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“The Crown of Creation”

“The Crown of Creation”

Last updated on: March 8, 2021 at 10:48 pm by Dan Peterson

“The Crown of Creation” 2021-03-08T22:48:24-07:00 Dan Peterson

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A view of Monet’s garden at Giverny, by Art Anderson (Wikimedia CC). Since I have no photographs of the Garden of Eden, this photograph will need to suffice for now.

***

This piece, by David R. Seely and Jo Ann Seely, went up just a few minutes ago on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:

“The Crown of Creation”

Abstract: The Seelys discuss the well-known concept of the universe as a temple, and link the creation story to the temple drama. They explore how God, in creating the universe, had the same roles the temple drama gives to Adam and Eve as archetypes of each man and woman (that of king, priest, and artisan), and how man, by participating in the temple drama, is raised to be the image of God, thus becoming the real crown of creation, participating in God’s creation by procreation.

[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the LDS community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.

See David Rolph and Jo Ann H. Seely, “The Crown of Creation,” in Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, “The Temple on Mount Zion,” 22 September 2012, ed. William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 11–24. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/temple-insights/.]

***

We have just commenced the publication on the Interpreter Foundation website of a series of six items that I think many of you will find both informative and inspiring, as well as enjoyable:

“Hearing the Voice of the Lord in the Mind: Introduction” (Part One of a Series Compiled by Dennis B. Horne)

***

Daniel C. Peterson, “An Exhortation to Study God’s Two “Books””

Royal Skousen, “Tyndale Versus More in the Book of Mormon”

Kevin Christensen, “Profound Depth in a Slender Book”

A review of Blake T. Ostler, Fire on the Horizon: A Meditation on the Endowment and Love of Atonement. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013, 119 pages + subject and scripture indices.

Gaye Strathearn, “Looking at the Endowment and Atonement Through a Different Lens”

A review of Blake T. Ostler, Fire on the Horizon: A Meditation on the Endowment and Love of Atonement. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013, 119 pages + subject and scripture indices.

Matthew L. Bowen, ““Most Desirable Above All Things”: Onomastic Play on Mary and Mormon in the Book of Mormon”

Abstract: The names Mary and Mormon most plausibly derive from the Egyptian word mr(i), “love, desire, [or] wish.” Mary denotes “beloved [i.e., of deity]” and is thus conceptually connected with divine love, while Mormon evidently denotes “desire/love is enduring.” The text of the Book of Mormon manifests authorial awareness of the meanings of both names, playing on them in multiple instances. Upon seeing Mary (“the mother of God,” 1 Nephi 11:18, critical text) bearing the infant Messiah in her arms in vision, Nephi, who already knew that God “loveth his children,” came to understand that the meaning of the fruit-bearing tree of life “is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore it is the most desirable above all things” (1 Nephi 11:17-25). Later, Alma the Elder and his people entered into a covenant and formed a church based on “love” and “good desires” (Mosiah 18:21, 28), a covenant directly tied to the waters of Mormon: Behold here are the waters of Mormon … and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God … if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized …?”; “they clapped their hands for joy and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts” (Mosiah 18:8-11). Alma the Younger later recalled the “song of redeeming love” that his father and others had sung at the waters of Mormon (Alma 5:3-9, 26; see Mosiah 18:30). Our editor, Mormon, who was himself named after the land of Mormon and its waters [Page 28](3 Nephi 5:12), repeatedly spoke of charity as “everlasting love” or the “pure love of Christ [that] endureth forever” (Moroni 7:47-48; 8:16-17; 26). All of this has implications for Latter-day Saints or “Mormons” who, as children of the covenant, must endure to the end in Christlike “love” as Mormon and Moroni did, particularly in days of diminishing faith, faithfulness, and love (see, e.g., Mormon 3:12; contrast Moroni 9:5).

***

Although I intend to do so, I still haven’t watched the recent Netflix series Murder Among the Mormons. I need to get into the right mood before I watch it. I lived through the story. And, although I was scarcely even on the periphery of it, I was acquainted with several of those involved and have come to know others of them since. I followed the unfolding developments very closely, and I have strong opinions about the case.

In the meantime, though, here are a couple of good reads that are related to the episode and to the Netflix production:

“The Fraud Mark Hofmann Still Perpetuates: “Murder Among the Mormons” highlights how Mark Hofmann perpetuated a narrative about transparency in The Church of Jesus Christ. Though Hofmann was stopped, that problematic narrative lingers.”

“The ‘unbelievable’ story of forgiveness Netflix doesn’t tell in ‘Murder Among the Mormons’: Mark Hofmann’s ex-wife tells the true story of how a well-known Utah family of one of his victims stepped up to help her son”

That second story could well be included in our ever-expanding Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File©, so I think it only right that we conclude with a septet of items from that wonderful repository of the horrific evils visited upon our otherwise unblemished world by theism and religious faith:

“Bishop Caussé Thanks UNICEF and Church Members for COVID-19 Relief: Latter-day Saint Charities is helping UNICEF get COVID-19 vaccines to 196 participating COVAX countries and economies by the end of 2021”

“Mobile Bakery Delivers Bread to Displaced People in Syria: Tens of Thousands Being Fed in War-torn Region”

“Helping Hands Volunteers Distribute Food and Water in Houston: Faith-based organizations and food banks receive aid”

“After Fire Burns Oklahoma Meetinghouse, Community Steps in to Help”

“Pandemic’s Heavy Blows Softened by Missionaries at Orlando Bishops’ Storehouse”

“Starting a Prison Ministry: How Some Stakes Are Helping Local Inmates”

“As COVID-19 rages in Brazil, sisters in the Amazon fight hunger and isolation: Distributing food and aiding those afflicted by unemployment, hunger and despair, the religious women working in Brazil’s Amazonas state have been a driving force in coping with the pandemic.”

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Murder Among the Mormons

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