The Mormon Quest for Glory: The Religious World of the Latter-Day Saints - Hardcover

The Mormon Quest for Glory is a thoughtful and carefully crafted portrait of a fast-growing faith.... Among the many strengths of this volume is Hammarberg's deep understanding and careful analysis of key ritual transitions in the LDS believer's life cycle.... Those of us who study religion and, more specifically, Mormonism are in Mel Hammarberg's debt for this singular ethnographic rendering. (Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion)

The Mormon Quest for Glory will join the social science canon on Mormonism for years to come. (Sociology of Religion)

This book will be a fruitful read not only for scholars from diverse fields interested in religious communities, but also for readers who simply want to know more about the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. The Mormon Quest for Glory is a comprehensive, instructive, and balanced study of a growing religious community with an ever-increasing presence. (Marie-Therese Mäder, Religion)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has 6 million members in the United States today (and 13 million worldwide). Yet, while there has been extensive study of Mormon history, comparatively little scholarly attention has been paid to contemporary Mormons. The best sociological study of Mormon life, Thomas O'Dea's The Mormons, is now over fifty years old. What is it like to be a Mormon in America today? Melvyn Hammarberg attempts to answer this question by offering an ethnography of contemporary Mormons. In The Mormon Quest for Glory Hammarberg examines Mormon history, rituals, social organization, family connections, gender roles, artistic traditions, use of media, and missionary work. He writes as a sympathetic outsider who has studied Mormon life for decades, and strives to explain the religious world of the Latter-Day Saints through the lens of their own spiritual understanding. Drawing on a survey, participant observation, interviews, focus groups, attendance at religious gatherings, diaries, church periodicals, lesson manuals, and other church literature, Hammarberg aims to present a comprehensive picture of the religious world of the Latter-Day Saints.