THE MORMON HIERARCHY: Origins of Power

Salt Lake City: Signature Books, in association with Smith Research Associates, 1994. Cloth in dust jacket. Light shelfwear. Very good. Thick 8vo. xv+685pp., illustrations, notes, appendices, index. Converts to Joseph Smith's 1828 Mormon restoration movement were attracted to the non-hierarchical nature of the venture. It wa sprecisely because there were no priests, ordinances, or dogma taht people were drawn in such numbers. Smith intended everyone to be a prophet, and anyone who felt called was invited to minister freely, wothout formal office. At the time of Smith's martyrdom in 1844, the Church had developed five leading quorums of authority, and it was Brigham Young's Quorum of the Twelve that moved decisively to eliminate contenders for the presidency and continue Smith's political and doctrinal innovations and social stratification. Young's 20th-century legacy is a well-defined structure without the charismatic spotanaeity or egalitarian chaos of early Mormonism. Historian D. Michael Quinn examines the contradictions and confusion of the first tumultuous decades of Latter-day Saint history. he demonstrates how events and doctrines were silently, retroactively inserted into the published form of the scriptures and official records to smooth out a stormy and often haphazard development. The bureaucratization of Mormonism was inevitable, but the manner in which this occurred was unpredictable and fascinating.