Christopher Blythe
Brigham Young University, English, Faculty Member
- Brigham Young University, Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Faculty MemberLDS Church History Department, Joseph Smith Papers, Faculty Memberadd
- Religion, American Religion, Witchcraft, Religion and Magic, Folk Religion, American Religious History, Mormon studies, and 42 moreNew Religious Movements, Politics and Religion, Folklore, Religious Studies, American History, Mormonism, Mormon History, Cultural History Of Ghosts, 1 Enoch, Nation of Islam, Moorish Science Temple, New Religions, Apocalypticism, Book of Mormon, Western Esotericism (History), Nineteenth Century Studies, Polygamy, American Studies, Joseph Smith, History of Religion, Relics (Religion), Ritual Studies, Spiritualism, Material culture of religion, American West, Esotericism, Supernatural Folklore, Demonology, Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Enoch literature, Religion and Politics, Communalism, History of Childhood, History of Childhood and Youth, Women's History, History of Christianity, New Testament, History of Reception of Biblical Texts, The Book Of Enoch, Prophecy, and Vernacular Religionedit
- I am an assistant professor of folklore and literature at Brigham Young University, as well as the co-editor of the J... moreI am an assistant professor of folklore and literature at Brigham Young University, as well as the co-editor of the Journal of Mormon History and co-president of the Folklore Society of Utah.edit
The relationship between early Mormons and the United States was marked by anxiety and hostility, heightened over the course of the nineteenth century by the assassination of Mormon leaders, the Saints' exile from Missouri and Illinois,... more
The relationship between early Mormons and the United States was marked by anxiety and hostility, heightened over the course of the nineteenth century by the assassination of Mormon leaders, the Saints' exile from Missouri and Illinois, the military occupation of the Utah territory, and the national crusade against those who practiced plural marriage. Nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints looked forward to apocalyptic events that would unseat corrupt governments across the globe, particularly the tyrannical government of the United States. The infamous "White Horse Prophecy" referred to this coming American apocalypse as "a terrible revolutionEL in the land of America, such as has never been seen before; for the land will be literally left without a supreme government." Mormons envisioned divine deliverance by way of plagues, natural disasters, foreign invasions, American Indian raids, slave uprisings, or civil war unleashed on American cities and American people. For the Saints, these violent images promised a national rebirth that would vouchsafe the protections of the United States Constitution and end their oppression.
In Terrible Revolution, Christopher James Blythe examines apocalypticism across the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, particularly as it took shape in the writings and visions of the laity. The responses of the church hierarchy to apocalyptic lay prophecies promoted their own form of separatist nationalism during the nineteenth century. Yet, after Utah obtained statehood, as the church sought to assimilate to national religious norms, these same leaders sought to lessen the tensions between themselves and American political and cultural powers. As a result, visions of a violent end to the nation became a liability to disavow and regulate. Ultimately, Blythe argues that the visionary world of early Mormonism, with its apocalyptic emphases, continued in the church's mainstream culture in modified forms but continued to maintain separatist radical forms at the level of folk-belief.
In Terrible Revolution, Christopher James Blythe examines apocalypticism across the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, particularly as it took shape in the writings and visions of the laity. The responses of the church hierarchy to apocalyptic lay prophecies promoted their own form of separatist nationalism during the nineteenth century. Yet, after Utah obtained statehood, as the church sought to assimilate to national religious norms, these same leaders sought to lessen the tensions between themselves and American political and cultural powers. As a result, visions of a violent end to the nation became a liability to disavow and regulate. Ultimately, Blythe argues that the visionary world of early Mormonism, with its apocalyptic emphases, continued in the church's mainstream culture in modified forms but continued to maintain separatist radical forms at the level of folk-belief.
Research Interests: Religion, Christianity, New Religious Movements, History, American Studies, and 14 moreFolklore, Mythology, American Religion, New Religions, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Apocalypticism In Literature, Mormonism, Mormon History, Lived Religion, Eschatology, Religion and Violence, American Religious History, Mormon studies, and Post-Apocalyptic Literature
This article introduces the Latter-day Saint "legend of the naked dead, " which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a widely known story emphasizing the importance of proper burial, including the ritual clothing of... more
This article introduces the Latter-day Saint "legend of the naked dead, " which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a widely known story emphasizing the importance of proper burial, including the ritual clothing of the dead. The ceremonial robes and garments that Latter-day Saints wear in temple services are also worn in the grave. In these stories, apparitions appear to the living to coax them to fix some error in their burial clothing. The legend cycle emphasizes the place of the family in caring for their dead, the significance of these rituals, and, of course, the continuing connections between the living and the dead, while simultaneously reinforcing the expectation for Latter-day Saints to always wear the garment under their secular clothing. Historically, some have viewed the practice of wearing the garment as onerous and altered their garments for purposes of comfort or fashion. The legend of the naked dead assures Latter-day Saints that there is purpose in this tradition that transcends even death.
