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David Howlett

Smith College, Religion, Faculty Member

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David J. Howlett specializes in the history of religions in North America and teaches courses on Mormonism, Native American religions, the anthropology of pilgrimage, and globalization and religion. His first book, Kirtland Temple: The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2014) analyzes how religious rivals engage in cooperation and contestation at a shared pilgrimage site. His second book, Mormonism: The Basics (Routledge, 2016) is co-authored with John-Charles Duffy. This work offers a topical introduction to the various streams of Mormonism and addresses, more broadly, how minority religions work out their place within a larger society and how young religions diversify over time. David's current research projects include a comparative study of contemporary young adult Americans on pilgrimage, and a study of the post-1960s glocalization of the Community of Christ/RLDS church in India and the United States. David has served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Mormon History, the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, and the Mormon Studies Review. In addition, he has served as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (Bowdoin College), a teaching professor (Skidmore College), a visiting assistant professor (Kenyon College), and a Mellon Visiting Assistant Professor in Public Discourse and Writing in the Discipline (Smith College).
Address: 212 Wright Hall
The Religion Department
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063

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Noel B. Salazar

KU Leuven

Dartmouth College

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Martin van Bruinessen

Universiteit Utrecht

Rebecca Sachs Norris

Merrimack College

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Matthew Hedstrom

University of Virginia

Northwestern University

Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo

Amanda J. Lucia

University of California, Riverside

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Books by David Howlett

"Going Global: Mormonism's International Expansion" in Mormonism: The Basics (New York: Routledge, 2016), 146-171.

by David Howlett and John-Charles Duffy

"Introduction: The Kirtland Temple as a Parallel Pilgrimage," in Kirtland Temple: The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 1-10.

University of Illinois Press, 2014

Papers by David Howlett

The Women's Ordination Movement in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: Historical and Sociological Perspectives

Mormon studies review, 2022

In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the ... more In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) made changes to fit into White Evangelical American society in the twentieth century, a process that Mauss described as assimilation. 1 In parallel to the LDS story but unanalyzed by Mauss, the leadership of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church/Community of Christ) invested in a similar &quot;assimilative&quot; process, but drew closer to mainline Protestant norms, including ideas about expanding women&#39;s roles in the church and in society. These competing trajectories pushed the two Restoration churches farther apart in belief and practice. 2 By the end of the twentieth century, the most obvious marker of this distance was the passage of a resolution at the 1984 RLDS World Conference that permitted the ordination of women.

Counterpublic, Social Movement, or Network?: The Case of RLDS Feminists and Women’s Ordination Advocacy, 1970-1985

AAR Presentiation, 2021

The 1970s witnessed an efflorescence of religious feminism in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Chr... more The 1970s witnessed an efflorescence of religious feminism in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, particularly around the issue of women&#39;s ordination. We pose three models for understanding this development -- publics/counterpublics (Fraser 1990; Pritchard 2015; Mansbridge 2017; Warner 2002 and 2021), social movement mobilization (Shultziner and Goldberg 2019), and network formation (Chaves 1996; Castells 1997; Everton 2018) -- and explore how these models apply to our case study. Drawing upon oral history interviews and archival documents, we document how RLDS women created independent publications, grassroots consciousness-raising groups, feminist classes and conferences, and Women-Church-inspired worship to reimagine priesthood within their church. We conclude that all three theoretical approaches provide complimentary vistas on our topic, but the lens of a counterpublic offers the most capacious view of our topic, one capable of integrating the other two. Furthermore, we suggest that the RLDS example featured in his talk is simply a manifestation of a larger late twentieth-century American “feminist religious counterpublic” formed across many religious denominations and groups that held a shared feminist imaginary.

Mormonism: The Basics

Although often regarded as marginal or obscure, Mormonism is a significant American religious min... more Although often regarded as marginal or obscure, Mormonism is a significant American religious minority, numerically and politically. The successes and struggles of this U.S. born religion reveal much about how religion operates in U.S. society. Mormonism: The Basics introduces the teachings, practices, evolution, and internal diversity of this movement, whose cultural icons range from Mitt Romney to the Twilight saga, from young male missionaries in white shirts and ties to polygamous women in pastel prairie dresses. This is the first introductory text on Mormonism that tracks not only the mainstream LDS but also two other streams within the movement—the liberalized RLDS and the polygamous Fundamentalists—thus showing how Mormons have pursued different approaches to defining their identity and their place in society. The book addresses these questions. Are Mormons Christian, and why does it matter? How have Mormons worked out their relationship to the state? How have Mormons diverged in their thinking about gender and sexuality? How do rituals and regulations shape Mormon lives? What types of sacred spaces have Mormons created? What strategies have Mormons pursued to establish a global presence? Mormonism: The Basics is an ideal introduction for anyone wanting to understand this religion within its primarily American but increasingly globalized contexts. (From publisher)https://scholarworks.smith.edu/rel_books/1006/thumbnail.jp

