Mormonism: The Basics

David J. Howlett is a visiting assistant professor of religion at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. John-Charles Duffy is a lecturer in comparative religion at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio

• Introduction. 1. A Brief History of Mormons 2. Are Mormons Christian? Why Does It Matter? 3. Building God’s Kingdom: Mormons and Church-State Relations 4. Mormons and Sex: Gender, Sexuality, and Family 5. The Shape of a Mormon Life: Lived Religion 6. Making a Place: Sacred Space in Mormonism 7. Taking Mormonism Global: Challenges of International Expansion Chronology

"Mormonism: The Basics provides a reliable and accessible guide to America’s largest indigenous religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its variants. The authors don’t shy away from controversial issues, but their handling of them is deft and fair." - Randall Balmer, Dartmouth College, USA"Howlett and Duffy masterfully weave together the various streams of Mormonism and produce an innovative exploration of how religions evolve over time. Mormonism: The Basics is a must-have guide to the vast legacy of Joseph Smith." - Colleen McDannell, University of Utah, USA"For the nonspecialist professor, they provide useful information, chapters that can be easily integrated into a syllabus, and pedagogical suggestions. The books will prove most useful to teachers when situated within broader developments in the historiography of Mormonism." - Jennifer Graber, University of Texas at Austin, USA"This is an extraordinarily well-thought-through book. Befitting their religious studies training, co-authors Duffy and Howlett have produced a volume that (...) offers a sophisticated analysis both of Mormonism (in several of its streams) and of the American religious landscape more generally, along several lines of analysis." - Matthew Bowman, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, USA