Front-line fatigue: COVID resurgence leaves ICU doctors feeling \u2018heavy in the soul\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Come on<\/em>, people!<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve indicated my resolution to try to use this blog in a way that is more helpful to \u2014 and less competitive with \u2014 my book-writing goals.\u00a0 One of the ways in which I can do this is to employ it as a place for transcribing (and, thus, for sharing) notes from my reading.\u00a0 I have a large number of unfinished manuscripts, and I would like eventually to complete them.\u00a0 So here I go.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m still slowly reading Alexander L. Baugh, Steven C. Harper, Brent M. Rogers, and Benjamin C. Pykles, eds., Joseph Smith and His First Vision: Context Place, and Meaning<\/em> (Provo and Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Book, 2021).\u00a0 In this blog entry, I share a few notes from Matthew C. Godfrey, \u201cThe \u2018Nature\u2019 of Revelation: The Influence of the Natural Environment on Joseph Smith\u2019s Revelatory Experiences,\u201d 149-166.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
First I\u2019ve gathered a couple of passages about what we might call a simple form of instinctive \u201cnatural theology.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
New England\u2019s Calvinist heritage was also steeped in the idea that God could be found in nature.\u00a0 John Calvin pointed to nature as evidence of God\u2019s existence, stating that \u201call creatures, from those in the firmament to those which are in the center of the earth,\u201d testified that God was real.\u00a0 \u201cThe little birds that sing, sing of God; the beasts clamor for him; the elements dread him, the mountains echo him, the fountains and flowing waters cast their glances at him, and the grass and flowers laugh before him,\u201d Calvin declared.<\/span><\/p>\nJonathan Edwards, a renowned Congregationalist preacher in the eighteenth century.\u00a0 To Edwards, the Lord appeared everywhere, \u201cin the sun, moon and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature.\u201d\u00a0 Edwards stated that he \u201cused to sit and view the moon, for a long time; and so in the daytime, spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things.\u201d\u00a0 (152)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
[Joseph] Smith \u2014 much like Calvin and Edwards \u2014 acknowledged that the natural world was instrumental in his feeling comfortable approaching God in prayer.\u00a0 \u201cI looked upon the sun, the glorious luminary of the earth, and also the moon, rolling in their majesty through the heavens,\u201d Smith remembered, and they, together with \u201cthe stars shining in their courses,\u201d convinced him that God existed.\u00a0 Equally important was his perception of \u201cthe beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and the fish of the waters.\u201d\u00a0 All of these creations, as well as \u201c[humans] walking forth upon the face of the earth in majesty and in the strength of beauty,\u201d testified to Smith that there was \u201can omnipotent and omnipresent power, a being who maketh laws and decreeth and bindeth all things in their bounds, who filleth eternity, who was and is and will be from all eternity to eternity.\u00a0 (153-154)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m also interested in Joseph Smith\u2019s decision to go out into the woods to pray.\u00a0 I\u2019ve already found another example of his propensity to do that, and I\u2019ve already gathered a few specimens that appear to show that it was a fairly common practice.\u00a0 Which, to me, slightly strengthens the plausibility of his story.\u00a0 So I was pleased to read this:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, in the late eighteenth century, Benjamin Abbot, on his way to a Methodist meeting, went into the woods to pray to God \u201cfor mercy,\u201d while Enoch Edwards, a Baptist, \u201cretired to a grove of woods to pray\u201d because of his \u201cspiritual pain.\u201d\u00a0 Noted preacher Charles Grandison Finney decided in 1821 that the place to \u201cgive [his] heart to God\u201d was in a forest.\u00a0 Even Joseph Smith\u2019s mother \u2014 Lucy Mack Smith \u2014 ventured into the woods for spiritual relief.\u00a0 Sometime in the late 1790s or early 1800s, Lucy, disturbed at her husband\u2019s lack of enthusiasm for organized religion and hurt that he had urged her to stop attending Methodist meetings, went \u201cto a grove of handsome wild cherry trees and prayed to the Lord that he would so influence the heart\u201d of Joseph Smith Sr. that one day he would \u201crec[ei]ve the Gospel whenever it was preached.\u201d\u00a0 According to Lucy, she spent a considerable amount of time in the grove, pouring her heart out to God.\u00a0 Such an example, if told to her family, would have influenced Joseph Smith to seek his own spiritual enlightenment in a forest.\u201d\u00a0 (152-153)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
At this point, Matthew Godfrey, the author of the article, describes Joseph Smith\u2019s First Vision and then moves on:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Influenced by this experience, Smith again found redemption and forgiveness in a grove of trees in Greenville, Indiana, twelve years later.\u00a0 Without experiencing the darkness of his 1820 encounter, he poured out his soul to God and felt again God\u2019s mercy and forgiveness.\u00a0 (155)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, finally, here\u2019s another blood-curdling tale from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u00a9:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Church Donates US$2 Million to First Americans Museum in Oklahoma\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 It seems that \u2014 between roughly 5 PM and 5:45 PM this evening (Tuesday evening) \u2014 I\u2019ll be chairing the \u201cConcluding Roundtable Session\u201d of the Brigham Young University conference on \u201cThe Islamic World Today: Issues and Perspectives,\u201d which is watchable online.\u00a0 It should be fun.\u00a0 Monday\u2019s conference sessions were quite interesting.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25979,26006,25985,25982,25727,25997,26000,813,20206,26009,26003,4985,6768,24250,2652,20511,25988,24172,380,25976,2415,26012,11720,25994,25991,61,2268,25973,21049,674,21030],"class_list":["post-93035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alexander-l-baugh","tag-benjamin-abbot","tag-benjamin-c-pykles","tag-brent-m-rogers","tag-charles-finney","tag-charles-g-finney","tag-charles-grandison-finney","tag-christopher-hitchens","tag-christopher-hitchens-memorial-how-religion-poisons-everything-file","tag-enoch-edwards","tag-finney","tag-first-vision","tag-forest","tag-godfrey","tag-hitchens","tag-hitchens-file","tag-john-calvin","tag-jonathan-edwards","tag-joseph-smith","tag-joseph-smith-and-his-first-vision","tag-lucy-mack-smith","tag-lucy-smith","tag-matt","tag-matthew-c-godfrey","tag-matthew-godfrey","tag-natural-theology","tag-nature","tag-sacred-grove","tag-steven-c-harper","tag-trees","tag-woods"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>