REVIEW: Ancient Christians - An Introduction for Latter-day Saints

For most Latter-day Saints, the history of our faith begins with the New Testament, and then suddenly picks up 1800 years later with Joseph Smith and the beginning of the Restoration movement. You go straight from the end of the Book of Acts, to the first chapter of the first volume in the 'Saints' series of narrative modern Church history without feeling you've missed anything important. 

Generally, my experience has seen a prevailing viewpoint that nothing that happened between the close of the New Testament and Joseph Smith's First Vision is really relevant or of value in the history or story of Christianity, with the exception of the idea that there was a Great Apostasy, and the Reformation, in general and vague ways, was important in paving the way for the possibility of the Restoration.

In my experience, your regular Latter-day Saint has never heard the names Clement, Ignatius, Irenaeus, or Justin Martyr. And those who may have heard the names in passing, certainly have not read from them, or if they have, likely saw a quick quote explaining how they believed something exactly the way the Church practices and teaches in the 21st Century.

There's a lot of history as to why Latter-day Saints have that perspective. But this new book, Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints published by the Maxwell Institute at BYU in December 2022, is hard at work at trying to fight against this long tradition by presenting history, context, and a sympathetic nuanced reading of the first centuries of Christian tradition.

The book's editorial team (Jason Combs, Mark D. Ellison, Catherine Gines Taylor and Kristian S. Heal) isn't subtle or opaque about its purposes, and the tides of tradition it knows it's working against.

From the introduction by Jason Combs: 

Latter-day Saint Narratives of Ancient Christianity: Early Latter-day Saints inherited from Protestants a great apostasy narrative. . . In support of ... more recent statements [from General Authorities speaking out against traditional anti-Catholic interpretations of Restoration scripture], we acknowledge the need for greater care in discussing a great apostasy - a term that does not appear in our standard works.

We unitedly affirm the need for the Restoration, and at the same time, we must be clear in stating precisely what that means.  For instance, the Doctrine and Covenants never speaks explicitly of a restored church . . . When Latter-day Saints use that unscriptural phrase, restored church, it should be understood as shorthand for the restorations the Doctrine and Covenants does address - namely, the bestowal of priesthood power, authority, and keys associated with making sacred covenants, establishing Zion (Moses 7:18), gathering scattered Israel on both sides of the veil (that is, in this life and beyond), and binding up all dispensations in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. These special purposes to which God has called us and for which God has established the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not require us to spend our time trying to prove other churches and religions wrong or apostate.

It goes on to suggest a new, positive approach to Christianity of the past:

A New Latter-day Saint Approach to Ancient Christians: What does this careful reading of our Latter-day Saint teachings regarding the Restoration mean for this volume about ancient Christians? First, it means that we cannot assume that something found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today necessarily existed in the ancient Church (see Doctrine and Covenants 124:38, 41). We cannot assume that today's Church is a template for what the first-century Church must have been, or vice versa.  For that reason, in this book, our authors acknowledge the differences between ancient Christians and Latter-day Saints without automatically assuming such differences to be evidence of apostasy. When our authors encounter these differences, they work to explain how and why ancient Christians developed beliefs and practices that contrast with our own - working toward understanding them from a position of respect and even "holy envy."

These opening passages are absolutely radical in our tradition, and present a huge promise of what one might expect in the coming chapters, which are in and of themselves stand-alone essays covering a specific topic and how it was understood, practiced, and developed in early Christianity.

I'll admit, as excited as I was by this introductory promise, I was skeptical (as past works on Christian History as presented by Church-owned institutions have generally rightfully caused me to be) of what I would be seeing in the ensuing chapters.

