{"id":112550,"date":"2025-08-27T22:30:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T04:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=112550"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:07:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T17:07:34","slug":"shall-we-not-go-on-in-so-great-a-cause-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/08\/shall-we-not-go-on-in-so-great-a-cause-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Casey<\/a>
This painting, by Casey Childs, used to hang in the foyer of the St. George Utah Temple. \u00a0I believe that I also saw it there after that temple\u2019s recent renovation and rededication. It depicts President Brigham Young (left), late in his life, going over the records of the ordinances performed thus far in the temple with Elder Wilford Woodruff of the Council of the Twelve, who was the first president of the St. George Utah Temple and who would eventually serve as the fourth president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>. The modern work of redeeming the dead really got underway in the St. George Temple. (I found the painting on Pinterest, and hope that I\u2019m committing no major offense against copyright by posting it here. If so, I apologize and will happily take it down.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new article of mine has gone up in Meridian Magazine<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cBrigham Young, Race, and Slavery: Reexamining Utah\u2019s 1852 Service Act.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0If you can bear to do so, please feel free to take a look at it.<\/p>\n

Also on the subject of Brigham Young, we were back again today in the Pioneer Memorial Museum in Salt Lake City \u2014 the headquarters of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers \u2014 for more filming. \u00a0The footage that we obtain there will eventually become part of Becoming Brigham<\/em>, a forthcoming series of short documentaries from the Interpreter Foundation and Red Brick Filmworks.<\/p>\n

\"California's<\/a>
The Oakland California Temple (LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While waiting for the filming to begin \u2014 our film team are setting up cameras, positioning lights, and so forth, and strictly (and prudently) forbid ignoramuses such as I to mess with the equipment \u2014 I read an interesting article from a British magazine called The Catholic Herald<\/em>: \u201cPope Leo\u2019s desire for \u2018flatmates\u2019 offers a valuable lesson to all Catholics: It is encouraging to discover the Pope\u2019s determination to live in community and bring Augustinian spirituality to the heart and apex of the Catholic Church, beginning with the papal apartments.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0The article is interesting overall, but a particular point stood out to me for separate mention:<\/p>\n

The article cites the English historian Peter Ackroyd as having noted that something like 90 per cent of the world\u2019s ghost stories are found in English literature. \u00a0Ackroyd apparently also suggests that one of the reasons for this seeming obsession with tales of the macabre lies in Henry VIII\u2019s spectacular dissolution and pillaging of the the nation\u2019s monasteries at the commencement of the English Reformation. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because it abruptly ended\u00a0the long-established English Catholic practice of prayer for the dead.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know whether this is actually true. \u00a0But it\u2019s an intriguing thought.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll try to flesh the argument out as I understand it, a bit beyond what the article itself actually says: \u00a0With his destruction of the monasteries, Henry put an end to the perceived reality of \u201cthe Communion of the Saints,\u201d which was conceived as the spiritual union of all who are united in Christ \u2014 that is to say, the union of all Christians \u2014 including the faithful on Earth (\u201cthe Church Militant\u201d), the souls still working through Purgatory (\u201cthe Church Penitent,\u201d or \u201cthe Church Suffering\u201d), and the saints in Heaven (\u201cthe Church Triumphant\u201d), who form, altogether, one \u201cmystical body\u201d head by Christ. \u00a0(The damned, the souls in Hell, are excluded; they are literally excommunicant.) \u00a0Members of the Communion of the Saints participate in each other\u2019s spiritual welfare and well-being, praying for one another out of the recognition that death ends neither their mutual love nor their fellowship with one another<\/span><\/p>\n

The author of the article, a British Catholic convert named Gavin Ashenden, argues that the abolition of the monasteries by Henry VIII (whom he terms \u201cpsychopathic\u201d) was a catastrophe,<\/p>\n

leaving a scar on the national psyche that has never yet been healed. . . . \u00a0The suppression of our monasteries interrupted a profound sense of communal belonging across space and time, between the generations. Consequently a profound neurosis entered the collective English soul which erupted in the sterile preoccupation with ghosts and ghost stories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I say, I don\u2019t know whether the claim advanced by Peter Ackroyd and, now, by Gavin Ashenden holds up, but I find it an interesting opportunity for reflection, as follows:<\/p>\n

Latter-day Saints don\u2019t use the term \u201cCommunion of Saints\u201d or \u201cCommunion of the Saints.\u201d \u00a0But, in its essence, I don\u2019t think that the concept is entirely foreign to us. \u00a0We don\u2019t officially pray for the dead or seek intercession from the Saints, but we do perform ordinances on behalf of the dead in our temples and, through genealogical research or family history work, we seek out the names of the dead in order to serve them. \u00a0The fourth element of the \u201cfour-fold mission of the Church\u201d is \u201cuniting families for eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, we expect that those who have gone on before us remain interested in our lives and our choices. \u00a0I could elaborate further on this \u2014 and may, at some point, do so \u2014 but these seem to me clear indicators of a conception rather like that of a \u201cCommunion of the Saints.\u201d \u00a0Which may, I think, help to explain what I judge to be a pretty healthy view of death and of the dead among believing Latter-day Saints. \u00a0We are, I think, exceptionally receptive to accounts of near-death experiences. \u00a0And when we hear reports of encounters with the dead occurring during family history research or attendant upon temple service, we welcome them \u2014 and there is, in them, no trace of darkness or the macabre. \u00a0On the contrary, there is light.<\/p>\n

Henry VIII may perhaps have left a scar on the English psyche that survived him for centuries. \u00a0His action may well have disrupted the profound sense of communal belonging across space and time, between the generations, that once prevailed, creating a profound neurosis about death and the dead. \u00a0The ordinances of the temple, however, and the profoundly important work of the redemption of the dead, offer a path to healing.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
An artist\u2019s conception of the coming Heber Valley Utah Temple (LDS.org fair use)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is great news: \u00a0\u201cConstruction for Heber Valley Utah Temple underway:\u00a03 years after its groundbreaking, construction work on the previously postponed Heber Valley Utah Temple has begun\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free. -Joseph Smith, 6 September 1842; Nauvoo, Illinois (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 A new article of mine has gone up in Meridian Magazine: \u00a0\u201cBrigham Young, Race, and Slavery: Reexamining Utah\u2019s 1852 Service Act.\u201d \u00a0If you can bear to do so, please feel free to take a look at it. Also on the subject of Brigham Young, we were back again today in the Pioneer Memorial Museum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":20331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[292,39098,12266,2905,39101,788],"class_list":["post-112550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brigham-young","tag-dissolution","tag-henry-viii","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-monasteries","tag-mormon"],"yoast_head":"\nShall we not go on in so great a cause?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  A new article of mine has gone up in Meridian Magazine: \u00a0"Brigham Young, Race, and Slavery: Reexamining Utah\u2019s 1852 Service Act." \u00a0If you can bear\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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