A Christian Denomination, or a New Religious Tradition?

How to classify the movement has been debated by scholars for decades. Latter-day Saints understand themselves as Christians, their worship is directed to God the Father through Jesus Christ, and the Bible stands within their canon, and by that self-understanding the tradition belongs to the Abrahamic, monotheistic family, which is how it is classified here, alongside other movements of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Abrahamic origin. Some other Christians dispute the label, pointing to distinctive Latter-day Saint teachings about God, scripture, and human destiny that depart from the historic creeds.

The historian Jan Shipps argued influentially that the movement is best understood not merely as one more Protestant denomination but as a new religious tradition that grew out of Christianity much as Christianity grew out of Judaism, with its own scripture, prophet, sacred history, and temple. Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens, writing as scholars from within the tradition, likewise stress both its continuity with Christianity and its genuine novelty. The question is partly one of definition, and the atlas notes the debate rather than trying to settle it: the classification chosen reflects the object of worship and the tradition's own Abrahamic self-identification, while acknowledging the distinctiveness that leads some scholars to treat it as a religious tradition in its own right.