And then, each and every chapter not only lived up to their editorial promise, but exceeded it. I'm just going to list the chapters and their topics here:

• Preaching Christ: Scripture, Sermons, and Practical Exegesis (by Kristian S. Heal)
• Creating Canon: Authority, New Prophecy, and Sacred Texts (Thomas A. Wayment)
• Church Organization: Priesthood Offices and Women's Leadership Roles (Ariel Bybee Laughton)
• Sacred Spaces and Places of Worship: From House Churches to Monumental Basilicas (Matthew J. Grey)
• Connecting with Christ: Rituals and Worship (Mark D. Ellison)
• Human Nature: Creation and the Fall (Gaye Strathearn)
• Divine Nature: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Jason R. Combs)
• Receiving Christ: Atonement, Grace, and Eternal Salvation (Cecilia M. Peek)
• Becoming Like God: Incarnation, Moral Formation, and Eternal Progression (Daniel Becerra)
• Inclining Christian Hearts: Work for the Dead (Catherine Gines Taylor)
• Living in the Afterlife: Heaven, Hell, and Places Between
• Facing the End: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Millennium (Nicholas J. Frederick)
• Medieval Christians (Miranda Wilcox)

At the beginning of reading through this book, even against what was stated in the introduction, I started bracing at certain points at each chapter where I was prepared to be hit with some traditional "parallelomania" showing why something the ancient Christians did is exactly what we do today. But each and every time I thought it was going to go that route, the author seemed to anticipate my concern, and would often specifically include a call-out box making sure that we did NOT make unwarranted connections, and make very clear why some parallels made by some in the past misinterpreted key reasonings or purposes or language in the ancient practices. Not only did these chapters avoid making false equivalencies, they went out of their way to try to repair some of the notions presented by past approaches to this work.

A few chapters in, I stopped worrying, and started to actively look forward to how some key aspects were handled. I was always incredibly impressed.

It's not just a book of 'debunking', though. There are wonderful and beautiful meditations on the practices, giving a sense of how the practitioners devotion to Christ led to such beliefs and practices, and in some cases giving a suggestion of how the principle could be understood or applied by modern Saints without suggesting there be a direct 1:1 relationship. It's all so masterfully handled.

The book is also beautifully visually presented. Andrew Heiss designed a stunning book filled with relevant and gorgeous authentic ancient artwork. It's as much a joy to look at as it is to read. The visuals complement and enhance the essays they accompany.

I want to also call attention to a fantastic companion resource. Wayfare Magazine has produced a 'Meet the Early-day Saints' podcast hosted by the great Blair Hodges, who in each episode interviews one of the authors of a chapter of this book, and has a wonderful in-depth discussion about its particular topic. This podcast serves both as a great companion for the chapters for those who have read it, and a completely independent introduction for those who have not (yet!) had the opportunity to check it out, and presents the key points in a highly accessible manner. It's a great podcast, and I highly recommend checking it out.

This whole project is a monumental and important work. President Nelson has said, "good inspiration is based upon good information" - this book can be a powerful source of "good information" that I believe can catalyze "good inspiration" as to how to change how we understand and talk about our Christian ancestors, as well as our brothers and sisters in other Christian traditions.

  

 

When Rhetoric Overpowers Revelation: Moroni 8 and Mormon's Comments on Infant Baptism:

 Last year, BYU's Maxwell Institute published an incredible new book entitled Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints. I'm still working through it (and through the complimentary and highly recommended podcast Meet the Early-day Saints, presented by Wayfare and hosted by Blair Hodges), but this book seeks to overturn a massive amount of presumptions, assumptions and mistaken ideas and negative stereotypes about the earliest Christian Church (and I'd also say practices by current practitioners of other Christian traditions) that had been promulgated and believed by Latter-day Saints for generations. It's a massive undertaking, and anyone who has seen takes published by Church-owned entities in the past that engages with the Church Fathers and past Christian beliefs and practices likely has a reason to be skeptical. That said, nothing like this has been published before.

I'll likely talk more about this book in more detail at another time, but I wanted to lay out some thoughts I had after reading one of the sidebars in Mark D. Ellison's excellent chapter, "Connecting with Christ: Rituals and Worship". The sidebar is on the topic of Infant Baptism.

