Les Misérables

Allow me to resuscitate art for a moment (as if it needs it).

Art is not simply entertainment. It’s not simply art. It’s not simply escapism. And it is certainly not simply a drug.

Art is found abundantly in most expressions of humanity, including the traditional forms of drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and dance, but also in literature, industrial design, architecture, film, interior design, graphic design, puppetry, music, singing, drama/theatre, animation, poetry, woodworking, weaving, vocal performance, interactive media, calligraphy, printmaking, pottery, sound, and technology.

Without art, most of what we know in our world today would not exist.

Art captures beauty and it beautifies, it depicts emotion, it communicates stories and feelings, it makes connections between people, it heals, it invigorates, it moves, it enables, it expresses, it illustrates, it decorates, it converts, it inspires, it imagines, it influences, it explains the indescribable, it changes, it’s aesthetic, and it’s symbolic.

Anything that is virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things (A of F 13). “For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God… Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ” (Moroni 7:16, 19).

We are blessed for seeking art – “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads” (D&C 25:12).

Art is used in religion, in ritual, even in the temple, to communicate the most sublime things of God. Film, acting, drama, song, painting, music, architecture, vocal performance, and even dance are all used to communicate the most sacred rites and covenants of the Atonement. In fact, it is where most art forms originally came from. Hugh Nibley noted, “All the arts and sciences began at the temple. Dance, music, architecture, sculpture, drama, and so forth—they all go back to the temple.”

The scriptures inform us that Jesus Christ’s vocation growing up was carpentry, an art form (Mark 6:3).

The prophets have had much to say about art. Elder Boyd K. Packer noted in “The Arts and the Spirit of the Lord” that because of what artists do “we are able to feel and learn very quickly through music, through art, through poetry some spiritual things that we would otherwise learn very slowly.” And, “How much we could be aided by a graceful and modest dance, by a persuasive narrative, or poem, or drama. We could have the Spirit of the Lord more frequently and in almost unlimited intensity if we would.” Indeed, we are to aspire to art, as Elder Orson F. Whitney said, “We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own… [God's] highest spirits are held in reserve for the latter times. In God’s name and by His help we will build up a literature whose tops will touch the heaven…”

Brigham Young said, “Every accomplishment, every refined talent every useful attainment in mathematics, music, and in all sciences and art belong to the Saints.”

Elder Ballard has said, “Spiritually successful artists have the unique opportunity to present their feelings, opinions, ideas, and perspectives of eternity in visual and sound symbols that are universally understood. Great art touches the soul in unique and uncommon ways. Divinely inspired art speaks in the language of eternity, teaching things to the heart that the eyes and ears can never understand. Aristotle said, ‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance’… God’s purpose for the artist is to inspire, to give us visions of ourselves that we might not otherwise see, to make us better than we would have been. The world is better for the arts and righteous artists in it.”

What would Christ think of art? Elder Packer speculated, “I think He would rejoice at the playing of militant martial music as men marched to defend a righteous cause. I think that He would think there are times when illustrations should be vigorous, with bold and exciting colors. I think He would chuckle with approval when at times of recreation the music is comical or melodramatic or exciting. Or at times when a carnival air is in order that decorations be bright and flashy, even garish.

“I think at times of entertainment He would think it quite in order for poetry that would make one laugh or cry—perhaps both at once. I think that He would think it would be in righteous order on many occasions to perform with great dignity symphonies and operas and ballets…

“I would think that He would think there is a place for artwork of every kind—from the scribbled cartoon to the masterpiece in the hand-carved, gold-leaf frame.”

God, our Father, is the greatest artist of all, and art is one of his greatest tools to do his work. Elder Ballard continued, “That the creative process is rooted and revered in heaven is evident in the Lord’s use of the word workmanship to define not only the artistic accomplishments of his children but the results of his own creation… In fact, many great artists have humbly acknowledged the source of their inspiration and the power behind their creation. No one can feast his or her eyes on the art of Michelangelo and not see the hand of God. Michelangelo himself knew it, as he expressed in this statement: ‘The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.’” And quoting famed composer Bernard Rands, “Really, the commitment to be a composer-or an artist or poet-is not less than a commitment to seek that which is divine.”

I perceive we would be quite lost in this world without art, if we had a world at all.

What of Art?

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture. (Click on graphic to go to MormonInterpreter.com)

I have been through quite a range of emotions the last few weeks. I’ve felt utter despair, grief, and sorrow, as well as bitterness, confusion, and great disappointment. Through it all I’ve been blessed with comfort from our Heavenly Father beyond measure, and by experiences too sacred to share. It’s been a roller coaster of a time with everything that has happened at the Maxwell Institute. I make no bones about it—FARMS had an immense impact on my life, most particularly as it relates to my testimony and faith in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Recently one of our dear readers asked me what so inspired me about Hugh Nibley, what so captivated me emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually about his scholarship and writings? Here was my response:

What captivated me about Nibley is that he gave a reason for the restored gospel to be (1 Peter 3:15). In the words of Austin Farrer:

“Though argument does not create conviction, lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.”

By reading Nibley, the gospel became a very real thing to me, and gave a climate in which my faith grew and flourished beyond what I thought was possible. It was like seeing the words on a page suddenly spring to life. The gospel became not only a spiritual mode of living, or a moral code, but Nibley gave a real place for it in the larger worldview of history, literature, economics, culture, languages, peoples, religions, morality, and theology. He brought everything together, and made connections no one else had. He gave a much deeper purpose and meaning to the gospel which I hadn’t found elsewhere, teaching me in ways I hadn’t encountered before of the true reasons for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and His gospel. Nibley heightened my awareness of myself, and gave me grander views of life, what it means to seek after true joy, and the purposes for which we’re all here. In a sense, Nibley brought me out of Plato’s cave.

