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[p.xi] This book is about religious ideas. Our objective is to explore the landscape of our religion and to share our discoveries with others, who like us struggle with the primary questions of life, who find themselves thinking about divinity and humanity, good and evil, justice and mercy, male and female, substance and form, the sacred and the secular. This is not a systematic theology, nor is it reflective of mainstream Mormon thought. We do not provide complete discussions of or final answers to the questions we address here. Rather, our approach is personal and subjective. In these chapters we invite further discussion and reassessment. Our goal is to be clear and thought-provoking without being strident or dogmatic. This work is based in large measure on our experiences as Mormons and our studies of the history and doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We hope that none of our readers will find this objectionable or offensive. It cannot be helped. Throughout these chapters we deal with the ideas, teachings, and revelations of Joseph Smith, whom we love and admire. We do not shy away from his most controversial contributions: sexuality, materiality, magic, polygamy, eternal progression, and continuing revelation. But this book is not meant to be a description of his teachings or a restatement of Mormon theology. We do not see either his period or our own as a golden age. For us Joseph Smith's teachings, like those of every other prophet, constitute not the final word but a point of departure. We are guided in many of our discussions by concepts and precepts of Christianity and to some extent by Judaism and other religious traditions ancient and modern. We feel a profound kinship with many men and women in these other traditions, people we have come to [p.xii] respect deeply, who have given us much in the way of insight and inspiration. But we also realize that we have some profound disagreements even with those whom we quote extensively. We are aware that religions, while they share much in common, differ on important questions. We believe that there is good in both what is common and uncommon in them and that people who are interested in religious ideas and a religious life can benefit by reflecting on the spiritual insights and experiences of others, even of those with whom they disagree. Though our primary audience will undoubtedly be LDS, we hope those of other faiths will find our ideas stimulating. This approach, however, presents us with a problem. How are we to deal with both groups at the same time? In most cases, we resolve this by addressing the LDS reader directly and assume the non-LDS reader to be an interested onlooker. Because of the diversity of our audience and the particularity of our own world view we have provided explications of the basic assumptions and interpretive principles that underlie this book. These appear in the first two chapters. Here however we must say a word about our employment of pronouns and references to deity. Traditionally God has been pictured as a male, and therefore scriptural language has reflected this masculine bias. This bent, we believe, must be counterbalanced, but without either arbitrarily negating or rewriting our historical religious texts or being slaves to their deficiencies. The simple solution is to employ gender neutral references where possible. But this is more difficult than it sounds because there are not many words in English that can be used in this way without sounding archaic or cumbersome (i.e., "the Most High," "the Eternal," "Eloheim," etc.). The other technique is to alternate pronoun references to deity between "he" and "she." This solution is not always workable for those like us who believe that most scriptural references are to Christ. On the other hand if, as we believe, there is a female counterpart to Christ, then all references to him, except in a particular historical context, are references to her as well. We have done our best to resolve this problem, but our resolution is inadequate. This is because every reference to deity invokes a deep, complex, and unresolved theological question about the nature, number, and character of the godhead. Thus our references reflect our own imperfect and incomplete understanding of the divine nature. We wish therefore to clarify that when we use the masculine pronoun to refer to deity, we do not mean to deny the reality, importance, or equality of [p.xiii] the female; and when we make reference to the female, we do not wish to slight the traditional view of God. A number of chapters deal with the female divinity and require appropriate references to her. The word "Goddess" is offensive to some because it sounds pagan. On the other hand the exclusive use of the term "Heavenly Mother" emphasizes nurturing and mothering while neglecting other attributes. For this reason we use both of these appellations as well as the terms "female deity," "Divine Lady," "God the Mother," and "female God." Unfortunately none of these is as personal as the name Jesus. But this failing arises from the absence of a clear and universally accepted revelation of the identity of the female, which no lexical or grammatical legerdemain can correct. Finally we must acknowledge that many of the ideas contained in this book have been gleaned from and refined through conversations with friends to whom we owe much. In gratitude we would like to name them all but will not, primarily to refrain from burdening anyone else with the responsibility for ideas and concepts they may not share. |
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