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“Immense theological profundity”

“Immense theological profundity”

Last updated on: March 24, 2022 at 9:44 pm by Dan Peterson

“Immense theological profundity” 2022-03-24T21:44:38-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Bright Planetary Nebula NGC 7027 from the Hubble Space Telescope
(NASA, ESA, Joel Kastner public domain image; processing by Alyssa Pagan)

***

Some time back, I read the very good book by Fiona Givens and Terryl Givens, The Christ Who Heals: How God Restored the Truth that Saves Us. I sometimes encounter derisive comments from certain critics about how shallow Mormonism supposedly is. Such complaints astonish me. I find the implications, entailments, and disclosures of the Restoration radical and utterly profound. And so, it seems, do Fiona and Terryl:

Mormonism is so rich in doctrine, so expansive in its teachings, that we may be too easily distracted from this one cardinal proposition: The Restoration recovered that Christ who is the most remarkable being in the history of religious thought. (1)

They endeavor to show, in fact, that the figure of Christ “comes into his full splendor and beauty through the lens of the Restoration” (1).

Mormonism has immense theological profundity. It repudiates notions of inherited guilt and depravity, restores vulnerable compassion and empathy to a Heavenly Father, recaptures the saga of human preexistence and our literal co-heirship with Christ, and provides a coherent scheme of salvational plenitude for the dead as well as the living. Its doctrines are alternately exhilarating and consoling, controversial and common-sensical. (2)

I strongly suspect that one of the factors in recently declining conversion rates and in some retention problems among young Latter-day Saints is our failure to adequately exhibit the exciting and radical depth of Mormonism. This book is a helpful instrument for reminding ourselves and others of what we’ve sometimes allowed to be obscured.

Especially in this context, I like their comments on what Latter-day Saints often call the “Great Apostasy”:

This “falling away” does not represent some minor corruptions of sacramental liturgy or ritual forms. It is not about wicked priests whom God punished by removing their priesthood. It is about a fundamental misapprehension of the background and purpose and extent of the covenant (premortal origins, mortal incarnation, and eventual theosis and sealing into the eternal family). It is the loss of the mode by which that covenant is executed (through temple covenants that create those chains of infinite belonging, completing our journey from intelligence to joint heirship with Christ).

The loss of the larger cosmic context was compounded by failing to see the Fall as a necessary and premeditated immersion of humankind into the crucible of experience, suffering, and schooling in the practice of love. The loss was not about baptizing at the wrong age or in the wrong medium. It was about not knowing that baptism makes us — all of us eventually — literally members of Christ’s family and co-heirs with him as planned in premortal councils. What is at stake is not simple difference in standards of sexual practice or marriage’s purpose per se. It is about failing to see the family structure as a divine mode of eternal association that is at the very heart of heaven itself. In sum, the “Restoration” is not about correcting particular doctrines or practices as much as it is about restoring their cosmic context. (14-15)

***

Interpreter Radio Show — February 27, 2022

In the first hour of this episode of the weekly Interpreter Radio Show, Steve Densley, Matthew Bowen, and Mark Johnson discuss Hebrew rhetoric and scribal training in the Book of Mormon with their guest, Noel Reynolds. (It’s a much more interesting topic than you might initially think, and Noel Reynolds is constructing a very important argument.) You can listen to or download the 27 February 2022 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show at the link provided; for your listening pleasure it has been freed from all commercial interruptions and other extraneous noise. The second portion of the show is a roundtable devoted to a discussion of the upcoming “Come, Follow Me” lesson #15 (Exodus 14–17). The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard on K-TALK, AM 1640, each and every Sunday evening, week in and week out, from 7 to 9 PM (MDT). If you can’t get it on your radio — e.g., if you’re outside of the Salt Lake Valley — you can still listen to it live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Moreover, as we’ve done here, we archive each episode and make it available to you online and at no charge, at your convenience. We’re really generous that way.

***

It seems that somebody else, somebody who is not a Latter-day Saint, has noticed the mention of baptism for the dead in 1 Corinthians 15:29:

“Does the Bible Have a Loophole Passage for Getting to Heaven?”

You might find this story interesting, especially as we’re nearing the open house for the Washington DC Temple, prior to its rededication:

“The Washington D.C. Temple site’s history is as American as the capital city itself: The land survived two wars and more than a dozen different owners before housing the largest east-coast temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”

Another essay that will interest some of you:

“Why ‘All-In’ LGBT+/SSA Saints Are So Reluctant to Speak Up: As conversations regarding the Church and LGBTQ issues only seem to be getting louder, why are so many faithful LGBTQ/SSA Latter-day Saints choosing to stay quiet?”

I met him only a couple of times, I think, and we didn’t always agree. Sometimes, candidly, I didn’t even understand his position. But I liked him, and not only because he once offered to represent me pro bono, long ago, when a very angry critic was threatening baseless but potentially devastating legal action. (Happily, the threat melted away, and his help wasn’t needed.) He passed away much too young:

Robert Dale Crockett

***

A group of us met this morning to brainstorm about our next film project, which we’ve titled Six Days in August. There’s still some work to be done in connection with the overall “Witnesses” film project, of course: The dramatic film, Witnesses, has had its theatrical run and is now available on DVD and via streaming, and streaming options for it will shortly be expanded. Its accompanying docudrama sequel, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, will be made public on 24 May. And eighteen “snippets” or short features have already been completed, with at least two more to go. (They’ll be going up online fairly shortly, I think.) But we’re now beginning to move forward on the new effort, and that’s always exciting. The possibilities are (almost) endless. It’s daunting too, of course; I have to raise the money that will enable us to make this project a reality. If you feel that you can, please join in the effort!

***

Last night, in memory of my brother, we watched Michael Caine and Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. It was one of his favorite movies.

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