Why Denominations Can Climb Hills: RLDS Conversions in Highland Tribal India and Midwestern America, 1964–2000

Based on oral history interviews and archival sources, this essay analyzes the religious affiliat... more Based on oral history interviews and archival sources, this essay analyzes the religious affiliation between Sora villagers in the highlands of eastern India with Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) members in the American Midwest. The relationship between these distinct groups transposed a pattern of interactions between highlands and lowlands in upland Asia to a new globalized space in the late twentieth century. Conceiving of “conversion” as a broad analytic trope to discuss various individual, group, and organizational transformations, this essay argues that “converts” in the Sora highlands and American plains instrumentalized their relationships with the other for their own ends. In the Americans, the Sora found a new patron for long-standing client-patron relationships between highlands people and valley people. In the Sora, the Americans found an “indigenous other” who could be used to justify reforms within their local church body along more cosmop...

The Women's Ordination Movement in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: Historical and Sociological Perspectives

by Nancy Ross and David Howlett

Mormon Studies Review, 2022

In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the ... more In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) made changes to fit into White Evangelical American society in the twentieth century, a process that Mauss described as assimilation. 1 In parallel to the LDS story but unanalyzed by Mauss, the leadership of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church/Community of Christ) invested in a similar "assimilative" process, but drew closer to mainline Protestant norms, including ideas about expanding women's roles in the church and in society. These competing trajectories pushed the two Restoration churches farther apart in belief and practice. 2 By the end of the twentieth century, the most obvious marker of this distance was the passage of a resolution at the 1984 RLDS World Conference that permitted the ordination of women.

The Community of Christ (RLDS Church): Structuring Common Differences in the Philippines

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism, 2020

The abstract is published online only. If you did not include a short abstract for the online ver... more

"The Cultural Work of the 'First Vision Accounts' Essay"

The LDS Gospel Topics Essays: A Scholarly Engagement, 2020

"Ripe Fields, Plentiful Laborers, Few Jobs: The Prospects and Challenges for Early-Career Mormon Studies Scholars"

The Journal of Mormon History, 2015

“What Does Kashi Have to Do with Salt Lake?: Academic Comparisons, Asian Religions, and Mormonism.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 47, no. 2 (2014): 122-132.

Interview: Hugo Olaiz, “Kirtland Temple as a Shared Space: A Conversation with David J. Howlett.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 47, no. 1 (2014): 104-123.

“ ‘We’re Not the Mormons’: Alterity and Church History in the Community of Christ.” Fides et Historia 45, no. 1 (winter/spring 2013): 101-108.

“A Post-Correlation Church?” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 34, no. 2 (2014): 112-116.

"Eating Vegetables to Build Zion: RLDS Children in the 1920s," Journal of Mormon History 35.1 (2009): 1-22.

"Death and Resurrection of RLDS Zion: A Case Study in 'Failed Prophecy,' 1930-1970," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 40.3 (2007):112-131.

“ ‘The Making of a Steward’: Zion, Ecclesiastical Power, and RLDS Bodies, 1923-1931.” Journal of Mormon History 32, no. 2 (2006): 1-38.

“Zion as Fiction: Gender, Early RLDS Novels, and the Politics of Place.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 25 (2005): 93-106.

“Remembering Polygamy: The RLDS Church and Late Twentieth-Century American Spiritual Transformations.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 24 (2004): 149-172.

Book Reviews by David Howlett

Review of Walking to Magdalena: Personhood and Place in Tohono O’odham Songs, Sticks, and Stories by Seth Schermerhorn

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2020

"Going Global: Mormonism's International Expansion" in Mormonism: The Basics (New York: Routledge, 2016), 146-171.

by David Howlett and John-Charles Duffy

"Introduction: The Kirtland Temple as a Parallel Pilgrimage," in Kirtland Temple: The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 1-10.

