{"id":33718,"date":"2015-08-05T21:56:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T02:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=33718"},"modified":"2015-08-06T05:45:19","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T10:45:19","slug":"seerstones-and-the-sacred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2015\/08\/seerstones-and-the-sacred\/","title":{"rendered":"Seerstones and the Sacred"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/unnamed.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-33719\" src=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/unnamed-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"unnamed\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/unnamed-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/unnamed.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The Church\u2019s release of images of Joseph the Seer\u2019s seerstone yesterday\u2014together with essays explaining and analyzing his use of this stone\u2014have caused a stir. Or at least, I hope they have. The much discussed \u201cMormon Moment\u201d of the last decade has I think (and hope) been much more of a profound inward reflection by Mormons generally than it has been an external spotlight or recognition by others. And I\u2019m convinced that this has been a serious benefit to us as a people. This is because I don\u2019t think we can authentically embody and carry forth our tradition if we\u2019re embarrassed or ignorant of what\u2019s in our closet\u2014whether that\u2019s polygamy, theocracy, racism, or our past embrace of magic.[1] <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This leaves the question, however, of how we ought to think about the seerstone. And that\u2019s what I want to talk about here. In addition to embarrassment, there are a range of healthy options. Not everyone will be as enthusiastic as I am\u2014feeling an intense closeness to the founding of this dispensation and an era when the heavens were opened by an unabashed seer; a thrill at the ways in which magic stones set us apart; a thrill for the possibilities for a more direct communion than our contemporary world offers with its feelings of quiet inner assurance and community.[2] In what follows, I want to say something more of why I feel this way. I recognize, however, that some aren\u2019t likely to ever feel this way, and others feel only discomfort. I hope to offer a way to appreciate and respect our past and what it does for our present, regardless of one\u2019s stance on supernatural paraphernalia today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As is usually the case, I find Charles Taylor remarkably helpful on this end. <a href=\"http:\/\/smile.amazon.com\/A-Secular-Age-Charles-Taylor\/dp\/0674026764\/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_y\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>A Secular Age<\/i><\/span><\/a> remains the most comprehensive exploration of the fundamental changes in the nature of religious experience between the years 1500 and 2000.[3] With regard to seerstones, I think his discussion of the changing role of magic is instructive. A few points that are important to keep in mind[4]:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Rejection of magic was gradual but went through a number of important stages. This rejection was ineliminably tied to the Protestant as well as the more general reformation movements, and (later on) the enlightenment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> Magic became seen as an illegitimate means of trying to control God.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> It also became associated with priesthood and the sacraments and ritualistic forms of religion. Actions, objects, times, and places that had been seen and experienced as sacred came to be seen as illegitimate because extra-biblical and tainted by their association with hierarchy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The rejection of magic began by casting it as ungodly and then later cast it as mere superstition<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Taylor also discusses two broader shifts in the way humans (in the \u201cwestern\u201d tradition) conceive of and experience the relation between themselves and the world around us.[5]<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">First, he describes a shift in the nature of our self-understanding<\/span><span class=\"s3\">,<\/span><span class=\"s1\"> from that of a <i>porous<\/i> to a <i>buffered self<\/i>. A <b>porous self<\/b> makes no inner\/outer mental distinction. Instead, we are fully open to what we might call today an external, mental influence for good or ill, protection or attack. The meanings of things are not merely in the human mind<\/span><span class=\"s3\">,<\/span><span class=\"s1\"> but inhere in things themselves. Our understanding is open to being influenced or impressed by these meanings. Immaterial ghosts are thus physically threatening, as Horatio tries desperately to convince Hamlet atop the parapets of Elsinore<\/span><span class=\"s3\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In contradistinction is the <b>buffered self<\/b>, for whom the inner\/outer mental distinction is quite real. All non-physical aspects of human life (e.g., meanings, emotions, moral values, etc.) are reduced to the merely \u201cmental.\u201d Thus \u201csticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.\u201d And consequently we scoff at the Horatios and tell our terrified children that a ghost can do no more than scare them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Paralleling this shift in self-understanding is a shift in our understanding of the way in which things potently interact, from multiple notions of interaction to our modern notion of a merely mechanistic universe of causal interaction. Medieval Europe maintained an understanding of potent interaction through what Taylor calls \u201c<b>influence<\/b>.\u201d Objects, places, or times can be charged with a positive force whose influence on their surrounding environment is equal to their meaning or value. Thus, holy relics, places, or times can influence, not through mechanistic interaction, but through the openness of our porous selves to their potency<\/span><span class=\"s3\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Alongside influence<\/span><span class=\"s3\">,<\/span><span class=\"s1\"> our familiar modern notion of <b>causal interaction<\/b> gradually developed and eventually came to dominate our general understanding. As opposed to influence, causal impingement is mechanistic interaction according to scientific laws that in no way depends on the meaning or value of the objects involved. Hence, any change in one\u2019s well-being in the wake of contact with a relic is understood simply as placebo.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">These changes happened gradually, beginning with social elites and eventually making their way to common conceptions (i.e., they became \u201ccommon sense\u201d). As Bushman and others have long noted, magic\u2014certainly the concept and experience of <i>influence<\/i> and to a lesser degree that of the <i>porous self<\/i>\u2014was still very much a part of religious experience in the early 19th century.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One way to understand Joseph\u2019s use of a seerstone then is from within our more general belief that (as Nephi puts it) God speaks to his children in their own tongue and according to their own understanding. That is, God used a tool that Joseph could recognize from within his culture in order to attune him to the spiritual gifts needed for translation. Once this tool had served its purpose, however, it was no longer needed, and so Joseph gave up the stone, claiming to no longer need such a device. I think this approach has a lot going for it, and it seems to be the approach that the church\u2019s historians have taken.