The Devil Sat on My Bed: Encounters with the Spirit World in Mormon Utah

Author:   Erin E. Stiles (Associate Professor, Associate Professor, University of Nevada, Reno)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN:  

9780197639634


Pages:   224
Publication Date:   02 May 2024
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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The Devil Sat on My Bed: Encounters with the Spirit World in Mormon Utah


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Overview

In the mountains of beautiful, bucolic northern Utah, many Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are visited by spirits. Local folklore is filled with stories of uncanny encounters of all kinds, and Latter-day Saint scripture and prophetic teachings emphasize the reality and the importance of the spirit world. Spirit encounters are common in this community. People report visits from the benevolent spirits of kin offering aid and also from evil spirits who tempt and harass. Combining folklore research with ethnography, the book examines many types of spirit encounters and shows that such experiences must be understood as particularly Latter-day Saint phenomena. Spirit encounters take place within a larger cultural and religious framework that emphasizes the important relationships between living and non-living beings. For Mormons in northern Utah, spirit lore and experiences are interpreted and understood with reference to Latter-day Saint cosmology and particularly Mormon conceptions of the nature of the person, the spirit, and the family, and the nature of righteousness, evil, and spiritual power. The book also explores how people in Utah differentiate between ""Mormon culture,"" the institutional church, and how they understand the ""true"" meaning of the religion, which has relevance far beyond understanding of people's relationship to the spirit realm and spirit power, and speaks to key issues of concernDLand polarizationDLamong Latter-day Saints today.

Full Product Details

Author:   Erin E. Stiles (Associate Professor, Associate Professor, University of Nevada, Reno)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.50cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 15.60cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780197639634


ISBN 10:   0197639631
Pages:   224
Publication Date:   02 May 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements I. Chapter One: Introduction II. Chapter Two: The Realm of the Spirits III. Chapter Three: They Have Shown Me What I Need to Know: Ancestors and Spirit Children IV. Chapter Four: Where the Veil is Thin: Temple Work, Posthumous Baptism, and the Gratitude of Spirits V. Chapter Five: The Devil Sat on My Bed: The Slippery Edge of Righteousness VI. Chapter Six: The Power of the Priesthood, Gender, and Evil Spirits VII. Conclusion Bibliography

Reviews

I found Stiles' account illuminating. * Monya Baker, Association for Mormon Letters *


Author Information

Erin E. Stiles is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her primary interests are in the anthropology of religion and law, and she has worked in East Africa and in the western United States. She has conducted extensive ethnographic research on the everyday workings of Islamic courts in Zanzibar, Tanzania, with a particular focus on marital disputes. Her more recent work focuses on Latter-day Saint experiences of the spirit realm in northern Utah, where she grew up.

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