14AR19-17

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Apologia Report 19:17 (1,200)

May 27, 2014

Subject: Secular analysis notes LDS "Gods in embryonic form"

In this issue:

BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION - how the seventeenth-century ideal of biblical perspicuity resulted in biblical obscurity today

MORMONISM - Joseph Smith's "scandalously anthropomorphic God"

YOGA - observing "the flagrant misdescriptions and spurious representations of traditional sources that proliferate in contemporary yoga"

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Please Note: Our office will be closed for the week. The next issue of AR is scheduled for the week beginning June 8th.

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BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

Keith D. Stanglin (Associate Professor of History and Historical Theology at Austin Graduate School of Theology) has given us an ironic look into the past with "The Rise and Fall of Biblical Perspicuity: Remonstrants and the Transition toward Modern Exegesis." The abstract explains: "The purpose of this article is to examine the biblical exegesis of two seventeenth-century Dutch Remonstrant theologians, Simon Episcopius (1583–1643) and Étienne de Courcelles (1586–1659). Their hermeneutic was characterized by an emphasis on the perspicuity, or clarity, of scripture through the use of reason, combined with the marginalization of spiritual meanings in favor of the literal-grammatical sense alone. In both of these emphases, they went beyond their theological forebear, Jacob Arminius (1559–1609), and adumbrated the methods of later Enlightenment thinkers. The stress on perspicuity and authorial intention led to increasing fascination with text criticism, linguistic analysis, and historical contextualization, highly rarefied disciplines that became prerequisites for correct, scholarly biblical interpretation. This development also pushed the question of biblical fallibility closer to the center of the doctrine of scripture. As a consequence of the philological, scientific study of the Bible, biblical interpretation was relegated to the field of scholarship and doctrinal formulation to the church. The original ideal of biblical perspicuity resulted in biblical obscurity." Church History, 83:1 - 2014, pp38-59.

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MORMONISM

In Heaven As It Is On Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death, by Samuel Morris Brown [1] -- David J. Howlett (Skidmore College) bestows what must be among the highest of possible endorsements in his review, saying Brown "provides the most original and insightful reinterpretation of Joseph Smith and early Mormonism to emerge in the last twenty years. Rather than retread familiar routes, Brown contextualizes early Mormonism within what he calls the nineteenth-century culture of 'holy dying' and explains Smith's seemingly fragmented theology and sacraments through this illuminating prism." His conclusion is even stronger. "Very few professionally trained Mormon studies scholars could duplicate or surpass the level of insight and historical contextualization evidenced in [this] work. ... Without exaggeration, In Heaven As It Is On Earth is now essential reading for any scholar seeking to understand early Mormonism."

Brown's approach is described this way: "By the time of Smith's death, the Mormon prophet 'had revealed a polyvalent family system [polygamy and ritual adoption], a utopian communitarianism grounded in mystical traditions about Enoch, a temple liturgy that taught his followers how to negotiate the afterlife and promised them postmortal divinity, and a scandalously anthropomorphic God whom all humans could call Father.' All of these seemingly disparate theological innovations found coherence in Smith's attempts to address the problems posed by the culture of holy dying - how one could be reassured of her eternal destiny, how one could know that earthly connections endured, and how one prepared for her own death and hoped for assumption of immortality."

Of all this, one aspect stands out for us in Brown's discussion of Smith's "heavenly family" construct. "Humans were simply Gods in embryonic form, lower on the chain than the God of this world who had also once been human. This, according to Brown, was a stunningly literalized *imitatio Christi,* not a merger into Christ's metaphorical body, but a 'merger into the [literal] family of Christ.'" Church History, 83:1 - 2014, pp234-236.

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YOGA

"'A Petrification of One’s Own Humanity'? Nonattachment and Ethics in Yoga Traditions," by Mikel Burley -- observes that since the mid-20th century, "the uses of the terms *yoga* and *yogi* (or *yogin*) - and hence the concepts that these terms express - have been radically transformed. Yoga is now widely perceived as contributing to 'a full acceptance of earthly life' rather than opposing it. Far from being an ascetic discipline promoting withdrawal from the world and intimate human relationships, yoga is now regarded as 'a preventive, personal self-care activity at the social and interpersonal levels.' ...

"This article will explore the concept of nonattachment as it occurs in yoga traditions, raising the question of how, in view of the central place that this ethico-religious stricture has had, modern yoga practitioners can, and do, relate to those traditions."

Perhaps not wanting to come across as too negative, Burley appears to apply a bit of damage control in his conclusion. After identifying "the flagrant misdescriptions and spurious representations of traditional sources that proliferate in contemporary yoga," Burly purrs: "we should not overlook the ebullient mixture - of spiritual and other cultural forms - that is evolving through reinterpretive reception of yoga's ideologically bountiful past." [What was that about ethics? - RP] Journal of Religion, 94:2 - 2014, pp204-228.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - In Heaven As It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death, by Samuel Morris Brown (Oxford Univ Prs, January 2012, hardcover, 408 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/79mfwzp>

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