This presentation continues my consideration of the merits of the paradigmatic model of Joseph Smith as a shamanic personality as the most comprehensible way to understand and embrace his life and work. Utilizing the research of C.G.. Jung and Mircea Eliade and others on archetypal patterns of ancient religions and healing practices, this session furthers …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2005
Pain, Sorrow, Suffering, Failure, Despair And Occasional Moments Of Transcendence: The Wisdom And Insights Of Karen Armstrong
Former nun Karen Armstrong writes that she “failed” at every important endeavor she undertook until she began exploring the value of religion and the idea of God not from the viewpoint of a specific doctrine, but from the position of someone baffled by her own experiences and open to the doubts and beliefs of others. …
The Mormon ‘Scarlet Letter’: ‘S’ For Single
Is Bigger Better?: Meditations On ‘Size’
In today’s academic and political climates, using the word “hierarchy” can cause shudders, especially when one applies it to value judgments. I’ve long been enamored with process theologian Bernard Loomer’s concept of “size” as a way of talking about hierarchical relationships. Dan Wotherspoon, James McLachlan
The Two Jesuses Of Third Nephi
When the resurrected Jesus visited the Nephites, he preached his Sermon on the Mount recorded in the book of Matthew and much more. Jesus commonly uses “verily I say unto you” in both his Sermon and other preaching, but is this a real or a created likeness? Is his other idiom the same in all …
Forgotten Foundations: Restoring Our ‘Grand Fundamental Principles’
Near the end of his life, the Prophet Joseph Smith declared friendship and openness to truth from all sources “grand fundamental principles of Mormonism.” New evidence presented in this paper indicates Joseph conceived of a third fundamental joining and completing this set. What role did the Prophet envision for these in the faith he founded? …
It’s All In Arminius: Mormonism As A Form Of Hyper-Arminianism
LDS scholars have frequently asserted that the Mormon understanding of salvation is very much akin to the Armenian Protestant tradition in a number of points. This is essentially correct. In fact, I believe Mormonism can be seen as a very radical form of Arminianism (or as “hyper”-Armenian) and that the most important theological dividing line …
Edwin B. Firmage: The Quest For The Universal Human, The One And The Many
As a missionary serving in England, Ed Firmage was struck profoundly by the Apostle Paul’s teaching that we are all part of a new nation in Christ, that he “hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ephesians 2:14). Since that time, much that he has done, his human rights and political activism …
Seeing Joseph Smith: Visual And Verbal Images Of The Mormon Prophet
How do we visualize the Prophet? From early drawings, sketches, political cartoons, daguerreotypes, and eyewitness descriptions to modern artistic renditions in film and poetry, the Prophet has been portrayed variously as heroic, comic, demonic, and at times, plainly human. What do these portraits tell us about the Prophet and ways in which he saw himself, …
Creating The Millennium: Social Forces And Church Growth In The Twenty-First Century
How much is the Church actually growing? Do we as a Church and its members expect to influence the way the world develops in the future? Will the Savior come and end it all, making our feeble efforts to no avail so we may as well be passive, or do we have a duty to …