Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess

Van Wagoner, Richard S.

Published by Signature Books, Salt Lake City, 1994

About this Item

493pp. Octavo [23.5 cm] Blue cloth with the title silver stamped on the backstrip. Fine/Fine. Next to Smith, Rigdon was the most influential early Mormon. He imported Reformed Baptist teachings into Latter-day Saint theology, wrote the canonized Lectures on Faith, championed communalism and isolationism, and delivered many of the most significant early sermons, including the famous Salt Sermon and the Ohio temple dedicatory address. Following Smith's death, Rigdon parted company with Brigham Young to lead his own group of some 500 secessionists Mormons in Pennsylvania. Rigdon's following gradually dwindled, as the one-time orator took to wandering the streets, taunting indifferent passersby with God's word. He was later recruited by another Mormon faction. Although he refused to meet with them, he agreed to be their prophet and send revelations by mail. Before long he had directed them to settle far-off Iowa and Manitoba, among other things. At his death, his followers numbered in the hundreds, and today they number about 10,000, mostly in Pennsylvania.

Seller Inventory # 8842

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
• Publisher: Signature Books, Salt Lake City
• Publication Date: 1994
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • LDS Biography