My friend John Williams asked at Mormon Discussions, "What do you find compelling about Mormonism?" It's a great question, and I thought I'd take a crack at it here. For clarity's sake, I've broken this down into three different senses of the word "compelling".
Mormonism is appealing to me for these reasons:
1) harmonization of biblical exclusivism with a more satisfying universalism
2) continuing revelation and the idea of an open canon
3) strong family and community support structures
4) experiential basis
Mormonism is interesting to me for these reasons:
1) the mystery (what made Joseph Smith tick?)
2) the weirdness (what can I say, I love sci-fi)
3) the psychology (the ways members cope with very real difficulties)
4) the potential (i.e., to become a major global faith)
Mormonism is convincing to me for these reasons:
1) a fair degree of biblical, early church, and ancient Jewish support for its "fringe" theological views
2) some reasonably persuasive arguments for Book of Mormon Hebraisms and the like
5 comments:
you know of any decent books about mormonism for research?
Hi Frank,
Mormon America by Richard and Joan Ostling is a very good introductory text. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Bushman is pretty essential as well.
Happy reading!
-Chris
Great post, Chris. A lot of these would make my own list on the matter as well.
I second Mormon America as a recommended introductory text to Mormonism.
Great way of looking at this Chris. I'll be mulling over these for a while...
What do you find frustrating or incomplete, or illogical (I guess that's three different questions) about Mormonism?
Hi Jacob,
Great question. On my short list would have to be,
1) misleading apologetics (not the Church's fault, really, but widespread nonetheless)
2) misleading public relations tactics by the Brethren (Prop 8 and the September 6 being notable examples)
3) insularity of the culture (lack of respect for cultural and intellectual diversity and dissent)
Those are the things about Mormonism that annoy me, but obviously none of them invalidates the Church's truth claims. In terms of the biggest truth-problem with Mormonism, I'd say some combination of the Book of Abraham, polygamy, and the anachronistic Bible use in the Book of Mormon.
Peace,
-Chris
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