Sylvester Q. Cannon and the Revival of Environmental Consciousness in the Mormon Community

Abstract

Although Mormondom's founding Prophet, Joseph Smith, and his successor, Brigham Young, taught an environmentally conscious theology based on the belief that human beings bore an absolute responsibility care for God's creations and develop functional and beautiful communities, by the late nineteenth century Latter-day Saints often ignored these teachings. Smith grounded his environmental theology on the doctrine that humans, animals, and the earth itself were all living beings with redeemable eternal souls. In a revelation, he wrote that animals had souls and that they lived their destined order or sphere of creation, in the enjoyment of eternal felicity, and that the earth, the mother of all humans, possessed a soul distressed by the sin of her people. In this theology, the earth and other beings enjoyed a relationship God coordinate with human beings. As a corollary, the concept of dominion spelled out in Genesis consisted of stewardship for the souls of all beings rather than supremacy over disposable objects. In exploring the implications of this theology, Smith urged members not to kill a serpent bird, or an animal of any kind ... unless it became necessary in order preserve ourselves from hunger., Smith also taught that the Saints needed build beautiful and functional communities in which they could live together in harmony while preparing meet Christ at His second coming. As the Saints settled in the Midwest, Smith proposed domesticate and beautify the land through a plan for the ideal city, which he called the Plat of the City of Zion. He designed his city using a grid pattern that seems deceptively similar those followed in numerous other American cities. Unlike the many speculators who designed grid-cities, however, Smith gave primary attention fashioning the City of Zion as a pleasant, livable community suitable for God's children. He planned build towns with broad streets, large lots, and populations limited about one thousand families. Each lot would have a large yard, a garden plot, and outbuildings in which families could keep a few