Curious Gentiles and Representational Authority in the City of the Saints

Eliason, Eric A.

doi:10.1525/rac.2001.11.2.155

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The purpose of this paper was to look at not just the 'how' but also to understand the 'why' behind the methods and content of site interpretation at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. Managing non-Mormon visitors to Temple Square was the first foray of the Latter-day Saint Church into catering to the diverse motivations and expectations of tourists who came to Salt Lake City in the early Twentieth Century to learn more about and to gaze at the Latter-day Saints (see Eliason 2001;Gruen 2002;Hafen 1997;Olsen 2008Olsen , 2009. Over time, Church leaders have come to see tourism to Temple Square and its other historic sites in the United States as an avenue for outreach and proselytization (Hudman and Jackson 1992;Olsen 2006b, in press(b); Olsen and Timothy 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Truth in Third Space': The Use of History as a Pedagogical Instrument at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah

Olsen

2012

Tourism Recreation Research

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While there has been increasing academic interest in the intersections between religion and tourism and the management of religious heritage sites, there has been little written on how these sites are interpreted to visitors and the religious doctrines or worldviews that frame the interpretational content and methods at these sites. Using the case study of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, this paper examines the ways in which religious heritage sites are used by 'religions of salvation' (Riesebrodt 2010: 66), specifically The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to further their salvation-oriented goals. Not only is the 'core business' of religious sites more than just the creation of a 'sense of place' (Shackley 2001a(Shackley , 2001b(Shackley , 2002, but also involves an emphasis on both the maintenance and shifting of religious identities depending on the religious background of the visitor, making religious heritage sites a type of Third Space (Bhabha 1994;Soja 1996).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Truth in Third Space': The Use of History as a Pedagogical Instrument at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah

Olsen

2012

Tourism Recreation Research

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The Whore of Babylon and the Abomination of Abominations: Nineteenth-Century Catholic and Mormon Mutual Perceptions and Religious Identity

Grow

2004

Church Hist

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In 1846, Oran Brownson, the older brother of the famed Catholic convert Orestes A. Brownson, penned a letter to his brother recounting a dream Orestes had shared with him much earlier. In the dream, Orestes, Oran, and a third brother, Daniel, were “traveling a road together.” “You first left the road then myself and it remains to be seen whether Daniel will turn out of the road (change his opinion),” Oran wrote. At approximately the same period in which Orestes converted to Catholicism “because no other church possessed proper authority,” Oran joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because he believed that “proper authority rests among the Mormons.” Indeed, in an era characterized by denominational proliferation, democratization, and competition, Catholic and Mormon claims to divine authority proved appealing to some Americans, like the Brownsons, wearied by the diversity and disunity of the Protestant world. Oran cautioned Orestes to not trust polemical literature against Mormonism, but to “get your information from friends and not enemies.” Orestes could have repeated the same warning about Catholicism, given the number and intensity of nineteenth-century attacks on both Catholics and Mormons. Leaving mainstream Christianity to join the most despised religions in nineteenth-century America, the Brownson brothers embarked on spiritual quests that few contemporary Americans would have understood, much less approved.

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The “Negro Problem,” the “Mormon Problem,” and the Pursuit of “Usefulness” in the White American Republic

Mueller¹

2019

Church Hist

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By examining Booker T. Washington's (little studied) relationship with Mormon elites, this article introduces the category of “usefulness” to scholars who investigate how racially and religiously marginalized Americans have sought acceptance in the “white American republic.” Washington's 1913 visit to Utah was the high point in a decade-long public campaign of mutual admiration. Washington and the Mormons’ high regard for each other—an aberration in much of black-Mormon relations—was based on similar histories of discrimination at the hands of white Protestant Americans. It was also based on similar beliefs that to overcome their status as “problem” people, Washington-led blacks and Mormons had to prove their “usefulness”—a form of respectability politics—to themselves and to the American republic. To do so, they pointed to the fruits of their own and each other's usefulness: economic productivity, educational advancement, and middle-class mores. While these fruits were similar, the roots were different, and racialized. For the Mormons, usefulness arose from a post-polygamy Mormon religion through which they asserted their whiteness. For Washington, usefulness arose not from the “Negro” church—the only independent black institution in American history—but from educational institutions like Tuskegee, which promoted black advancement under the control of white supremacy.

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Curious Gentiles and Representational Authority in the City of the Saints

Cited by 3 publications

References 9 publications

Teaching Truth in Third Space': The Use of History as a Pedagogical Instrument at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah

Teaching Truth in Third Space': The Use of History as a Pedagogical Instrument at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah

The Whore of Babylon and the Abomination of Abominations: Nineteenth-Century Catholic and Mormon Mutual Perceptions and Religious Identity

The “Negro Problem,” the “Mormon Problem,” and the Pursuit of “Usefulness” in the White American Republic

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