Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy (eBook)

Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy analyzes the relationship between experiences of religious persecution and the development of complex belief systems entailing deification. By examining the histories of early Christians and early Mormons, the study not only highlights social processes at work in the first stages of these new religious movements but also demonstrates the enduring viability of the comparative method for research on religious communities and their beliefs.

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Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy seeks both to demonstrate the salience of ';heresy' as a tool for analyzing instances of religious conflict far beyond the borders of traditional historical theology and to illuminate the apparent affinity for deification exhibited by some persecuted religious movements. To these ends, the book argues for a sociologically-informed redefinition of heresy as religiously-motivated opposition and applies the resulting concept to the historical cases of second-century Christians and nineteenth-century Mormons. Ultimately, Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy is a careful application of the comparative method to two new religious movements, highlighting the social processes at work in their early doctrinal developments.