How a Temple Sect Became a Temple Religion

Part 2 of a 2-part review of Devery S. Anderson, The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2011).

Whatever its limitations, Anderson’s book tells an important story—namely, the story of how a temple sect became a temple religion.

One aspect of this transformation was the process sociologists refer to as the “routinization of charisma.” The worship practices of new religions are typically “charismatic”—that is, energetic, improvised, and non-institutional. Over time, however, leaders begin to suppress or institutionalize these charismatic practices in order to preserve the stability and respectability of the institution. The first chapter of Anderson’s book—containing documents from the Nauvoo period—reveals Mormon temple worship in its initial, charismatic phase. There are some formulaic ordinances, of course, but there are also intimate, improvised meetings in which people speak in miraculous tongues, prophesy, see visions, bless their children, sing hymns, shout “Hosanna,” and feast on wine, cakes, and pies. This is temple worship directed less by prescribed policy than by the immediate inspiration of the Spirit—more like a Pentecostal revival than a formal liturgy. In subsequent chapters of the volume, however, we see a gradual codification and formalization of temple worship. The temple ceremonies become increasingly scripted, standardized, and sanitized. As members and temple workers raise questions about points of practice, the General Authorities respond by formulating authoritative policies and handbooks of instructions. By the modern period, the temple experience is essentially identical every day, everywhere in the world.

Another aspect of the transformation from sect to religion was the de-emphasis of the idea of “gathering” to Utah. In the early Utah period, Brigham Young taught that there could be no sealings outside of Utah, because that would diminish the importance of the gathering. The urge to “gather” was linked to the Church’s sense that the apocalypse was imminent; Utah had been divinely designated as a place of “refuge” from the coming calamities. As the Church developed into a worldwide bureaucracy, however, the early apocalyptic urgency was supplanted by a program of long-term institutional expansion. No longer was the Church a small remnant, needing to be gathered out of the world. Instead, it was a sprawling movement with vast resources and global ambitions. Accordingly, the Church began to bring temples to the people rather than the other way around. At one point Church leaders even contemplated building a special ship to serve as a “sailing temple,” which could travel from port to port in countries where no permanent temple had yet been established. Temple-building accelerated in the 1980s, and then again after 1996, when Church leaders decided to reduce the size of new temples so they could be financed in larger numbers.

Anderson's book, then, documents the maturation of LDS worship practices during the difficult transition from a small, charismatic sect to a global, fully institutionalized religion. This is a story that will interest the sociologist as well as the historian, because it's really the story of every religion, not just Mormonism.