FARMS became synonymous with Hugh Nibley throughout the 80′s and 90′s. I remember on my mission in El Salvador hearing through the grapevine about a book by none other than one Hugh Nibley entitled something like The Egyptian Endowment, and some of what it contained, and it absolutely fascinated me. I was floored that such a book could even be written! Did the Egyptians have a ceremony and ritual similar to our modern day temple rites? And if so, what an amazing vindication of the prophet Joseph Smith! These ordinances really are “as old as the human race”! It peaked my interest for along time, since I did not have access to such materials on my mission, and oh how I longed for the day when I would be able to read it when I returned home.

Indeed, when I returned home from my mission, I went immediately to work tracking down that book. It was out of print, and I’m sure I could have picked it up somewhere for a few hundred dollars, but I heard rumors that the Second Edition of the book was being prepared for publication by the Maxwell Institute (at that time it was known as ISPART, for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts). So the waiting began anew! I waited for three more long years until the The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment (2nd edition) was published by Deseret Book. It was Christmas morning for me (which is quite accurate since it was published on December 30, 2005), and I was a schoolboy all over again.

I devoured that book. Well, let me rephrase that. I placed my pinky toe into the deep end, and did my best to pick it apart. I was excited beyond belief to read about the rituals of the Egyptians, about their coronation rituals, their mummification rituals, their cleansing and purifying rituals, and afterlife rituals. It opened up my understanding of the temple to levels I thought not possible. I still return quite frequently to that book, and glean amazing insights and knowledge from its pages. And I still haven’t finished reading it!

Of course, along with all my excitement about the Egyptian Endowment, I began looking into this prodigious figure by the name of Hugh Nibley down at “the BYU.” I found that he had become one of the Church’s most prolific scholars and defenders of the gospel. I started picking up his other books and writings, such as Brother Brigham Young Challenges the Saints, and I ate it up. This was a whole new world of scholarship and becoming acutely aware of and understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Even before I got my hands on The Egyptian Endowment, my in-laws gifted me Approaching Zion for my 24th birthday in May 2005. All I can say is, “Wow!” That book has done more for me, save the scriptures only, than any other book. It is one of the best books I’ve ever had the opportunity to lay my eyes on. It fundamentally shifted my worldview, my goals in life, and my understanding of why we are here. What is it all for? Why did our Father put us here in the first place? What are we supposed to be doing? What is consecration? What is our duty to God, to ourselves, and to each other? Through that book I learned this sublime lesson, which I had not found anywhere else, or if I had I did not understand it — there is more to life than going to work every day for the man. There’s more to life than building up capitalism and worrying about the daily riffraff of politics. We’re here for more than just making money, buying a bigger house, or owning a better car. This is our – mortal – life, and we only get one chance at it. What can we do, in our limited sojourn here, as Brigham Young said, “to be useful while we live”? Indeed, we are divine sons and daughters of an eternal God, and as such we should live every day as if that is precisely who we are. Nibley once taught:

…above all the two things we can be good at, and no two other things can we do: We can forgive and we can repent. It’s the gospel of repentance. We’re told that the angels envy men their ability both to forgive and to repent because they can’t do either, you see. But nobody’s very clever, nobody’s very brave, nobody’s very strong, nobody’s very wise. We’re all pretty stupid, you see. Nobody’s very anything. We’re not tested on those things; but the things the angels envy us for, we can forgive and we can repent. So three cheers, let’s start repenting as of now. (“Faith of an Observer,” film documentary.)

I believe I remember reading in his biography (and this is from memory) that Hugh Nibley once broke into a fit of laughter while doing his research at BYU, and someone stepped in to his office to ask what he was up to. “I just found an error in the Book of Mormon!” he shouted. Feeling a bit concerned at the gravity of the situation, the visitor cautiously replied, “Oh really, what’s that?” Hugh quipped back, “The prophets speak of man being carnal, sensual, and devilish. But they forgot stupid!”

I love that man. I love him. As deeply as I love my best friends. And I never had the chance to tell him so, I never had it. I bemoan that to this very day. The closest I ever came to him was attending his funeral in the de Jong Concert Hall, with video broadcast from the Provo Tabernacle. With heartfelt emotion, I look forward to the day when I can walk up to Hugh Winder Nibley, shake his hand and give him a hug, and with tears in my eyes thank him for everything he has done, for me, in facilitating my lifelong conversion to our Savior Jesus Christ, and His eternal gospel and the kingdom of God on the earth. “And if it so be that you should labor all your days… and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!” (D&C 18:15). What a celebration that will be!

My emotions have been very close to the surface these last few weeks with everything that happened to the FARMS component of the Maxwell Institute. It ripped me at my core to see this organization dry up and vanish, forcefully so, seemingly in an instant. It shocked me to think that some thought the Church didn’t have a need for this kind of scholarship, which had done so much for me, and so many others. Where would I have been without FARMS and Hugh Nibley? I honestly don’t know, and I fear just thinking of the vision. There have been several times over the past few weeks when I’ve honestly wept tears of sorrow over what’s happened. A couple of those times, as silly as it might sound, were when I heard a couple songs on the radio, and my emotion spilled over. Go ahead and laugh. I did!

When I look into your eyes
It’s like watching the night sky
Or a beautiful sunrise
There’s so much they hold
And just like them old stars
I see that you’ve come so far
To be right where you are
How old is your soul?

I won’t give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I’m giving you all my love
I’m still looking up

And when you’re needing your space
To do some navigating
I’ll be here patiently waiting
To see what you find

‘Cause even the stars they burn
Some even fall to the earth
We’ve got a lot to learn
God knows we’re worth it
No, I won’t give up

I don’t wanna be someone who walks away so easily
I’m here to stay and make the difference that I can make
Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use
The tools and gifts we got yeah, we got a lot at stake
And in the end, you’re still my friend at least we did intend
For us to work we didn’t break, we didn’t burn
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in
I had to learn what I’ve got, and what I’m not
And who I am

I won’t give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I’m giving you all my love
I’m still looking up
Still looking up.

I won’t give up on us (no I’m not giving up)
God knows I’m tough enough (I am tough, I am loved)
We’ve got a lot to learn (we’re alive, we are loved)
God knows we’re worth it (and we’re worth it)

I won’t give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I’m giving you all my love
I’m still looking up

(Jason Mraz, “I Won’t Give Up.”)

