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Sustaining and Defending the LDS Temple

krister stendahl

Mormon Temples’ Endowment from Mormon Perspective Video

March 12, 2009 by Bryce Haymond 3 Comments

The late Krister Stendahl (1921-2008), who was a Swedish theologian, New Testament scholar, and a Professor and Dean of Divinity at Harvard University, once addressed the press about one of the Mormon temples that was being built nearby, and spoke about three important rules for religious understanding.  These rules have since been recognized for their tremendous insight and application in interfaith dialogue and learning.  They are:

  1. When you are trying to understand another religion, you should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies.
  2. Don’t compare your “best” to their “worst.”
  3. Leave room for “holy envy.”  In other words, recognize those aspects of other religious traditions that you admire and wish could be reflected in your own.

I think there is great truth embedded in these principles, and we have the opportunity to exercise them every day.  In fact, we use them often here on TempleStudy.com to compare the similarities and differences of Mormon temples with other religious traditions and sacred worship practices.

Below is a short new video which succinctly explains what Mormon temples mean to the Latter-day Saints, from the Latter-day Saint perspective.  Hopefully those that are inquisitive about the Church will be able to learn, from us, what the temple means when investigating and evaluating LDS temple worship.

A more comprehensive video of 44 minutes, of which this is only a snippet, is also available to watch, entitled “Between Heaven and Earth,” which includes commentary and interviews from a number of scholars and theologians, both LDS and from other faiths.

Posted in: Scholarship, Temples Today Tagged: big love, church, dialogue, discussion, endowment, interfaith, interview, investigators, krister stendahl, learn, religion, sacred, scholar, talk, temples, video, videos, watch, youtube

Baptism for the Dead: An Erroneous Practice? – Part 1

May 10, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 17 Comments

Salt Lake Temple Baptistery

In a letter dated April 5th, and reported by the Catholic News Service on May 2nd, the Vatican issued an order to all Catholic dioceses throughout the world to not give genealogical information in parish registers to Latter-day Saints in an effort to “block posthumous rebaptisms” of LDS ancestors. The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had “grave reservations” about this LDS practice (no pun intended I’m sure), and labelled it “detrimental” and “erroneous.” Father James Massa, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, added that it was “unacceptable”:

As Catholics, we have to make very clear to them their practice of so-called rebaptism is unacceptable from the standpoint of Catholic truth.

Catholic World News reports that the Catholic church objects to this practice, again termed “rebaptism,” for two reasons: [Read more…]

Posted in: Practices, Temples Today Tagged: ancestors, baptism, baptism for the dead, catholic, catholic news service, church, converts, critics, early christian, krister stendahl, priesthood, rebaptism, vatican, vicarious

“Between Heaven and Earth” Videoclips

March 9, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 5 Comments
DVD Cover

DVD Cover

In 2002 the Church released a documentary on LDS temples that was originally broadcast between sessions of General Conference. It is entitled “Between Heaven and Earth” and is available on VHS or DVD at Deseret Book, Church Distribution, or the BYU Bookstore. It is being shown at temple open houses and in temple preparation classes throughout the Church. The Millennial Star published a post on it back in 2005, with great excerpts. As the Millennial Star points out, it is very possible that Truman Madsen personally made requests of some of the non-LDS scholars to appear and speak on the subject of temples in antiquity and the Mormon practice today. Many of their comments are very insightful to the Latter-day Saints. The scholars/authorities that appear in this film include: Frank Moore Cross (Harvard), Krister Stendahl (Harvard), Lawrence Schiffman (NYU), John Lundquist, Truman Madsen, Elder Boyd K. Packer, and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, among others.

I think it is an excellent study from many angles, inside the Church and out, of the LDS practice of building and worshiping God in temples. You may see the 44-minute film below:

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com
Posted in: Favorites, General Authorities, Scholarship, Temples Today Tagged: ancients, antiquity, bible, clip, film, frank moore cross, krister stendahl, movie, non-lds, scholar, video

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