Temple worship has always been difficult for Latter-day Saints to discuss. A culture of privacy governs how they talk about it. Holiness to the Lord is a path breaking study of what church members have experienced in their temples, from the 1830s to the present. Now available for preorder, Holiness to the Lord:

• Elucidates the religious work of LDS temples.
• Documents the generational shift in temple practices over time.
• Incorporates a never-before-seen body of archival records.
• Provides new insight into the relationships between Latter-day Saint conceptions of priesthood, gender, and race.
• Offers pioneering information about LDS temple practices outside of devotional and generalized material.

Pre-order at: Amazon – OUP – BN – Benchmark

At the annual meeting of the Mormon History Association in June, The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology won the Best Book of the Year Award. Published by Oxford University Press, it is a key work to understand Mormon conceptions of priesthood, authority, and gender. With in-depth research, and never previously used documents, specific chapters explore ordination, temple “sealings,” baby blessings, healing, and cunning folk traditions.

Available at: Amazon – OUP – BN – Benchmark – AbeBooks

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Selected Articles

• Jonathan A. Stapley and David W. Grua, “Rebaptism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” BYU Studies 61, no. 3 (2022), 59-96.
• Jonathan A. Stapley, “Invoking the Name of the Lord: A Quantitative Study,” Journal of Mormon History, (October 2021), 1-21.
• Jonathan A. Stapley, “Brigham Young’s Garden Cosmology,” Journal of Mormon History 47 (January 2021): 68-85.
• Jonathan A. Stapley, “Last Rites and the Dynamics of Latter-day Saint Liturgy,” BYU Studies 50, no. 2 (2011), 97-128.
• Jonathan A. Stapley, “Adoptive Sealing Ritual in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37 (Summer 2011), 53-117.
• Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37 (Winter 2011): 1-86.
• Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “The Forms and the Power: The Development of Mormon Ritual Healing to 1847,” Journal of Mormon History 35 (Summer 2009): 42-87. Reprinted with revisions in Stephen C. Taysom, ed., Dimensions of Faith: A Mormon Studies Reader (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2011).
• Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “‘They Shall Be Made Whole’: A History of Baptism for Health,” Journal of Mormon History 34 (Fall 2008): 69-112.

Selected Book Chapters

• “Women and Priesthood,” in Amy Hoyt and Taylor Petrey, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender, (Routledge Press, 2020)
• “Women and Mormon Authority,” in Matthew Bowman and Kate Holbrook, eds., Women and Mormonism: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (University of Utah Press, 2016).
• “Pouring in Oil: The Development of the Modern Mormon Healing Ritual,” in Daniel L. Belnap, ed., By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture and Practice (Provo/Salt Lake City: Deseret Book/Religious Studies Center, 2013).