Roots of Modern Mormonism is complex and insightful, innovative and challenging . . . and troubling. This attempt to analyze Mormonism from the perspective of cultural ecology is the first major study on Mormonism in a number of years to come from a nationally recognized scholar outside the Church and one of the few studies on Mormonism to employ anthropological field techniques. Dr. Leone applies understanding of the Church gained from temporary residence and study in the Little Colorado River area in south central Arizona to reveal several fundamental characteristics about post-pioneer Mormonism. His basic thesis is that Mormonism is fundamentally dynamic, pragmatic and relativistic and that its successful and radical adaptation to the twentieth century is a function of an essentially individualistic ideology. Examining how tithing, stake conferences, church courts, and testimonies have allowed Mormons to adapt to changing conditions in the world around them, Leone concludes that Mormonism maintains an appearance of authority, stability, and confidence primarily by discouraging the development of professional theologians and historians from among its ranks who would identify contradictions in its doctrines and significant alterations in its practices. As a result, Mormons wear theological and historical blinders to protect themselves from the realization that they have become, not the Kingdom of God as they originally intended, but only one of many religious minorities in the United States. In short, Mormonism’s adaptability is a function of its deceptiveness—making the Saints think they are working for God when the Church, in practice, is subject to Mammon...[click on BYU Studies Quarterly for more review]