Of course, a friend and I didn’t just want to sit around, we wanted to do something about it, and hence we started the Restore FARMS support movement, with a website at RestoreFARMS.com. We wanted to show our support, and gather others who also showed their support for traditional FARMS. What is likely to be profound for some is that we are young; I’m in my early thirties, and I believe Tevya Washburn is too. We have young families. We are Generation Y, born of baby boomers. We did not grow up with Nibley, per se, or were involved in the golden days of FARMS in the 80′s and 90′s. Yet we were fundamentally moved by the work it produced, when we discovered it at a later date, and desired deeply to see it continue on in some form.

And now for the reason you’re reading this post in the first place, if I’ve teased you long enough. Early last week I was approached by William Hamblin (whom I’m friends with) and Daniel Peterson (who I haven’t met personally before) early last week. They wanted to do something too. I couldn’t have been happier to hear it. Once more, they wanted my help to make it happen. Me. Disbelief. Can I just say that I’m unsure I’ve ever received a greater honor in my lifetime. These great scholars, who have dedicated the better portion of their lifetimes sustaining and defending the Church and its gospel, and whom I’ve privately admired from a distance as filling the vacuum and vacancy left by Nibley’s passing, were coming to me, looking for my help, to help an organization that I dearly loved and wanted to live on. Words can’t express the thoughts and emotions. I was deeply, fundamentally moved, and still am.

They asked for my help to put together a website and the technological solutions for a new journal that would serve much the same purposes that the FARMS Review had in the past, and the Mormon Studies Review in more recent days. And they wanted to do it fast too. Since Br. Peterson had just returned from his trip out of the country and things hadn’t been moving forward on any fronts elsewhere, they wanted to see if it could be ready to go by the 2012 FAIR Conference, on August 3rd, if possible. That conference, if my scheduling this blog post goes as planned (since I’m writing this on Wednesday evening, August 1st), is just now coming to an end, and Daniel C. Peterson has just concluded his remarks as the final speaker. At the end of his remarks it was his opportunity, as former editor of the FARMS Review for 23 years, to take the center stage and announce this new venture, as a new age in Mormon apologetics is revealed, and we move forward into the 21st century of technology and scholarship in the Church. How exquisitely humbled I am that I had the opportunity to be a part of this historic occasion.

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has now been announced. This independent journal has the following mission:

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture is a nonprofit educational journal focused on the scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, the Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, and related subjects. All publications are peer-reviewed and are made available as free internet downloads or through at-cost print-on-demand services.

Our goal is to increase understanding of scripture through careful scholarly investigation and analysis of the insights provided by a wide range of ancillary disciplines, including language, history, archaeology, literature, culture, ethnohistory, art, geography, law, politics, philosophy, etc. We hope to illuminate, by study and faith, the eternal spiritual message of the scriptures—that Jesus is the Christ.

Although the editors of the journal fully support the goals and teachings of the Church, the journal is an independent entity with no affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nor with Brigham Young University. The Board of Editors is alone responsible for its contents.

I had quite a task before me, to understate. I was asked to build the mechanism that would help serve this great mission. I do find it providential the circumstances that have come together in recent years, months, and days to bring me to this point where I could be in a position to help in this way. I was invited to come to a meeting last week, on Thursday, July 26th, to meet with the Board of Editors. The hyperbole is probably becoming excessive by now, but what an opportunity! Here I was, an amateur, sitting with seasoned veterans, people I’ve admired for a long time, and who have written dozens of books, with alphabets suffixed to their names, and I counseled with them about the best way to go about launching this new publication. I’ll never forget it.

I went to work that same day, last Thursday, July 26th, to begin building what would become MormonInterpreter.com. What you see today, August 3rd, are the results of that eight day effort, with some amazing guidance and collaboration and work by many on the entire Board of the new journal (which I was invited early on to join), including Alison Coutts who worked tirelessly to edit and typeset the inaugural paper by David Bokovoy. My brother also worked, sometimes into the early morning hours, on the website server and hosting technologies behind the scenes.

We actually had a significant server bug which was a severe technological problem that we didn’t solve until late Monday night, July 30th, and into the early morning hours of Tuesday. This problem prevented many of the most important development on the site until it could be resolved, which I credit wholly to my fantastic and beloved brother, Brad Haymond, for finally finding the solution after many hours of picking through source code line by line and talking with technical support reps. Thank you, Brad, for being patient with me.

Because of this troubling hangup, which very well could be attributed to an antagonist from the unseen world trying to put the brakes on this work, I wasn’t able to get to the majority of the work until about 1:00am Tuesday morning, July 31st. I’ve worked almost nonstop since that very time on the clock, almost 43 hours ago, to finalize the Interpreter website and technologies by this morning, Wednesday, August 1st. I haven’t gone to sleep, at all, of my own free will and choice. I have consecrated my everything to help this be the absolute best it could possibly be by today’s announcement. And I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. I have been immensely blessed and sustained in body and spirit these last couple days to finish this, for which I am supremely grateful to our Father in Heaven (D&C 84:33; D&C 89:18–21). You could say we had our own “First Vision” experience, when the mists of darkness suddenly cleared, and we saw the light. Providence prevailed, as it always does in the end (D&C 18:5).

