Today in the language class I ran out of time while talking about Meister Eckhart and other mystics and how they describe the experience they had with whatever they have experienced. I had planned to end the discussion by bringing up some ideas from an article I once published in Sunstone Magazine that have to do with the First Vision of Joseph Smith so important to Mormons. Smith wrote four different versions of what he saw/felt/heard, each one quite different from the others. There's a way that authenticates the experience as being with an absolutely other being. The human being struggles to make sense of the overwhelming experience and the inadequacies of language.
If you are interested further, you can find a bad copy of the whole essay at this address:
http://research.uvsc.edu/abbott/Publications/
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
postmodernism and revelation: will we find zion or make it
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2 comments:
Thanks for posting this Scott! I'll read it and tell you what I think.
Scott, this quote on By Common Consent made me think of your essay, and I wonder what you think of it:
“Do not be idolatrous about, or bound to, any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. All systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.”
--Nhat Hanh (a Buddhist monk)
I think there's a lot that can be learned from that quote in modern Mormonism.
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