Compare and contrast the different utopian religious communities of the early 1800s. What similar elements did they share and what features distinguished them from each other?

Question

What common and different political and social forces contributed to their emergence and their struggles to maintain their existence?

Answer 1

1. Identify the emergence of the following utopian religious communities of the early 1800s: the Shakers, the Oneida Community, the New Harmony Community, the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), and the Brook Farm community and compare and contrast their respective religious, social, and economic goals.
2. Compare and contrast the sexual and marriage practices and use of revivals of the Oneida Community, the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Shakers and how they influenced their potential for membership growth and created tensions with the larger American society.
3. Compare and contrast the economic organization, human resources, emphasis on creating beautiful things, and specialized skills of the Shakers with those of Oneida Community, the New Harmony Community, the Mormons, and Brook Farm. Evaluate the influence of these economic and social factors in determining the short-term and long-term success or failure of these communities.
4. Discuss why the sexual and plural marriage practices of the Mormons initiated mob violence and state and federal criminal prosecutions and harassment and how this hostility caused the Mormons to move several times before finally arriving outside the shores of the Great Salt Lake in what is now Utah to establish settlements in a tight, church-related community.
5. Contrast how the non-Mormon utopian communities encountered mostly internal social, relational, and economic tensions and conflicts which undermined their long-term health and strength. Also note how they did not suffer the level and duration of religious persecution endured by the Mormons.
6. Discuss and evaluate the contrasting roles and power of individual religious leadership in organizing these specified utopian communities and making critical decisions affecting their short-term and long-term health, membership strength (including attracting converts), and viability of their communities.
7. Contrast the political and economic pragmatism that made the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) the most successful of the utopian religious communities spawned during the Second Great Awakening with the unrealistic, impractical, and counterproductive idealism and strict adherence to some unpopular and unconventional theological beliefs (e.g., celibacy for the Shakers) that undermined the long-term health, membership strength, and viability of these other non-Mormon religious communities.
8. Write a concise and effective conclusion.