University of Illinois Press, 2014

The Women's Ordination Movement in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: Historical and Sociological Perspectives

Mormon studies review, 2022

In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the ... more In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) made changes to fit into White Evangelical American society in the twentieth century, a process that Mauss described as assimilation. 1 In parallel to the LDS story but unanalyzed by Mauss, the leadership of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church/Community of Christ) invested in a similar &quot;assimilative&quot; process, but drew closer to mainline Protestant norms, including ideas about expanding women&#39;s roles in the church and in society. These competing trajectories pushed the two Restoration churches farther apart in belief and practice. 2 By the end of the twentieth century, the most obvious marker of this distance was the passage of a resolution at the 1984 RLDS World Conference that permitted the ordination of women.

Counterpublic, Social Movement, or Network?: The Case of RLDS Feminists and Women’s Ordination Advocacy, 1970-1985

AAR Presentiation, 2021

The 1970s witnessed an efflorescence of religious feminism in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Chr... more The 1970s witnessed an efflorescence of religious feminism in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, particularly around the issue of women&#39;s ordination. We pose three models for understanding this development -- publics/counterpublics (Fraser 1990; Pritchard 2015; Mansbridge 2017; Warner 2002 and 2021), social movement mobilization (Shultziner and Goldberg 2019), and network formation (Chaves 1996; Castells 1997; Everton 2018) -- and explore how these models apply to our case study. Drawing upon oral history interviews and archival documents, we document how RLDS women created independent publications, grassroots consciousness-raising groups, feminist classes and conferences, and Women-Church-inspired worship to reimagine priesthood within their church. We conclude that all three theoretical approaches provide complimentary vistas on our topic, but the lens of a counterpublic offers the most capacious view of our topic, one capable of integrating the other two. Furthermore, we suggest that the RLDS example featured in his talk is simply a manifestation of a larger late twentieth-century American “feminist religious counterpublic” formed across many religious denominations and groups that held a shared feminist imaginary.

Mormonism: The Basics

Although often regarded as marginal or obscure, Mormonism is a significant American religious min... more Although often regarded as marginal or obscure, Mormonism is a significant American religious minority, numerically and politically. The successes and struggles of this U.S. born religion reveal much about how religion operates in U.S. society. Mormonism: The Basics introduces the teachings, practices, evolution, and internal diversity of this movement, whose cultural icons range from Mitt Romney to the Twilight saga, from young male missionaries in white shirts and ties to polygamous women in pastel prairie dresses. This is the first introductory text on Mormonism that tracks not only the mainstream LDS but also two other streams within the movement—the liberalized RLDS and the polygamous Fundamentalists—thus showing how Mormons have pursued different approaches to defining their identity and their place in society. The book addresses these questions. Are Mormons Christian, and why does it matter? How have Mormons worked out their relationship to the state? How have Mormons diverged in their thinking about gender and sexuality? How do rituals and regulations shape Mormon lives? What types of sacred spaces have Mormons created? What strategies have Mormons pursued to establish a global presence? Mormonism: The Basics is an ideal introduction for anyone wanting to understand this religion within its primarily American but increasingly globalized contexts. (From publisher)https://scholarworks.smith.edu/rel_books/1006/thumbnail.jp

Why Denominations Can Climb Hills: RLDS Conversions in Highland Tribal India and Midwestern America, 1964–2000

Based on oral history interviews and archival sources, this essay analyzes the religious affiliat... more Based on oral history interviews and archival sources, this essay analyzes the religious affiliation between Sora villagers in the highlands of eastern India with Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) members in the American Midwest. The relationship between these distinct groups transposed a pattern of interactions between highlands and lowlands in upland Asia to a new globalized space in the late twentieth century. Conceiving of “conversion” as a broad analytic trope to discuss various individual, group, and organizational transformations, this essay argues that “converts” in the Sora highlands and American plains instrumentalized their relationships with the other for their own ends. In the Americans, the Sora found a new patron for long-standing client-patron relationships between highlands people and valley people. In the Sora, the Americans found an “indigenous other” who could be used to justify reforms within their local church body along more cosmop...