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Additionally, however, we can recognize that different understandings of self and causality lead to very different experiences. There are certainly religious experiences that are only available to those with a given understanding. Correlatively, there are certain religious goods that will only be available to those with that same understanding. And critically, willing ourselves to have a different understanding doesn\u2019t work. For example, we can\u2019t just <i>decide<\/i> to experience ourselves as a porous self. But a coherent community can and often does continue to pass on at least a familiarity with other ways of seeing and experiencing. Some of these might be important to God\u2019s purposes for us as a people. For example, I think that our ability to experience the temple as a literally sacred place derives in part from understandings that adhered with and were then passed down by the founders of the Restoration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Finally, by not merely acknowledging but also owning the richness of our past we can feel empowered in our present. One of the real dangers we face is a closing off of the possibilities of transcendence. It\u2019s becoming more common to feel, even against our will, that communion with the Gods, and perhaps even belief in them, is no longer possible. This is in part because of the way we think, feel, value, and experience our world today. One thing afforded to us when we own up to and appreciate the world in which seerstones operate is a holding open of a different set of religious possibilities and their attendant goods than that which pervades the culture and society in which Zion is embedded today. Even if you\u2019re not looking for a world with magic rocks, you might well be looking for (or even yearning for) a world with more or different accesses to God than those currently experienced. Which points to a related result of seerstones. They manifest God\u2019s willingness to speak to us wherever we are; which means God can speak our secularese as well. God knows how to train and tune our spirits to receive light and truth even here in our oppressively immanent and worldly age.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But again, I\u2019ll be honest. Seerstones spark a fire in my bones, a connection to an earlier, earthier, more tangible, and sacral-infused Mormonism. And that\u2019s a Mormonism I need in my life right now. I gave my wife a blessing of healing tonight. I did not have a seerstone to guide my speech. But I did use a magic\u2014sacred\u2014oil, which I find to be directly analogous to Joseph\u2019s stone. And I surely wouldn\u2019t flinch should God grant me a white stone to use at such times\u2014now or in a future heaven. I certainly hope that my whole soul can be attuned in the same manner, that I too can speak in the name of the Lord. Similarly, I feel a sense of holiness each time I dress in garments. I relish what the world can only sneer it\u2014my magic underwear. Likewise, I cherish reading over and over the personal scripture of my Partriarchal Blessing. I\u2019ll take Joseph\u2019s \u201cfolk magic\u201d right along with the enchanted world and goods it affords me over the stale, insipid world of constrained, condescending and self-congratulatory scientism\u2014any day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But even if you don\u2019t feel as I do\u2014if you\u2019re one of the many who have tamed and rationalized your experience with such artifacts of the Restoration\u2014I hope you can appreciate and stand in an authentic relationship with our history. One need not be embarrassed by the \u201cscandal\u201d of the seerstone\u2014whatever one\u2019s epistemology\u2014even if one can\u2019t imagine our leaders using such things today. Instead, I hope we\u2019re all grateful for these and the other \u201cfolk\u201d elements of our religious tradition, and the goods\u2014especially our experience of the sacred\u2014 that they (hopefully) continue to make available to all of us trying to build Zion today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">* * * *<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1. I\u2019ve noticed two common forms of embarrassment when it comes to these topics. Some are embarrassed to discuss them in any setting. Others are fine to discuss them internally but find themselves embarrassed in outside company. Sometimes this stems from either a lack of conceptual understandng or an inability to articulate and discuss that understanding\u2014whether with others or with oneself. That said, I do not mean to imply that one needs to be well versed and articulate about things like seerstones in order to be an authentic latter-day saint. Rather, that has everything to do with how one seeks and responds to revelation and the divine call to join the Restoration. Nevertheless, I do want to claim that in this Mormon Moment, most literate adults, at least those in the US, have no choice but to confront our history. And responding with embarrassment inevitably interferes with one\u2019s ability to respond to the voice of the Spirit as it speaks from within the Restoration. More generally, the Restoration is not merely a billboard for promoting personal salvation through Jesus. Rather, it is in all of its operations an instantiation of relational salvation in community\u2014a building of Zion, for here and the hereafter. Eventually, then, I think we need to take up the working of the divine in all dispensations, and how that work underwrites contemporary Zion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">2. I don\u2019t at all mean to dismiss the power and importance of quiet inner assurance and community. I cling to these. But they are only one part of the modes of connection to the divine on display in the scriptural cannon, and on their own make Mormonism not merely one religion among many but likewise one of the many.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">3. If you\u2019re one of those still waiting to read it, there\u2019s never been a better time. If you\u2019re daunted by its size or your ability to wade through its sometimes dense text, I highly recommend James K. A. Smith\u2019s thin and readable companion book <a href=\"http:\/\/smile.amazon.com\/How-Not-Be-Secular-Reading\/dp\/0802867618\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1438805614&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=smith+charles+taylor+secular+age\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">4. See especially Chapter 1 sections 6-9.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">5. Some of the bullets are taken from an essay I wrote for a Faith and Knowledge conference. It was later published in Dialogue (44:3).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ll be honest. Seerstones spark a fire in my bones, a connection to an earlier, earthier, more tangible, and sacral-infused Mormonism. And that\u2019s a Mormonism I need in my life right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":33719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/unnamed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33718"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33726,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33718\/revisions\/33726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}