Global Mormonism in the 21st Century

By Reid L. Neilson

Scholarly observers of the Christian tradition—of which The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a part—are beginning to expand their visions of a Christian past, present, and future to embrace a truly global Christianity.  International Church history is still Church history. Much of the history of the LDS Church occurred abroad. The Restoration of the gospel continues every time a new country is dedicated by apostolic authority for proselyting. Though there is still a gap in international Church history.

This gap results from a number of misguided beliefs: international Church history is too recent to chronicle, the hub of Mormon studies is northern Utah, or international Church history lacks the pizzazz of early American Mormonism, to name just a few. Lack of foreign-language proficiency is a valid barrier as well. 

Global Mormonism is a compilation of work from seventeen years of conferences where the globalization of Mormonism was discussed and explored. The International Society has hosted these annual conferences in Provo, Utah backed by a number of BYU’s institutions and colleges, including the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, the Marriott School of Management, the J. Reuben Clark Law School, the Department of Educational Leadership, and the BYU Alumni Association. The editor, Reid L. Neilson, has taken twenty of the presentations from these conferences and organized them into five themed parts. The result is this book, which only begins to tell the story of the Church’s growth outside of North American.