A “House of the Lord” in Kirtland, 1831–1844

This chapter argues that early Mormons created temple spaces to gain special blessings of God's spirit beyond the conversion experience. The Kirtland Temple fulfilled this function but remained in infrequent use after most of the Saints in northern Ohio left the area in 1838. New temples were built by subsequent Mormon communities in places like Nauvoo, Illinois, and later in the intermountain West. New theologies of human redemption were enacted in these spaces that went well beyond the neo-evangelical Mormon theology of the Kirtland era. No early Latter Day Saint systematized the emerging temple theology practiced in Kirtland. However, as a vernacular theology, their temple cultus can in part be approached as the outworking of an iconic reading of the scripture.