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Polygamy
Polygamy. Marriage in which a person may have more than one spouse at the same time (in contrast to monogamy). Polygyny is the marriage of a man to more than one wife, polyandry the marriage of a woman to more than one husband. Polyandry is relatively rare (e.g. the Nayar and Toda of India), polygyn...
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bigamy
bigamy , crime of marrying during the continuance of a lawful marriage. Bigamy is not committed if a prior marriage has been terminated by a divorce or a decree of nullity of marriage . In the United States if a husband or wife is absent and unheard of for seven (or in some states five) years and...
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Mormons
Mormons Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which was founded in New York in 1830 by Joseph Smith (1805–44). He claimed to have discovered, through divine revelation, the ‘Book of Mormon’, relating the history of a group of Hebrews who migrated to Ameri...
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Community of Christ
Community of Christ formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, religious group that regards itself as the successor of the church founded by Joseph Smith . They organized in 1852, five years after Mormons under Brigham Young began settling in Utah, formally becomin...
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John of Leiden
John of Leiden c.1509-1536, Dutch Anabaptist leader. His original name was Beuckelszoon, Beuckelzoon, Bockelszoon, Bockelson, Beukels, or Buckholdt. John of Leiden was attracted to the extreme left of the early Reformation movement through the influence of Thomas Münzer . In 1533 he joined ...
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family
family a basic unit of social structure, the exact definition of which can vary greatly from time to time and from culture to culture. How a society defines family as a primary group, and the functions it asks families to perform, are by no means constant. There has been much recent discussion of t...
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Brigham Young
Brigham Young , 1801-77, American religious leader, early head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, b. Whitingham, Vt. Brigham Young was perhaps the greatest molder of Mormonism, his influence having a greater effect even than that of the church's founder, Joseph Smith , in shaping t...
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John Humphrey Noyes
John Humphrey Noyes 1811-86, American reformer, founder of the Oneida community, b. Brattleboro, Vt. He studied theology at Yale but lost his license to preach because of his "perfectionist" doctrine. This took its name from Mat. 5.48 and was based on the belief that man's innate sinlessness ...
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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints name of the church founded (1830) at Fayette, N.Y., by Joseph Smith . The headquarters are in Salt Lake City, Utah. Its members, now numbering about 5.7 million in the United States and 13 million worldwide (2008), are commonly called Mormons.
Orga...
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Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism worldwide 20th-21st-century Christian movement that emphasizes the experience of Spirit baptism, generally evidenced by speaking in tongues ( glossolalia ). The name derives from Pentecost , the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, which falls on the fiftieth day after Passover...
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