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, website homepage. (Click on graphic to go to MormonInterpreter.com)

Here are some of the features of the new Interpreter journal website. It is unique among anything that has been done in the past:

• Great lengths were taken to make the text on the website mirror the look of the printed journal as much as possible, up to and including the fonts used. This was to keep the professional feel throughout, and consistency between mediums.
• We have short biographies and photographs of all the Board of Editors, on which I have also been invited to be a part. Take a look.
• We’ve applied a Creative Commons license to the website and the journal, with no derivative works, nor commercial use allowed. But the materials can be shared as widely and freely as possible with attribution. This is known as a CC BY-NC-ND license.
• There are 9 different ways of subscribing to our publications (see along the top edge of the site). This is more than I’ve seen at most other websites, and should give readers and supporters plenty of opportunity to “follow” us in whatever venue suits them best, including email, RSS, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Audio podcast, PDF podcast, ePub podcast, and printed copy feeds (for easy ordering of a hard copies).
• The three podcast feeds will soon be listed in Apple’s iTunes podcast directory, for ease of access on your Apple iDevices.
• The journal will also soon be available for access and reading from Amazon’s electronic Kindle Store, under “Kindle blogs.”
• We also have 7 different formats of offering the scholarly papers for download – HTML (what you see on the site, which can be easily printed from your browser), PDF format, ePub format (works on most e-readers including iPad, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, etc.), Amazon’s Kindle .mobi format, and MP3 audio reading (thanks to my brother Brad, again, for offering his great voice). A How-To page on the site describes the best ways of using these formats and feeds. If you’d like to print out a copy, you can do that directly from the webpage, and it will print out a cleanly formatted copy from your printer. We are also including an option for ordering a bound printed copy, for those who don’t like to read on screens, directly from an innovative service called MagCloud. Think of it as printing “in the cloud.” This service from Hewlett-Packard takes care of all inventory, printing, binding, shipping addresses, ordering, processing, taking payments (for cost of printing), and shipping worldwide, so we don’t have to! This will help tremendously to keep costs associated with our operations to a minimum. MagCloud will print as few as just 1 copy at a time, and ship it direct to your doorstep. Each of the journal’s papers will be available for about $4-5/each (including shipping), covering cost only (we are a nonprofit). Later, once we have accumulated several papers, we will make it available in a bound volume too, which will be available for ordering the same way.
• The footnotes are all hyperlinked in the papers, so you can click on the superscript number, and it will jump directly to that footnote. Then you can click on the return arrow at the end of the footnote, and it will return you right back where you left off in the paper. Don’t you love technology?! Where was this back in the days we read Nibley?
• Because we are a nonprofit organization, yet we have operations that cost money, we have provided the option of making donations simply through PayPal. We are preparing for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, which we hope to achieve at a later date. Donations now are non-tax deductible.
• All the biographies of our editors and authors will be linked to lists of the papers written by those scholars.
• The website is completely mobile-ready, and displays very nicely on iPads, iPhones, Androids, and other smartphones and tablets, for reading on-the-go.
• We will be able to track in a very precise way all the traffic that the website gets, down to the number of times each format is downloaded, and the number of subscribers we have on each feed, to better fine-tune our offerings.
• There is a News page that will include site announcements, news, blog posts, etc. that are separate from the scholarly papers that are front and center on the homepage.
• There is full search capability throughout the site, accessible from the navigation bar, on the right edge.
• We also have the InterpreterJournal.com domain name, which just redirects to MormonInterpreter.com, but just in case it’s easier for some to remember.

This has been a chance of a lifetime to work with these scholars in putting this together, and a work that is some of the finest I’ve ever accomplished. No, I consider it the finest work of my professional career thus far, all done without any pay. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. My best work, I’ve found, is done by consecration.

The entire Board of Editors is very excited for this launch, and we are really looking forward to what we will be able to do going forward. It’s going to be a whole new world, a new stage in life, appropriately given a “new name,” which I think Hugh Nibley would appreciate, if he were here today.

At this point, I’d like to take special note that David Bokovoy’s inaugural article about 1 Nephi 11 is 100% related to the temple. In all my formatting, and exporting, and tweaking, and wrangling of the text, I haven’t actually been able to sit down and read it thoroughly yet, but I believe we will find some very good insights in there from a temple perspective. Thank you David! Perhaps a future post will be a review of this article, and some things that stood out to me.

That’s all for now. Thank you again, my colleagues on the Interpreter Board of Editors, William Hamblin, and Daniel Peterson, for this one-of-a-kind opportunity to be a part. I am also, once again and forever, thankful to our Father in Heaven, for the confidence He has in me. I now need to go home to my wife, who has been so patient with me through this time of tremendous focus, eat dinner, relax while watching our U.S. Olympic swimmers win some gold medals, and finally get a good night’s sleep.

All is well, brothers and sisters. All is well!

The New FARMS – Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture

A Greek folk-dance group performs the horo in front of the Olympic Velodrome at the Olympic Complex in Athens, Greece, during the Games of 2005. (Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images)

Hugh Nibley once made this audacious claim: “All the arts and sciences began at the temple. Dance, music, architecture, sculpture, drama, and so forth – they all go back to the temple”.  The more I learn, the more I am convinced of that statement.

My mind returns again to posts I’ve written in the past about subjects that do not cease to fascinate me.  Today I was reminded of a post in 2009, The Traditional Greek Folk Dances and their Ancient Roots.  The Greek dances are some of the most ancient dances in the world, and have been passed down by tradition to the present day where they maintain many of their archaic forms.  

One of the most ancient references to dance is contained in one of the oldest extant works of Western literature, Homer’s The Iliad, where the poem describes a dance of Greek youth “with their hands on one another’s wrists,” wearing “robes of light linen,” “crowned with garlands,” and “danc[ing] deftly in a ring.”  Those of you who have witnessed or participated in Greek style dances will recall this stylized form of joined hands, weaving lines, winding, unwinding, circular rotations facing inward and so forth. Below is a video of a traditional Greek dance where you can see some of these elements: (more after the video)

Often the dances included antiphonal singing, which means a leader sang a statement, and the rest of the group responded or repeated it.  Indeed, this may be the source of the common verse and chorus structures in modern day music.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the Greek dances are the costumes worn.  Below are photos of the most basic form of traditional Greek dance costumes as they are worn in modern times.

San Joaquin Delta College Hellenic Dancers doing the Greek Syrtos dance at the school’s new campus dedication in 1977. A musician is playing a Thracian gaida in the center of the ring. Used by permission.

Greek dancing in Foustanelles costume (men) and Florina costume (ladies). 1970s. Used by permission.