After giving 4 paragraphs to an explanation of the origins of Infant Baptism along with generous and sympathetic expressions of why devoted disciples of Christ would be motivated to have their young children baptized, he ends with this paragraph, addressing and confronting how Latter-day Saints approach and think of this practice. I quote:

Though we Latter-day Saints have a different position on this issue (because of Restoration scripture that early Christians did not have, such as Moroni 8 and Doctrine and Covenants 68:27), the idea of accommodations in the performances of ordinances is not foreign to Latter-day Saint thought or practice.  Doctrine and Covenants 137:9-10 assures us that children who die before the age of accountability will inherit the celestial kingdom -- and also that the Lord "will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts." Surely this includes the heartfelt concerns of parents for the eternal well-being of their little children.  The argument against infant baptism in Moroni 8 is important, but it is not directed against ancient Christians in the Old World, nor modern Christians, but against Nephites who Mormon thought should have known better." 

That last phrase "Nephites who Mormon thought should have known better", sparked an interest in me to revisit Moroni 8, because I recalled it quoting a revelation from Christ on the topic along with incredibly harsh condemnation for the participants in such a practice.

I'm so glad I revisited it. With the hermeneutic of generosity in mind inspired by the selection in Ancient Christians, I noticed something I never had before: There are two parts to this passage, which is presented by Moroni as part of a letter he had received from his father, Mormon. Following an introduction to the question at hand (whether young children should be baptized),  Mormon declares he received a revelation from Jesus Christ, and gives a quotation of what he declared are the words of Christ as an answer to his question.

The second part is Mormon taking a verbal step back, and then giving his personal commentary on his understanding and application of it.

First, here's the words Mormon attributes to Christ (Moroni 8:8):

Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Behold, I came into the world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; the whole need no physician, but they that are sick; wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in me, that it hath no power over them; and the law of circumcision is done away in me.

Take note of what this passage does, and does not do. * The words do answer the question with a gentle top-level doctrinal framework for why a practice understood as for the remission of sins should not be understood as a requirement for children. What they do not do is condemn the practice of baptizing children, or pass a moral judgment in any way on those who have or do participate in or teach the practice. 

This is in sharp contrast to what Mormon the Church leader does next. First, he explicitly ends the quotation, ("And after this manner did the Holy Ghost manifest the word of God unto me;") and then gives his interpretation of it. ("Wherefore  ... I know that...). Mormon then goes on to impute wicked motivation and condemnation for the practice and the practitioners - right before declaring himself to be "filled with charity" (8:17)!

This is what Mormon says about those who believe in baptizing their children:

• "he that supposeth that little children need baptism is in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; for he hath neither faith, hope, nor charity; wherefore, should he be cut off while in the thought, he must go down to hell." (8:14)

Compare that again to what he reports as Christ's actual response on the topic.**

We have seen in the modern Church many examples of  Church leaders taking a teaching of Christ, and then going beyond it to paint with a broad brush imputed motivations and condemnation for anyone who disagrees. I don't feel the need to present examples. If you're reading this, I'm sure you can think  of them.

While it may be at times easy to sympathize with the perspective and reason for such rhetoric from the point of view of the one giving it, it must also be appreciated how that rhetoric is received, and often becomes conflated with the original teaching of Christ, and how that can lead to undeserved pain, hurt, and condemnation not condoned by the words of Christ.

This is a good example of how we can take what may be an essentially true uplifting Gospel principle, and then weaponize it in a way that goes devastatingly beyond its intentions. I do believe the words of Mormon as presented in this passage are (and have been) harmful and not representative of the beliefs or status of anyone I know (and the vast majority of those I do not know) of those who incorporate infant baptism as part of their Christian practice and devotion. 

That doesn't mean Restoration scripture affirms the practice or beliefs motivating the practice as being correct or necessary -  but not being correct or unnecessary doesn't require such motives and assumption of sin that Mormon the Church leader goes out of his way to present.

