{"id":37266,"date":"2017-09-28T14:37:57","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T19:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=37266"},"modified":"2017-09-28T20:31:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T01:31:08","slug":"perspectives-on-mormon-theology-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2017\/09\/perspectives-on-mormon-theology-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Perspectives on Mormon Theology Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave managed to finish his review<\/a> of\u00a0Perspectives on Mormon Theology<\/em><\/a>\u00a0before I did. To cut to the chase let me just summarize my judgment of the book first. If you\u2019re at all interested in the implications of scholarly considerations of Mormon history, exegesis, or theology then this is a must read book. Blair Van Dyke and Loyd Ericson did a fantastic job selecting the people to contribute. It has so many disparate viewpoints that nearly every position is considered and discussed. Among some, apologetics has come to have a rather bad reputation. While I doubt this book will change many views, I think it does make one think both about the weaknesses and strengths of traditional approaches along with other approaches we should consider. If I have one complaint, it\u2019s a minor one. I do wish there were formal responses to some of the essays. Other books such as Discourses in Mormon Theology<\/em><\/a>\u00a0have done that to one degree or an other. As is the essays tend to stand alone even though they do address sometimes common arguments. Still that\u2019s an extremely minor complaint and doesn\u2019t undermine the strength of what is here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Going in more depth, let me pick out a few particular chapters to complement. My favorite parts of the book were the editors considering neglected aspects of Mormon apologetics. Julie Smith\u2019s consideration of the role of women in apologetics and Juliann Reynold\u2019s discussion of the practical way women have<\/em>\u00a0engaged in apologetics are must reads. There\u2019s a perception that apologetics is primarily about power plays done by men. I think both essays show that first off that\u2019s simply not true but secondly offers some critiques of how apologetics affect others. As Julie notes apologetics does not always prioritize people over politics. This leads to a critique that many essays in the book bring out. Apologetics is primarily about helping people through faith trials or potential faith trials. As such the focus really should be on the range of assumptions different members might bring to the issues. It shouldn\u2019t be solely about \u201cwinning\u201d an argument. Often one can win the battle but lose the war by forgetting apologetics shouldn\u2019t be about arguments only the particular apologist finds convincing.<\/p>\n

One place a focus on people rather than politics matters is precisely with the place politics plays in faith crises. In particular LGBT issues are a huge place where many struggle with the policies of the Church. I\u2019d lay good odds that more people are troubled by that than say deutero-Isaiah or horses in the Book of Mormon. Further those political issues can then lead to a change in how members view these other historical issues. To defend Mormon practice or theology only from a particular political view ultimately is futile precisely because it doesn\u2019t reach those who don\u2019t already share that political view. What we need to see are a wide range of apologetics. What we sometimes instead see are attempts to narrow down what acceptable apologetics should be.[1]<\/p>\n

At the same time as recognizing a need for this diversity there is a tension with apologetics that don\u2019t defend Church doctrine that the authors disagree with. Ralph Hancock\u2019s essay gets at this element where we see examples of broadly apologetic works that simply reject major teachings. Even among traditional more \u201corthodox\u201d apologetics authors are quite willing to throw out traditional views such as hemispheric interpretations of the Book of Mormon. An interesting aspect of apologetics is how works originally designed as apologetics such as Nibley\u2019s or Sorenson\u2019s writings end up significantly transforming Mormon thought and theology. Given that reality, it is probably not surprising that apologists who differ with the Church over teachings the apologists find wrong will refuse to defend such teachings. Indeed they\u2019ll take the position that these are false traditions likely to be overthrown in the future.<\/p>\n

