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The Mormon religion is predicated on what are said to be historical events such as the First Vision of Joseph Smith and the historicity of the Book of Mormon, which describes a detailed pre-Columbian history of North America.〔 "The foundations of the Church are grounded in a series of historic events, without which the Restoration would be incomprehensible and impotent." Douglas F. Tobler and S. George Ellsworth, "History, Significance to Latter-Day Saints," in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Mormonism'' (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 596. 〕 President Joseph Fielding Smith, the tenth LDS prophet, declared that "Mormonism, as it is called, must stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith. He was either a prophet of God, divinely called, properly appointed and commissioned, or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground."〔"If Joseph Smith was a deceiver, who willfully attempted to mislead the people, then he should be exposed; his claims should be refuted, and his doctrines shown to be false, for the doctrines of an impostor cannot be made to harmonize in all particulars with divine truth. If his claims and declarations were built upon fraud and deceit, there would appear many errors and contradictions, which would be easy to detect." as quoted by 〕 As Jan Shipps has written, "Mormonism, unlike other modern religions, is a faith cast in the form of history," and until after World War II, Mormons did not critically examine the historical underpinnings of their faith; any "profane" investigation of the Church's history was perceived "as trespassing on forbidden ground."〔 Jan Shipps, ''Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years Among the Mormons'' (Urbana: University of Illinois, 2000), 164-65. 〕 Although traditional Christianity is likewise a history religion,〔 For instance, in I Corinthians 15. 14, St. Paul says, "if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain." (KJV) 〕 few primary sources survive from two or three millennia ago, and biblical places such as Jerusalem, Jericho, and Bethlehem, are acknowledged to exist by scholars of every religious persuasion. Likewise, the Assyrian and Babylonian empires mentioned in the Bible are treated in all histories of the ancient Near East. By contrast, locations of Book of Mormon places are disputed even by Mormons, and the existence of those places is not acknowledged by any non-Mormon scholars. Martin Marty, a Lutheran scholar of American religion, has observed that LDS beginnings are so recent "that there is no place to hide....There is little protection for Mormon sacredness."〔 Martin Marty, "Two Integrities: An Address to the Crisis in Mormon Historiography," in George D. Smith, ed., ''Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History'' (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 174. ''Faithful History'' is a collection of essays expressing different views about how to approach the history of the LDS Church. The work includes essays written by two articulate Church apologists, Louis Midgley and David Earl Bohn, although neither is a historian. 〕 =="Mormons remember"== As Richard and Joan Ostling have written, "Mormons remember." There has been an official church historian since the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and "Mormon youths and their sisters are exhorted to keep journals as part of their religious commitment. Missionaries are reminded by their superiors that the journals represent a part of their sacred duties."〔 Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Osling, "Faithful History," in Mormon America: The Power and the Promise (HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), 238-39. 〕 The pioneer era is an especially fertile field for faith-promoting history. As Wallace Stegner has written, the "tradition of the pioneer that is strong all through the West is a cult in Utah."〔 Wallace Stegner, ''The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail'' (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981), 2. 〕 Mormons "tell and retell their stories of pioneer privations and persecutions." Mormon young people are often given the opportunity to pull a handcart through a patch of desert; Mormon children are early taught the miracle of the gulls, the story of seagulls that supposedly saved the crops of the earliest Utah pioneers from an invasion of crickets in 1848.〔 Ostling, 241-42. "'Miracle' status apparently has grown since an 1853 General Conference mention by Apostle Orson Hyde, amplified and reinforced over the years by stories in Mormon publications and official church histories." On the story of the gulls, see William G. Hartley, "Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls: A New Look at an Old Story," in D. Michael Quinn, ed., ''The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past'' (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 137-151. 〕 Under President Joseph F. Smith, the LDS Church began to purchase, refurbish, and reconstruct its sacred sites, beginning with Carthage Jail in 1903. "Visitors' centers, restored houses, historic parks, monuments, and trail markers sprouted everywhere." In 1999 the Church maintained forty-four such sites, many of which were staffed by Mormon missionaries.〔 Ostling, 240-41. 〕 Mormons have also developed "something of an annual outdoor pageant circuit" which serves as both a proselytizing tool and a "faith-affirming" experience to the volunteer participants and most of the audience.〔Ostling, 243.〕 An elaborate Hill Cumorah pageant, on the site where the golden plates are said to have been revealed to Joseph Smith, has been annually performed since 1937.〔 (Website of the Hill Cumorah Pageant ) 〕 Other LDS pageants are regularly performed in eight locations in the United States, including Nauvoo, Illinois; Independence, Missouri; Manti, Utah; and Oakland, California.〔 Likewise, the LDS Church has regularly produced faith-promoting films with excellent production values for showing in Salt Lake City and at the visitors' centers of Mormon historic sites. Recent films include ''Legacy: A Mormon Journey'' (1990), ''The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd'' (2000), and ''Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration'' (2005). As Richard and Joan Ostling have written, ''Legacy'' is "an example of ritualized history, effectively idealized and simplified." In discussing the Mormon pioneer heritage, "there is no hint of polygamy or millennial land claims or any other distinctive Mormon doctrine, just the idea that a prophet Joseph Smith came up with a new sacred book asking people to lead holy lives."〔 Ostling, 242. 〕 Smith dies as a martyr without mention of Mormon destruction of a Nauvoo newspaper, which triggered the crisis.〔 Nevertheless, "the drama and scenery of the trek are so beautifully photographed" that many Mormons saw the movie repeatedly when visiting Temple Square.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mormonism and history」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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