Binding Earth and Heaven

Contents

List of Tables

Preface

Introduction

1 The Commitment and Doctrinal Functions of Early Mormon Patriarchal Blessings

2 Unity and Conflict in Early Mormon History

3 The Office and Calling of the Church Patriarch

4 The Problems and Promise of Patriarchal Blessings as Historical Artifacts

5 Patriarchal Blessing Themes, 1834–1845

6 Gender Differences in Early Patriarchal Blessings

7 Latter-day Saint Patriarchal Blessings Yesterday and Today

Appendix A: Examples of Oracular Versus Inspirational Modes of Prophetic Rhetoric

Appendix B: Blessings Randomly Sampled from Marquardt’s Early Patriarchal Blessings

Appendix C: Thematic Word Index for Patriarchal Blessings

Notes

References

Index

“Gary Shepherd and Gordon Shepherd have provided a welcome and successful case study of early Mormonism. Binding Earth and Heaven is generally focused on the tumultuous decades before the martyrdom of founder Joseph Smith, and specifically focused on the function of patriarchal blessings. . . . This is a strong and valuable work, especially in its core statistical analysis.”

—Christopher W. Chase, Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions