{"title":"Mormon Hierarchy","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"mormon-hierarchy-book-d-michael-quinn-9781560850564","title":"The Mormon Hierarchy","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e Converts to Joseph Smith's 1828 restoration of primitive Christianity were attracted to the non-hierarchical nature of the movement. It was precisely because there were no priests, ordinances, or dogma that people joined in such numbers. Smith intended everyone to be a prophet, and anyone who felt called was invited to minister freely without formal office. \u003cp\u003eNot until seven years later did Mormons first learn that authority had been restored by angels or of the need for a hierarchy mirroring the Pauline model. That same year (1835) a Quorum of Twelve Apostles was organized, but their jurisdiction was limited to areas outside established stakes (dioceses). Stakes were led by a president, who oversaw spiritual development, and by a bishop, who supervised temporal needs.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt Smith's martyrdom in 1844, the church had five leading quorums of authority. The most obvious successor to Smith, Illinois stake president William Marks, opposed the secret rites of polygamy, anointing, endowments, and the clandestine political activity that had characterized the church in Illinois. The secret Council of Fifty had recently ordained Smith as King on Earth and sent ambassadors abroad to form alliances against the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe majority of church members knew nothing of these developments, but they followed Brigham Young, head of the Quorum of the Twelve, who spoke forcefully and moved decisively to eliminate contenders for the presidency. He continued to build on Smith's political and doctrinal innovations and social stratification. Young's twentieth-century legacy is a well-defined structure without the charismatic spontaneity or egalitarian chaos of the early church.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHistorian D. Michael Quinn examines the contradictions and confusion of the first two tumultuous decades of LDS history. He demonstrates how events and doctrines were silently, retroactively inserted into the published form of scriptures and records to smooth out the stormy, haphazard development. The bureaucratization of Mormonism was inevitable, but the manner in which it occurred was unpredictable and will be, for readers, fascinating.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50479107834129,"sku":"CIN1560850566G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51105983594769,"sku":"CIN1560850566VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1560850566.jpg?v=1750958871"},{"product_id":"mormon-hierarchy-book-d-michael-quinn-9781560850601","title":"The Mormon Hierarchy","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e The Mormon church today is led by an elite group of older men, nearly three-quarters of whom are related to current or past general church authorities. This dynastic hierarchy meets in private; neither its minutes nor the church's finances are available for public review. Members are reassured by public relations spokesmen that all is well and that harmony prevails among these brethren. \u003cp\u003eBut by interviewing former church aides, examining hundreds of diaries, and drawing from his own past experience as an insider within the Latter-day Saint historical department, D. Michael Quinn presents a fuller view. His extensive research documents how the governing apostles, seventies, and presiding bishops are likely to be at loggerheads, as much as united. These strong-willed, independent men-like directors of a large corporation or supreme court justices-lobby among their colleagues, forge alliances, out-maneuver opponents, and broker compromises.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is more: clandestine political activities, investigative and punitive actions by church security forces, personal \"loans\" from church coffers (later written off as bad debts), and other privileged power-vested activities. Quinn considers the changing role and attitude of the leadership toward visionary experiences, the momentous events which have shaped quorum protocol and doctrine, and day-to-day bureaucratic intrigue from the time of Brigham Young to the dawn of the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe hierarchy seems at root well-intentioned and even at times aggressive in fulfilling its stated responsibility, which is to expedite the Second Coming. Where they have become convinced that God has spoken, they have set aside personal differences, offered unqualified support, and spoken with a unified voice. This potential for change, when coupled with the tempering effect of competing viewpoints, is something Quinn finds encouraging about Mormonism. But one should not assume that these men are infallible or work in anything approaching uninterrupted unanimity.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50479158264081,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50479158526225,"sku":"CIN1560850604G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1560850604.jpg?v=1751118406"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/mormon-hierarchy-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}