(U-WIRE) SALT LAKE CITY -- In a news conference the morning before the dedication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Nauvoo, Ill., temple on June 27, Gordon B. Hinckley, the church's president, explained why the temple is unique. Speaking of the faith's founder, Joseph Smith, who was murdered only a few miles from Nauvoo in 1844, Hinckley said, "This is Joseph's temple."

Hinckley said the temple, which was burned by a mob in 1848 and was only recently rebuilt, will link the past and the future. He reverently noted, "There will be with us today an unseen audience, with Joseph and Hyrum [Smith's brother] among them, as well as many who gave their time and even their lives for this temple."

Even as Hinckley emphasized continuity with history, however, the temple's peculiar status as a relic from the church's turbulent past and a symbol of its recent progress raises questions about the future of the faith: How can Mormonism stay true to its past as a religion that emphasizes tension with society and still meet the needs of the future as a widely accepted mainstream church?

Armand Mauss, a sociologist, discussed this past-future dilemma in an article titled "Refuge and Retrenchment: The Mormon Quest for Identity." According to Mauss, most religions evolve along a fairly straight path. They begin as cults, emphasizing tension with mainstream society and appealing to a small group of deeply devoted followers. As time goes on, new generations in the religion begin to assimilate with the dominant culture. More socially prominent and better educated than their elders, the new generations forsake the high-tension "cult" of their parents, and convert it into a "church" that focuses on mainstream social participation and reconciliation with other religions.

However, according to Mauss, the Latter Day Saints Church bucks the general trend. Rather than fully assimilating, the church is "retrenching" or moving back to its original roots. Mauss points to greater emphasis on doctrines that differentiate Mormonism from other religions, such as Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and eternal families as evidence of Mormonism's return to its spiritual past. The recent focus of church officials on "spiritual" rather than bureaucratic solutions to problems also represents a greater concentration on tradition.

The difficulty is the church's membership is changing quickly. New generations are, in fact, much better educated than their parents. According to Mauss, LDS Church members in the U.S. have slightly higher than average incomes and education levels, a substantial change from the past. Also, membership is expanding. Sociologist Rodney Stark said the church has grown more than 400 percent in the last century, and will include more than 60 million members by 2020. The problems posed by "retrenchment" are thus very large. As LDS Church members in the U.S. gain more prominent social status, they may sometimes feel at odds with a religion that demands tension with mainstream society. Greater linguistic and ethnic diversity will force tough confrontations between doctrine and culture. Membership growth will also pose problems as policies of the American LDS Church are tailored to meet the vastly different needs of new members in less prosperous areas of the world.

The Nauvoo temple dedication, however, represents a workable solution to the past-future dilemma. It emphasizes the positive legacy of the past, but still meets the needs of the present.

Architecturally, the temple isn't slavishly adapted to the original. The exterior is the same and so are parts of the interior. But most of the functioning rooms have been altered to conform to contemporary rituals. Also, rather than condemning other local churches, the temple's dedication committee invited pastors to come and participate in an open house. Even the church's expanding membership was included. Thousands watched the dedication ceremonies by satellite broadcast in meeting centers around the world.

The Nauvoo temple dedication thus provides a prototype for dealing with future difficulties. It shows how the church can integrate the unique elements of its past with the demands of more assimilation in the future.

Yes, it's Joseph's temple. But it belongs to Gordon B. Hinckley and 11 million other modern-day Mormons as well.