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Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders.
At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously-researched account of this "divinely inspired" crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith.
Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America's fastest-growing religion and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief. Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some forty thousand Mormon fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God.
Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five "plural wives," several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents.
Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism's violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.
From the hardcover edition.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
True Crime, Mormon fundamentalism, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Mormon church, doctrines, Religious fundamentalism, nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-nonfiction=2022-05-15, New York Times bestseller, New York Times reviewed, Mormon church, history, Violence, religious aspects, Murder, united states, Religious fanaticism, Church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, Mormons, biography, Murder, General, Fundamentalisme, Geweldsdelicten, Mormonen, Mormons, nyt:paperback-nonfiction=2022-05-15Showing 4 featured editions. View all 19 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
June 8, 2004, Anchor, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Anchor Books, A division of Random House
eBook (Kindle)
1400032806 9781400032808
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2
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
2004, Anchor Books
in English
- 1st Anchor Books ed.
1400032806 9781400032808
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3
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
July 15, 2003, Doubleday
in English
0385509510 9780385509510
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4
Under the banner of heaven: a story of violent faith
2003, Doubleday
in English
- 1st ed.
0965778401 9780965778404
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Book Details
First Sentence
"Balanced atop the highest spire of the Salt Lake Temple, gleaming in the Utah sun, a statue of the angel Moroni stands watch over downtown Salt Lake City with his golden trumpet raised."
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First Sentence
"Balanced atop the highest spire of the Salt Lake Temple, gleaming in the Utah sun, a statue of the angel Moroni stands watch over downtown Salt Lake City with his golden trumpet raised."
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