An Emerging LDS Theology: From Apollonian Augustinian-Protestantism toward a more Dionysian/Jehovian Christian-Platonism

 

The Emergent Mormon Perspective sees Mormonism as an emergent phenomenon growing from the Kirkland-Missouri phase (or the Smith-Rigdon phase) to the Smith-Pratt phase in Nauvoo when Joseph Smith began to fully embrace Renaissance Enlightenment Humanism. Thus we see an emerging development in the theology and interpretations of LDS Scripture as covered in books like “This Is My Doctrine”: The Development of Mormon Theology by Charles R. Harrell and Line upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine by Gary James Bergera. For more details see my blog post here.

The Emergent Evolution of Christianity from the Markan Community to the Johanine Community

After I had resigned my membership in the Brighamite church around 2004, and after then becoming a skeptic, I then reconstructed a non-fundamentalist philosophical Christian position after being influenced by the writings of Marcus Borg and John Spong. In particular, Spong's books:

• Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism

• Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy

• The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic.

Spong's book on biblical literalism introduced me to the concept of midrash, which led me to do a deep dive into the ancient Jewish practice of midrash. I then learned from many other biblical scholars that the apostle Paul and the Gospel authors were basically creative artists using midrash or what Richard Hays calls figural reading. In other words, rather than merely direct "revelations" from a deity, the content of Paul's letters and the Gospels had more to do with the intelligence and innovative creativity of Paul and the Gospel authors themselves. This knowledge would later allow me to reexamine Joseph Smith's scriptural creations and appreciate them as similar works of midrashic art through Smith's own intelligence and creativity.

The last book by Spong above, on the Johannine Community led me to further research biblical studies and I began to realize there was a distinct difference between the Pauline-Markan Christian worldview and the Johannine Christian worldview. For example, in the Gospel of John (produced by the Johannine Community) there is no mention of casting out demons, a major feature in the synoptic gospels, like in Mark. According to Where Have All the Demons Gone?: The Role and Place of the Devil in the Gospel of John (2017) by Andre van Rheede van Oudtshoorn:

John's Gospel is marked by a complete absence of demons. This is not due to John reflecting a more secular worldview than the Synoptics. ... Through Jesus' death on the cross, the devil has been exorcised from the whole world.

Since I do not believe in a literal "Satan character" or demons, after studying the origin of the devil character, John's demonless gospel began to appeal to my rational sensibilities.

Instead of fear mongering through apocalyptic language, John's Gospel also presents eternal life as more of a present moment experience of having Divine Life in abundance here and now. This appealed to my new found practice of mindfulness meditation (or present moment awareness in the Now).

Christian scholar Elaine Pagels discusses the theological message of the Gospel of Thomas and how it's basically describing a divine light as the Source of the Universe and that Jesus is a conduit of this Divine Light; and that you yourself are a spark of this Divine Light and if you get in touch with that inner divine light, you can become enlightened; and so you don't need a church or pastor, and there's no "Second Coming" because the Divine Realm is inside you and all around you; and so she says you can pretty much be a spiritual freelancer with the Gospel of Thomas. She also discusses the similarity in spirituality between the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas. Finally, she ties this all together in her scholarship by pointing out that Paul spoke about secret mysteries, which ties into the Gospel of Mark speaking of secret mysteries and the concept of a secret gospel that Paul did not write about publicly; and that the secret gospel is experienced in visionary states, which she compares to Kabbalah in Judaism, which has connections to early Mormonism. This led me to wonder if that secret gospel is the ability to ascend into the throne room of God, transcending all ecclesiastical leadership. See my blog post on the Book of Mormon as an ascension text. So I realized there is a version of Mormonism where you can treat it like a "freelance spirituality," as Dr. Pagels puts it, just like a Christian treating the Gospel of Thomas as a legitimate gospel and abiding by its mystical message.

This led to my forming a Christian stance which is a more about inner enlightenment or a mystic version of Christianity, after realizing the three texts below had a similar message:

• Gospel of John: No Exorcisms; Eternal Life is here and now, "life in abundance" per John 10:10.

• Gospel of Thomas: Saying 3, "Jesus said, 'If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' ... Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known...." and 77, "Split a piece of wood: I am there. Lift a stone, and you will find me there."

• Book of Mormon: Ascension text; 2 Nephi 9:41, "and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; ..." Note that D&C 88 and the original LDS doctrine of The Lectures on Faith describe a process of enlightenment where a diffused fluid substance as light and intelligence fills individuals so that they are glorified (glow in splendor) just as Jesus smiles and shines on his disciples in 3 Nephi. As Joseph Smith himself, said, "This first comforter, or Holy Ghost, has no other effect than pure intelligence. It is …powerful in expanding the mind [and] enlightening the understanding."

This new understanding, that the holy books above differed with the synoptic gospels, and that each gospel was a distinct and different version of Christianity in many ways, released me from feeling the dire need for a systematic theology and instead being a possiblilian on such matters.