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Research Interests: Religion, New Religious Movements, History, Folklore, History of Religion, and 14 moreBritish History, American Religion, Cultural History Of Ghosts, Mormonism, Spirit Possession (Anthropology), Mormon History, American Religious History, Religious Studies, Mormon studies, Exorcism, Diabolic Possession, Supernatural Folklore, Exorcisms, and Anthropology of Religion
This article examines how a series of nineteenth century Mormons read Codex Boturini as a visual retelling of the Book of Mormon, although they were divided on just which portions it portrayed.
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This article documents one strain of Mormon thought concerning the Woman of Endor narrative in 1 Samuel 28, in which the woman was interpreted as a prophetess enabled to raise the dead through her spiritual gifts. Church leaders... more
This article documents one strain of Mormon thought concerning the Woman of Endor narrative in 1 Samuel 28, in which the woman was interpreted as a prophetess enabled to raise the dead through her spiritual gifts. Church leaders eventually condemned this narrative because of its similarities with Spiritualist exegesis and American Christianity's use of the narrative to condemn Spiritualism as necromancy. Through establishing an orthodox reading of the passage, leaders strengthened the boundaries separating the two faiths – boundaries that many Spiritualists had argued were at best blurry and overlapping.
Research Interests: New Religious Movements, Reception Studies, Theology, American Religion, New Religions, and 11 moreSpiritualism, Mormonism, Western Esotericism (History), Mormon History, Witchcraft, Religion and Magic, Reception History, American Religious History, Religious Studies, Mormon studies, Women and Religion, and Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
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Examines how our understanding of succession after the death of Joseph Smith take into account the new publication of the Council of Fifty Minutes.
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This is a study of alternative interpretations of the Mormon Council of Fifty, a theocratic council, known as the Kingdom of God.
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Research Interests: New Religious Movements, Folklore, Women's History, History of Religion, Nineteenth Century Studies, and 12 moreAnthropology of Pilgrimage, Vernacular Religion, Pilgrimage, Ritual, American Religion, New Religions, Mormonism, Mormon History, Lived Religion, American Religious History, Religious Studies, and Pilgrimage and Tourism
This article follows James Strang's integration of Mormon esotericism (i.e. temple rites) into his brand of Mormonism in the late 1840s, demonstrating influences of and responses to Joseph Smith's Council of Fifty.
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This article examines how Mormons reinterpreted the figure of Joseph Smith (1805–1844) in the wake of their prophet’s death. As a number of Mormon sects emerged in the years immediately following 1844, rival prophets claimed continued... more
This article examines how Mormons reinterpreted the figure of Joseph Smith (1805–1844) in the wake of their prophet’s death. As a number of Mormon sects emerged in the years immediately following 1844, rival prophets claimed continued access to Smith as a means of legitimating themselves against opposing bodies. The article argues that these re-conceptualizations of Joseph Smith served to draw boundaries between movements, with particular attention to the processes of sacralization common to many new religious movements facing their founder’s death. Specific emphasis is on the Latter-Day Saints’ efforts to regulate such practices originating from their sectarian competitors but also from LDS adherents.
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The Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) established its own singular identity among nineteenth century Mormon sects through the observance of Mormonism's temple rites. In performance and rhetoric, these ceremonies served as a link to the... more
The Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) established its own singular identity among nineteenth century Mormon sects through the observance of Mormonism's temple rites. In performance and rhetoric, these ceremonies served as a link to the past before Joseph Smith's death and the subsequent fissuring of Mormonism's original incarnation in the mid-1840s. "The upper room work" acted as a means of legitimation - evoking a sense of authenticity for the movement when challenged by rival sects.
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"This article is divided into two major parts. The first section is devoted to a history of the proto-Cutlerite - that is, the movement as it existed as a colony before organization as a church - involvement with polygamy. Here we will... more
"This article is divided into two major parts. The first section is devoted to a history of the proto-Cutlerite - that is, the movement as it existed as a colony before organization as a church - involvement with polygamy. Here we will count wives and husbands and measure the extent of overall knowledge of polygamy during the period. The second section is devoted to a history of a history of the Cutlerite ... memory or representation of polygamy [in the early days of Mormonism.]"
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"This essay establishes a point often neglected: the history of Mormon polygamy embraces much more than one faction of the original church and one geographic area situated in the intermountain west..."