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“A Model for Looking Deeply and Deeply Looking”

“A Model for Looking Deeply and Deeply Looking”

Last updated on: September 20, 2024 at 3:56 pm by Dan Peterson

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“A Model for Looking Deeply and Deeply Looking” 2024-09-20T15:56:43-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Joseph Smith (Paul Wuthrich) on the set of the Interpreter Foundation’s 2021 “Witnesses” film project. (Still photograph by James Jordan). Paul Wuthrich recently starred in “Escape from Germany” and he is one of the stars of the Interpreter Foundation’s imminently forthcoming movie “Six Days in August.”

If you’re located along the Wasatch Front, don’t miss the opportunity of seeing Six Days in August this coming Thursday night. There will be special early screenings in American Fork, Draper, Farmington, Jordan Landing, Ogden, Orem, Salt Lake City, and Sandy: Six Days in August – Early Access. Quite frankly, we’re offering these advance screenings in the hope of generating word-of-mouth publicity, buzz, for the film. This is an independent and non-profit movie venture. It has been funded entirely by donations, and our budget for advertising and distribution is modest. So we’re relying on you to help us.

In addition, please don’t fail to go to the official website of the film and request that it come to a theater near your home. We are taking these requests very seriously; to a considerable degree, they will guide our distribution strategy.

And please bring yourself, your Significant Other, your friends, and your neighbors to the fireside this next Wednesday — which is to say, the night before those special early screenings — at the SCERA Center for the Arts in Orem: “Unveiling History: Six Days in August Fireside”

Moreover, before I change topics, a word of advice for those who attend a screening of Six Days in August: Stick around for the credits. Not merely in order to see listed the names of those who made the film a reality, but so as to hear a special musical piece that will play behind the rolling of the credits. It is Rob Gardner’s arrangement of John Taylor’s heart-wrenching hymn about the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, “O Give Me Back My Prophet Dear.” It features Casey Elliott, of Gentri, and I hope that you’ll love it as much as I do. I also hope that you’ll love the film score of Six Days in August, which has been created by Sam Cardon.

Why did I want a rendition of “O Give Me Back My Prophet Dear” to close out the film? One simple reason is that I find Rob Gardner’s arrangement of it so deeply stirring. But another reason is this: There is a lunatic suggestion going the rounds out there that Joseph and Hyrum weren’t really killed by a mob with painted faces, as the Church (and all reputable historians of the subject, whether believers or non-believers) would have you believe, but by Willard Richards and John Taylor, on the orders of Brigham Young. Please remember that John Taylor was grievously wounded by the anti-Mormon mob and that he carried some of their lead in his body until the day that he died. I wanted Elder Taylor’s actual feelings about the Prophet and the Patriarch on record, and powerfully so:

O give me back my Prophet dear,
And Patriarch, O give them back;
The Saints of latter days to cheer,
And lead them in the gospel track.
But ah! they’re gone from my embrace,
From earthly scenes their spirits fled;
Those two, the best of Adam’s race,
Now lie entombed among the dead.

Ye men of wisdom tell me why,
When guilt nor crime in them were found,
Why now their blood doth loudly cry,
From prison walls, and Carthage ground
Your tongues are mute, but pray attend,
The secret I will now relate,
Why those whom God to earth did lend,
Have met the suffering martyr’s fate.

It is because they strove to gain,
Beyond the grave a heaven of bliss;
Because they made the gospel plain,
And led the Saints in righteousness.
It is because God called them forth,
And led them by his own right hand
Christ’s coming to proclaim on earth,
And gather Israel to their land.

It is because the priests of Baal
Were desperate their craft to save;
And when they saw it doomed to fail,
They sent the Prophets to the grave.
Like scenes the ancient Prophets saw,
Like these, the ancient Prophets fell;
And till the resurrection dawn,
Prophet and Patriarch-Fare thee well.

Cristo Redentor, above Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

This piece has just been published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “A Model for Looking Deeply and Deeply Looking,” written by Godfrey J. Ellis

Review of Peter J. Williams, The Surprising Genius of Jesus: What the Gospels Reveal About the Greatest Teacher (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023). 113 pages, $14.59 (paperback).

Abstract: Peter Williams, an independent biblical scholar, has written an analysis of the parable of the prodigal son in a fascinating attempt to demonstrate two truths. The first is that one of the most overlooked attributes of the Savior is his brilliant and analytical mind. In the process, Williams reveals many intricacies hidden in the parable. He also reminds readers of the role of the Old Testament in the understanding and appreciation of the teachings of Jesus. These contributions, by themselves, demonstrate the value of the book. The second truth is that Jesus, himself, and not the gospel writers or the Apostle Paul, was the source of his teachings. However, an even greater value (and a third truth, if you will) may be a powerful demonstration of the process of looking deeply at scripture to uncover and “see” easily missed insights.

And, amid the rush and crunch of getting ready for the release of Six Days in August, I failed to mention the appearance, a day or two ago, of this essay by a dear friend, a former missionary companion in Switzerland and a former colleague in Brigham Young University’s Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages: Hugh Nibley Observed: “Reminiscences of Nibley,” written by Stephen D. Ricks:

“My recollections of Hugh Nibley go back a generation. My father, Marc Ricks, and Nibley were both doctoral students at the University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1930s, my father majoring in chemistry and Nibley in ancient history. Both attended church services at the Berkeley Ward in a lovely chapel with a venerable history located on the corner of Walnut and Vine in Berkeley. Dad said that he and Nibley were given a service assignment of cleaning up the grounds around the chapel. They worked together on the grounds until Brother Nibley became bored or distracted, at which point he walked to the chapel upstairs to play the organ, which he could do with real finesse. My dad referred to Nibley as an ‘information man’ rather than a ‘people person’—but, with all due respect to my father’s point of view, permit me to observe that the Lord, in order to achieve his purposes, needs people from a whole range of backgrounds, even ‘information men’ who are not particularly ‘people persons.’”

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/hugh-nibley-observed/.

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