My differentiating between the Johannine Gospel and the synoptic Gospels was further augmented by my appreciation of Nietzsche's dionysian philosophy and learning about how the Johanine Community may have or even likely based their gospel in part off of the dionysian mythos (see the book The Dionysian Gospel); which is why in the Gospel of John for example, Jesus is presented more as a festive Party God turning water into wine, to basically keep the party going. In fact, according to biblical scholars, the clay jars were meant to represent religious jars of ceremonial water; so Jesus turning purity jars of water into party wine symbolized an affirmation of song and dance and sexual relations in marriage over being a life long celibate and practicing only stifling purity rituals. Thus the water into wine was basically representing a "holier than thou" type attitude in contrast to a playful and joyful attitude. So the episode is all about a celebration of life. Similar to how the god dionysus represented passion-filled Life. So the Johannine Jesus is clearly a different Jesus from the Pauline Jesus who was primarily an exorcist encouraging celibacy if one was able in the context of apocalyptic end times (see 1 Corinthians 7; Mathew 19:12).

This philosophical worldview-move toward considering myself open to the Johanine perspective (over and above the synoptics), led me to further realize that Joseph Smith was simply expanding this ongoing Christian tradition of midrashic modification and expansion of earlier religious texts into new ones. For, Joseph Smith could be seen doing the same thing with his own updated version with a more "Abrahamic gospel." I began to see that just as the Gospel of John can be seen as making corrections and changes or even improvements upon the earlier Synoptic Gospels, Joseph Smith's "fifth gospel" so to speak, could be seen as a midrashic attempt to move Christianity further forward toward a more science-based, body-affirming, naturalistic worldview.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I put together this visual to present how I see Mormonism emerging over time toward a more dionysian and/or Abrahamic theo-philosophy:

Click image to enlarge

The image on the far left in the visual above is the book Radical Martyrdom and Cosmic Conflict in Early Christianity by Paul Middleton. A book I read that helped me see that the Gospels and most of the New Testament, are apocalyptic radical martyrdom texts. The next image is the book cover of The Dionysian Gospel, that shows how just as Mathew presents Jesus as a new and greater Moses, the writers of John’s Gospel portray Jesus as a new and greater Dionysus; in doing so some of the Dionysian mythos enters into the Christian tradition. Interestingly, Nietzsche spoke favorably of the Gospel of John for this reason.

 To represent the Book of Mormon, I presented a painting of Captain Moroni by Arnold Friberg. Note that a core theme of the Book of Mormon is one’s direct ascent to the throne-room of God, thus bypassing Protestant membership requirements, Creeds and Preachers’ alleged “authority.” This is very similar to the message of the Gospel of Thomas.

Next, in the image above I depict the image that Joseph Smith chose to depict God the Father, which is an image from the pagan Egyptian scrolls of a phallic deity representing sexual potency and fecundity.

Finally, I depicted Orson Hyde’s diagram of God’s Kingdom. This is a more dionysian kingdom of growth and becoming, via Abrahamic expansionism just as Life itself evolves through ascending hierarchical growth and expansion. As Abraham 3: 16 puts it, “If two things exist, and there be one above the other, there shall be greater things above them; …” Thus the Mormon restored gospel emerged out of being a more Apollonian structure with only an emphasis on “resting in the Lord” -- in a static Protestant heaven, and a focus only on utopian leveling -- and overtime moved more toward a dionysian becoming and a form of will to power.

In other words, Hyde's diagram signifies an ever increasing merit-based hierarchical expansion in manly enthronement as a form of will to power: rising upward in rank, growing in power and dominion dynastically: a compounding of power, kingdom upon kingdom, expanding the lineage of kings with an increase in acquired wealth, strength, status, friendships and relationships; as represented in each pronged section pointed upwards toward the crown. For more details on Orson Hyde’s diagram see here. So just as life itself is organic beings ordered by rank in hierarchies, the affirmation of hierarchy in later Nauvoo Era Mormonism, was the affirmation of life itself.

Understanding the Evolution of Ideas

Marcus Borg's book Evolution of the Word: A Chronological Look at the New Testament, is the popular NRSV translation but puts each New Testament document in chronological order. This helped me see a clear evolutionary development within the Christian communities, culminating in the emergence of the Gospel of John. This allowed me better appreciate a similar chronological evolution in Mormonism, from the early 1830s to the 1840s; for, Joseph Smith, as a midrashic artist himself, clearly evolved from a more Protestant mindset pre-1835, to a more Abrahamic Life-affirming mindset post-1835. Thus the title for this blog, the Emergent Mormon Perspective.

The Emergent Mormon Perspective embraces and applauds this evolution and sees Joseph Smith maturing overtime as a writer, thinker, and creative artist; with his Nauvoo Era Mormonism being the pinnacle of his more fully emerged and matured philosophical development: wherein he fully moved toward synthesizing science and biblical spirituality and affirming life in the body.