Mid-nineteenth century America was filled with charismatic leaders and visionaries who produced new sacred writing. This book traces the stories of Mormon founder Joseph Smith Jr., Methodist revivalist Phoebe Palmer and Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson and their new text productions to investigate a diverse community that grappled with a perceived loss of religious authority. It attempts to collect a shared set of motifs and practices that these modern prophets employed to establish new carriers of religious authority. Claudia Jetter thereby discusses "legitimate religious authority" and the dynamic ascription processes between a charismatic leader and an interactive, supportive social community in the actual historical context of nineteenth-century America.

Dr. Claudia Jetter is a researcher at the Department of English at Heidelberg University. Her research focuses on new religious movements, women's history and digital religious practices.