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Show FALL 2013 pp 386-404_UHQ BReviews/pp.271-296 9/16/13 1:22 PM Page 391 BOOK REVIEWS academic intellectualism and Mormon heritage. Picking up an analogy used by Neal A. Maxwell, an LDS leader and intellectual, Mauss explains that Jerusalem represented faith and scholarship while Athens was the center of secular scholarship, and, according to Maxwell, “LDS scholars should have our citizenship in Jerusalem and have a passport to Athens” (1). Indeed, Mauss has made a conscious decision to be a citizen of both realms. Choice, especially in matters of faith, is a universal guiding principle for all who possess a belief. Our choices create our realities and define the borders of our lives. If faith is “an active personal choice,” it is much more “than a passive acceptance of a religious tradition” (62). Mauss recounts his early missionary service in New England, his work with American servicemen in Japan during the Korean conflict, and his subsequent activity in his local congregation as a Sunday school teacher and priesthood leader. At the invitation of LDS church general authorities, Mauss served on committees to help shape policy on such issues as retention, activity, and the evaluation of church programs. From time to time, church leaders checked his passport, and—while neither revoking nor restricting it—gave it close scrutiny. His accommodation with this reality and his own self-described libertarian streak brought him to a recognition “that the church is not a democracy and does not claim to be one. It is a corporate, centralized bureaucracy . . . with local leaders simply doing their best to cope with unpleasant responsibilities sometimes imposed on them by their roles” (189, 193). A lifetime of travel across this landscape took its toll on Mauss, leaving him with a concern that the Kleenex box has replaced the scriptures on the local church podium; a skepticism about the pronouncements of “true believers,” knowing that they may one day lose the faith; and a “disenthrallment” with the church and its leaders. But not all: Marlin K. Jensen, LDS Church Historian until 2012, whom Mauss describes as “a man without guile or pretense,” who “has proved to be a loyal and supportive friend” (171). Other interesting elements of this book include discussions of the struggle to maintain Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and of the recent trend in the establishment of Mormon Studies programs in higher education. Armand Mauss will continue to be an important interpreter of Mormon history, and his Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport provides an excellent introduction to the man and his ideas—well worth reading before taking on his two seminal monographs, Angel and the Beehive and All Abraham’s Children. ALLAN KENT POWELL Salt Lake City 391 |
