Feeding the Flock: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Church and Praxis

by Terryl L. Givens

Overview

Feeding the Flock, the second volume of Terryl L. Givens's landmark study of the foundations of Mormon thought and practice, traces the essential contours of Mormon practice as it developed from Joseph Smith to the present. Despite the stigmatizing fascination with its social innovations (polygamy, communalism), its stark supernaturalism (angels, gold plates, and seer stones), and its most esoteric aspects (a New World Garden of Eden, sacred undergarments), as well as its long-standing outlier status among American Protestants, Givens reminds us that Mormonism remains the most enduring-and thriving-product of the nineteenth-century's religious upheavals and innovations.
Because Mormonism is founded on a radically unconventional cosmology, based on unusual doctrines of human nature, deity, and soteriology, a history of its development cannot use conventional theological categories. Givens has structured these volumes in a way that recognizes the implicit logic of Mormon thought. The first book, Wrestling the Angel, centered on the theoretical foundations of Mormon thought and doctrine regarding God, humans, and salvation. Feeding the Flock considers Mormon practice, the authority of the institution of the church and its priesthood, forms of worship, and the function and nature of spiritual gifts in the church's history, revealing that Mormonism is still a tradition very much in the process of formation.
At once original and provocative, engaging and learned, Givens offers the most sustained account of Mormon thought and practice yet written.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199794935
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/03/2017
Pages:	426
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Terryl L. Givens did graduate work at Cornell University in intellectual history and at UNC Chapel Hill, where he received his PhD in comparative literature. He holds the Jabez A. Bostwick Chair of English and is Professor of Literature and Religion at the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses in nineteenth-century studies and the Bible's influence on Western literature. His writing has been praised by the New York Times as "provocative reading," and his numerous books include When Souls Had Wings, a history of the idea of premortal life in Western thought, as well as The God Who Weeps (with Fiona Givens) and Wrestling the Angel.

Table of Contents

Priesthood, Church Organization, and Governance
1. Prophet: From Calling to Office
2. The Two Priesthoods
3. Quorums and Councils

Scripture
1. Bible
2. Book of Mormon
3. Doctrine and Covenants
4. Pearl of Great Price

Sacraments (ordinances)
1. Baptism
2. Lord's Supper ("sacrament")
3. Priesthood blessings
4. Temple ordinances

Worship
1. Congregational forms
2. Temple work

Church law
1. Tithing
2. Word of Wisdom
3. Sexuality

Eschatology
1. Providential history
2. Millennialism
3. Zion

Editorial Reviews

05/22/2017
Givens (When Souls Had Wings), author of numerous books on Mormon history and theology, has completed an excellent duology with this companion volume to Wrestling the Angel. Here, Givens moves away from the philosophical background and religious tenets of Mormonism to discuss the day-to-day practice of Mormon believers. He divides his text in three: the structure of the church itself as a working hierarchy, and then the salvific and non-salvific ordinances offered by the church. Those looking for the historical or scriptural foundations of modern-day Mormon positions on issues such as sexual orientation or gender expression will be disappointed; Givens gives the role of women in the church, for example, no more than a cursory mention. Issues of sexual identity receive even less attention. As in his previous volume, Givens comes to no conclusions at either chapter or volume level, choosing instead to stop where the discussion of his final element stops; the academic reader, particularly, may find this an unusual gap, and both books would have benefited from some sort of closing overview. Givens does, however, provide rich notes that should serve the interested reader well in locating additional reading. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Based on a well- researched engagement with Christian theology, it will surely serve as a valuable introduction to these topics in Mormon thought and ritual practice." — Hans Gerald Hödl, Religious Studies Review

"I could see this book, therefore, being very profitably utilized in colleges courses on Mormonism ... Terry Givens's hope is that Mormon theology will be given more serious attention. This book is relentless in making the case that there are rich rewards for such attention." — J. B. Haws, Mormon Studies Review

"Feeding the Flock is essential reading to anyone interested in acquiring a better-grounded appreciation of the meaning and sources of Latter-day Saint religious practices and in obtaining a granular knowledge of the similarities and disparities between the practices and theology of the Church versus other Christian religions." — Mark A. Wrathall, BYU Studies Quarterly

"This work is yet another testament to Givens' considerable ability of distilling a mind-numbing amount of information into a masterpiece that speaks effectively to both experts and general readers. In short, Givens has done it again. Feeding the Flock makes for the perfect (even necessary) companion volume to Wrestling the Angel, filling in what little theological blanks remained and opening new and interesting questions on Mormon praxis to advance the conversation. Together, these two volumes will serve non-LDS readers well in helping them to understand the thought and practice that drives Mormonism." —K. Robert Beshears, Southeastern Theological Review

"Feeding the Flock offers the ambitious, expansive, visionary style that we've come to expect from Givens. It is a well-wrought, elegantly gathered work. As he did in Wrestling the Angel, Givens once again sets an entirely new standard for the study of Mormonism's theological foundations. And he sets the bar high."—Juvenile Instructor

"[T]his is a good book for learning how one Mormon understands his own tradition."—Nova Religio

"It is hard to know if Terryl L. Givens is best described as a historian, theologian, philosopher, sociologist, or literary critic. He also is a master stylist who knows how to render abstract ideas in language meaningful to specialists and ordinary readers alike. Feeding the Flock is a distinguished contribution to the major body of studies of America's largest home-grown religious tradition."—Grant Wacker, author of America's Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation

"The systematic account of the history, teaching, and authoritative sources of Mormonism is a story worth telling, and the author tells it with controlled passion and scholarly command."—D. N. Robinson, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford

"Givens is to be commended not only for producing the first major systematic overview of Mormon theology, but also for taking a historically informed, comparative approach that both Latter-day Saints and scholars of religion will find highly illuminating."—Ann Taves, Professor of Religious Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara

From the Publisher