First Advisor

Robert C. Liebman

Term of Graduation

Spring 1999

Date of Publication

5-3-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Sociology

Department

Sociology

Language

English

Subjects

Latter Day Saint churches -- History, Religion and sociology, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- History

Physical Description

1 online resource (iv, 105 pages)

Abstract

This thesis examined schisms in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1830-1985, concentrating on the relationship of religious organizational development and propensity to schism. It was hypothesized that as a religious group institutionalizes, it experiences crises that increase the likelihood for schism. This study used the LDS Church as a case study to analyze how organizational development correlates with schismatic activity.

It was found that a church is most safe from schismatic movements when the church is organizationally stable, but before major accommodation has taken place. For the LDS Church, this occurred from 1850-1890 when the church had established headquarters in the Great Basin and before polygamy was renounced. Once accommodation occurred the rate of schism increased vastly. The findings show that accommodation of doctrine is a major factor in schismatic activity.

Contrary to the expectation of the "liability of newness" theory, the formative years of a religious organization are not the years with the greatest number of schisms in the LDS Church family. In contrast, the most vulnerable period for schismatic activity is later, when the church is well established organizationally and major accommodation is taking place. For the LDS Church these years occurred from 1950 to 1985. It was also found that disputes over leadership caused schism more often in the early years of a religious group. Another important finding was that the use of charismatic authority increased the vulnerability to schism.

The thesis suggests that future research should extend the examination of leadership and doctrine in other denominations to see if similar patterns emerge. It is also suggested that more in-depth analysis of existing schismatic groups in the LDS Church family would likely extend of the knowledge of the process of schisms.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44648

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