____

* While this is somewhat of a tangent topic, it's interesting to note that these words alone do not inherently disregard the notion of Original Sin at this time, but present the teaching using the framework that accountability for what is called "the curse of Adam" in children is removed by Christ without requirement of additional proactive sacramental action. It's also worth noting that the Book of Mormon presents a discussion of a sinless Jesus willingly subjecting himself to baptism, and presenting it as an act of obedience and as an example. (see 2 Nephi 31)

** Significantly, even in a Latter-day Saint scripture that would come later (a Revelation to Joseph Smith eventually canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 29:46) the voice of Christ is represented as repeating essentially the same answer Mormon reports Christ as giving - but also, once again,  free from the explicit condemnation of the practice of infant baptism or those who practice it. "But behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten;" (D&C 29:46)

Getting Back To Business

 From around 2010 up to about 2016, I kept a blog filled with book reviews and musings in the realms of Mormon Studies and other Latter-day Saint themes. A couple years ago, I started reviewing and commenting again, but this time mainly on Twitter. I thought it was about time to bring back some of my old reviews, and gather some of my Twitter thoughts into a single 'clearing house' of sorts.

So ImprovementEra.com is back. Sort of. I'm in the process of re-posting old reviews from the Back Catalog. This'll take a little while, as I'm fixing any old or broken links along the way. I'm also re-posting them with their original post-dates. So while this iteration of ImprovementEra.com is new, I hope to add some continuity to its past.

Thanks for stopping by!
 

REVIEW - Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration

Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration

Cheryl L. Bruno, Joe Steve Swick III, Nicholas S. Literski

Greg Kofford Books, 2022

Amazon.com purchase link

There's a lot of books and articles that have attempted to make parallels with Mormonism and Masonry. This is the only one I've found that combines a deep and nuanced knowledge of the best current Mormon History/Mormon Studies Scholarship (including using the most recent Joseph Smith Papers documents), experience as a practicing Mason, deep understanding of relevant 19th Century historical/religious developments, and especially how specific aspects of 19th Century Masonry (practice, language, and perspective) was developing and interacting with multiple aspects of society.

This is an exploration of how deeply 19th Century Masonic ideas were interwoven and influential from the very beginning of Joseph Smith's life, and how they interacted, informed, and challenged his developing Church, Scripture, and world of religious ideas.

This isn't a book of surface Parallels, or a Latter-day Saint Temple exposé, or for that manner, a Masonic exposé. In fact, I was surprised at how well the book navigated respectfully (and usefully!) the exploration of key material considered sensitive from both Masonic and Latter-day Saint ritual.

I consider myself significantly well-read when it comes to scholarship and primary sources relating to Latter-day Saint/Mormon history. This book re-framed many of the events and episodes, statements and practices from history that I knew DID happen, and presented for the first time, a consistent and thorough explanation of WHY they happened the way they did. It really did feel like some missing puzzle pieces came into view that had been hiding in plain sight.

I don't see how any serious scholar working on the early development of Latter-day Saint writings, teachings, beliefs and practices can go forward without taking this book's arguments and evidence into consideration. The descriptor 'Game Changer' is often thrown around, but this one legitimately earns it.

REVIEW - 1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction

1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction 

Joseph Spencer

Neal A. Maxwell Institute 2020

Amazon Purchase Link

 I've read 1 Nephi a lot. I've taught from 1 Nephi a lot. This book had me taking notes of key ideas and questions raised by the book that were always there, but I had just not yet had a reason to take notice of them.

This is one of the major strengths of the book, the first in the Maxwell Institute's Brief Theological Introductions to the Book of Mormon series. It gives example of some of the great questions we could be asking, shows productive ways one might approach answers to those questions (along with showing some ways others may have considered them), and guides us into ways of closely reading and paying attention to the text in a way that can lead to discovering one's own 'new' questions.

It's not a book designed to make 1 Nephi easier - it's a book designed to make our engagement with it more meaningful.

I appreciated Joseph Spencer's combination of candor and sensitivity. He asks the reader to be prepared for hard questions, and models ways we can productively think about them.

It's a small book, but some of the insights presented within it will be sitting with me for a long time. I very much look forward to what the other authors in this series bring to their forthcoming volumes in the series. I highly recommend it.

REVIEW - Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World's Greatest Poem

 

Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World's Greatest Poem

Michael Austin

Greg Kofford Books, 2014

Amazon Purchase Link

What matters more – understanding why people suffer, or knowing how we should respond when people are suffering?

