In Heaven As It Is on Earth


In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death (Oxford University Press, 2012) reinterprets earliest Mormonism by viewing it through the lens of founder Joseph Smith Jr.'s complex, intimate, and conflicted relationship with death and dying. When approached from this perspective many of the unusual or striking aspects of earliest Mormonism begin to make sense, allowing outsiders and insiders a refreshing new look at a much-discussed but poorly understood religious tradition. In Heaven as It Is on Earth also provides insight to the ongoing problem of the tragedy of early mortality, an eloquent and complex response to death.
This author site is updated approximately weekly, with reviews, miscellaneous posts, scheduled appearances, and the like. The book site, also updated approximately weekly, includes "cutting room floor," "tangents," and other features.

Updates

Religion in American History

At the Religion in American History blog, historian John G. Turner praised In Heaven as “a rich and persuasive reinterpretation of Joseph Smith’s most significant theological and ritual innovations.”

Contextualizing early Mormon beliefs

In Heaven tried not only to think through the big problem of explaining death but also to make sense of early Mormonism for outsiders. In this post on the Oxford UP blog, I contextualize two of the beliefs currently circulating in the media.

On Doug Wright’s Everday Lives, Everyday Values on KSL radio

Sunday, January 15, around 9:05 am, tune in to KSL’s live feed to hear a discussion with Doug Wright about In Heaven.

The show has archived our interview. The interview starts around 04:07 in the MP3 file.

CW Pick for City Weekly

City Weekly has a very gracious review and designated the book a “CW Pick”:

In Heaven is “compelling new book” and “a detailed piece of social history.”

Video from Benchmark Reading

The Benchmark crew have graciously provided video footage from the book talk I gave on January 10.

Video from Youtube

Brad Kramer at BCC

Brad Kramer’s highly complimentary review at BCC:

With apologies to all the relevant parties, this is quite simply the best work on early Mormonism yet published.

Five Best on Mormonism

Featured in the Wall Street Journal weekend books section, my column on the Five Best Books on Mormonism.

The Blood of the Martyrs

John Taylor, in the canonized eulogy, brought the blood of the Mormon martyrs through each of the rhetorical phases, ending with the Apocalypse.

their innocent blood on the floor of Carthage jail is a broad seal affixed to “Mormonism” that cannot be rejected by any court on earth, and their innocent blood on the escutcheon of the State of Illinois, with the broken faith of the State as pledged by the governor, is a witness to the truth of the everlasting gospel that all the world cannot impeach; and their innocent blood on the banner of liberty, and on the magna charta of the United States, is an ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts of honest men among all nations; and their innocent blood, with the innocent blood of all the martyrs under the altar that John saw, will cry unto the Lord of Hosts till he avenges that blood on the earth.[1]



[1] D&C 135:7.

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

In this groundbreaking and important volume, Brown . . . delves deeply into the many streams of thought that informed Smith’s formulation of the life hereafter. . . . a masterful look at this intriguing aspect of the Mormon worldview. This is must reading for students of the American religious tradition.

Publishers Weekly .

most this amazing

I spent the weekend analyzing John Harris’s diatribe against the poignancy of mortality (Enhancing Evolution) and caring for patients at a remote hospital in northern Idaho. Harris, in arguing for the moral necessity of medical immortality, is adamant that we have deluded ourselves into thinking that the fact of our mortality is central to our identity as humans, openly mocking the emotional language of various ethicists and philosophers. Harris’s rebuttal, both flippant and vitriolic, is that only puritanical dimwits find beauty in the rich transience of physical life. His harangue, balanced against millennia of religion, literature, and folklore placed these questions squarely in my view. (more…)


Banner image is of Mount Mkinwartsveri (Kazbek), with the Church of St. Mary foreground left, image © Samuel Brown 2000