Sign in/joinLanguage: English [ others ]
Over forty million books on members' bookshelves.
Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
Loading...

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

by Jon Krakauer

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
3,43582625 (4)74
Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

Showing 1-5 of 82 (next | show all)
Despite knowing several Mormons in my lifetime, prior to reading this book I didn't know much about Mormon doctrine or history. I think Krakauer does a good job of presenting a great deal of information, though some would argue that his view is biased or colored.

The information about the Lafferty brothers was intriguing, but I found the history of the LDS church to be even more interesting. Overall, I highly recommend the book. ( )
cinesnail88 | Jun 17, 2009 |  
Fascinating and infuriating. While I expected a "true crime" book, this was a combination of true crime and religious history, as Krakauer blends the basics of the Mormon religion through his narrative. Things can get a bit bogged down as Krakauer works his way through the lexicon of similar-sounding names, but that's not his fault (as Linus Van Pelt once said of reading War and Peace, sometimes you just have to bleep over the names...) Rightly, there are no tidy conclusions, and more than enough to keep you thinking long after you've closed the book. ( )
brianjayjones | Jun 17, 2009 |  
Revelation, polygamy and violent religious people.

“In the absence of conviction, I’ve come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain—which doesn’t strike me as something to lament. Accepting the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief.”

Victory Hop Devil Ale
Yuengling Lager
MusicalGlass | May 23, 2009 |  
Unfortunately, he's lost his touch. Though I'm quite interested in Mormon fundamentalism, it was a tedious rather disorganized read. It started out well, but tried to do too much - a cross between a true-crime story and historical exegesis. ( )
bobbieharv | Apr 10, 2009 |  
This book will grip you from the beginning to the end. It is amazing how people use religion to further their own agenda.
cardin48 | Apr 7, 2009 |  
Showing 1-5 of 82 (next | show all)
0.070 seconds to build listing
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
PROLOGUE
We believe in honesty, morality and purity; but when they enact tyrannical laws, forbidding us the free exercise of our religion, we cannot submit. God is greater than the United States, and when the Government conflicts with heaven, we will be ranged under the banner of heaven and against the government...Polygamy is a divine institution. it has been handed down direct from God. The united States cannot abolish it. No nation on earth can prevent it, nor all the nations of the earth combined, ... I defy the United States; I will obey God.
JOHN TAYLOR (ON JANUARY 4, 1880), PRESIDENT, PROPHET, SEER, and REVELATOR, CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS
PROLOGUE
No western nation is as religion-soaked as ours, where nine out of ten of us love God and are loved by him in return. That mutual passion centers our society and demands some understanding, if our doom-eager society is to be understood at all.
HAROLD BLOOM, THE AMERICAN RELIGION
PART 1 The schisms that shattered Mormonism time and again, more critical tha inroads from without, only attest its strength. They were signs of the seriousness with which converts and dissenters took their salvation, ready to stake their souls on points of doctrine which a later, less Biblical generation could treat with indifference. WILLIAM MULDER AND A. RUSSELL MORTENSEN, AMONG THE MORMONS
Dedication
For Linda.
First words
Almost everyone in Utah County has heard of the Lafferty boys. That's mostly a function of the lurid murders, of course, but the Lafferty surname had a certain prominence in the county even before Brenda and Erica Lafferty were killed.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 0330419129, Paperback)

In 1984, Ron and Dan Lafferty murdered the wife and infant daughter of their younger brother Allen. The crimes were noteworthy not merely for their brutality but for the brothers' claim that they were acting on direct orders from God. In Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer tells the story of the killers and their crime but also explores the shadowy world of Mormon fundamentalism from which the two emerged. The Mormon Church was founded, in part, on the idea that true believers could speak directly with God. But while the mainstream church attempted to be more palatable to the general public by rejecting the controversial tenet of polygamy, fundamentalist splinter groups saw this as apostasy and took to the hills to live what they believed to be a righteous life. When their beliefs are challenged or their patriarchal, cult-like order defied, these still-active groups, according to Krakauer, are capable of fighting back with tremendous violence. While Krakauer's research into the history of the church is admirably extensive, the real power of the book comes from present-day information, notably jailhouse interviews with Dan Lafferty. Far from being the brooding maniac one might expect, Lafferty is chillingly coherent, still insisting that his motive was merely to obey God's command. Krakauer's accounts of the actual murders are graphic and disturbing, but such detail makes the brothers' claim of divine instruction all the more horrifying. In an age where Westerners have trouble comprehending what drives Islamic fundamentalists to kill, Jon Krakauer advises us to look within America's own borders. --John Moe

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:51 -0400)

(see all 4 descriptions)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Popular covers

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 41,101,023 books!