I have always been fascinated by the Book of Job.  It’s a messy book, and a subversive book. The biggest take-away I’d always gotten from it was that I had the ability to use Job’s comforters as an illustration and example of how not to comfort who is suffering (IE, with theological platitudes that tend to serve more to comfort the worldview of the comforter than the person actually the suffering.)

A few weeks ago, a horrible car accident took the life of one the young Sister Missionaries serving in our ward, and sent the other into the hospital with severe head trauma. As I’m writing my thoughts now, we’re in the wake of the horrible Charleston murders. Suffering and tragedy are very much on my mind.

It was in the midst of all this that I sat down to read Michael Austin’s beautiful exploration of the Book of Job, Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem.

If you’re looking for a book to lay out for you in simple language the One True Meaning of the Book of Job, all the while unlocking for all time the Divinely Appointed Reason Bad Things Happen To Good People, you might come away disappointed – but only if you’re unwilling to budge on the idea of there being One True Divine Reason.

What Austin does, in my opinion, is even better – much like David Bokovoy did in the previous volume in Kofford’s Studies in Scripture Series (the excellent Authoring The Old Testament: Genesis – Deuteronomy), Austin guides the reader on a stunning scriptural study that introduces and approaches paradigm-shifting possibilities concerning key aspects of the very nature of scripture, revelation, and literature in a relatable way that, far from leaving a newly disoriented traditional believer in the dust, also offers sincere, practical, and faithful responses and reflections.

And by ‘responses’, I don’t mean he presents ways we can ignore what we just learned, or make it comfortably fit with old ways of thinking, or make it, well, comfortable. I mean that Austin illustrated ways to practically apply Job in ways that expand our own religious perspectives and behaviors.

Austin shows us how, by willing to approach the text in ways that may initially make us uncomfortable, we can find new profound questions and insights that make the text far more relevant and useful to us and our lived religion (and those we claim to serve with our religion) than a cursory or traditional reading of the text might present. It may make the reader come away more useful to the suffering.

So what is the meaning of the Book of Job?

“The Book of Job is a difficult text,” writes Austin. “Its multiple voices each present us with a piece of the truth.  But they never quite go together into a single, unified message.”

This insight alone – which is easily applicable to the entirety of the scriptural canon – can help the reader to see a consistent flaw in a traditional approach to scripture: the assumption that The Good Guys Are Correct About Everything They Affirm, And The Bad Guys Are Always Wrong, And This Being So Is The Only Way Scripture Would Have Any Value.

Austin shows how he has approached this in regards to his exploration of Job:  “Astute readers will have already noticed that my own interpretations of Job in this book are not all compatible with each other [. . . ] Sometimes, I am on Job’s side and sometimes I am on God’s side – and, in a few places, I have good things to say about both the Comforters and the Devil.  Even if I wanted to be completely consistent about these things, I could not, for Job is a poem about (among so many other things) the impossibility of finding the truth in a single perspective.”

This is a powerful, potentially paradigm-shifting insight in and of itself if one is not accustomed to approaching and studying scripture with this perspective. Scriptures aren’t books of answers – they are prompts to get us asking the right questions that will lead to inspiration, revelation, and repentance. But this broad idea is only one of many key insights offered by the book.

Going back to the first question I posed, Austin’s book not only proposes, but calls for actual compassion for our fellow humans, and not to let our perceptions of The Doctrines of Orthodox Religion get in the way of our foundational covenant commitment of  “mourning with those who mourn, and comforting those who stand in need of comfort”.

As Austin points out, “The more that Job presses his claim to human compassion, the more abstract [his ‘comforters’] arguments become until, in the end, Job ceases to be a human being who needs comfort and becomes simply a theological problem that needs a solution.”

“God can take care of Himself,”
Austin later asserts, “our responsibility is to take care of each other.”

Austin’s words and explorations of this book hope to shatter a usually uncontested belief that God would rather us take the time to defend Him in the place of serving and loving His children.  This book is filled with powerful, life-saving insights such as these, resulting from a deep and thoughtful encounter with the Book of Job, that should be pinned on every church bulletin board or placard in the land.