The Women's Ordination Movement in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: Historical and Sociological Perspectives

by Nancy Ross and David Howlett

Mormon Studies Review, 2022

In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the ... more In The Angel and the Beehive, sociologist Armand Mauss chronicled how leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) made changes to fit into White Evangelical American society in the twentieth century, a process that Mauss described as assimilation. 1 In parallel to the LDS story but unanalyzed by Mauss, the leadership of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church/Community of Christ) invested in a similar "assimilative" process, but drew closer to mainline Protestant norms, including ideas about expanding women's roles in the church and in society. These competing trajectories pushed the two Restoration churches farther apart in belief and practice. 2 By the end of the twentieth century, the most obvious marker of this distance was the passage of a resolution at the 1984 RLDS World Conference that permitted the ordination of women.

The Community of Christ (RLDS Church): Structuring Common Differences in the Philippines

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism, 2020

The abstract is published online only. If you did not include a short abstract for the online ver... more

"The Cultural Work of the 'First Vision Accounts' Essay"

The LDS Gospel Topics Essays: A Scholarly Engagement, 2020

"Ripe Fields, Plentiful Laborers, Few Jobs: The Prospects and Challenges for Early-Career Mormon Studies Scholars"

The Journal of Mormon History, 2015

“What Does Kashi Have to Do with Salt Lake?: Academic Comparisons, Asian Religions, and Mormonism.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 47, no. 2 (2014): 122-132.

Interview: Hugo Olaiz, “Kirtland Temple as a Shared Space: A Conversation with David J. Howlett.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 47, no. 1 (2014): 104-123.

“ ‘We’re Not the Mormons’: Alterity and Church History in the Community of Christ.” Fides et Historia 45, no. 1 (winter/spring 2013): 101-108.

“A Post-Correlation Church?” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 34, no. 2 (2014): 112-116.

"Eating Vegetables to Build Zion: RLDS Children in the 1920s," Journal of Mormon History 35.1 (2009): 1-22.

"Death and Resurrection of RLDS Zion: A Case Study in 'Failed Prophecy,' 1930-1970," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 40.3 (2007):112-131.

“ ‘The Making of a Steward’: Zion, Ecclesiastical Power, and RLDS Bodies, 1923-1931.” Journal of Mormon History 32, no. 2 (2006): 1-38.

“Zion as Fiction: Gender, Early RLDS Novels, and the Politics of Place.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 25 (2005): 93-106.

“Remembering Polygamy: The RLDS Church and Late Twentieth-Century American Spiritual Transformations.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 24 (2004): 149-172.

Review of Walking to Magdalena: Personhood and Place in Tohono O’odham Songs, Sticks, and Stories by Seth Schermerhorn

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2020

Review of Race and the Making of the Mormon People by Max Perry Mueller (University of North Carolina Press, 2017) in Nova Religio: The Journal of New and Emergent Religions 22.4 (2019): 146-147.

Nova Religio: The Journal of New and Emergent Religions, 2019

Nova Religio research superb. The book is required reading for scholars of American religious his... more Nova Religio research superb. The book is required reading for scholars of American religious history and an effective resource for students to learn both the limitations and potential of different kinds of sources. The compelling subject matter-the human drama inherent to polygamy, persecution, and sacrifice-and beautiful prose will also attract general readers.

Review: Moroni and the Swastika: Mormons in Nazi Germany by David Conley Nelson (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015) in German Studies Review 40.2 (2017): 447-449.

Review: Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy edited by Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014) in Nova Religio: The Journal of New and Emergent Religions 19, no. 2 (2015): 122-124.

Review: In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death by Samuel Morris Brown (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), in Church History: Christianity and Culture 83, no. 1 (2014): 234-236.

In Heaven as it is On Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death. By Samuel Morri... more

Review: The Journey of a People: The Era of the Reorganization, 1844 to 1946 by Mark A. Scherer (Independence, Missouri: Community of Christ Seminary Press, 2012), in the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 34, no. 1 (2014): 188-193.

Review: The Missouri Mormon Experience edited by Thomas M. Spencer (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2010), in the Journal of the Civil War Era 3, no. 3 (2013): 413-414.

Review: The Mormon People: The Story of an American Faith by Matthew Bowman (New York: Random House, 2012), in John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 33, no. 1 (2013): 223-226.

Review: A House for the Most High: The Story of the Original Nauvoo Temple, by Matthew S. McBride (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2007) in Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 2 (2008): 260-264.

Review: The Mormon History Association’s Tanner Lectures: The First Twenty Years, ed. by Dean L. May and Reid L. Neilson with Richard Lyman Bushman, Jan Shipps, and Thomas G. Alexander (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2006).