Sunday, November 6, 2022

"Scripture Focused Mormonism" : Recommended Scriptures, Resources: websites, podcasts, and books, etc.

The Top Resources of Restoration Scripture (or Standard Works) through the Emergent Mormon Perspective and/or Smith-Hyde-Pratt Paradigm:



  • Book of Mormon (2013 Edition): I like how this version has Arnold Forsberg paintings of Nephites as masculine Viking looking heroes in the book. Yet it is an update to the 1981 Edition, with a new introduction stating that the people in the book are "among the ancestors of the Native Americans."

  • Doctrine & Covenants (1891 Edition): This version has Orson Pratt's verse system and his footnotes referencing his pamphlets like Absurdities of Immaterialism, and contains the original doctrine of the Lectures on Faith (which Joseph Smith himself edited and republished in the 1844 D&C).




  • Key to the Science of Theology by Parley P. Pratt, read by James Bleckley (by LibriVox Audiobooks), on YouTube). I don't agree with everthing Pratt writes (like the "spirit birth" doctrine), but I present this book more in terms of the psychological energy behind the words and its more body affirming theology; which reminds me of Nietszche's emphasis on affirming life. This affirmation of the body and biologocal life is a kind of biotheology, which I think is best experienced in the audio book version read by James Bleckley.

  • The Proclamation on the Family


Note that these editions below allows one to read the Scriptures of Restored Christianity through "fresh eyes," with less gloss, or without only the interpretations of the Brighamite sect, or any particular sect for that matter, affecting one's reading experience:

  

  • The Book of Mormon (Revised Authorized Version) by The Community of Christ (written more in plain english to better understand the text without the ye or thou, etc.). To buy as an ebook click here; free online here. Note: the verse numbers are different than the Utah-based LDS Church version.

  • Doctrine and Covenants (1844 Second Edition). This book is particularly important because Joseph Smith edited and revised this edition, which includes the monotheistic Lectures on Faith, which he published as doctrine in this book of scripture in the same year he gave the King Follet Discourse and the Sermon in the Grove. So those latter two sermons are best interpreted with the understanding that Joseph Smith republished the 1835 Lectures on Faith in scripture again in 1844, presenting them again as containing the important doctrines of salvation, which he signed his name to; thus further emphasizing their doctrinal authority.

  • Simply Scriptures: Great Online Search Engine of Restoration Scripture that is unaffiliated with the Brighamite sect.


These core Scriptures are interpreted through the Emergent Perspective and thus seeing a trajectory, line upon line, precept building upon lower layered precepts -- from the 1830 Book of Mormon and it's early layers of Edwardian Victorianism and the Platonism in much of early pre-1835 Restoration Scripture -- to then through greater light and knowledge, including Joseph studying Hebrew in 1835, there then emerges post 1835 a more physicalist spirituality and the affirmation of the body. At which point you get Joseph composing D&C sections 130 to 131 on spirit matter and the embodied sociality of the heavenly beings; the defining of priesthood as bodily seed in Abraham 2:11, the pro phallic image of God in Fascimile 7: Figure 2; the Happiness Letter and God's more "liberal views" on bodily sensuality as the pathway to joy and happiness, culminating in Parley P. Pratt's essay on Intelligence and Affection in 1844. Thus we find a pro-body theophilosophy emerging in the ongoing restoration for the 21st Century. Just as many philosophers and theologians have their earlier, less matured writings, and then there is later in time in their more mature writings later on. I see Joseph Smith going through a similar growth spiritually and philosophically. I see his more mature phase ocurring post 1835, that contains his more mature philosophizing and revelations that present a "spiritual physicalism" that affirms life and the body. This post 1835 upper philosophical layer is the interpretive lens through which I interpret all earlier pre 1835 Restoration Scripture. In other words, I begin with reading the upper layers (post 1835) and interpret the lower layers based on the more mature theophilosophy, just as Joseph Smith and Parley P. Pratt themselves did.


On a practical level, The Book of Mormon for me acts as a midrashic form of Muscular Christianity as American Apocrypha and at times provides the tactics of the warrior when necessary for self-defense, while seeking peace and the ideal of Zion; while esteeming your brother, sister and neighbor as thyself; emphasizing the development of healthy families for the good of society; and earning riches in order to do good instead of being like those for whom their treasure is their god. So that being business minded and focusing on wealth is righteous and holy as long as it's done in the spirit of not just enhancing your own well-being selfishly but that of others as well.


I see the 1844 Doctrine and Covenants as containing the true nature of Deity: as the only supreme being, which was the origional doctrine of The Lectures on Faith: see Lecture 2:2 and D&C 121:32 that mentions " ... the Council of the Eternal God [cf. Lecture 2:2] of all other [lesser] gods ..."


