Posted on 09/09/2012 8:00:06 PM PDT by NorthernCrunchyCon
This work was originally published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 27, No. 3, Fall 1994, pp. 117-194. The paper received considerable notice, and in 1995 the Mormon History Association recognized Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection with its annual award for the best article in Mormon studies. [snip]
The one thing about which we might all agree concerning Joseph Smith is that he was not the usual sort of person. He did not approach life itself--or his religious commitment--in a usual way. Yet the character of our historical investigation of Joseph Smith and his times has been primarily traditional, unimaginative, and lacking in any effort to find or create an epistemological methodology revolutionary enough to deal with the paradox of our movement. The irony of our position is that many of our methods and interpretations have become so traditional that they can only reinforce the fears of yesterday rather than nurture the seeds of tomorrow's dreams.1
More than two decades have passed since those words were penned, years marked by a veritable explosion in Mormon studies, and yet Edward's challenge "to find or create an epistemological methodology revolutionary enough to deal with the paradox" of Joseph Smith remains a summons largely unanswered. Revolutions are painful processes, in measure both destructive and creative. The imaginative revisioning of Joseph Smith's "unusual approach" to life and religion, demands a careful--though perhaps still difficult and destructive--hewing away of an hundred years of encrusting vilifications and thick layerings of iconographic pigments, masks ultimately false to his lively cast. Smith eschewed orthodoxy, and so eventually must his historians. To that end, there is considerable value in turning full attention to the revolutionary view of Joseph Smith provided by Harold Bloom in his critique of The American Religion.
(Excerpt) Read more at gnosis.org ...
id lik to say, never mentiond Michael or Gabriel ur queston was “do you belive in angels”, I says “not lds angels”, whish is n answer to ur queston.
id olso like to thunk u for learng me, real good.
nise to no u r so lernd an can skool us all hear on FR, bout relign an all, and beeing the spelln and gramer polise .
Thanks Kenny. I’m a devout Christian, but even I have to admit that Christian apologetics when it comes to Mormonism can sometimes be embedded with sensationalism and polemic, and thus some discernment is necessary.
Thus the reason I feel this article makes such a strong case is that it was not written primarily for a Christian audience within a polemical apologetics context.
Rather, it was written by a scholar educated in Mormonism, for a Mormon academic/scholarly publication, where it was well-received, widely quoted favorably by Mormon scholars and academics, received an award for Mormon scholarship, and was then picked up for republication by arespected journal of gnostic/occultic religious movements in the English language. The extensive documentation and footnotes help too.
So fair to say, Joseph Smith Jr’s inspiration for Mormonism was likely found more in the occult than in Christianity.
Joseph Smith Jr’s inspiration for Mormonism was likely found more in the occult than in Christianity.
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Joey Smith was shooting for anything that was the opposite of Christianity...
he hated God and Christians...
Amongst his made up doctrines and his own rules for living he broke all 10 of the Ten Commandments...
For instance his d&c 132 is in direct violation of the Seventh Commandment You shall not commit adultery and yet Smith not only had sex with women under his wife’s own roof, he and later Brigham Young made doctrines so blasphemeous that they defy all sense of decency...
Thruout the Christian Bible are also warnings against practicing witchcraft. But the Smith family were deeply into the occult What better way to shake his fist in the face of the God he did not fear than to include the works of Satan in his religion?
Smith himself tells of the story of fimnding the “golden plates” but having to leave them there, anmd come back one night a year for several years to visit the spot but not to take them. Emma supposedly was with him on one of those occassions, however he did not allow her to get close enough to identify what he had hidden. She was not “worthy” enough to see it.
What he does not seem to explain is the fact that the date in September he mentions is a night when devils are said to show the place gold is hidden. It is also the Equinox, an important night for believers in the occult.
It is interesting that he would choose that particular night to include in his story of the “angel” appearing in his room and leading him to the “gold places” that were later supposedly “translated” into his book of mormon.
However as a man deeply involved in the occult since childhood, he would have known all the dates of the Satanic celebrations throughout the year and faithfully recognized each one along with his parents.
Smith remained an occultist all his life and died with his favorite Jupiter talisman in his pocket. That piece of metal had Satanic symbols to give him good luck and power over other people.
The article I read was about the 2008 Nevada caucuses and the 90% Mormon support for Romney. It was cited as a contrast to Reed. I do not have the article to refer you to. I should not have cited as fact, something that just came from memory or that may be outdated. I will be more careful in the future. Thank you.
Oh yes - please do!
SO.... if Smith picked up the word MORMON by extending the word MORMO, it was a very poor choice.
Does that 'reference' come from the Jews, Mormons, or Christians ?
Thank you.
True. But just because you didn't mention other 'angels', why can't you discuss them? Do you believe in Jewish(Hebrew) angels?
id olso like to thunk u for learng me, real good. nise to no u r so lernd an can skool us all hear on FR, bout relign an all, and beeing the spelln and gramer polise .
From the sublime to the ridiculous. I am glad to see you have a sense of humor.
SO.... is that why this THREAD showed up OUTSIDE of the RELIGION FORUM ?
Because when I look at the URL, it doesn't say "f-religion". It shows "http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2928792/posts?page=61"
Matthew 20:16
All I remember leading up to Angle vs. Reid was all this speculation about the LDS vote. Then the election comes and I don’t think anyone did any exit polling by religion, which is pretty weird considering the amount of speculating over it.
Freegards
Mormodonna? Mormadonna?
Some people think Mohammed read Kabbalah as well.
Mohamadonna?
Much like all the other nonsense Joseph Smith taught, like the Garden of Eden being in Jackson County, Missouri.
His wasn't the only theology that stated that. Although.... right now the Garden is pretty DRY.
I have decided this thing is a multi-billion-dollar money-making enterprise which relies on not letting the cash machine stop, lest people stop “tithing” and such.
The same can be said of most major 'religions'.
you nailed it there
when I was very young I belonged to a local church, I was pretty religious and after I had to get divorced I asked them about being able to get married in the church again- and they said “Oh no that’s terrible you can it’s against the church teachings.... but if you give us $400 we’ll take care of it”
That kind of opened my eyes a bit...
[in context] ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?Where is "being nice" mentioned in the above?
Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.
Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’
So the last will be first, and the first last.”
To paraphrase what you told svcw, you have a powerful computer in front of you, with spellchecker and 10,000 online Bibles and dictionaries, and yet you cannot find a valid reference to 'being nice' as a condition of entry into Heaven.
Therefore, in order for me to put any further credence into your religious statements, I would require that you do a thorough study of Christianity in contrast to various other religions and mythologies.
Get back to me when you're done.
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