Mormonism is America’s homegrown religion

JOSEPH SMITH, like so many Americans in the 19th century, looked west. Mormonism’s founder and prophet led his followers through New York, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. They sought Zion: a place where the faithful could be safe and sovereign. Their ultimate destination, Salt Lake City, became the promised land.

That may sound a little too star-spangled and modern to be properly biblical. But as Benjamin Park, the author of “American Zion”, a new history of Mormonism, argues, that is the point. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is officially known, has long defined itself simultaneously as a product—and an opponent—of America.