Dynamic Religion

Inspiring thoughts from a prominent LDS philosopher and theologian:

“There is no joy in life, it seems to me, except the joy of creation. Creator is a name, an honored name, of Deity, and when God created man, he breathed into him part of his life, the urge to create, to build, to learn, to think, and to take old images and make them new. God has planted deeply in us the need to reproduce, to learn, and to build. When man is creative, he emerges from the prison of his own mind. He is no more a victim of circumstance, of the forces which are pressing upon him from all directions, but through the power of creation he builds his life anew, and the world in which he lives… Too often religion has been taught us and accepted as a conservative force in life, as something which saves man from himself and from his sins. Religion is a conservative and a saving force, but it must be more than that. It is also a dynamic force in life in harmony with man’s urge to create.

“The Prophet Joseph Smith was creative. Everything he touched became a new thing. In him was something of the curiosity of a child, the imagination of an artist, the practical zeal of a reformer, the idealism of a utopian, and the fire of a prophet. His theology is dynamic. He used religion to remake life. He also assigned to each of us a tremendously creative role to play in religion.”

Lowell Bennion, “Joseph Smith: His Creative Role in Religion,” in Best of Lowell L. Bennion: Selected Writings 1928-1988 (ed. Eugene England; Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, 1988), 56.