Greek Women’s Festive Costume. Sleeveless cotton tunic. White woolen coat. Headgear covered by white silk shawl. The apron is of velvet with floral embroidery. (http://www.greekfolkdancers.com/costumes.htm)

All traditional female Greek dance costumes include these same basic parts:

• a long linen or cotton chemise or basic undergarment (Poukamiso)
• a sleeveless wool vest (Segouni)
• an apron (Podia or Bodia)
• a sash or girdle (Zonari)
• a scarf or head covering (Mandili)
• shoes or foot coverings (Tsarouhia)
• decorative jewelry

Oddly, one of the costume elements is an apron.  Aprons are typically a garment worn to protect one’s clothing, so why would these dancers wear aprons?  Some reasons include:

• they represent great social significance
• symbolically protective and not practical
• as a rite of passage, with embroidery symbolic of such
• objects for protection and strengthening
• the embroidered designs had religious and magical meaning

Moreover, the embroidered designs of these Greek aprons usually are of a floral nature, with stylized vegetation, primarily because many are symbolic of the Tree of Life.

Please see my original post about the Traditional Greek Folk Dances for many more details.

See also my paper on The Genesis of the Round Dance, published in BYU’s annual Dance Department Writer’s Symposium journal, now available at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library.

The Greek Folk Dances: A Reprise

Pasadena Fire Department and local gardeners team up to rescue an elderly woman from her burning home on June 11, 2012. (Click photo to learn more)

It’s amazing how people wax literary in climates such as these.  Sometimes common language just doesn’t do the subject matter justice, and understanding is not well communicated.  Thus the use of parables and poems.  One of the reasons Christ taught in parables was so that people could learn about different gospel topics by using their everyday vernacular, which could increase understanding (for some it actually hid the truth).

Here are a couple parables and poems that have been written in recent days about the current Maxwell Institute events, or because of them:

• The first is actually a poem, “The Charge of the FARMS Brigade,” by William Hamblin.  Well done!
• The second is a parable from Hamblin, “The Parable of the Football Team.”  Very well said, and which I alluded to in my analogy.
• Thirdly, I entered the fore with “The Analogy of the Basketball Team.”  (It’s not really a parable, but an extended analogy.  Perhaps I should have put it in parable form.)
• Fourth, I was quite inspired on Friday by David Bohn’s article at Times & Seasons, whereafter I wrote “On the Creative Gift.”
• Fifth, today Pahoran at the Mormon Dialogue & Discussion Board (MDDB) wrote “The Parable of the Fire Brigade & Gardener.”  I thought this was very well done, so I asked Pahoran permission to repost it here:

  “Once there was a city that had no fire department.  A group of public-spirited citizens banded together, bought a good second-hand fire appliance, began training together, and pretty soon had a rather good working volunteer fire brigade.

  “There was in that same city a loosely affiliated group of semi-professional arsonists.  Naturally, they were angered by the appearance of the volunteer brigade.  They began opposing its activities, muttering loudly that the fire brigade demolished more buildings than it saved, and that bystanders at fires sometimes got wet.

  “Nevertheless, most of the citizens appreciated the work of the brigade, and eventually the mayor of the town approached the volunteers and invited them to come under the umbrella of the city administration.  The volunteers at first resisted these overtures, but eventually they agreed, and the new fire department was constituted, under the oversight of the deparment of Parks and Gardens.

  “Time passed, as it always does.  The arsonists stepped up their campaign of disinformation.  A new mayor was elected.  The fire department increasingly came under the control of Parks and Gardens people who wanted more resources to beautify the city by planting flowering shrubs.  Some of these listened to the murmurings of the arsonists, not realising their true source.  Eventually they succeeded in getting rid of the original fire chief and began to divert the resources of the former fire brigade to their pet garden projects.”

I should note, sometimes firefighters and gardeners can team up, in very rare circumstances, but it’s pretty unusual when it happens (like a transit of Venus?).  And of course, firefighting and gardening are both honest, requisite, and noble fields of work in our world.

Any other good literary works emerge from the past week?  Please let me know, and I’ll add them to this list.

P.S.  On the other hand, if you want to see a remarkable piece of truly refined ad-hominem literature, certainly an epitome in the genre, take a look at this by Edwin Firmage.

Parables & Poems, Literature Springs Forth in Maxwell Institute Discord

Detail from The Temptation by William Strang. 1899. Oil on canvas. Tate Gallery.

The account of the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Bible is relatively succinct, particularly in the vocal exchanges between the serpent, Eve, and Adam (bolded below).  What details we know of the Fall come primarily from chapter 3 of Genesis:

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Gen. 3:1–7)

Some Armenian Apocrypha manuscripts have been translated into English in recent decades which expand on the Fall narrative substantially, and which are enlightening to compare and contrast with the Genesis account and the account as presented in the temple.  LDS scholars John Tvedtnes and Matthew Roper have helped bring this literature to light for us.  English translations of the Armenian Apocrypha texts can be found by W. Lowndes Lipscomb and Michael Stone.  Michael Stone’s book Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Adam and Eve is available for limited reading on Google Books.

I would like to compare what is presented about the Fall in the Armenian Apocrypha with what is known in the Genesis account, particularly the additional details which are absent from the Bible. Any comparisons with the temple account will be left for the reader to make.  The part of the apocrypha that we will look at has been called Adam and Eve and the Incarnation, and as noted by Stone “was composed in Armenian, incorporating ancient traditions originating both within and outside Armenian literature”.

One of the first things I notice in paragraph 2 of the Armenian texts is that the serpent is clearly identified with Satan, which is not explicit in Genesis.  One of the manuscripts reads:

The evil one, Satan, . . . having entered into the belly of the serpent, he spoke to Eve with human voice, and he said to Eve, “Why is it that you do not eat of the fruit of that tree?”

In another manuscript, Satan calls the fruit “beautiful.”  In all manuscripts, Satan refers specifically to “that tree” or “this fruit,” whereas in Genesis the question is more general, “hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Gen. 3:1).  Eve responds by telling Satan of the commandment as given to them by God.  Satan then replies, in one of the manuscripts:

But the serpent said, “(That is) not so!  Because God himself was a man like you when he ate of it, and he became God of all.  Because of that he said not to eat of that, because you knew that when you eat of it, you will become a god, his equal.  Because of that he said for you not to eat.”