In a certain sense this tension is unavoidable. However it also means that there never will be an unitary apologetic in the Church. Further a practical implication of this is that among apologists disagreements will lead to defenses of doctrine not just against critics of the Church but against other apologists.[3] This is not new. There have always been controversial apologetic writings. For instance I was rather aghast when several essays adopting Intelligent Design against evolution were published by FARMS\/Maxwell Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An other tension that this book brings out well is the one between \u201cacceptable\u201d academic writings within Mormon Studies and more traditional apologetics that frequently embrace positions with less likely interpretations based upon evidence. That is the distinction between Mormonism independent of its truth claims and and apologetics designed to defend truth claims by showing possible ways of considering evidence. Possible after all isn\u2019t necessarily what\u2019s likely given the public evidence. You see that in traditional apologetics as authors grapple with elements of the Book of Mormon that contradict scholarly consensus such as the issue of horses or metal in the Book of Mormon. Mormon Studies typically avoid these issues by simply avoiding questions of historicity for unique Mormon beliefs. What counts isn\u2019t the truth but simply engaging in ways the beliefs of Mormons can throw light on broader questions of religious believers behaviors. This tension culminated in the blow up at the Maxwell Institute several years ago leading to the formation of the Interpreter Foundation. Those at the Interpreter continued more traditional apologetics whereas the works from the Maxwell Institute often bracketed questions of truth from more general questions of meaning.<\/p>\n

Within this book we see defenders and critics of both sides of this \u201cMormon Studies\u201d break engaging with how this reflects broader apologetics. Defenders of those bracketing truth claims can note that for people with doubts about Book of Mormon historicity finding other ways to value the text can keep them in the Church. Critics of these approaches often note that once the historicity of the Book of Mormon is lost, most people simply leave the Church. Again it\u2019s a difficult issue that ultimately can\u2019t be resolved. My own view is that we should make room for both sides, if only from a practical consideration of the people apologetics ought help. Yet I also think that means also leaving room for criticizing anti-historicity positions.<\/p>\n

Overall Van Dyke\/Ericson’s book is much welcome. Even for people who may have read some of the essays before in earlier forms, the book is extremely valuable.[4] I hope over the next few months to engage more closely with some of the chapters in the book, as there really are some excellent essays here.[5] More importantly by presenting such a wide range of views of what theology even is (or in the case of Joe Spenser\u2019s chapter, what it should become) I think Van Dyke\/Ericson is pushing an important discourse we should be having. While I clearly don\u2019t agree with everyone\u2019s views within the book, it\u2019s that dialog that I think is so important.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[1] A great recent example of this is the controversy over Duane Boyce\u2019s \u201cA Lengthening Shadow<\/a>\u201d which critiques many apologetic writings from a perspective of a narrower orthodoxy. Although some fellow apologists dispute how fair he is<\/a> representing those he critiques.<\/p>\n

[2] Hancock gives many examples of those from a more feminist perspective like Zina Petersen and Joanna Brooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[3] Again Boyce\u2019s attacks on other apologists who have published or presented at FAIR or the Interpreter is a great example although one that is more recent than the essays in this book.<\/p>\n

[4] Several of the essays such as Dan Peterson\u2019s, had appeared in other publications prior to appearing in this book. However by collecting them all in a single place Van Dyke\/Ericson is making it more likely they\u2019ll be read. Especially by people who may otherwise not engage with the authors or \u201cschool of apologetics\u201d that the author represents.<\/p>\n

[5] I say that after being unable to finish this review not to mention being quite behind in my reading club of Adam Miller\u2019s book on theology. So we\u2019ll see how well I manage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave managed to finish his review of\u00a0Perspectives on Mormon Theology\u00a0before I did. To cut to the chase let me just summarize my judgment of the book first. If you\u2019re at all interested in the implications of scholarly considerations of Mormon history, exegesis, or theology then this is a must read book. Blair Van Dyke and Loyd Ericson did a fantastic job selecting the people to contribute. It has so many disparate viewpoints that nearly every position is considered and discussed. Among some, apologetics has come to have a rather bad reputation. While I doubt this book will change many views, I think it does make one think both about the weaknesses and strengths of traditional approaches along with other approaches we should consider. If I have one complaint, it\u2019s a minor one. I do wish there were formal responses to some of the essays. Other books such as Discourses in Mormon Theology\u00a0have done that to one degree or an other. As is the essays tend to stand alone even though they do address sometimes common arguments. Still that\u2019s an extremely minor complaint and doesn\u2019t undermine the strength of what is here.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-mormon-studies"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37266","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\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37266"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37275,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37266\/revisions\/37275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}