Returning to Babylon: Processes of social change and the characteristics of former participants in a new religious movement

This study focuses on persons who were formerly involved in a millennarian religious movement that formed as a separatist schism from one of the Mormon denominations, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (R.L.D.S. church). The history of the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormonism) itself has been one of dissenting views, factionalism, and fragmentation. Unresolved questions of authority and control within the R.L.D.S. church and divisions over modem shifts in doctrinal emphases have contributed to widespread dissatisfaction among members clinging to more traditional tenets of belief. The topic of the study revolves around the processes of social change involved in the formation of a new religious movement having millennarian features in the central United States. It centers on the religious background and beliefs, family background, sociocultural perceptions, personal wellbeing, and retention of the movement's beliefs and practices on the part of a group of subjects. The study combines anthropological, sociological, social psychological, and historical literature to explain subjects' predisposition toward participation with reference to perceived dissatisfactions with their prior religious and social environments.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Year dc:date.issued

1993

Author dc:creator

• Searles, Leland Mark

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/PrMB4N0z

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dr.lib.iastate.edu:20.500.12876/PrMB4N0z