![\"Jorge](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2018\/09\/First_Vision_Jorge_Cocco1.jpg\")
<\/a>I have, incidentally, made an effort to discover the copyright status of this image, but have been unable to be certain of it. I\u2019m assuming that my employment of it here constitutes an example of \u201cfair use.\u201d Authoritative communications to the contrary would be welcomed. I would like Jorge Cocco\u2019s work to be better known in the Latter-day Saint community.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy to see that this may be beginning to happen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Did you miss Jeffrey Mark Bradshaw\u2019s virtual fireside last Sunday, on the subject of \u201cFreemasonry and the Origins of Modern Temple Ordinances\u201d?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If so, don\u2019t despair!\u00a0 It was recorded, and it is available via this link:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cVideos of the \u201cA Life Lived in Crescendo\u201d Firesides\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And don\u2019t miss the virtual fireside this coming Sunday, 24 October 2021, by Brian C. Hales<\/a>, which will be entitled \u201cDoctrine and Covenants 132: Questions and Discussions.\u201d\u00a0 Go to the link given directly above for further information.\u00a0 The fireside will begin at 6 PM, Utah time.<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier today, I finished 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). One of the chapters in the book that I read is Steven L. Olsen\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0 \u201cLiterary Craftsmanship of the Joseph Smith Story,\u201d 219-236.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I quite liked his analysis (on pages 224-226) of the three \u201cvignettes\u201d that make up Joseph Smith-History 1.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t thought of them in this way at all before, but he sees them not only as real events, accurately reported, but as symbols of the overall restoration of the Kingdom of God:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Traditional Christian iconography of the Western tradition consistently represents heaven with two dominant visual motifs: light and height.\u00a0 Heaven is glorious beyond human comprehension, and it is high in the sky, way above the earth.\u00a0 Both motifs appear in each of the three vignettes of the Joseph Smith story, and the progressive resolution of their contrasts through the narrative symbolizes the Restoration.\u00a0 (224-225)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I might note, incidentally, that light and height or elevation also play a role in many if not all temple designs.\u00a0 But back to the story of Joseph Smith in its canonized version:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In the first vignette, Joseph sees \u201ctwo Personages,\u201d whose \u201cbrightness and glory\u201d are \u201cabove the brightness of the sun\u201d and \u201cdefy all description.\u201d\u00a0 (225)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Their appearance, of course, dispels an overwhelming and evil darkness that had caused the young boy almost to despair and that he recognized as the influence of \u201csome actual being from the unseen world.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In short, the contrast of illumination in the First Vision could not be greater.\u00a0 The contrast of elevation is likewise considerable.\u00a0 In Joseph\u2019s words, the \u201ctwo Personages\u201d appear \u201cexactly over my head,\u201d \u201cstanding above me in the air.\u201d\u00a0 After the vision, Joseph finds himself \u201clying on [his] back, looking up into heaven\u201d (Joseph Smith \u2013 History 1:15-20).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the second vignette, the contrasting motifs are somewhat muted.\u00a0 The glory of the angel\u2019s nighttime appearance contrasts with the surrounding darkness and increases until Joseph\u2019s bedroom is \u201clighter than at noonday.\u201d\u00a0 The angel is \u201cglorious beyond description\u201d and \u201cexceedingly white and brilliant.\u201d\u00a0 The darkness, however, is simply the absence of light, not the presence of evil (as in the First Vision), and is gradually, not suddenly, dispelled by the heavenly glory.\u00a0 The contrast of elevation is similarly reduced.\u00a0 In Joseph\u2019s words, the \u201cpersonage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.\u201d\u00a0 Joseph remains in or beside his bed during the encounters\u00a0 (Joseph Smith \u2013 History 1:30-32).<\/span><\/p>\n In the third vignette, the respective contrasts of light and height virtually disappear.\u00a0 The \u201cmessenger from heaven\u201d appears to Joseph and his scribe \u201cin a cloud of light,\u201d contrasting minimally with the surrounding light of day.\u00a0 John then confers upon them the priesthood, presumably by laying his hands on their bowed heads (Joseph Smith \u2013 History 1:68).<\/span><\/p>\n The progressive resolution of the contrasts of light and height symbolizes the reconciliation by degrees between God and humankind and between heaven and earth, which the restoration of the kingdom of God is intended to achieve.\u00a0 (225-226)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I think that Dr. Olsen\u2019s analysis is really quite elegant and interesting.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Some time ago, a reader kindly brought to my attention a passage from the preface to the paperback edition of William J. Bernstein, The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World Was Created<\/em> (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004). \u00a0I reproduce that passage here:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When my wife brought P. J. O\u2019Rourke\u2019s Eat the Rich<\/em> home from the library a decade ago, a few years before McGraw-Hill published the 2002 hardcover edition of this book, I wasn\u2019t expecting much in the way of historical insight. \u00a0Mr. O\u2019Rourke aims to amuse, and his lighthearted romp through world\u2019s economic success and sob stories did not disappoint, most memorably his exposition of credit risk: A junk bond is a loan to your little brother; a high-quality bond is a loan to your little brother by the Gambino family.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. O\u2019Rourke\u2019s frothy prose hides painstaking legwork. \u00a0Scattered among the quips are some well-researched passages, including one that briefly mentioned data assembled by an obscure Scottish economist named Angus Maddison, who found a startling discontinuity in world economic growth around 1820: Before that date, growth was essentially nonexistent; after that date, it was sustained and vigorous.<\/span><\/p>\n It took me a while to rustle up a copy of Maddison\u2019s summary work, Monitoring the World Economy, 1820-1992. \u00a0The bound edition looks as dull and as daunting as the densest legal brief, but inside, Maddison\u2019s dry data lay out the greatest story ever told: the economic birth of the modern world. \u00a0(vii)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This reminds me of a short piece that my friend Mark Skousen<\/a> \u2014 libertarian economist, investment adviser, prolific author, and organizer of the spectacular annual FreedomFest<\/a> \u2014 published a year or two ago in Meridian Magazine<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n