This is substantially different than the Genesis account.  In Genesis, the partaking of the fruit is noted by Satan as causing eyes to be opened, and that they would become “as gods,” by “knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5).  In this apocryphal account Satan goes further to note that God was once a man too, and that He became God by eating of the fruit, and thus became divine.  If Adam and Eve partake of it they will become like Him, or “his equal.”  Stone also notes here that text is explicit “that God was himself originally human and became divine through eating the fruit”.  These are interesting details to consider, for even though it is Satan who speaks, there is both truth and error in his words to Eve (see Gen. 3:22).

After hearing this, Eve partakes of the fruit, and is stripped of her light or glory.  At this point the Armenian text embellishes the story significantly from what is contained in the Genesis account.  In Genesis it is only noted that Eve “gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Gen. 3:6).  But what was the interchange between Eve and Adam?  Did Adam say anything to Eve on the occasion?  Did Adam protest at all?  What did Eve say?  How did Eve convince Adam to partake?  These details are strangely absent from the Genesis account, and there is no account of any conversation there.

The Armenian texts provide further details, including a conversation between Adam and Eve.  One of the manuscripts says:

When she came to Adam and he saw and said, “Why is it that you have been stripped naked? Did you eat of that fruit?”  Eve said, “O Adam, take (it) and eat!”  Adam said, “I fear (lest) I become stripped naked like you.”

In other words, upon recognizing what Eve has done, Adam immediately interrogates Eve with questions of what she has done, why she is stripped, and if she has eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree.  Eve only wants Adam to also eat of the fruit.  Adam protests doing it, for he knows that he too will be stripped of his glory.

Eve responds that Adam is beloved of God, and might not be angry with him.  John Tvedtnes notes that Adam says “I cannot taste it and become like you”.  Eve invites Adam to partake again.  Tvedtnes also notes in one translation that Eve tells Adam that “This fruit is extremely sweet and tasty”.  Adam holds the fruit in his hand, and ponders eating the fruit for some time (in one account three hours).  One manuscript relates Adam’s thoughts: “If I do not eat, I shall be separated from my wife”.  In another manuscript Eve also echos similar words:

Do not forget me and do not separate me from you, and do not abandon me in this nakedness of mine.  Take (it) and eat and because of love of you, God will turn and have mercy upon us.

Adam considers the consequences and partakes:

“It is preferable to die with the woman than to be separated from her.“  He took and consumed the fruit, and was stripped naked of the light.

And so we see that the Armenian text adds quite a bit of detail to the story of the Fall of Adam and Eve, much of which is not present in the Genesis account.

The Fall of Adam and Eve in the Armenian Aprocrypha

Detail from Sacrament, by Minerva Teichert (ca. 1935). On display in the JSB at BYU.

Last night at the Third Nephi conference held at BYU, Professor John W. Welch gave the keynote address.  His topic was “New Insights Into the Temple Setting of the Sermon on the Mount in Reference to the Sermon at the Temple.”  It was an excellent address, after which Paul Y. Hoskisson, the director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies, remarked that he was overwhelmed by what he just heard.  You can read my notes on the conference last night here.

One of the things Professor Welch did was give a free handout to all those who were in attendance to outline some of the things he was going to cover, and topics he has written about in an upcoming book.  I have included this handout embedded at the end of this post.  Professor Welch has been studying this topic since about 1988 when he first wrote a FARMS Update article entitled “The Sermon at the Temple,” in which he wrote of 3 Nephi 11-18 as a text which “offers clues to connect the [Sermon on the Mount] with the making of covenants at the temple”. 

Professor John W. Welch

In this article he gave six key points which link the sermon to the temple:

1. Jesus gave the address “to the Nephites at their temple (3 Ne. 11:1).”
2. The sermon was given “in a covenant-making context.”
3. The stipulations in the sermon were “by way of commandment.”
4. The purpose of the sermon was to “show the disciple how to be exalted at the final judgment.”
5. Looking at the sermon in this way “dramatically enhances its meaning.”
6. The commandments given by the Savior here “could hardly be a more succinct preparation for the making of temple covenants.”

Professor Welch has published a book on this subject geared toward an LDS audience entitled Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple and Sermon on the Mount (Provo: FARMS, 1999).  This book can also be read online at the Maxwell Institute’s website here.  This book is at the top of my list to read next.

Last night he announced another book which will be published in 2009 on the same subject which will be more generally addressed to New Testament scholars entitled The Sermon on the Mount in the Light of the Temple (London: Ashgate, forthcoming 2009).  Professor Welch gave us a preview of what will be coming in that book in the handout:

• Selected Temple Elements in the Sermon on the Mount – Taken from chart 1 in Welch’s upcoming book.  In this document Welch compares elements, including phrases, words, topics, themes, and patterns in the Sermon on the Mount to other temple texts in the Bible such as Psalms, Exodus, and Isaiah.
• The Stages of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 – This document is based on the table of contents of Welch’s upcoming book, outlining the 25 stages he has found in the Sermon on the Mount which establish the temple covenant pattern.

The last page in the handout is entitled “Temple Studies: Selected Recent Bibliography.”  This is a list of some of the major publications, many non-LDS, published since 2000 which have been on the topic of temple studies.  It is a great list of literature, which should serve as an excellent guide for anyone curious in studying and learning more about the temple.

See the embedded handout below.  Note that you can maximize it to full screen by clicking the icon on the right of the toolbar.

Update (9/29/08): Because of copyright restrictions, I have excluded pages 2 and 3 from the embedded handout below. We may be able to include them in the future.

