Go Ye Into All the World: The Growth & Development of Mormon Missionary Work

Young Latter-day Saint missionaries, both men and women, dressed in white shirts and dark suits or conservative dresses, have become the public face of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the twenty-first century. On June 25, 2007, just over 175 years since Joseph Smith's brother, Samuel, first set out to proselyte with a knapsack filled with copies of the Book of Mormon, the one millionth Mormon missionary was beginning his two-year service. He joined the other 53,000 full-time young men and young women who were then evangelizing in the Church's approximately 350 missions around the world. Yet the 2007 Latter-day Saint landmark and its implication for religions in America and abroad remains one of the most unremarked-upon developments in historical and religious studies. The study of Mormon missiology need not — and should not — continue to fall through the cracks of traditional Christian mission histories. The collection of essays published within this book is an