Item Detail
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25615
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1
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0
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English
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King Ratbod's Dilemma : Apostasy and Restoration in the Sixteenth and Twenty-First Centuries
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Standing Apart : Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy
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Oxford, New York
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Oxford University Press
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265-279
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The story of Wulfram and Ratbod is not well known among Mormons today, but it illustrates a dilemma that may be familiar to many of us. What drives the story is the perception of difference and distance between pagan and Christian, whether living or dead. In the story, the pagan King Ratbod and the Christian missionary St. Wulfram both believe that pagans and Christians belong to distinct categories with respect to their eternal salvation. The mission of St. Wulfram was driven by the anxiety to move as many Frisians from one category to the other, while Ratbod was anxious to remain in the same category as his noble ancestors.
As with any proposition within a system of belief, tensions can arise between the notion of apostasy and other beliefs or with the social context in which those beliefs are held. Belief in an apostasy raises questions for Mormons, including the question of what to do with useful propositions of Christian thought that predate the Restoration and how to keep belief in an apostasy from hindering the ability to appreciate and learn from the past. These questions can be seen as various aspects of King Ratbod’s dilemma, which is how someone contemplating conversion can negotiate the contradictions between past and present. Are the only possible choices either to reject the new faith or to renounce the past? [From the article]