In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death

This book of cultural history reinterprets earliest Mormonism by viewing
it through the lens of founder Joseph Smith Jr.'s complex, intimate,
and conflicted relationship with death and dying. When approached from
this perspective, many of the unusual or striking aspects of earliest
Mormonism make sense, allowing outsiders and insiders a refreshing new
look at a much-discussed but poorly understood religious tradition.
While contextualizing Mormonism within a broad protest against American
Protestantism and long-standing folk responses to life's difficult
questions, the book also demonstrates the coherence and scope of the
early Mormon worldview. The book also provides insight into the ongoing
problem of the tragedy of early mortality through the eloquent and
complex response to death that early Mormonism provided. Through this
detailed and contextualized case study of one remarkable new religious
tradition, the book extends the fields of American religious history,
lived religion, and Mormon studies.