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Two new review-essays appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>.\u00a0 They are:<\/p>\n \u201cA Truly Remarkable Book,\u201d<\/a> written by Louis C. Midgley<\/p>\n Review of John Gee,\u00a0Saving Faith: How Families Protect, Sustain, And Encourage Faith<\/em>\u00a0(Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2020). 313 pages.<\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Saving Faith\u00a0is a truly excellent book, designed especially for families concerned about their children. It is also a book appropriate for those getting ready to serve as missionaries, or for newly married couples, young couples about to be married, or even for those about to bring children into this world to undergo their mortal probation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cA Prophet, a Candidate, and a Just Cause,\u201d<\/a> written by Derek R. Sainsbury<\/a><\/p>\n Review of Spencer W. McBride,\u00a0Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Oxford University Press, 2021). 269 pages, $29.95 (hardcover).<\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Spencer McBride\u2019s book is the deepest look yet into Joseph\u00a0Smith\u2019s 1844 campaign for president of the United States. In smooth-paced and readable detail, McBride\u2019s work expertly demonstrates the unique Latter-day Saint genesis for the campaign and how it fit into the wider American social-political environment. Its message regarding religious liberty is as applicable today as it was nearly two centuries ago.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I spent some time in the swimming pool this afternoon \u2014 of course \u2014 with a portion of The Progeny.\u00a0 But our major focus for the day was a visit to the justly famous Butchart Gardens<\/a>.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been to Victoria numerous times, and we\u2019ve never missed them.\u00a0 If there are any places on the planet that seem genuinely Edenic, surely Butchart Gardens are among those places.<\/p>\n And yet, and yet . . .\u00a0 If those reporting near-death experiences are describing real otherworldly locations, Butchart Gardens would appear to be merely a pale foreshadowing of what exists in the world to come.\u00a0 I\u2019ve extracted a few items from my notes that should serve to give an idea of what people recount of their glimpses into what lies before us:<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an unearthly kind of light.\u00a0 It had color that is unmatched here on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe brilliance of the colors was striking.\u201d<\/p>\n One near-death experiencer speaks of \u201cvibrant,\u201d even \u201cexploding\u201d colors.<\/p>\n Describing the vision she said, \u201cWhat a beautiful place with all the flowers and music.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you hear it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHuman words are not adequate to describe the beauty,\u201d says one witness.\u00a0 \u201cThere was a lot of light, a brightness that went beyond just white\u2014kind of a many-colored iridescence.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have the words in our language to describe the beauty.\u201d\u00a0 Another speaks of \u201ca brilliance of light and color impossible to describe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere grows such sweet and pleasant flowers,\u201d says one old poem, \u201cas nowhere else are seen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe place where I was, seemed very desirable to remain in,\u201d remembered Jacob Hamblin, who had fallen from high in a tree in 1858 and had been unconscious for roughly eleven hours after the fall.\u00a0 \u201cIt was divided into compartments by walls, from which appeared to grow out vines and flowers, displaying an endless variety of colors.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201ca landscape of such surpassing beauty that words cannot express\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge Russell wrote of \u201cseeing the world illuminated by \u2018an intolerable luster of light\u2019; of finding himself looking at \u2018landscapes as lovely as a lost Eden\u2019; of beholding a world where the \u2018colors were brighter and purer, and yet made a softer harmony.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Hindu paradise of Uttarakuru is one example.\u00a0 \u201cThe land,\u201d says the Ramayana, \u201cis watered by lakes with golden lotuses.\u00a0 There are rivers by thousands, full of leaves of the color of sapphire and lapis lazuli; and the lakes, resplendent like the morning sun, are adorned by golden beds of red lotus.\u00a0 The country all around is covered by jewels and precious stones, with gay beds of blue lotus, golden-petalled.\u00a0 Instead of sand, pearls, gems and gold form the banks of the rivers, which are overhung with trees of fire-bright gold.\u00a0 These trees perpetually bear flowers and fruit, give forth a sweet fragrance and abound with birds.\u201d<\/p>\n In his dialogue Phaedo<\/em>, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato has his master Socrates speak of an ideal world that exists beyond the material world in which we live:\u00a0 \u201cIn this other earth the colors are much purer and much more brilliant than they are down here.\u00a0 .\u00a0 . .\u00a0 The very mountains, the very stones have a richer gloss, a lovelier transparency and intensity of hue.\u00a0 The precious stones of this lower world, our highly prized cornelians, jaspers, emeralds and all the rest, are but the tiny fragments of these stones above.\u00a0 In the other earth there is no stone but is precious and exceeds in beauty every gem of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n Finding herself in a shimmering green meadow adorned with flowers, fragrance, and light . . ., she was met by four robed guides<\/p>\n Bob Helm speaks of \u201cthe most beautiful landscape I had ever seen.\u00a0 The colors were outside my experience, vivid beyond my dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n In regard to gardens, said Jedediah M. Grant of the First Presidency, shortly before his (final) death, \u201cI have seen good gardens on this earth, but I never saw any to compare with those that were there.\u00a0 I saw flowers of numerous kinds, and some with from fifty to a hundred different colored flowers growing upon one stalk.\u201d<\/p>\n vividness of colors<\/p>\n \u201cI saw my [dead] mother.\u00a0 She was in the most beautiful place . . . a real bright light . . .\u00a0 flowers and streams.\u00a0 She told me she was very happy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n People who come back from such experiences often say that their first impression of this<\/em> world, in the light of what they had seen during their NDEs, is dingy, dreary, faded, and lackluster.\u00a0 From their descriptions, the next life seems to be to the Butchart Gardens as the Butchart Gardens are to a deteriorating, weed-riven asphalt parking lot on a smoggy day in East Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>