People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture Book

Introduction xi

Part I Foundations and Paradoxes in Mormon Cultural Origins

1 The Iron Rod and the Liahona: Authority and Radical Freedom 3

2 The Endless Quest and Perfect Knowledge: Searching and Certainty 21

3 Everlasting Burnings and Cinder Blocks: The Sacred and the Banal 37

4 Peculiar People and Loneliness at the Top: Election and Exile 53

Part II The Varieties of Mormon Cultural Expression

Beginnings (1830-1890): The Dancing Puritans

5 "The Glory of God Is Intelligence": Mormons and the Life of the Mind 65

6 "Zion Shall Be Built": Architecture and City Planning 101

7 "No Music in Hell": Music and Dance 117

8 "On a Cannibal Island": Theater 143

9 "Novels Rather than Nothing": Literature 157

10 "A Goodly Portion of Painters and Artists": Visual Arts 179

Part III The Varieties of Mormon Cultural Expression

A Movable Zion (1890-Present): Pioneer Nostalgia and Beyond the American Religion

11 "Fomenting the Pot": The Life of the Mind 195

12 "A Uniform Look for the Church": Architecture 241

13 "No Tabernacle Choir on Broadway": Music and Dance 253

14 "Cinema as Sacrament": Theater and Film 265

15 "To the Fringes of Faith": Literature 285

16 "Painting the Mormon Story": Visual Arts 325

Conclusion: "Through the Particular to the Universal" 339

Notes 345

Index 397