There is no question that we are living during a time in the world that is unlike any other. Brought on by the dawning of the information age, and especially the rise of the Internet and ever-increasing access to it and all the social media and other technologies it has hatched, it is no wonder that societies, cultures, religions, and we ourselves have been thrust into major growing pains–some of which are here ahead of our collective and individual maturity to manage easily as all of it has disrupted our previous comfort levels. Luckily, we have the records of previous major societal upheavals that we can gather lessons from them, with one of them being the good news of major shifts in consciousness that follow in the decades after.
In this episode, Caleb Jones, an information engineer, joins LDF host Dan Wotherspoon to talk about many aspects of this time of flux. Caleb keys in on the “Second Great Awakening” that brought forth so much societal change, including the birthing of many religions such a Mormonism. He draws parallels from it and other “Awakenings” to help elucidate the present, especially regarding trends in Mormonism and individual Latter-day Saint lives. In all of this, he and Dan raise questions (and propose tentative thoughts) that can be important guides for our own soul work. May it serve you well in this way as you listen in!
Links to things mentioned in this episode:
B.H. Roberts quotation cited by Caleb Jones:
“I believe “Mormonism” affords opportunity for disciples of the second sort: nay, that its crying need is for such disciples. It calls for thoughtful disciples who will not be content with merely repeating some of the truths, but will develop the truths; and enlarge it by that development. Not half–not one-hundredth part–not a thousandth part of that which Joseph Smith revealed to the church has yet been unfolded, either to the church or to the world. The work of the expounder has scarcely begun. The Prophet planted by teaching the germ-truths of the great dispensation of the fulness of times. The watering and weeding is going on, and God is giving the increase, and will give it more abundantly in the future as more intelligent discipleship shall obtain. The disciples of “Mormonism,” growing discontented with the necessarily primitive methods which have hitherto prevailed in sustaining the doctrine, will yet take profounder and broader views of the great doctrines committed to the Church; and, departing from mere repetition, will cast them in new formulas; cooperating in the works of the Spirit, until they help to give to the truths received a more forceful expression and carry it beyond the earlier and cruder stages of development.”
“Is the World Getting Worse,” Mormon Matters podcast episode 070 (January 2012)
Charles R. Harrell, This Is My Doctrine: The Development of Mormon Theology (Greg Kofford Books, 2011)