Table of Contents

Preface, by Rodney Stark Introduction, by Reid L. Neilson 1. Extracting Social Scientific Models from Mormon History 2. Joseph Smith Among the Revelators 3. Mormon Networks of Faith 4. Rationality and Mormon Sacrifice 5. Modernization, Secularization, and Mormon Growth 6. The Basis of Mormon Success 7. The Rise of a New World Faith Bibliography Further Acknowledgments Index

Promotional Information

Rodney Stark's notorious predictions of Mormonism as an emergent world religion have overshadowed an extensive and much more significant engagement with the LDS religion. Reid L. Neilson's assemblage of these penetrating essays establishes both Stark as a preeminent scholar of Mormonism and the value of Mormon studies as a potent paradigm for the history and sociology of religion and our understanding of successful religious movements. -- Terryl L. Givens, University of Richmond, author of By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion In the 1980s, Rodney Stark began creating a comprehensive theory of howreligions grow. In The Churching of America the theory was appliedto Baptists, Methodists, and Catholics, then to The Rise of Christianity. Now comes The Rise of Mormonism, again illustrating the fertility of his theory in this wonderfully written book. All readers will learn from it. -- Phillip E. Hammond, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of With Liberty for All: Freedom of Religion in the United States Rodney Stark's Mormon essays will surprise and instruct Latter-day Saints and provoke debate in everyone else. No one takes revelation more seriously than he does. He is that rare sociologist of religion who believes the world's great revelators, including Joseph Smith, were not frauds or crazy. Serious students of Mormonism must know this work. -- Richard Lyman Bushman, Columbia University, author of Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays

About the Author

Rodney Stark is University Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. He is the author of more than twenty books, including For the Glory of God and Exploring the Religious Life.Reid L. Neilson is the author and editor of several books on Mormonism. He is currently a doctoral candidate in religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Reviews

a well-written thought-provoking compilation covering nearly three decades of scholarship Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion It's an excellent summary and a must-read... The Rise of Mormonism is a thoughtful and insightful look at the Church. -- Jeffrey Needle Irreantum Rodney Stark is one of America's pre-eminent sociologists of religions. -- Gerald M. Mcdermott Books and Culture An important voice in the sociological study of religion. -- Kathleen Flake The Journal of Religion I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the social scientific study of Mormonism. -- Henri Gooren Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion