{"id":94040,"date":"2022-01-28T13:50:52","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T20:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=94040"},"modified":"2022-01-28T16:14:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T23:14:53","slug":"honoring-josephs-theophany-and-covenant-theology-for-latter-day-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/honoring-josephs-theophany-and-covenant-theology-for-latter-day-saints.html","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Joseph’s Theophany, and Covenant Theology for Latter-day Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jorge<\/a>
A depiction of the First Vision by the Argentinian Latter-day Saint artist Jorge Cocco Sant\u00e1ngelo.
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.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A little article of mine \u2014 the most recently published installment of my regular column for Meridian Magazine<\/em> \u2014 has appeared in, well, Meridian Magazine<\/em>.\u00a0 (You expected maybe Rolling Stone<\/em>?)\u00a0 I hope that some of you might enjoy and even benefit from it:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Latter-day Saints Cannot Disregard the Old Testament\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two new pieces went up online today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHonoring Joseph\u2019s Theophany Two Centuries Later,\u201d<\/a> by Spencer Kraus<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Review of Alexander\u00a0L.\u00a0Baugh, Steven\u00a0C.\u00a0Harper, Brent\u00a0M.\u00a0Rogers, and Benjamin\u00a0C.\u00a0Pykles, eds.\u00a0Joseph\u00a0Smith and his First Vision: Context, Place, and Meaning\u00a0<\/em>(Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham\u00a0Young University, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021). 289 pages. $27.99 (hardcover).<\/span><\/p>\n

Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>In the year 2020, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> celebrated the 200th anniversary of the First Vision of the Prophet Joseph\u00a0Smith. As a\u00a0part of honoring that seminal moment in the Church\u2019s history, the Church History Symposium focused on the context, place, and meaning of the First Vision. Selected papers from the conference have been published in Joseph\u00a0Smith and his First Vision: Context, Place, and Meaning, edited by Alexander\u00a0L.\u00a0Baugh, Steven\u00a0C.\u00a0Harper, Brent\u00a0M.\u00a0Rogers, and Benjamin\u00a0C.\u00a0Pykles, offering new insights and research into Joseph\u00a0Smith\u2019s theophany in the Sacred Grove that has inspired millions worldwide to ask of God as Joseph did. The papers selected for publication are well-written and provide a\u00a0great deal of new scholarship relating to the dramatic theophany that Joseph\u00a0Smith experienced, and, as such, it is a\u00a0great addition to any Latter-day Saint\u2019s library.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCovenant Theology for Latter-day Saints,\u201d<\/a> by Jasmin Gimenez Rappleye<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Review of Kerry Muhlestein,\u00a0God Will Prevail: Ancient Covenants, Modern Blessings, and the Gathering of Israel<\/em>\u00a0(American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2021). 177 pages. $14.99 (hardcover).<\/span><\/p>\n

Abstract:<\/strong>\u00a0Covenants are central in the Latter-day Saint temple liturgy, our scriptural canon is infused with them, and General Authorities have increasingly drawn attention to their importance in the last half-century. Yet many Latter-day Saints are still unfamiliar with the form and function of covenants and the role they play in God\u2019s plan of salvation. Kerry Muhlestein, well-informed by his academic training in ancient history and scripture, provides a\u00a0lucid introduction to covenants for Latter-day Saints.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was very pleased to see our good friend and Interpreter<\/em> contributor Royal Skousen<\/a> recently receive at least a small portion of the credit that is due to him for his decades of brilliant and meticulous labor on the textual history of the English-language Book of Mormon.\u00a0 At the very beginning of the video that is featured in the article to which I link immediately below, President Russell M. Nelson compliments him personally on the \u201cgood work\u201d that he\u2019s done, and then he\u2019s shown speaking to the assembled group:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church Historian\u2019s Press Releases Landmark Volume on the Original Book of Mormon Manuscript: The first complete photographic record of what remains of the original manuscript\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It has been an honor and a privilege to have been associated, even to a small degree, with what I\u2019m convinced is one of the most solid and fundamental scholarly projects in the entire history of the Restoration.\u00a0 Royal sometimes chafes a bit under that kind of praise, but it\u2019s abundantly well earned.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trying to impose some order on my masses of notes, in the hope of making them genuinely available to myself (if nobody else) for future use, I ran across the two following quotations that both happen to come from people who taught for many years at the University of Oxford, in England.\u00a0 I believe that I\u2019ve shared them here before but, even if I have, there seems no harm in sharing them here yet again:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith is not a leap in the dark; it\u2019s the exact opposite. \u00a0It\u2019s a commitment based on evidence. . . . \u00a0It is irrational to reduce all faith to blind faith and then subject it to ridicule. \u00a0That provides a very anti-intellectual and convenient way of avoiding intelligent discussion.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics (Emeritus)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If, further, God\u2019s purpose of identifying with our suffering and providing an example and instruction of how to live is to be fulfilled, he must show us that he is doing this. \u00a0For God to bring to life someone condemned for a certain teaching would be to express his approval of that teaching. \u00a0And since belief in the Resurrection . . . was clearly the force which led to the spread of the Gospel throughout so much of the world, if God brought this about his doing this constituted an intervention in history to make the life of Jesus successful. \u00a0If God raised Jesus and thus gave impetus to the Church, which centrally thereafter taught that Jesus was God Incarnate (which there are also independent grounds for supposing Jesus to have implied), he showed that it was God himself who identified with our suffering. \u00a0While the Resurrection would vindicate that and all the other teaching of Jesus, since a crucial element of that teaching concerned the availability for us ordinary humans of life after death, it would provide the first example of that to which it witnessed. \u00a0Jesus was the forerunner. \u00a0If God raised Jesus from the dead, he accepted his sacrifice and vindicated his teaching.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Swinburne, Professor of Philosophy (Emeritus)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, let me express some gratitude:\u00a0 Two pieces of personal news that could have been very bad \u2014 life-alteringly bad \u2014 came in on the very same day and were entirely positive.\u00a0 And, so, life goes on and, considerably relieved, we celebrate.\u00a0 Al-hamdu li-llah<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Newport Beach, California<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 A little article of mine \u2014 the most recently published installment of my regular column for Meridian Magazine \u2014 has appeared in, well, Meridian Magazine.\u00a0 (You expected maybe Rolling Stone?)\u00a0 I hope that some of you might enjoy and even benefit from it: \u00a0 \u201cWhy Latter-day Saints Cannot Disregard the Old […]<\/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":[56,1356,27761,7575,2049,4753,1104,5168,909,4985,2601,18965,1369,4492,27749,12997,27755,25691,1366,16205,2046,7641,27752,16202,27758],"class_list":["post-94040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-christ","tag-covenant-theology","tag-critical-text","tag-critical-text-project","tag-crucifixion","tag-death","tag-evidence","tag-faith","tag-first-vision","tag-god","tag-jasmin-gimenez-rappleye","tag-jesus","tag-john-lennox","tag-lennox","tag-original","tag-original-manuscript","tag-rappleye","tag-resurrection","tag-richard-swinburne","tag-royal-skousen","tag-skousen","tag-spencer-kraus","tag-swinburne","tag-theophany"],"yoast_head":"\nHonoring Joseph's Theophany, and Covenant Theology for Latter-day 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