Preview: “The Sermon on the Mount in the Light of the Temple,” by John Welch

Another volume in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley series is being officially released on August 6, 2008 (it’s already available in Deseret Book stores).  This volume will be the third volume published since Hugh Nibley’s passing at age 94 in February 2005, and with rumors of at least two more volumes to come.  The title of this 544-page book is Eloquent Witness: Nibley on Himself, Others, and the Temple, and will be volume 17 in the series.  This will be an exciting book to read!  Here’s the jacket’s description:

One of the stunning aspects of Dr. Hugh Nibley’s genius was his persistent sense of wonder. That trait induced him to range widely through very disparate subjects of study- all covered in volume 17 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley on Himself, Others, and the Temple. In this compilation of materials, most of which have been published previously outside the  Collected Works volumes, Nibley explores the ancient Egyptians, the temple, the life sciences, world literature, ancient Judaism, and Joseph Smith and the Restoration. The contents of this volume illustrate the breadth of his interest through autobiographical sketches, interviews [including a transcript of the documentary Faith of an Observer], book reviews, forewords to books, letters, memorial tributes, Sunday School lessons, and various writings about the temple.

Thanks to Reed for pointing this out to me!

Truman G. Madsen is also publishing a new 224-page book to be released in just a few days on July 30, 2008 entitled The Temple: Where Heaven Meets Earth.  It is probably already available in Deseret Book stores.  The description reads:

In his youth,Truman Madsen watched his grandparents take their large family to the temple almost every week. Decades later, a friend said, ” Your spiritual life began with the temple and everything since has flowed from that.” The messages in this book attest to his love of temples. The author of many bestselling books and CDs, Truman teaches how we can gain access to the light and truth offered in the temple. He discusses the relationship of the temple to the Atonement, Joseph Smith’s contribution to our understanding of temples, and how the scriptures and the temple illuminate each other. This is a powerful book on a crucial topic by one of the greatest teachers and scholars of our time.

Oh how I love books!

Two New Temple Books by Nibley & Madsen

Mysticism

Wikipedia defines this word as:

Mysticism (from the Greek μυστικός – mystikos- ‘seeing with the eyes closed, an initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries; μυστήρια – mysteria meaning “initiation”[1]) is the pursuit of achieving communion, identity with, or conscious awareness of ultimate reality, the Other, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight.

Basically, mysticism means achieving atonement with God through actions or thought.  Here is how others define the word through a simple Google search:

• The search through various prayers and practices to achieve unity with God in life (theosis) (see hesychasm).
  www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article9152.asp
• direct communion with the divine through behavioral practice
  www.juniata.edu/faculty/tuten/islamic/archive/glossary.html
• The belief that one can achieve direct consciousness of God or truth through meditation and intuition. In mystic practices, one attempts to merge with God or the source of creation.
  www.geocities.com/sorchagriannon/terminology.htm
• Deals with Jewish mystical concepts related to Kabbalah.
  www.judaism.com/glossary/gloss1.asp
• the belief in realities or truths beyond the present reach of reason.
  www.willdurant.com/glossary.htm
• a conscious (and usually disciplined) quest for direct experience of union with the divine.
  ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rels/002/terms/
• The belief that knowledge of divine truth or the soul’s union with the divine is attainable by spiritual insight or ecstatic contemplation without the medium of the senses or reason
  www.innvista.com/culture/religion/diction.htm
• The doctrine that the nature of reality can be known by direct apprehension, by faculties above the senses, by intuition. …
  www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/mp-mz.htm
• Mysticism is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is one’s destiny, purpose, or an important source of knowledge …
  www.psychic-experiences.com/glossary.php
• The process of seeking union with God. A mystic is one who seeks union with God through means of meditation, contemplation, and surrender. Mysticism is a devotional, respectful, profound practice; regretfully, its meaning has been diluted and taken too lightly over the years. …
  www.tarotteachings.com/meanings-dictionary-for-tarot-h-p.html
• A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.
  www.jabcreations.com/philosophy/philosophy-definitions.php
• Sometimes called the interior life, mysticism is a way that reaches for immediate (meaning no mediator or other mediating influence) awareness of God, and beyond that, for identity in God (in the words of Catherine of Siena, “My me is God”). …
  www.zoofence.com/define05.html
• A belief that beyond the visible material world there is a spiritual reality which may be called God that people may experience through meditation, revelation, intuition, or other states that takes the individual beyond a normal consciousness.
  www.spiritual.com.au/dictionary/dict_m.html
• The term ‘mysticism,’ comes from the Greek μυω, meaning “to conceal.” In the Hellenistic world, ‘mystical’ referred to “secret”
  dsj.nwbodybygod.felicitydewdeny.com/encyclopedia_medical_terminology_quincy.html
• Literature that portrays understanding paradoxically, so that the more one understands, the less one knows, implying that an unseen force with a consistent but largely unknown rationale is at work.
  courses.csusm.edu/ltwr325bc/glossary.htm
• a religion based on mystical communion with an ultimate reality
• The beliefs, ideas, or thoughts of mystics; A doctrine of direct communication or spiritual intuition of divine truth; A transcendental union of soul or mind with the divine reality or divinity; Obscure thoughts and speculations
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mysticism

So is mysticism some deep, dark, mysterious thing?  No, but that seems to be our perception of it.  It is even listed in our own Topical Guide with the subtopics “False Doctrine; Sorcery; Superstitions; Traditions of Men.”  But if these definitions above are any indication, in many ways our experience in the temple is precisely a mystical one.  We are seeking direct communion and oneness with God through revelation and behavioral practice, just as the ancients did.

David Littlefield has an excellent blog dedicated to this subject over at Mormon Mysticism in which he quotes Hugh Nibley’s description of mysticism:

…[B]ut that is what Christ meant by the mysteries of the kingdom. He meant ordinances, which were necessary; and these he revealed to the apostles during his very confidential teachings of the forty days after the resurrection. The purpose of such ordinances is to bridge the space between the world in which we now live, the telestial world, and that to which we aspire, the celestial world.

Mysticism is linked with the word mystery, both derived from the Greek mystes meaning “one who has been initiated.”  Mystery or mysteries are words that figure predominantly in the holy scriptures, particularly the phrase “mysteries of God” (see here).  Almost always this is referring to ordinances in which specially prepared initiates may gain a fuller knowledge and communion with deity.

