In his short invitational podcast with Mormon Stories Europe Dr. Chrystal Vanel discusses his research topic on Restoration in light of the Reformation as well as his view on Sunstone Germany this year.

From his excerpt on the paper he will be presenting:

2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It is a time for remembrance, religious celebrations and academic conferences on Martin Luther and the various impacts of the Reformation on our current world. It is also the time, for academics who have interest in Mormonism, to look at the relationship between the Reformation and the Restoration Movement. Whereas Mormonism clearly is no part of Protestantism, Mormonism originated both out of Protestantism and as a reaction against Protestantisms in the context of a modern protestant America. Following Joseph Smith death in 1844, the various Mormonisms dealt differently with their Early Mormonism heritage.

Thus it could be argued that Community of Christ evolved toward mainline ecumenical American Protestantism, and even though the LDS Church headquartered in Salt Lake City kept alive much of the legacy of early Mormonism, its rhetoric and ethics also echoes American conservative evangelical Protestantism.

This paper aims at studying the exprotestantisation and reprotestantisation of various Mormonisms, showing how the various denominations of the Restoration Movement mainly defined and still define themselves in the context US Protestantism.