Mormons as Christians 

I have been thinking about how to describe the deviant theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We should not compare ourselves to “historical Christianity,” or, as Klaus Hansen does (“The Long Honeymoon: Jan Shipps among the Mormons,” 37, no. 3 [Fall 2004]: 1-28), to “mainstream Christianity.” Each of those terms is a disservice to the Restoration. Rather, we should speak of the traditions that have, over the centuries, been constructed over and around the beauty of biblical Christianity. It is to many of those extra-biblical traditions that we take exception. 

In light of Genesis 1:27, I find it particularly amusing that Professor Hansen speaks of “Mormons’ anthropomorphizing of the divine. 

Douglass F. Taber 
Newark, Delaware