Orientation

As for the word orientation, I learned something new yesterday.  It is pretty plain to see now that this word is derived from the word orient, meaning east.  Originally orientation meant “to arrange facing east,” or “to face the east,” or “arrangement of a building, etc., to face east or any other specified direction” .  William Hamblin and David Seely explain why in their excellent book Solomon’s Temple: Myth and History:

Temples were often carefully aligned with the sun, the moon, and the stars—demonstrating the centrality of a harmonious relationship with the cosmos.  Often temples face east—toward the sun, as reflected by the English word “orientation,” meaning directed toward the east—and sometimes had their corners squared with the four cardinal directions.  The gate of Solomon’s Temple was oriented toward the rising sun in the east, in which direction its priests sometimes prayed (Ezek. 8:16).

To “determine bearings,” or “the action of determining one’s bearings” are also meanings of this word.  Of course, the temple is the ultimate place where “one gets one’s bearings on the universe”.

Words: Mysticism & Orientation

This example is from 2 Enoch. This apocrypha text is a pseudepigraphon, meaning its authorship is unknown, but is considered part of ancient Jewish literature. The oldest extant manuscripts of this text are in the Slavonic language, but was probably translated from Greek. The text probably was originally written sometime during the Second Temple period (Herod’s temple), between 516 BC and 70 AD. You can read an English translation of the text at Pseudepigrapha.com (which is an LDS site).

This text is unique in its depiction of Enoch, as Wikipedia notes:

For the first time, the Enochic tradition seeks to show Enoch, not simply as a human taken to heaven and transformed into an angel, but as a celestial being exalted above the angelic world.

Researching these things opens grand vistas of something deeper going on in ancient texts, particularly the traditions of Metatron, an angel that appears in mainly Jewish mystical texts, and has been attributed to a glorification or deification of Enoch, the son of Jared:

This Enoch, whose flesh was turned to flame, his veins to fire, his eye-lashes to flashes of lightning, his eye-balls to flaming torches, and whom God placed on a throne next to the throne of glory, received after this heavenly transformation the name Metatron.

It is interesting that Enoch is glorified, receives a throne of glory, and a new name, Metatron. We will search out these things more fully in future posts. For the purposes of this post, 2 Enoch shows the beginnings or origins of a Metatron tradition in Enoch literature.

Much of the Enoch literature is apocalyptic in nature, as is this one, relating a vision or revelation. 2 Enoch is filled with imagery of Enoch’s ascension into heaven. Beginning in chapter 22, the character Enoch beholds a “tenth” heaven, and sees the Lord upon his throne, surrounded by concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God (cf. 1 Nephi 1:8):

1 On the tenth heaven, (which is called) Aravoth, I saw the appearance of the Lord’s face, like iron made to glow in fire, and brought out, emitting sparks, and it burns.

2 Thus (in a moment of eternity) I saw the Lord’s face, but the Lord’s face is ineffable, marvellous and very awful, and very, very terrible.

3 And who am I to tell of the Lord’s unspeakable being, and of his very wonderful face? And I cannot tell the quantity of his many instructions, and various voices, the Lord’s throne (is) very great and not made with hands, nor the quantity of those standing round him, troops of Cherubim and seraphim, nor their incessant singing, nor his immutable beauty, and who shall tell of the ineffable greatness of his glory.

Enoch bows down to worship the Lord

4 And I fell prone and bowed down to the Lord, and the Lord with his lips said to me:

5 Have courage, Enoch, do not fear, arise and stand before my face into eternity.

6 And the archistratege Michael lifted me up, and led me to before the Lord’s face.

Enoch is then given a promise of eternal reward:

7 And the Lord said to his servants tempting them: Let Enoch stand before my face into eternity, and the glorious ones bowed down to the Lord, and said: Let Enoch go according to Your word.

The Lord then commands Michael to anoint Enoch with oil, and invest him with garments, so that he may be made glorious:

8 And the Lord said to Michael: Go and take Enoch from out (of) his earthly garments, and anoint him with my sweet ointment, and put him into the garments of My glory.

9 And Michael did thus, as the Lord told him. He anointed me, and dressed me, and the appearance of that ointment is more than the great light, and his ointment is like sweet dew, and its smell mild, shining like the sun’s ray, and I looked at myself, and (I) was like (transfigured) one of his glorious ones.

The symbolism of the temple is quite clear. This text covers the themes of ascension, deification (theosis), exaltation, anointing, investiture, the garment of priesthood, and being made like one of His glorious ones.

Enoch’s Anointing & Investiture during Ascension in 2 Enoch

Harold Bloom

Today the LDS Newsroom has an article on life and death, following the passing of President Hinckley.  I like the quote that they gave from Harold Bloom:

Regarding the undaunted way in which Latter-day Saints confront death, well-known literary scholar Harold Bloom proclaimed the following: “What is the essence of religion? … Religion rises inevitably from our apprehension of our own death. To give meaning to meaninglessness is the endless quest of all religion. … Of all religions that I know, the one that most vehemently and persuasively defies and denies the reality of death is the original Mormonism of the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator Joseph Smith.”

The entire reason for religion is man’s apprehension of death.  Hugh Nibley was wont to quote a poem by A.E. Housman on this subject of man’s preoccupation with life and death:

. . . men at whiles are sober
And think by fits and starts,
And if they think, they fasten
Their hands upon their hearts.

Man has not been able to get away from death.  Man has thought about it since time began, and it preoccupies his thoughts day in and day out.  It is part of the “terrible questions” as Nibley put it, that man has made since the start.  Where did we come from?  Why are we here?  Where are we going?  What is the purpose of this life?  What will happen to me after I die?  What will I do for eternity?  It is the subject of much art, literature, and religion since the beginning.  If there is one thing that man fears most, it is probably death, and the unknown that accompanies it.

But the Latter-day Saints know differently.  We thank God for a latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, who restored the truths of the physical and bodily resurrection, of the sealing of eternal families, and the principles of eternal life and exaltation, and what eternity consists of, teachings we learn about and make a promised reality in the temples of the Lord.

Harold Bloom on the Essence of Religion