{"id":634,"date":"2006-01-18T06:15:57","date_gmt":"2006-01-18T06:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2006\/01\/on-mormonism-and-its-growth.html"},"modified":"2006-01-18T06:15:57","modified_gmt":"2006-01-18T06:15:57","slug":"on-mormonism-and-its-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2006\/01\/on-mormonism-and-its-growth.html","title":{"rendered":"On Mormonism and its Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rodney Stark, noted sociologist of religion, has contended in a series of publications that Mormonism is well on its way to becoming a world religion. (Stark, The Rise of Mormonism<\/a><\/em>, Columbia University Press.) Stark predicts their numbers will rival other world religions. Gerald McDermott, friend and exceptional American historian, disagrees.
\nIn his article in Books and Culture<\/em>(January\/February, 2006, pp. 9ff), contends that (1) Mormonism is a new religious tradition [many Mormons disagree, wanting their faith to be seen more in line with the Christian faith], (2) but it is not the first major religious tradition since Islam [nothing works to prove this point], and (3) McDermott sees significant challenges for Mormonism to grow as Stark predicts [too tied to America and American history; a low retention rate outside the USA; and its lack of a formal theology].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rodney Stark, noted sociologist of religion, has contended in a series of publications that Mormonism is well on its way to becoming a world religion. (Stark, The Rise of Mormonism, Columbia University Press.) Stark predicts their numbers will rival other world religions. Gerald McDermott, friend and exceptional American historian, disagrees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Mormonism and its Growth - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2006\/01\/on-mormonism-and-its-growth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Mormonism and its Growth - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rodney Stark, noted sociologist of religion, has contended in a series of publications that Mormonism is well on its way to becoming a world religion. (Stark, The Rise of Mormonism, Columbia University Press.) Stark predicts their numbers will rival other world religions. 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