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Homeward Bound: Interpretations of Marta Keen Thompson’s Music

September 25, 2013 by Bryce Haymond 31 Comments
homeward bound

Cover of album “Homeward Bound” by Deutsche Grammophon

This past Sunday afternoon I came across a piece of music that moved me to tears.  I don’t get emotional often, so I was struck by the overwhelming power this song has, which I believe is the result of an exquisitely crafted resonance of lyric, melody, arrangement, and vocal talent combined in perfect harmony.  It’s one of those songs that seems to reach down into the deepest parts of my experience and speak to me on a level usually untapped.  I immediately took a closer look at the song, trying to unpack its meaning, and why it moves me so.  I hope to share some of the beauty that I found.

The song’s title is “Homeward Bound.”  No, not that one, by Simon & Garfunkel.  While a good song, it’s not that kind of song.  Rather, the song I heard is by the composer Marta Keen Thompson, who currently lives in Las Vegas.  She wrote the lyrics and music to this song, and this seems to be her most well-known composition.  Marta wrote some about her song, and who has performed it, on a Facebook page dedicated to the song: [Read more…]

Posted in: Tidbits Tagged: art, BYU, career, children, dead, death, die, experience, family, media, money, mortality, music, poet, prayer, recording, revelation, second coming, song, video, watch, youtube

The Doctrine of Exaltation, Godhood or Deification

November 8, 2012 by Bryce Haymond 3 Comments

Some criticize the Church because of one doctrine we hold most dear, which is exaltation.  This has also been referred to at different times and places as godhood, deification, divinization, taking upon the divine nature, making divine, or theosis (also theiosis, theopoiesis, theōsis; from the Greek Θέωσις).  It is, in its most basic description, that man may become like God.  Many of our fellow Christians see this as the ultimate blasphemy and heresy.  How could man ever become like God?  Why would he want to do so?  Doesn’t this go against everything God has taught through his holy word?  The reality is that this concept has been a fundamental part of Christian thought since early Christianity, found throughout the Bible and in early Christian writings.  Unfortunately, this Christian teaching has been largely lost over the ages.

God restored the doctrine of exaltation through the Prophet Joseph Smith, as part of the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ.  Some have thought that Joseph’s teaching of this concept was a rather late invention of the prophet, near the end of his life.  However, the doctrine can be found even in the Book of Mormon, which was published before the church was formally organized.

I recently came across two great articles that were published that discuss this topic.

  • Daniel C. Peterson, “Defending the Faith: Exaltation isn’t a new doctrine,” Deseret News, 8 November 2012.  Peterson shows in this article how the doctrine of exaltation, or theosis, was not a late revelation in the restoration of the Church, but is found throughout the teachings of Joseph Smith.
  • Elder Tad R. Callister, Presidency of the Seventy, “Our Identity and Our Destiny,” BYU Devotional Address, Campus Education Week, 14 August 2012.  Elder Callister fantastically presents five witnesses of the truth of the doctrine of deification: the testimony of the scriptures, the witness of the early Christian writers, the wisdom of poets and authors, the power of logic, and the voice of history.

I highly recommend these two articles.  If you want even further in-depth study, then I also suggest William J. Hamblin’s excellent recent publication in the Interpreter journal, “‘I Have Revealed Your Name’: The Hidden Temple in John 17,” where Hamblin discusses the chapter of John 17 in fine detail, revealing the strong temple concepts embedded in the text, including theosis.  He also includes an appendix with a bibliography of twenty-three recent scholars’ books on the subject of deification, published just in the last decade, all of them Christian, that you may dive into to learn more about this very Christian teaching.

Posted in: General Authorities, Scholarship, Texts Tagged: bible, bibliography, book of mormon, BYU, christ, christian, daniel c. peterson, deification, early christian, exaltation, god, godhood, jesus christ, joseph smith, poet, restoration, revelation, scholars, scriptures, tad r. callister, theosis, transhumanism, william hamblin

The Star-Spangled Banner

July 4, 2012 by Bryce Haymond 1 Comment

Francis Scott Key looks over Chesapeake Bay at the Star Spangled Banner

Francis Scott Key's original manuscript copy of his "Star-Spangled Banner" poem. It is now on display at the Maryland Historical Society.

Francis Scott Key's original manuscript copy of his "Star-Spangled Banner" poem. It is now on display at the Maryland Historical Society. (Click for larger view)

It was exactly 197 years, 9 months, and 20 days ago that one of the most revered poems in American history was written.  On the morning of September 14, 1814, a young 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet by the name of Francis Scott Key stood on the deck of a ship at dawn and looked out over the water of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.  There he saw in the sky, waving proudly in the morning light, a large American flag flying triumphantly over Fort McHenry.  At that moment he knew that our country, the young United States of America, had been victorious in the intense and passionate battle with the British the night before.

Francis reached into his pocket, and pulled out a letter he had, and on the back hand side began to pen these inspired words:

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The 15-star, 15-stripe "Star Spangled Banner Flag" which inspired the poem.

The 15-star, 15-stripe "Star Spangled Banner Flag" which inspired the poem, now on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of History and Technology. (Click for larger view)

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Posted in: Tidbits Tagged: art, country, historical, history, nation, patriotism, poem, poet, united states

The Poet’s Obsession with Death

March 4, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 2 Comments

Billy Collins, two-term U.S. poet laureateJesse Gunther reported in an article on BYU Newsnet today about a speech given at BYU by a prominent poet:

English majors are essentially “majoring in death,” said Billy Collins, an acclaimed poet laureate in the Joseph Smith Building auditorium on Friday.

“If you have an anthology and take out all poetry on death, you would end up with a pamphlet of what is left,” Collins said, a two-term U.S. poet laureate.

I’ve posted before on another literary scholar, Harold Bloom, that also had some thoughts on death and the unique views of the LDS Church on the subject.

Why the obsession by poets through the ages on the theme of death? [Read more…]

Posted in: Scholarship, Temples Today Tagged: billy collins, death, heaven, hell, joseph smith, life, poet, poetry, questions

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