This is the third post on Richard L. Bushman's Mormonism: A Very
Short Introduction (OUP, 2008). [See Part 1 and Part 2.] In
Chapter Three, Bushman reviews the several meanings of the term
"Zion" in LDS doctrine and thinking. The Mormon sense of Zion
has no real parallels in Protestant thought. In a general sense,
Zion refers to Mormon community and society, a larger concept
than just the LDS Church as a religious institution. Here's how
Bushman explains it. From the beginning, Mormons have actively
sought unity. They aspire to be a people, thinking of themselves
as a society as much as a church. Their common ground goes
beyond belief and worship to work, education, family, and
business. This comprehensiveness goes back to their origins,
when Joseph Smith first organized the church. I suspect what
Bushman gently terms "comprehensiveness" is what rubs some
religious contemporaries the wrong way about Mormonism, giving
rise to recurrent charges of being cultish or un-American. But
comprehensiveness also describ