1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender
The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is an outstanding reference source to this controversial subject area. Since its founding in 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has engaged gender in surprising ways. LDS practice of polygamy in the nineteenth century both fueled rhetoric of patriarchal rule as well as gave polygamous wives greater autonomy than their monogamous peers. The tensions over women’s autonomy continued after polygamy was abandoned and defined much of the twentieth century. In the 1970s, 1990s, and 2010s, Mormon feminists came into direct confrontation with the male Mormon hierarchy. These public clashes produced some reforms, but fell short of accomplishing full equality. LGBT Mormons have a similar history. These movements are part of the larger story of how Mormonism has managed changing gender norms in a global context. Comprising over forty chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into four parts:
• Methodological issues
• Historical approaches
• Social scientific approaches
• Theological approaches.
These sections examine central issues, debates, and problems, including: agency, feminism, sexuality and sexual ethics, masculinity, queer studies, plural marriage, homosexuality, race, scripture, gender and the priesthood, the family, sexual violence, and identity.
The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, gender studies, and women’s studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, politics, anthropology, and sociology.
Introduction
Amy Hoyt and Taylor G. Petrey
Part I: Methodological issues
1. Gender and culture in a global church
Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp
2. Race and gender in Mormonism: 1830-1978
Joseph R. Stuart and Amanda Hendrix-Komoto
3. Intersectionality
Chiung Hwang Chen and Ethan Yorgason
4. Feminities
Amy Hoyt
5. Masculinities
Sara M. Patterson
Part II: Historical approaches
6. Joseph Smith, plural marriage, and kinship
Benjamin E. Park
7. Mormon gender in the age of polygamy
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
8. Mormon women and scripture in the nineteenth century
Amy Easton-Flake
9. Mormonism, gender, and art in nineteenth-century Scandinavia
Julie K. Allen
10. Mormon gender in the progressive era
Matthew Bowman
11. Mormon gender in the mid-twentieth century
Colleen McDannell
12. Mormon feminism after 1970
Claudia L. Bushman
13. Gender and missionary work
David Golding
14. Homosexuality and therapeutic culture in Mormonism
Eric G. Swedin
15. Homosexuality and politics in Mormonism
Neil J. Young
16. Mormon LGBTQ organizing and organizations
John Donald Gustav-Wrathall
17. Mormonism, gender, and art
Mary Campbell
18. Mormon literature and gender
Fara Anderson Sneddon
19. Sexual purity and its discontents in Mormonism
Sara Moslener
20. Mormonism and sexual violence
Andrea G. Radke-Moss
Part III: Social scientific approaches
21. Women and religious organizations: a "microbiological" approach to influence
Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye
22. Global Mormon perspectives and experiences of family structures
Caroline Kline
23. Structures of home and family: North America
Megan Ann Stanton
24. Non-traditional families
Ryan T. Cragun and Giuseppina Valle Holway
25. Social science perspectives on gender and Mormon orthodoxy
Jana Riess and Benjamin Knoll
26. Gender and mental health in Mormon contexts
Rebekah Perkins Crawford
27. Women’s gender roles and Mormonism in England
Alison Halford
28. Institutional gender negotiations within Irish Mormon congregations
Hazel O’Brien
29. Peruvian Mormon matchmaking: the limits of Mormon endogamy at Zion’s border
Jason Palmer
30. Mormon women at work in Nicaragua
Amanda Talbot Tew
31. Mormon masculinity, family, and kava in the Pacific
Arcia Tecun and S. Ata Siu‘ulua
32. Gendered dynamics and institutions within Nigerian Mormonism
Russell W. Stevenson
Part IV: Theological approaches
33. Scripture and gender
Joseph M. Spencer
34. Theology of the family
Rosalynde Welch
35. Theology of sexuality
Taylor G. Petrey
36. Queer Mormons
K. Mohrman
37. Trans and mutable bodies
Kelli D. Potter
38. Feminism and Heavenly Mother
Fiona Givens
39. Women and the priesthood
Jonathan A. Stapley
40. Men and the priesthood
Margaret Toscano
41. Mujerista theology
Sujey Vega
Index
Biography
Amy Hoyt as Visiting Scholar of Religion at Claremont Graduate University, USA. Her work specifically focuses on issues of gender within Mormonism in North America and Africa. She has published in Feminist Theology, Mormon Studies Review, and Gender & History.
Taylor G. Petrey is Associate Professor of Religion at Kalamazoo College, USA and editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. He is the author of Tabernacles of Clay: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Mormonism (2020).
Gender and sexuality give rise to passionate debates among contemporary Mormon studies scholars and the communities they study. This handbook serves as an indispensable orientation to these complex issues and as a springboard for future research. I highly recommend this volume for anyone interested in the history, culture, theology, and future prospects of the Latter-day Saints.
Patrick Q. Mason, Utah State University, USA