Mormons in the Context of New Religious Movements

Abstract

Founded in the first half of the 19th century in the US state of New York by Joseph Smith under the name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the movement, better known as Mormons or Mormonism, appears as the new religious movement with the largest number of members in the world with its syncretic character and interesting congregational structure. In this article, in order to understand the thought system of Mormons, first of all, a general knowledge of new religious movements is given and it is tried to reveal why Mormonism is defined as a new religious movement. Afterwards, the basic dynamics of the movement were tried to be revealed by giving information about the history of Mormonism, its basic teachings, beliefs in God, the Mormon scripture, their understanding of worship, church organization and missionary activities, their understanding of body, family and health, their global power and geographical spread.