The Lectures on Faith are also practical by presenting faith as a principle of action, as a type of positive mental attitude and visualization technique toward growing in power and righteous dominion (or healthy souled expansion); which practice of seeing it and doing it is the nature of God and his creative power: as faith is a principle of action and God creates things visually in His mind before he creates it physically.


 The Lecture on Faith focuses the reader on imitation: imitating the character and attributes of God, just as Paul says to imitate him and Jesus says to imitate him by basically following him by walking in his footsteps as a Rabbi; thus completing the circle of imitation and a form of positive emotional contagion. Rather than the Traditions of the Elders and checking off boxes based rules-based religiosity and puritanical policies put in place by controlling personalities, causing the false dichotomy of the so-called "Worthy versus Unworthy," often resulting in an uppity holier than thou attitude; instead of it being about actual character formation and Zion creation; having an actual internal change of mind, soul, and attitude toward loving joy and unity; as you ideally have a luminous change in your countenance in imitation of the positive energy of Christ and his shining face of joy; who is depicted in Restoration Scripture as repeatedly smiling opon his disciples.


New Testament Translations I recommend:


For the Best Bibles (and New Testament Translations) I personally recommend see here. 

In brief, first I recommend The Remedy (2nd Edition) by Timothy R. Jennings. It's a paraphrase of the New Testament, rephrasing the gospel as "the remedy" to heal spiritual-sickness, providing loving healing; which matches well with the book I recommend, The Christ Who Heals by Terryl and Fiona Givens. 


Second, I recommend The Evolution of the Word by Marcus Borg, which presents the New Testament in chronological order; which supports my emergent paradigm. 

Finally, The Unvarnished New Testament: A New Translation From The Original Greek by Andy Gaus. I like this translation because it removes all the sectarian translator's distortions and the glossing or varnishing of the origional words with later Catholic and Protestant dogma. For example, instead of reading Holy Ghost you will read Holy Breath, as the word spirit in Greek means wind or breath. Thus, translating it more literally as breath returns one's mind to the original more physicalistic meaning of receiving a wind-like fluid substance that one then breathes out (as Jesus did onto his disciples); as it is not of the fluids or food you take in that spiritually pollutes your soul, but the type of spiritual breath you breathe out in words and deeds that pollutes you. So that meditating on one's in and out breath can be a great spiritual  meditation technique for focusing on your internal state and thus reducing stress as also a visualization exercise. 

The term angel in the origional Greek means "messenger," thus removimg the visual of angels with wings, etc.; and instead of the word "sin" you will read words like "mistakes." This removes the Augustinian gloss that gets in the wave of understanding the origional meaning of the text.

For more details and links to these translations to read for free online or purchase see here.

Notable mentions:



What My Reconstructed Emergent LDS "Standard Works" does for me as a Source of Relational-Spirituality:


What I realized while restructuring my Restored Christian lifestance, was that my reconstruction required completely changing nearly everything I once believed and considered doctrine and even scripture. For example ...


The Record of the Nephites


Following the example of another Restoration sect, I began thinking in terms of the Book of Mormon as The Record of the Nephites (and often calling it that instead) which caused me to think in term of keeping records, as sacred scripture acts as a record of past cultures engraven on your conscience as a form of ethically collective metamind: as you are absorbing the collective wisdom of past ethical cultures that provide their collected virtues, values and principles: based on good traditions (collective habits) that act as the wiser path in contrast to bad traditions that cause societal decay; and how good traditions as good ideas and relational philosophies produces positive generational contagion (rather than negative generational contagion).

The Lectures as The Doctrine

I began to rethink The Doctrine & Covenants, by learning that The Lectures on Faith are the original Doctrine, which are all about imitating the character and attributes of the Deity in order to experience deification (see Lecture #7) after receiving a "fullness" of the breath-like divine fluid energy (see Lecture #5). Understanding the origional doctrine of The Lectures on Faith, I began to study other Restoration groups and began to understand that the Record of the Nephites is not just a cautionary tale about the Nephites being unable to overcome their prejudices; but is also a guide to personal transformation by mystically ascending to the throne of God and visualizing the face of God. For me this means for me "theologically," the understanding that it is only through the merits of Christ and being perfected in Christ (recieving the divine "fulness" described in Lecture 5) that one experiences the empowering energy and entrance into the throne room of God (without any human gatekeeper impeding your way); and that rather than the Augustinian and Calvinist understanding of things, leading to a gloomy face or countenance, one is freed from stifling dogmatic legalism and one is instead liberated through grace. One is then more ready to experience seeing God, or visualizing God, through the face of Christ : as a smiling face of joyful radiant energy that like sunrays burns away unhealthy guilt and shame and low self-worth and fills one with with a healthy pride as an enlightened son or daughter of God. Thus realizing the gospel is not a message of endless-rules and gloomy piety but an easier way and simple plan of happiness; for Adam fell that mankind might be and we are that we might have joy.

