Comments on: From the Archives: Joseph E. Taylor on Adam-God-Savior

By: tb

tb — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:05:05 +0000

RE: JS quote posted in #6.
Rack ‘em!

By: Jared

Jared — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:05:50 +0000

Yellow Dart,

That’s interesting. Can you give any ways or summaries of how his writings have influenced you? Are there certain issues or ways of dealing with matters that he has given that have especially resonated with you?

By: The Yellow Dart

The Yellow Dart — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:26:39 +0000

I read Blake Ostler’s first volume of “Exploring Mormon Thought” about 7 months into my mission and the way Blake approaches issues has influenced my thinking on Mormon thought more than any other contemporary writer I think.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:41:10 +0000

Jared, you’re spot on. I was influenced growing up by what my father taught me, and assumed that what he taught was doctrinally-orthodox Mormon belief. Only as a curious missionary did I come to recognize that version of Mormon belief as JFS II and BRM-influenced neo-orthodoxy. I embraced it further as I read more and more McConkie. I think that there was a feeling of comfort in being so sure of what consituted “true doctrine.”

It has only been in my studies since I returned from my mission and started to recognize the wide-range of beliefs expressed by various GAs, self-described theologians, and philosophers that I have come to fully appreciate the sentiment expressed by JS in the quote you cite.

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:16:15 +0000

Chris, I share you’re feelings. I suspect that you’ve arrived at that way of thinking about doctrine as a result of having learned more about differing and developing views. But I may be wrong. I think that fundamentally, Mormonism provides for that variety you mentioned, though based on some of the writings that influenced me early on and the way I used to think and talk because of them, you wouldn’t have known it.

I love the statement attributed to Joseph Smith that, “I never thought it was right to call up a man and try him because he erred in doctrine; it looks too much like Methodism and not like Latter-day Saintism…I want the liberty of believing as I please, it feels so good not to be trammeled.” (Words of Joseph Smith, 183).

By: David G.

David G. — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:50:24 +0000

I think that growing up and on my mission, I was very influenced by Talmage’s construction of the Godhead (my parents were not big McConkie-ites). Within weeks after getting home from my mission, I read the articles in Line Upon Line and all of my old certainties crumbled. Now not realy committed to either model, but I’m fascinated by both and the concomitant dissonance that some modern LDS experience when learning that our current conceptions of the Godhead did not emerge fully explicated with JS.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:35:00 +0000

I don’t know that I have a “construction of doctrine” firmly set in my mind. One of my favorite aspects of Mormonism is that (at least in my thinking, which I suppose could be called my construction of doctrine) a variety of beliefs can be tolerated. I consider myself fairly open to divergent beliefs, theologically speaking.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:18:56 +0000

…I guess I should have been more clear. It is the method to approaching problems that I have found inspiring by good history (and good science for that matter – my doctoral training in the sciences has done a lot as well). And I guess it isn’t really in the face of any particular opposition that it matters more.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:34:22 +0000

This appears to be standard Brighamesque Adam-God, though I don’t remember Brigham ever appealing to the KFD. Still, all the aspects are there. The only additional Brigham angle would be to add how human’s fit into the chain.

All that said, stripped of its literalism, I love the idea that in entering this world humans become “mortal by eating the fruits of the earth, which was earthy.” I like the slow transformation towards earthiness and lack of blame.

I’m not sure if there is any particular brand of thought that has influenced me more than others, except in a reactionary sense. The most important has been the examples of folks that have done good history, even when doing so wasn’t favored.

By: Eric Nielson

Eric Nielson — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:34:20 +0000

Like you, I grew up a McConkie man. I left on my mission in 85, and about that time Mormon Doctrine was like a standard work and people knew it better than the scriptures.

Lately I have been influenced by BH Roberts, and the bloggernacle.