At a conference and later book that Jonathan and I both contributed to, Terryl Givens noted the Mormon notion of restoration was quite different than Protestants. Givens quoted Parley Pratt, \u201cWe can never understand precisely what is meant by restoration, unless we understand what is lost or taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problems seen by other restorationists,\u201d noted Givens, \u201cfrom Calvin and Severtus to the Campbellites was unwarranted accrual, not missing elements.\u201d Givens noted Mormon revelations that speak of \u201cno paring away, no stripping back to essentials, but rather, the hint of a vast expansion\u2026. The Bible \u2026 was neither complete nor accurate. Neither was it sufficient.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Protestants wanted to restore primitive Christianity by removing what they saw as non-biblical elements accrued over the millennia, while Joseph Smith wanted to restore elements that had been removed. 1 Nephi 13:26 \u201cthou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n As I note in the video<\/a> (minute 23-24), the claim that Christianity was corrupted by Greek philosophy was quite common in available Protestant books in Joseph Smith\u2019s day. Smith owned one of the most popular of such books: Johann Lorentz von Mosheim\u2019s Institutes of Ecclesiastical History<\/em>.[2]<\/a> But as Givens and 1 Nephi 13 note, Smith taught the opposite: it wasn\u2019t the addition of false ideas after Jesus that was the problem, the problem was the REMOVAL of true principles.<\/p>\n I argue in my dissertation\u2019s introduction that Mosheim attributed a notion of such removal of truth to the early Christian Platonist Ammonius Saccas. Mosheim spends considerable time attacking early Christian Platonists and describes them as having many Mormon ideas\u2014like truth scattered everywhere, there being secret initiation rites, and links to other Mormon ideas elsewhere\u2014ideas Mosheim hated and claimed corrupted Christianity.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n Mosheim thus wanted to explain Ammonius\u2019s thought even though we have almost no writings from Ammonius. Mosheim therefore found the similarities in those whom Ammonius taught and attributed those ideas to Ammonius.<\/p>\n Mosheim said that Ammonius Saccas taught that Jesus\u2019s \u201csole view, in descending upon earth, was \u2026 to remove the errors that had crept into the religions of all nations but not to abolish the ancient theology from whence they were derived.\u201d Mosheim went on to say that Jesus\u2019s \u201conly intention was to purify the ancient religion, and that his followers had manifestly corrupted the doctrine of their divine master.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n To “abolish” would be a suppressing or taking away, thus the later followers\u2019 \u201ccorruption\u201d that Mosheim claimed Ammonius claimed, would seem to be a taking away. The abundant Mormon ideas in the \u201cancient religion\u201d and among the Christian Platonists that Mosheim denounced suggests that the removal of those ideas would be a loss of Mormon ideas that Smith restored.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve stated many times that Smith\u2019s later Nauvoo theology was full of Platonic ideas especially the plan of salvation (see Chapter Six of my dissertation as an example). The \u201cvast expansion\u201d that Smith restored had much in common with the ancient theology\/religion that Mosheim noted and denounced.<\/p>\n Later Mormon thinkers adopted the Protestant view that Greek philosophy corrupted Christianity. But Joseph Smith specifically rejected such claims, and declared the opposite: truth was missing.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll give more examples in upcoming posts.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Terryl Givens, \u201c\u2019We Have Only the Old Thing\u2019: Rethinking Mormon Restoration,\u201d in Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young eds. Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy <\/em>(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 339-40.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Christopher C. Jones, \u201cThe Complete Record of the Nauvoo Library and Literary Institute,\u201d Mormon Historical Studies<\/em> 10, no. 1 (2009): 192.<\/p>\n