Jonathan A. Stapley's "Holiness to the Lord"

Jonathan A. Stapley is an award-winning historian and scientist. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University and has been active in the field of Mormon History for two decades.

He applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship, and shared the following:

In a famous line from “I Believe,” one of the catchiest songs from The Book of Mormon musical, Elder Price declares, “that God has a plan for all of us. I believe that plan involves me getting my own planet.” It’s funny. It is also a flawed caricature that largely does not map onto the beliefs of individual members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more commonly called “Mormons”).

Latter-day Saints are constructing temples throughout the world. They excitedly take the public on tours of these iconic buildings once they are complete. But after the prayers of dedication, the public is excluded and church members make promises not to talk about what happens inside. The result is often awkward. Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship is a detailed explanation of the religious ceremonies that occur within these temples, their history over the last nearly 200 years, and an exploration of their religious meaning in the lives of church members. There is a bit of ritual theory and religious studies, but it is mostly history.

Page 99 notes how “it can be tempting to focus on the exotic beliefs” of nineteenth century Mormons. I write this after describing in vivid detail the religious cosmologies of Brigham Young—the leader of the church from 1844 to 1877—and perhaps his most prominent wife, Eliza Snow. Their beliefs about the afterlife and eternal destination of the human soul are the seeds for Elder Price’s goofy Broadway declaration. Page 99 deals with perhaps the most “exotic” elements of Latter-day Saint history. These beliefs are largely irrelevant to the lived religion and beliefs of the millions of practicing Mormons who worship in temples today. But they are also necessary to understand the trajectory of those beliefs and practices.

Page 99 fails at being representative of Holiness to the Lord as a whole. But it is still key for the book to represent the history of the Latter-day Saint temple as a whole.

Visit Jonathan A. Stapley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue