Heavenly Ascents » Mormon

Kevin Christensen on Margaret Barker’s Research

David Larsen — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:13:44 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in a post on ancient Israelite religious reforms that Kevin Christensen had written a lot on that subject, but that the site that I was used to going to for links to his articles seemed to have some broken links. I was just recently made aware that all the links to Kevin Christensen’s many articles and papers covering this topic, including, especially, Old Testament scholar Margaret Barker’s research are now up and running — and all at one convenient, accessible location over at Howard Hopkins’ website, www.thinlyveiled.com. Christensen is an LDS author who is well known for his pioneering efforts to (successfully) introduce Margaret Barker’s writings to the LDS community and for demonstrating how her research is of great value to Mormon studies. For anyone who likes Margaret Barker, or for anyone who has any interest at all in the ancient temple, the place of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, how the prophecies of Joseph Smith fit in with biblical studies, and how this all relates to Mormon apologetics, I highly recommend you take a look at Kevin Christensen’s enlightening works (indeed, most probably have already, but they are always worth another look).

Plain and Precious Things Restored: Why Margaret Barker Matters

Plain and Precious Things Restored: Spiritual Blindness

Plain and Precious Things Restored: Margaret Barker and Josiah’s Reform

Plain and Precious Things Restored: Margaret Barker and Wisdom

Plain and Precious Things Restored: Margaret Barker and the Queen of Heaven

Plain and Precious Things Restored: Jesus and the Temple Tradition

Margaret Barker’s Understanding of Jesus Christ

Margaret Barker on Christmas: The Original Story

The Temple, the Monarchy, and Wisdom: Lehi’s World and the Scholarship of Margaret Barker

Nephi, Wisdom, and the Deuteronomist Reform

Jacob’s Connections to First Temple Traditions

The Deuteronomist De-Christianizing of the Old Testament

A Response to Paul Owen’s Comments on Margaret Barker

The complete text of Paradigms Regained: A Survey of Margaret Barker’s Scholarship and Its Significance for Mormon Studies

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For a complete set of links to Kevin Christensen’s articles on Margaret Barker as well as related papers from other LDS authors, plus links to .PDF files, please see http://www.thinlyveiled.com/kchristensen.htm.

New Temple Video Series: Part 1 — Sacred Space

David Larsen — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:57:53 +0000

As part of my effort to create some helpful videos discussing topics of interest here on Heavenly Ascents, I’ve teamed up with David Tayman from Visions of the Kingdom to present a series of videos illustrating the nature, function, doctrines, and ritual of the ancient Temple, in a manner that will be especially of interest to those desiring to understand the connection with modern Latter-day Saint Temples.

The first installment of this series of videos discusses the theme of Sacred Space.

This video is presented on my Heavenly Ascents YouTube channel as well as on David Tayman’s Visions of the Kingdom YouTube channel.

The great visuals, music, and animation of this video are thanks to David Tayman’s technical genius and I am grateful to be working with him on these productions!

“The Temple as a Place of Ascent to God” — Bryce Haymond’s Notes From the Daniel Peterson Fireside

David Larsen — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:38:05 +0000

Bryce Haymond over at www.templestudy.com has posted his notes from Dr. Daniel Peterson’s fireside Sunday on “The Temple as a Place of Ascent to God.” This, of course, is one of my favorite topics and I really wish I could have been there to hear Dr. Peterson speak. Bryce, however, has taken some incredible notes accompanied by some awesome diagrams and images that are the next best thing to being there.

According to Bryce’s notes, Dr. Peterson touched on very important and exciting topics, including:

Ascent Stories
Mountains of the Lord
Temple Worthiness
Temple Structure
Temple as Garden of Eden
Washings/Anointings
Veils

I won’t elaborate here, but rather will direct you to take a look at Bryce’s great post at the following link:

http://www.templestudy.com/2009/07/15/temple-place-ascent-god-notes-dr-petersons-fireside/#more-1677

Items of Interest

David Larsen — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:13:36 +0000

Oldest Known Bible Goes Online

LONDON, England (CNN) — The world’s oldest known Christian Bible goes online Monday — but the 1,600-year-old text doesn’t match the one you’ll find in churches today.

The Codex also includes much of the Old Testament adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians.

Discovered in a monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago, the handwritten Codex Sinaiticus includes two books that are not part of the official New Testament and at least seven books that are not in the Old Testament.

The New Testament books are in a different order, and include numerous handwritten corrections — some made as much as 800 years after the texts were written, according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bible online. The changes range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences.

And some familiar — very important — passages are missing…

This article is from CNN.com and I don’t really agree with everything it says, but if you want to read more, see here.

The official website for the project is here.

Literature on Early Christian Priesthood

The FAIR Blog has a great post by Keller listing some of the best resources available on the internet regarding early Christian priesthood history and structure. He provides links to a large number of articles and presentations that have been given by LDS scholars on the topic. Much thanks to “Keller” for putting this valuable information together!

You can see the post here.

The Body is Not a Prison

MormonTimes.com has a nice story on how Mormonism opposes the common religious idea that the body is a prison for the spirit or that the body is evil. Author Michael De Groote explains:

The body is depraved. It is the center of sin. It is a prison.

At least that is how the body was viewed by some philosophers and Protestants, according to Benjamin Park, a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh, who spoke at the Mormon Scholars Foundation Summer Seminar on July 2 at BYU.

Park said Parley Pratt helped articulate the Mormons’ “radically optimistic” view of the body. This view developed as doctrines were revealed by Joseph Smith and then explained by Pratt.

Mainstream 19th century Christians “always separated the soul from its corporeal body,” Park said. The soul was the “immaterial human spirit,” the body “a temporary shelter.” Joseph Smith taught both spirit and body must be joined together to be a soul.

Pratt contemplated the nature of death while in Liberty Jail. He wrote about how matter was eternal in scope — an idea later declared by Joseph Smith, who took it even further than Pratt: “(T)he spirit is a substance; that it is material, but that it is more pure … and refined matter than the body.”

To read the whole article, go here.

I have thought a lot about this subject from time to time, as the idea that the body is evil is a very ancient idea that turns up in many cultures and religions, including many Greek religions, Gnosticism, and in many ascetic traditions. It is a most unfortunate trend, in my opinion, that doesn’t represent more ancient religious thought.

New Mormon Gateway at Patheos.com

Religious website Patheos.com has a new Mormon Gateway that provides numerous cool stories and links that would be of interest to the LDS audience and those interested in learning more about the LDS church. The site is put together by Ben Spackman, a BYU graduate who has done graduate work in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. I have met Ben and spoken with him on a few occasions and can’t think of a better guy to have been chosen to put together this wonderful site!

New BYU Project on High-Tech Imaging of Ancient Texts

The Ancient Textual Imaging Group, based at Brigham Young University is becoming very well-known for their high-tech photographing and digitizing of ancient religious texts.

Read about their latest project here.