The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation

Abstract

past few decades have witnessed an increasing reaction of Mormons against their own successful assimilation, Armand Mauss writes in The Angel and Beehive, though trying to recover some of cultural tension and special identity associated with their earlier 'sect-like' history. This retrenchment among Mormons is main theme of Mauss's book, which analyzes last forty years of history from a sociological perspective. At official ecclesiastical level, Mauss finds, retrenchment can be seen in greatly increased centralization of bureaucratic control and in renewed emphases on obedience to modern prophets, on genealogy and vicarious temple work, and on traditional family life; retrenchment is also apparent in extensive formal indoctrination by full-time professionals and in an increased sophistication and intensity of proselytizing. At what he refers to as the folk or grassroots level, Mauss finds that Mormons have generally been compliant with retrenchment effort and are today at least as religious on most measures as they were in 1960s. A sizable segment of membership, Mauss asserts, has gone beyond Mormon retrenchment to express itself in a growing resort to Protestant fundamentalism, both in scriptural understanding and in intellectual style. The author calls on a wide array of sources in sociology and history to show that Mormons, who by mid-century had come a long way from their position as disreputable outsiders in a society dominated by mainline religions, seem now to be adopting more conservative ways and seeking a return to a more sectarian posture.