Comments on: Telling the stories of the Church’s history https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2017/01/telling-the-stories-of-the-churchs-history/ Truth Will Prevail Sun, 05 Aug 2018 23:56:25 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 By: Clark Goble https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2017/01/telling-the-stories-of-the-churchs-history/#comment-540399 Wed, 01 Feb 2017 22:54:11 +0000 http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=36195#comment-540399 FarSide, I think the problem there is expectations people have of the institution. Many don’t tend to see it as an infirmary run by the infirmed. So they create unrealistic expectations for how revelation works and how teaching works. As Ben said it’s those expectations that are the problem.

]]> By: FarSide https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2017/01/telling-the-stories-of-the-churchs-history/#comment-540398 Wed, 01 Feb 2017 22:43:26 +0000 http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=36195#comment-540398 Ben, a problem arises when the institution portrays its history and the evolution of its doctrines in a way that creates expectations that are unrealistic and then reverses course once it loses control of its narrative because other voices reveal inconvenient truths about the institution’s past. I agree that you will never be disillusioned if you are never “illusioned” in the first place. What is truly damaging to faith, however, is discovering that the institution in which you placed your trust has told you something less than the truth.

]]> By: Clark Goble https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2017/01/telling-the-stories-of-the-churchs-history/#comment-540389 Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:55:49 +0000 http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=36195#comment-540389 I think that’s completely accurate Ben.

]]> By: Chet https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2017/01/telling-the-stories-of-the-churchs-history/#comment-540385 Wed, 01 Feb 2017 01:08:05 +0000 http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=36195#comment-540385 Thanks for posting the link to the Bitton article. I read it for the first time and appreciated it immensely !!

]]> By: Ben https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2017/01/telling-the-stories-of-the-churchs-history/#comment-540324 Sun, 29 Jan 2017 01:38:27 +0000 http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=36195#comment-540324 Nice review. Davis Bitton framed it this way.
“What’s potentially damaging or challenging to faith depends entirely, I think, on one’s expectations, and not necessarily history. Any kind of experience can be shattering to faith if the expectation is such that one is not prepared for the experience…. the problem is the incongruity between the expectation and the reality.”
See http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2004-fair-conference/2004-i-dont-have-a-testimony-of-the-history-of-the-church

]]> By: Dave https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2017/01/telling-the-stories-of-the-churchs-history/#comment-540315 Fri, 27 Jan 2017 19:48:03 +0000 http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=36195#comment-540315 Nice review, David. I might summarize the tension Arrington experienced as follows: Historians view LDS history as a specialized field of history. LDS leaders view LDS history as a specialized field of apologetics. Result: LDS historians now have more credibility than LDS leaders.

I have, however, come around to seeing the failure of the Arrington project (of writing and publishing LDS historical books from within) as not such a bad thing. Better that historians employed by the Church focus on documentary projects like the JS Papers Project and the Revelations in Context material posted to support this year’s Sunday School curriculum, leaving the publishing of historical books for the LDS reader to those working outside the formal boundaries of the LDS Church.

]]> By: Wally https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2017/01/telling-the-stories-of-the-churchs-history/#comment-540309 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 16:38:30 +0000 http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=36195#comment-540309 Nice review. Thanks. Dang, another book to add to my already too-long list.

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