This Element will focus on the various denominations in the Mormon tradition, collectively sometimes referred to as 'Mormonism.' They include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as the several sects of Mormon fundamentalism and multiple other denominations. Often described as the quintessential new religious movement, Mormonism is useful for studying the dynamics of new religious formation, evolution, schism, and adaptation to American culture more broadly. It emerged in the heat of the Second Great Awakening, the flourishing of religious creativity and innovation that followed American disestablishment, inspired by the visionary ideas of Joseph Smith, Jr., a New York farmer who adopted a particular style of restorationism, a form of Christianity popular in the period. Since that time, the various branches of Mormonism have embraced different relationships with the broader stream of American culture. Some have sought integration with America's Protestant majority; others have emphasized sectarian distinctiveness.

In popular culture and scholarship, a consistent trope about Mormonism is that it features a propensity for violence, born of the religion's theocratic impulses and the antinomian tendencies of special revelation. Mormonism and Violence critically assesses the relationship of Mormonism and violence through a close examination of Mormon history and scripture, focusing on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Element pays special attention to violence in the Book of Mormon and the history of the movement, from the 1830s to the present.