Heavenly Mother by John Hafen. “Come to me, here’s the myst’ry that man hath not seen; / Here’s our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen.”– William W. Phelps, “A Voice from the Prophet: Come to Me” (1844). One aspect of Latter-day Saint doctrine that distinguishes Mormonism from other contemporary Christian sects is the Mormon affirmation … Read more
Nauvoo’s East Grove. I visited this site in July 2013 as part of a church history study program. It wasn’t very windy when I visited, but it was very hot! I am currently reading Alex Beam’s new book American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church. Although I have … Read more
Column 1 of P. Joseph Smith XI, containing the hieratic text of the Book of Breathings of Hor. You never know what neat little connections you’ll find between different texts from the ancient world. Just this evening, as I was doing research for a paper on the Book of the Dead, I was reading Michael … Read more
Don’t do it! As explained by the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, the concept of “eternal progression” is central to the Mormon conception of deification. Here’s the succinct explanation given by the recent Gospel Topics essay. Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense; they consider every person divine in origin, nature, … Read more
Der Götterrat (1622) by Peter Paul Rubens In his poem “Grenzen der Menschheit,” Goethe rhetorically asks, “Was underscheidet Götter von Menschen?” (“What distinguishes gods from men?”) The Church has released it’s latest essay on controversial topics. This time it’s on the subject of deification. (Link) The article is excellent, and is exactly what I, as a Latter-day … Read more
The Temptation and Fall of Eve (1808) by William Blake. Here’s another insight from Ziony Zevit, this time about the nature of the serpent in Genesis 3. The serpent was ‘arūwm. People characterized as ‘arūwm conceal what they feel and what they know (Prov 12:16, 23). They esteem knowledge and plan how to use it in … Read more