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    Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore
    Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore
    Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore
    Ebook240 pages5 hours

    Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore

    By W. Paul Reeve and Michael Scott Van Wagenen

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    Cain wanders the frontier as a Bigfoot-like hairy beast and confronts an early Mormon apostle. An evil band of murderers from Mormon scripture, known as the Gadianton robbers, provides an excuse for the failure of a desert town. Stories of children raised from the dead with decayed bodies and damaged minds help draw boundaries between the proper spheres of human and divine action. Mormons who observe UFOs in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries find ways to explain them in relation to the church’s cosmology. The millenarian dimension of that belief system induces church members to invest in the Dream Mine, a hidden treasure that a would-be heir to Joseph Smith wraps in prophecy of the end times. A Utah version of Nessie haunts a large mountain lake. Non-Mormons attempt to discredit Joseph Smith with tales that he had tried and failed to walk on water.

    Mormons gave distinctive meanings to supernatural legends and events, but their narratives incorporated motifs found in many cultures. Many such historical legends and beliefs found adherents down to the present. This collection employs folklore to illuminate the cultural and religious history of a people.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUtah State University Press
    Release dateMay 23, 2011
    ISBN9780874218237
    Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore

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    • 5/5
      If you live in a predominantly Mormon area, you may have heard stories linking the biblical Cain to Bigfoot, or whispers about the Bear Lake Monster. Have you ever wanted to know more about the intersection between Mormonism and the supernatural? Where did these stories originate? Why do they perpetuate? Seven such topics are examined in this recent release from USU Press.

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