So the Record of the Nephites became for me an empowering source for feeling loved by God by thinking of Christ as a smiling joyful presence and a source of healing and happiness. The origional understanding of the doctrine of Restored Scripture led me to begin doing exercises like visualizing being filled with Divine Love as a shining light or a luminous fluid substance filling me with joy; symbolized in Lehi's Dream of a shining tree of shining fruit: which symbolizes one's deification through having the Tree of Life grow within you (see Alma 32) and thus one having a metaphorical skin of glowing brightness: becoming like "shining lights in the sky" as "the sons of God," as Paul puts it in Philippians 2:15. So this metaphorical language of skins or a countenance as bright lights like shining fruit peelings, like the stars in the sky, began to make sense of Lecture 2:2 and the Deity as "the Father of lights." As the restored gospel is about producing the sons (and daughters) of the Light, as an expansion of God's Divine Council: to include humans who have been divinized to become sons/daughters of God (as shining lights like luminous stars in the sky). So this understanding of imitating the character and attributes of God in the Lectures, and the Record of the Nephites as a mystical "Ascension text" toward deification and visualizing the smiling face of a joyful Christ, and faith as "a principle of action" (Lecture #1), combined with Jonathon Mitchell's essay on God's Garden; all led to the realization that it's not about rigid rules and policies and checking off legalistic boxes to appear perfect and "worthy" (for example, the Word of Wisdom was not given by commandment nor constraint), and it's not about the outward pious appearance and what goes into your body, but what comes out of your body in the form of what you communcate and how you treat people, as Jesus put it. So it's about being truly transformed by realizing you are ideally reborn with the Deity's character and attributes, like downloaded software; and by feasting on the words of Scripture you are ethically reprograming yourself toward esteeming your neighbour as yourself; and are to ideally express your appreciation for being exalted and made worthy in Christ through his merits alone, despite your best efforts. Thus receiving that in breath of divinity (the divine genome) and exhaling words of unifying love and acts of care and generosity as an expression of your gratitude for the divine gift of Abundant Life (see John 10:10).


So for me, Restoration Scripture is American Apocrypha, an addition to the biblical texts in the Bible, just like the Apocrypha in the Catholic Bible is not contained in Protestant Bibles; as the Smith-Pratt Restoration's Apocrypha has a rich reservoir of inspiring metaphors and symbolism for any Christian.


To Summarize:


  •  Everything changes when you re-examine LDS Scripture from outside seeing things only through the Salt Lake Church paradigm. You start to see the practical empowering "energy" of original LDS Scripture as motivating and inspiring (at least it is for me). For example consider seeing Restoration Scripture through these titles:


    • The Record of the Nephites (See the last minute of this YouTube video to understand the title): This title helps us focus on the Nephites as a culture, and their rise and fall as a People; it's a record of healthy and spiritually bright cultures and an unhealthy and gloomy cultures, and how a good and thriving cultures can become bad (rotten) and whither (decay) through destructive viral traditions that lead to endless disputes and contentiousness from hate-filled resentment leading to a downward spiral into cultural decay and unhappiness from what I call negative generational contagion. 

    • The Book of Commandments: This makes one realize the Restoration Movement was an active movement of directives by a Divine Commander to build Zion. For the Bible makes it clear that God is Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. So it's not a "hippie" pacifistic meditation group here, but an active energetic movement. The goal is peace (Shalom) and Zion but this is achieved through action. As today's Doctrine and Covenants 33:8 puts it, "Open your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even as Nephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness." Note the emboldening "energy" of being like Nephi as an example of courage in action. As Nephi himself argued in 1 Nephi 4:1–2:

      And it came to pass that I spake unto my brethren, saying: Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands? Therefore let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh did follow and were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea. 
  • The Lectures on Faith: The original doctrine of Mormonism were these theological Lectures and herein "faith" is defined as the "principle of action." The Lectures aim to teach the attributes of Deity with the goal to know and imitate God and grow toward full deification and enthroned power to dominion (see Lecture 7). 

Additional Recommended Reading & Listening:


The following are websites and books related to the Scripture Focused Movement in Mormonism:

Note that I do not necessarily agree with all the interpretations and positions presented in each of these blogs, book or websites and movements.



