Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Latter-day Saint temples are sacred and private spaces where church members participate in ceremonies that order their cosmos and materialize sacred identities and relationships. Joseph Smith ritualized biblical archetypes through liturgies that transformed individuals into kings and queens, priests and priestesses in heaven and on earth. This volume provides an overview and history of the temple liturgies experienced by Latter-day Saints, including the initiatory washing and anointing, the endowment, and relational sealings. Within the first year of organizing a church in 1830, Joseph Smith began revealing elements of these liturgies. Over the next fourteen years, Smith introduced increasingly expansive ceremonies and cosmologies, and established temples as their liturgical center. After Smith’s murder, church leaders worked to give access to the temple liturgy, first to thousands in Illinois, and then, over nearly two centuries, to millions across the world. This ritual transmission required regular periods of change and reform. The temple is also central to the Latter-day Saint understanding of “exaltation”—the human potential to become like god. For over a century the church excluded Black people from the temple and exaltation, while simultaneously integrating Native Americans, Polynesians, and other races. After repealing the racial restrictions, leaders and members have worked to fight racism in the church and their communities. Lastly, Latter-day Saints who have participated in the temple liturgy are ultimately buried in the ceremonial clothing of the temple in a final construction of their heavenly priesthood.</jats:p>