I've been promising to do a reading club on Blake's "newest" book for over a year now. Geoff, over at New Cool Thang did quite a few posts on it last year. Those of you who've been reading this blog for a long time probably remember that I did a reading club on Blake's first volume a few years back. What I figured I'd do today is outline my ideas for doing the reading and then make a few comments on the introduction.
Reading clubs are always a tad more difficult than one first expects. There's always that question of exactly what one is doing. Are you reviewing the book or chapters of the book? Are you criticizing it? Are you taking small elements and going off on tangents? I'll try and do all of these.
By and large I really like Blake's books. I do wish he gave perhaps a more "wide" view of what Mormon theology is rather than just arguing for what he thinks it ought be. But that's understandable. A book going through the range of LDS thought and theology simply is different from grappling with the issues. While I disagree with Blake in some places one can't really say Blake avoids issues, the way some authors do. He does appear to grapple with the main objections to his ideas and does so in an adept way. But anyone reading Blake's books should realize that this really isn't LDS theology in the sense of sociology or history. It's Blake attempting to understand Mormonism given his personal commitments.
As such it's always the texts I advise people read when trying to understand LDS theology. At the same time though part of me always cringes since the history of how Mormons have understood their theology is much, much broader than what Blake outlines. I really wish a history of Mormon theology will one day be written. I also hope more authors do what Blake does but perhaps from different perspectives. That kind of engagement and development is necessary for more philosophical approaches to Mormon thought to really work. And I'm sure Blake would agree even if he does think he's correct.
The second volume of Blake's series on Mormon thought largely deals with God in terms of human relationships. Thus it grapples with prayer, with love, and especially with atonement. I fully agree with Blake's comments in both the introduction and first chapter that Mormon conceptions of God are always oriented around human-like relationships and not metaphysics. While this relational approach to God can certainly be found in theology (Buber and Levinas being two obvious examples) I think Blake is correct that that is a certain audaciousness to LDS thought in this. At the same time though, it is also the most natural approach to God. Perhaps the learned theologians snub their noses at it, but I suspect on a practical matter the lay members of their own faiths tended to approach God much like this. In a sense LDS thought merely formalized what everyone tended to do in a sense. And, to be fair, I think it is dealt with by religious writers more than some think. There is always that dual movement of God as incomprehensible "Other" and God as revealed to us in human relationships. Jesus in Christian thought is the revelation of God as a being who is fully God and fully man. While I'm biased, I tend to think that Mormons perhaps focus on this duality more than traditional Christian thought.
Tied in with all this is the fundamental break Mormons make from traditional Christian thought and arguably even a lot of Islamic or Jewish thought. We reject creation ex nihilo. I think, whatever one thinks of the range of LDS thought, if one wants to understand LDS thinking one has to keep that in the forefront. It is, I think, key for understanding how LDS approach problems and also key to where and why we differ from other Christians.
Responses to other chapters in Blake Ostler's The Problems With Theism and the Love of God can be found in our reading club page.
I've closed comments in order to avoid spam since I don't check this older blog as much anymore.
and Theology
Number of unique visitors:
Blogged by Clark Goble