Adam Miller's essay on 'theoscatology' (use your Latin roots for that one) had really insightful points about the nature of mortality, once you get over the ridiculousness of the topic. It makes it clear that it's not clear, that it isn't *just* a symbolic tale with a metaphorical protagonist or a concrete history about a real person, but some blending of the two. At the end of her essay, I came to the conclusion that the inability of the fall story to be simplified is what makes it important and true to me as a believer, a foundational mythos worth thinking over and returning to again and again.īen Spackman's close analysis of the naming conventions in Genesis 2-3 was a good follow-up to what I'd previously read about the concept. We can be quite glib about this idea, acting like the book of Moses solves all the problems of the Genesis story, but Smith really digs in and shows how basically all readings of the fall (positive, neutral, negative) are problematic. I particularly loved Julie M Smith's 'Paradoxes in Paradise,' which delves into the complications of the Mormon doctrine of the fortunate fall. I don't know that this is the particular fault of the essayists but perhaps of the reader. Some of the essays were definitely more striking to me than others. I love the idea of a deep reading of scripture, going through one or two chapters and giving them the thought and weight they deserve.

You will not be disappointed with this gem of a book! These tools have greatly enhanced my personal studies over the last decade. More importantly, the book will help you learn tools and techniques that you can apply to your own personal reading of the scriptures. Spencer piggybacks off of Miller's essay with his own creative look on the Book of Mormon's phrase 'and it came to pass.' Spackman brings the clouds, Welch brings the wind and lightening, Faulconer brings the eye, and Wendt closes the book with the warm rays.Įach essay is unique and will add more depth and understanding to the familiar Eden story. We are brightly burning engines of decomposition' could reform the way I view the partaking of fruit, and the ordinary mundane task that we all pass through everyday (hopefully.). Most notable is Miller's 'theoscatology.' Who would've thought that 'We are, in truth, waking colonies of compost. These holes cause us to expand our reading of the text and view it through a new lens.

Smith starts the book off with a banger of an essay that pikes holes in the Eve and the wise choice theory. This book is a prime example of what this group was possible of creating (I feel some of the magic was lost when it was incorporated into Maxwell Institute). This was the first time that I got tee see them organically grow their ideas together, and to deepen one another's studies through a shared experience. At the time, the group was currently working on this text (weird that it took many years later to publish?).

This caused me to browse their blog for further works. I instantly fell in love with the Alma 32 book. I caught wind of the Mormon Theology group when they published their first three works (they were on a stand at the front of Pioneer Book, when that store went through its awkward teenage phase of moving to Orem and changing its name).

Adam s miller