Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young -- Historical periodization in the LDS Great Apostasy narrative / Eric R. Dursteler -- "Except among that portion of mankind": early Mormon conceptions of the apostasy / Christopher C. Jones and Stephen J. Fleming -- James Talmage, B.H. Roberts, and confessional history in a secular age / Matthew Bowman -- Narrating apostasy and the LDS quest for identity / Miranda Wilcox -- Competing histories in the Hebrew Bible and in the Latter-day Saint tradition / Cory D. Crawford -- Latter-day Saint perceptions of Jewish apostasy in the time of Jesus / Matthew J. Grey -- Purity and parallels: constructing the apostasy narrative of early Christianity / Taylor G. Petrey -- Rereading the Council of Nicaea and its creed / Lincoln H. Blumell -- Apostasy's ancestors: anti-Arian and anti-Mormon discourse in the struggle for Christianity / Ariel Bybee Laughton -- "Complexity and richness": reenvisioning the Middle Ages for Mormon historical narratives / Spencer E. Young -- King Ratbod's dilemma: apostasy and restoration in the sixteenth and twenty-first centuries / Jonathan Green -- Covenantal pluralism in Mormonism and Islam: alternatives to the binary logic of apostasy / David D. Peck -- Long narratives: toward a new Mormon understanding of apostasy / John D. Young -- Epilogue: "We have only the old thing": rethinking Mormon restoration / Terryl Givens -- Appendix. Statement of the First Presidency regarding God's love for all mankind.

Description based on print version record.