Item Detail
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30314
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1
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20
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English
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Pedagogy of Perfection : Joseph Smith's Perfectionism, How It was Taught in the Early LDS Church, and Its Contemporary Applicability
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Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought
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Winter 2018
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51
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4
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Farmington, UT
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Dialogue Journal
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77-104
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The Nauvoo period in LDS history was a time of “welding” for Joseph Smith: bringing together previous revelatory teachings and actively shaping rituals into “a whole and complete and perfect union.” He believed he was opening a “dispensation,” or a pouring out of knowledge and authority from heaven, and was anxious to finish it. He had a vision—at least in the down-to-earth sense of a “goal”—of all Saints being educated in the knowledge prerequisite for a salvation he coined “exaltation.”
This exaltation can be seen as a unique form of Christian “perfectionism.” Most early-nineteenth-century Christian denominations were seeking after salvation, differing in forms and degrees, but united in their desire for certainty. Denominations based on Calvinism found it in God-given grace to a select few, while Arminian-based theologies like that found in Methodism believed that all who chose Christ as their Savior could be saved. Universalists, like Joseph Smith’s grandfather, went the furthest in their belief Christ would save all. The basic premise of Christian theology—forgiveness of sins through Christ’s atonement—seemed undebated, though. Each acknowledged that a power went forth from the atoning sacrifice of Christ. The debate was on how to access that power; how one could be certain that power was manifest, and hence whether salvation was sure. Joseph Smith went about revolutionizing the idea of and prerequisites for salvific surety into a perfectionism that was both concrete and attainable, but to most quite unimaginable: becoming as God, or becoming gods. The rationale is that to be certain one can re-enter the presence of God, one should strive to know or see God and progress to be like him. In other words: he saw theophany as a precursor to theosis. Where was this to take place? In God’s temple.
But what was Joseph Smith’s pedagogy? What educational means did Smith and his contemporaries devise to make this perfectionism comprehensible and tangible? And how has that teaching continued into the present day? Are all educational means still intact and accessible? And what is needed in our time of ongoing secularization to teach this perfectionism effectively? Finally, what happens or can happen to the “temperature” (degree of devotion) of Saints, when this great end goal of
perfection is no longer taught as concrete and attainable, as Joseph did?
In this paper, I will answer these questions by first sketching the cultural religious context within which this perfectionism took shape. Next, I will draw from Joseph’s teachings about gaining certainty of exaltation from his revelations, public sermons, and more private teachings. Third, I will examine the pedagogy, the modes of teaching, and the associated ordinances Joseph Smith devised. Fourth, I will sketch briefly the most important developments in dispensing those modes of teaching to all the Saints to this day. Finally, I will draw some conclusions, make suggestions, and raise questions about how to go about teaching
perfection in our day.
[from author] -
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Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism
Joseph Smith's First Vision : A Guide to the Historical Accounts
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Joseph Smith's New England Heritage
Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801-1844
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Salt Lake School of the Prophets : Minute Book 1883
Scenes in Nauvoo, and Incidents from H. C. Kimball's Journal
Temple and Cosmos : Beyond this Ignorant Present
The Changing Forms of the Latter-day Saint Sacrament
The Colonia Juarez Temple a Prophet's Inspiration
'The Fulness of the Priesthood' : The Second Anointing in Latter-day Saint Theology and Practice
"We Latter-day Saints are Methodists" : The Influence of Methodism on Early Mormon Religiosity
Wilford Woodruff's Journals
Wrestling the Angel : The Foundations of Mormon Thought : Cosmos, God, Humanity