This continues on into one of the most potentially life-changing insights in the book: “To meet our obligations to our fellow human beings, we need not believe that God is lacking in either power or goodness.  We just need to understand that He does not require our assistance in dealing with challenges to His authority.  We do not have to protect God from criticisms, complaints, and petitions.  He is not some first-time godling out on a test drive.  He can take criticism.  He can handle complaints.  And He has no need tor when human beings ask Him to do things differently.  Too many people – often from positions of ecclesiastical authority – spend their time trying to make sure that God’s feelings do not get hurt.  This is how we become the Comforters when we should be listening – really listening with out hearts – to the suffering Job.”

There’s a lot more to Austin’s book that I’ve brought up here – as if these selections alone shouldn’t send you scrambling to get your own copy. It’s not big in page count, but it’s packed in wide-ranging thoughtful content.

As a bonus, Austin’s prose is so delightful that you are conflicted between wanting to fly through the pages as quick as you can to soak up the goodness of everything at once – and wanting to stop and ponder after each paragraph to let the ramifications of the proposed thoughts and presented facts sink in.

This book is educational, entertaining, uncomfortable, and inspiring. A quadruple threat if ever I’ve seen one. Pick it up today! Highly recommended.

REVIEW - Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis - Deuteronomy

 

Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis - Deuteronomy

David Bokovoy

Greg Kofford Books, 2014

Amazon Purchase Link

Can a faithful Latter-day Saint accept the possibility that what are commonly called the Books of Moses were not actually written by Moses? Why would we want to? Would this necessarily undermine scriptural authority, and go against what is seen as clear modern revelation?

These are important and relevant questions for Mormons! And now, for the first time, they are properly addressed in a faithful, and easy to understand manner.

In this book, Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis – Deuteronomy, the first of a Trilogy exploring the authorship of the Old Testament canon in general (and also the first in an exciting new series of ‘Contemporary Studies in Scripture’ by Kofford Books) David Bokovoy ( a PhD in Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East with an MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University) presents what I can unconditionally note is one of the most important books ever written for study and appreciation of the Old Testament for a faithful LDS Perspective.

Many LDS members, if they have been exposed to bits and pieces of secular biblical scholarship, including Higher Criticism and the Documentary Hypothesis, see such a departure from how they are used to experiencing the Old Testament that they either immediately discard the new knowledge, or allow it to create cracks in their faith.

David Bokovoy beautifully demonstrates how neither of these reactions are necessary, and that an accurate understanding of mainstream biblical scholarship, far from decreasing one’s faith, can add immeasurably to one’s appreciation of not only the formation and writings of the Old Testament, but also its relationship to scriptures of the Restoration, such as the Book of Moses and the rest of the Joseph Smith Translation, the Book of Abraham, and even the Book of Mormon itself.

You do not need to be a Biblical Scholar to appreciate or understand this book – to the contrary, it was designed for those who have no previous understanding of Biblical scholarship! It is very much an introduction. However, it can also serve a secondary purpose of helping those who are familiar with scholarship find helpful approaches and models for encountering Modern scriptural texts in that light.

This is a book that can undoubtedly change how you see the Old Testament, and will likely create a need to adjust  perspectives and paradigms. This is a good thing! It will also increase understanding and relevance of the modern scripture which has the voice of God explaining that scriptures “were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding.” (D&C 1:24)

I HIGHLY recommend Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis – Deuteronomy.  I’ve found it a deeply satisfying, intellectually stimulating, and , believe it or not, a very, VERY faith promoting book. Really top notch stuff.

I repeat: this is one of the most important books on Mormon scripture to be published recently. And there’s been a lot of groundbreaking works on LDS scripture coming out of late. If it seems like I’ve been praising every book I’ve reviewed lately, and proclaiming its importance, this is only because these last few years have been a really wonderful time for thoughtful, ground-breaking works on Mormon scripture, history, and culture. This book, like much of what has been pouring out of Kofford Books, is one of those, and has the potential to radically expand understanding and appreciation for not only the Old Testament, but scripture in general. It’s really that good. Read it. Share it with your friends. Discuss it.