a hugely impressive, erudite and systematic work. He shows us the vast and complex landscap
