It is my honor and pleasure to bring you, with his permission, the full text of Frederick M. Huchel’s presentation at the recent UK Temple Studies Group symposium, entitled “The Cosmic Ring-Dance of the Angels: An Early Christian Rite of the Temple.” Prefacing the presentation are some words of introduction by Frederick Huchel, himself, followed by an abstract of the paper. Below these you will find a link to a .pdf file of the presentation. Many thanks to Bro. Huchel for allowing me to post his excellent paper on my site. –David Larsen
Introductory Comments
Having known Margaret Barker for some years, I have a great appreciation for her groundbreaking work in Biblical study. I have been particularly interested in the way that her work provides elucidation for our own Latter-day Saint scriptures, and the Restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith (See my explanation of the importance of Dr. Barker’s work to Latter-day Saints in my review of her recent book Temple Themes in Christian Worship, published under the title “Antecedents of the Restoration in the Ancient Temple” in The FARMS Review, Volume 21, Number 1 [2009]). I was honored and humbled to be asked to discuss the ancient temple circle dance at Symposium II of the Temple Studies Group at historic Temple Church in London in May, 2009. I saw this as a great opportunity, especially a unique opportunity to introduce Joseph Smith and the Restoration to a new group of open-minded and intellectually generous scholars, in a context that would have resonance with them, from the background of their own traditions.
I found them to be a most gracious, polite, warm, and cordial body of believing Christians of many faiths, and Jews, interested in understanding the tradition of the temple, back to Solomon. We felt most welcome, and the reaction of those with whom I spoke afterwards was altogether positive.
I am pleased to have David Larsen, who attended the symposium, post the text of my presentation on his website. –Frederick M. Huchel
The Cosmic Ring-Dance of the Angels
An Early Christian Rite of the Temple
Frederick M. Huchel
Abstract
In examining what can be reconstructed of the liturgy of the First Temple, and its apparent restoration in early Christianity, no loss can be more significant – or more poignant – than the loss of the sacred choral ring dance of prayer, which was seen to mirror the cosmic circle dance of the concourses of angels, in their concentric heavenly spheres – a dance which had the effect of opening up a conduit, from the Holy of Holies, up through the planetary spheres, to unfold a view of God Most High upon his celestial throne, in the highest Heaven, as chronicled in the experiences of such ancient prophets as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the apostle John on Patmos.
The experiences of Joseph Smith, from his initial theophany to his translation of the experiences of Lehi and the Lord Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon, to the Pentecostal experiences surrounding the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in 1836, combine with his restoration of the ancient circle of prayer to bolster our understanding of the Biblical record, and provide a greater understanding of this ancient rite of the Temple.
Click Here for the Full Text of the Presentation
6 Comments
This is very worthwhile information. But, one should also ask, Why a ring-dance? Why not a simple line-dance, as is popular in some quarters today? What does a ring-dance have in common with the May Pole dance and the Native American circle-dance? These are traditions that nearly all cultures have in common. Since each of these is associated with the “cosmic circle” in their various incarnations, we must ask what they have in common. What is their origin? What do they have in common with circular cult centers, such as Stonehenge and the Native American kiva? It is in answering those questions that true discovery begins.
Anthony E. Larson: I have appreciated Brother Huchel’s excellent scholarship for nearly 40 years. I assure you that “true discovery,” as you call it, began for him many, many years ago.
I just wanted to make a comment in response to Br. Larson. I appreciate your desire that we understand the background behind the ring-dance. Surely there is a similar root and reason behind the various manifestations of this phenomenon. I do believe that, although the ultimate source of the dance is not his focus, Br. Huchel presents some very satisfying answers to this question in his paper. He goes into quite a lot of detail, actually, about how this is done in imitation of the angels in heaven who dance in this way around Christ or the throne of God. This ritual is reminiscent of the revolutions of the planets around the Sun in their concentric spheres. I thought his explanation of how the ancients would have had a geocentric perspective was very helpful –and that this would have shaped their performance of these rituals.
I really appreciate Br. Huchel’s treatment of these topics — it just made so much sense. Again, while I don’t suspect that Br. Huchel was attempting to give a full explanation of the origins of the cosmic ring-dance in this presentation, he has provided many answers and the most broad and compelling discourse on the matter I have seen.
David – An excellent paper pulling together many traditions! Last week I started a post about the Music or Harmony of the Spheres based on Joseph Smith’s poetic rendition of D&C 76 (see Inspirational Poetry. I posted a draft to my blog a few days ago and then today came across your post of Mr. Huchel’s paper. Thank you for posting this. I would love to know if we can obtain the full paper 100 page paper. Would you mind inquiring if that is possible? Thank you and congratulations on your master’s degree!
Oh, and BTW – what does “canalis mundi” translate? I couldn’t find any references to it by googling that phrase?
Having known Bro. Huchel for some years, and having been exposed to several of his exhaustive presentations, you have to know when one listens to him one is drinking from deep waters. Because of a lack of time at the Temple Symposium, he was not able to elucidate on many of the topics that others have commented on above. This cosmic ring dance paper could help many Mormons with their understanding of one facet of their worship in the Temples of the LDS Church.
Thank you Greg and Greg Oman for your comments. Sorry for the delayed response. Greg, thanks for the link to your awesome post. I never knew D&C 76 was meant to be poetic! I would love to see Br. Huchel’s longer paper, as well — he is looking to get it published, so it looks like he isn’t releasing it to the public as of yet. And “canalis mundi” seems to mean the canal/channel of the worlds — a pathway that can be opened up from the earth that travels through the various worlds up to the throne of God. If anyone has a better definition, please let us know.
Greg Oman — yeah, I’m sure there is much more Br. Huchel could tell us on this topic –we all look forward to seeing the longer paper published!
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