David Howlett's excellent book is based on the most important secondary sources, primary sources from the Community of Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and personal interviews. Throughout the book, Howlett interprets events through models adopted from sociology, philosophy, religious studies, and anthropology. These include the work of scholars such as Pierre Bourdieu, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Susan Naquin, Chun-Fang Yu, John Urry, Ellen Badone, Sharon Roseman, Jonathan Z. Smith, and a host of others. Readers can accept such insights as useful models that aid in understanding events in their historical context. The core of the book is a historical narrative.
Perhaps no Latter-day Saint space had proved more contentious than the Kirtland Temple. Dedicated in March 1836, the temple witnessed a number of extraordinary Pentecostal experiences. On April 3, 1836, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery experienced an extraordinary theophany. They saw “the Lord [Jesus Christ] standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit before them.” Thereafter Moses, Elias, and Elijah appeared to them to confer particular authority. The Latter-day Saints viewed the event as foreshadowing Christ's second coming and as a preparation for later temple experiences, especially vicarious baptism and temple ordinances for themselves and for deceased relatives.
The RLDS (Community of Christ) interpreted the temple as a sign of their legitimacy. After a period in which numerous groups used the Kirtland Temple, after an 1880 law suit the RLDS to claimed ownership by adverse possession. Although the judge dismissed the suit, the RLDS argued they were the legitimate successors of Smith's church in a sign on the temple from 1899 through 1986.
Spawned in contention over the successor to Smith, over time, the two churches moved even further apart. Although the RLDS accepted at first most of the innovations Joseph Smith had introduced in Nauvoo such as baptism for the dead, the preexistence of spirits, and multiple gods, they allowed these lay dormant or die. They rejected Smith's introduction of polygamy. Mormons practiced polygamy, they said, and they were “not Mormons.” For the time being, their presidents were lineal descendants from Smith.
In the years down to the mid-1980s, the RLDS church viewed the Kirtland temple both as a symbol of their legitimacy and as a sacred space for proselytizing. Producing literature to sustain their views, they argued that the LDS in Utah were usurpers who had introduced polygamy.
After 1978 with the research of Roger Launius whose work RLDS Church Historian Richard Howard and site directors Lachlan MacKay and Barbara Walden continued and enlarged, the church emphasized the history of the temple rather than using it for proselytizing. The RLDS built a new visitor's center and they purchased a number of properties near the temple such as Sidney Rigdon's home.
In reaction to the introduction of the ordination of women in 1985 under President Wallace B. Smith's revelation of 1984, the church split into a number of groups. Most were peaceful conservatives, but one group of violent reactionaries coalesced around Jeffrey Lundgren. Lundgren's teachings led to murder, and he eventually paid with an execution by the state of Ohio.
Over time, the RLDS church moved away from its early roots. The church called Grant McMurray, who had no familial relationship to Joseph Smith, as president. Over time, leaders began to study at protestant seminaries, and the church emphasized protestant theology, morphed itself into a peace church, and constructed a second temple, this one in Independence, Missouri.
In the meantime, the Latter-day Saints passed through a significant metamorphosis in their view of the Kirtland Temple. Many of them visited the temple on the way to sites such as Joseph Smith's birthplace in Vermont and the church's origins in Western New York. They encountered RLDS guides, and in some cases argued with them. Because of stories of desecration, the Latter-day Saints came to believe that Kirtland was cursed.
Through the efforts of prominent Cleveland Latter-day Saint, Karl Anderson, LDS began to see the importance of the temple in their traditions. Elder Ezra Taft Benson, then an apostle, lifted the curse, and the LDS began to take a greater interest in Kirtland. The church constructed a visitor's center, restored the Newell K. Whitney store, and the constructed other sites on the flat northeast of the temple.
Over time, although both churches rejected each other's theology and governance, the two have worked out accommodations for cooperation and respectful civil discourse. Some contention still exists, but RLDS leaders like MacKay and Weldon and LDS leaders like Anderson and Donald Brewer succeeded in coexisting on friendly terms.
Although respectful of the LDS people and their traditions, because Howlett grew up in the RLDS church, he shows a misunderstanding of some aspects of LDS theology and practice. Latter-day Saints do not believe that God has a body of “flesh and blood,” (164), but rather of flesh and bones, since they believe that blood is corrupt. Gay LDS member Mitch Mayne was called as executive secretary, an important administrative position in the bishopric, rather than as “secretary,” a position found in nearly every church auxiliary (181). The testimonies of mature members tend to be more complex than those Howlett quotes (195). They generally include testimonies of Christ's atonement, personal life and spiritual experiences, and evidences of divine, priesthood, and personal healing and comfort. By contrast, youth tend to bear testimonies that cite only Joseph Smith's prophetic calling, the divinity of the church, and the prophetic calling of Thomas S. Monson (195).
Nevertheless, this book is a significant addition to the literature of both the LDS and RLDS communities. Readers of all persuasions can learn a great deal about contention and accommodation by groups with common backgrounds through the stories told and interpreted here. The scholarly models provide lenses for possible interpretations of the events.
