Marie Cornwall is a professor of sociology and former executive officer of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. She specializes in the study of family, gender, religion and social change. Tim B. Heaton is a professor and research associate at the Center for Studies of the Family. Lawrence A. Young, formerly an associate professor of sociology at Brigham Young University is now executive director of Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. All three editors have contributed in varying ways to the development of a social scientific study of Mormonism.

"[This volume] integrates the best scholarship among contemporary Mormon social scientists and historians. Excellent writing characterizes each contribution, making the book accessible to a general audience as well as social scientists and historians." -- Patrick McNamara, author of Conscience First, Tradition Second: A Study of Young Catholics "The ethnographic evidence presented in these essays, unlike survey research data, provides a vibrant view of the meaning and significance of Mormon culture and, thereby, stronger grounds for scholarly theorizing... Students of the RLDS Church will find much of general interest, and several contributions to be of particular value." -- John Whitmer Historical Association Journal