Wheat Flour Messiah

Paul Elmen is Professor of Moral Theology at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois. He received his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University. He is the author of The Restoration of Meaning to Contemporary Life and William Golding: A Critical Study.

" A brilliant study indeed!"—Richard E. Wentz, Religious Studies Review"The story of Eric Jansson and the Bishop Hill commune provides a striking, almost bizarre chapter in the rich history of religious utopias in antebellum America."—Stephen H. Wurster, The Old Northwest"Jansson is not a sympathetic character. He hated learning. He was a vivid bigot. He burned books. His dream of absolute innocence and pure holiness was betrayed by the real world’s inability to answer the demands of the ideal world. Yet it is a measure of Elmen’s clear and facile style, and the temperateness with which he approaches the hopes and failings of Eric Jansson, that the reader comes eventually to an appreciation of what this flawed prophet sought to create."—Donald Zochert, Chicago Daily News