Here is an article from next week's Time Magazine.
"The Storm Over the Mormons"
I think the article is pretty fair, though I wish they would have included an interview with a Mormon who opposed Prop 8 instead of just mentioning that they existed.
The LDS Newsroom yesterday released a fascinating statement about Church history. You can read the full statement here: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/-a-record-kept-constructing-collective-memory
Here are a couple paragraphs from the statement:
An active engagement in the historical process eliminates barriers imposed by time and space and enables Latter-day Saints to situate themselves within the grand sweep of history. The Mormon historical consciousness impels one to step outside the comfortable confines of the present, develop empathy to understand the past and, in turn, lay the spiritual groundwork for future generations. A collective memory preserves the shared experiences and common language of meaning that binds a people together. To preserve history is to shape identity.I think that this is a very good sign for the future of LDS Church history.
The new Church History Library is the substance behind the growing emphasis of transparency in the Church’s interaction with the public. This facility opens the door for researchers and historians of all kinds to flesh out the stories of Mormon heritage that pass through the imagination of Latter-day Saints from generation to generation. The Church cannot undertake this project on its own. It requires a groundswell of countless individuals — from within and without the Church — operating on their own personal inspiration. The story of the Church will inevitably be told as historians of good faith are given access to the library’s records and archives.
It is in the interests of the Church to play a constructive role in advancing the cathartic powers of honest and accurate history. In doing so, the Church strives to be relevant to contemporary audiences that operate under changing cultural assumptions and expectations. A careful, yet bold presentation of Church history, which delves into the contextual subtleties and nuances characteristic of serious historical writing, has become increasingly important. If a religion cannot explain its history, it cannot explain itself.
This is today's write-up for the summer seminar on the Pratt brothers that I'm doing at BYU with Terryl Givens. I probably post some of my previous ones later.
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Instead of having the Holy Ghost as the third person[age] of the Godhead, Pratt instead writes of the Holy Spirit as a “divine substance or fluid” (1891, 29) that permeates the entire universe. In fact the only time that he uses the phrase 'Holy Ghost' is when he criticizes his favorite target: the 'absurd' theory that there “is only one living and true God, without body, parts, or passions; consisting of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost” (27).
Pratt's conception of the Holy Spirit runs central through his entire book. It is by being filled with this fluid that Jesus was able to speak with truth and authority (29). While subject to physical laws (39), it is nonetheless “the grand moving cause of all intelligences,” the “great, positive, controlling element of all other elements,” “puts into motion all worlds,” “comprehends the past, present, and future, in all its fullness,” and “is endowed with knowledge, wisdom, truth, love, charity, justice, and mercy” (40). It is by receiving its fullness that we can become sons of God (41).
While Pratt writes that it is God who control the Holy Spirit, he seems to imply that the Spirit also controls God: “The motive power which moves to action this [Council of the Gods] is wisdom. . . . Wisdom inspires the Gods to multiply their species and to lay the foundation for all the forms of life, to increase in numbers, and for each to enjoy himself in the sphere to which he is adapted” (46-7). According to Pratt, “Spirit is intelligence, or the light of truth, which filleth all things” (45), and “contains, in itself, a fullness of the attributes of light, intelligence, wisdom, love, and power” (46). From here, it seems that the eternal spirit also guides or controls (or at least nudges) the actions of God.
Because the Holy Spirit fills the entire universe, it is by it that God (who is only in one place) is able to act in and communicate with any other place in the universe (106-7). It is how miracles are performed, it is the source of revelations, it is how exaltation is achieved, and is “in short . . . the attributes of the eternal power and Godhead” (40).
While Pratt explicitly states that the “key to the science of Theology is the key of divine revelation” 27), because his conception of the Holy Spirit lies center to his seven sciences of revelation, worlds, knowledge, life, faith, spiritual gifts, and “all other sciences” I would argue that it is the Holy Spirit that is key to Pratt's science of theology.
I'm a huge fan of the tracts printed by Chick Publishing. Here is a selection from one of their masterpieces.
Angela and I got our engagement photos back yesterday. I think they turned out quite well. You can see them here: http://angela-loyd.blogspot.com/2009/06/engagement-photos.html