The Lectures on Faith & Reform Doctrine & Covenants:


I recommend these two books below for their simplicity in presenting the uniqueness of Mormon Philosophy & Theology. "The Reform Mormon D&C" below also includes key sections of the Pearl of Great Price; hence, its a great summary and primer of the best of Mormonism. 


  • A Compilation Containing the Lectures on faith (1940 Edition), published by N.B. Lundwall. This document is important because it's a snapshot in time showing the change in theology away from the original doctrine of the one supreme Deity of Lecture 2:2, and and the man-made doctrines of Brigham Young and the "spirit birth" dogma; leading to James Talmage reconstructing Joseph Smith's origional theology in 1916 which led to the removal of the origional doctrine (the Lectures on Faith) from the Standard Works. For example, see the added excerpt on page 47 and how page 53 states: "Note:—That which follows has been added only in this compilation and, of course, is not part of the Lectures on Faith as originally delivered in Kirtland. Further light was revealed to the Prophet subsequent to the giving of these Lectures, as will be noted by the quotations following." However, some of that "revealed light" did not come from Joseph Smith at all, but was made up by Brigham Young with his Adam as God dogma; and so later James Talmage, in 1916, basically made up a Godhead (not found in Restoration Scripture) where Jehovah was not the Father (yet D&C 109 clearly presents Jehovah as the Father). LDS scholar Blake Ostler, for his part, has attempted to return to the original doctrine and theology of LDS Scripture: where there is only one original Deity (as a Lecture 2:2 clearly teaches).

The 1830 Edition of The Book of Mormon


I recommend this because of its unbiased and objective presentation; and according to the introduction: "This edition, published in 1840, was the last of three revisions undertaken by Joseph Smith Jr., the author/ translator of the book, before his death in 1844. There have been numerous revisions since that time, but this edition most closely approximates Smith’s final concept of the text" (Loc 138). 


I also recommend this version because the introduction by Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp is a fair and honest summary of the beginning events of Mormonism; which is good for both the Mormon and never-been-a-Mormon to read. There is another 1840 version recommended in one of the lists below. I recommend this version because it presents The Book of Mormon in more of a novel style format (in paragraphs), not segmented into short numbered scriptural verses (as in other editions), which is how the original looked. As professor Maffly-Kipp explains regarding the 1840 edition, "the text as Smith left it upon his death in 1844 was formatted more like a novel than like contemporaneous versions of the Holy Bible. He intended it to be read as an accessible chronicle, a record of vanished peoples" (Loc 261). I think this is important in order to experience the Book of Mormon for the first time; so as not to read it only intellectually, bracketing sections and paragraphs off into tidy citations and for referencing it by verse; but instead as an all encompassing experience like reading a novel; and thus better experiencing it as a grand sweeping story of cultures rising and falling, with a core message of recognizing the cultural ideal of spiritual liberation, empowerment, and joy through authentic Christianity.


Professor Maffly-Kipp, further adds in the intro:

The Book of Mormon does not dictate lifestyle traits or health codes, nor does it educate readers about priesthood hierarchy, ordinances for the dead, esoteric rites, or eternal marriages. The Book of Mormon is, first of all, a story of ancient peoples ... The story contained within the book transports readers to a new imaginative realm ... it is a fascinating tale well worth reading for a number of reasons ... the Nephite story ... furnishes [a] morality tale demonstrating the power of faithfulness and enjoining readers to obey the commands of God or risk the fate of past civilizations. ... the Book of Mormon could be read as a sacred drama of the Americas that correlated with biblical accounts of early human history, verifying the importance of both texts. [It placed] the Americas squarely at the center of future prophecies, subsuming it within a larger providential story. ... What makes this book most remarkable, however, is not simply its complicated chronicling of valiant but doomed societies. Its full historical importance and enduring power reside in the layering of meanings ... and connections to biblical history asserted within the text ... 

(Loc 147-200, 323). 


 Next I recommend these other  editions of LDS Scripture that seek to be true to the original edition, and also versions of The Book of Mormon in Plain English; and a good non-KJV New Testament Translation (specifically for Mormons), as well as The Joseph Smith Translation (showing the changes Smith made to the KJV), and finally a really good Scripture Search Engine, etc., all listed below:



Online Mormon Scriptures from the Remnant Fellowship (aka Restoration Movement):



Recommended Books & Pamphlets that provide alternative Perspectives from the Brighamite Branch:








  • 95 Theses by Ogden Kraut (note: Again, as noted above, I do not support or endorse everything in this document but there is enough good material that I recommend it)






YouTube Channels & Podcasts:



Mormon Rescue (taken down as of 4/21/2023)


Uncorrelated Mormonism


Restoration Archives


Iron Rod podcast


Websites:
(About The Church Handbook of Instructions and Thinking on Your Own)
at