In this fascinating collection of teachings, we get a sense for what Joseph understood to be happening in the event of preaching, what he took to be the essence of missionary work. And let me point out that I use the word “essence” here for a reason: Joseph’s teachings as gathered here are relatively abstract, dwelling on what might be called the structure of preaching rather than on the content, the aim, the result, or the techniques of preaching.

But I personally find this relatively abstract, structural approach quite helpful. It is likely that the actual structure of preaching is what ultimately must ground any reflection on the content, aim, result, or techniques: if we are not aware of what is actually happening when preaching is undertaken by the Spirit, then I’m not sure how we can expect ever to see how to undertake to do it ourselves. In a word, what I hope to explore in working through this lesson is what it is to preach, and with the intention of understanding in light of that structure how it is that I or we might go about doing it. Read the rest of this entry »

[I apologize that I'm a few days behind on this one---I spent all of last week at the Oregon Coast with extended family and spent the few precious hours I could get for study on Alma 30-31 for the Alma 32 seminar. But, late though it is, here are my notes on lesson 11 (I'll have lesson 12 up by Sunday; I promise).]

This lesson is a bit more scattered than most in the manual thus far. In the “Teachings of Joseph Smith” portion of the lesson: the first section is dedicated to narrative history, the second section to testimony, the third section to organizational details, the fourth to persecution, and the last to the individual’s subjective place in the work. In a sense, then, what follows is a handful of different little lessons. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll leave the “From the Life of Joseph Smith” section out of my comments this week: marvelous experiences, but they don’t seem to me to shed any light on the teachings in the lesson. So far as the “Teachings of Joseph Smith” section goes, in this chapter, I find it interesting that so much of the material comes from the pre-Nauvoo era. That is, at least so far in this manual, rather unusual: because Joseph wrote and spoke publicly much more often in Nauvoo than in New York, Ohio, or Missouri, and because many more saints were keeping a careful record of what Joseph had to say in Nauvoo than previously, a great deal more of Joseph’s teachings have survived from the Nauvoo era, and the lessons in the manual reflect these facts generally. This lesson, however, is an exception. In fact, nearly half of the lesson’s teaching come from a single letter Joseph wrote to his uncle in 1833. The result: this lesson provides, the section on personal revelation excepted, a view primarily of Mormonism minus the “Nauvoo theology.” But I imagine that I should explain what I mean by that just a bit. Read the rest of this entry »

The great majority of this lesson comes from a single editorial published in the Church’s Nauvoo periodical, the Times and Seasons. I’ll confess I was disappointed to see this, because many of the editorials published while Joseph was editor of the paper were not written by Joseph. This one, however, I was pleased to discover, seems actually to have been his work. The style of argumentation, the manner of using scripture, and the conclusions drawn are much more like Joseph’s recorded sermons and canonized writings than other editorials cited in the manual thus far. I’ll proceed, then, with the assumption that everything in this lesson came from Joseph himself. Read the rest of this entry »

The material in this lesson is so good that I worked through the whole thing in two days (it usually takes me a week or so!). And, though my wife and I had a baby yesterday (our third, a little boy), I have the time this morning (while Mommy and Baby sleep, and while Grandma and Grandpa still have the other two kids) to write up my thoughts on the lesson. Good timing, and a great lesson! So, to get on with things… Read the rest of this entry »

Let me apologize twice in advance. First, I’m getting this lesson up a few days later than I would have liked to, something I can blame on my recent trip to Utah for the SMPT conference. (I’m hoping that this doesn’t put me too much further behind on next week’s lesson as well. I’ll try to have it up as soon as possible after Sunday.) Second, partly because of how little time I’ve had for getting this ready, but also partly because of the layout of the lesson itself, this post will be a bit more philosophical than my others. I don’t anticipate this being the start of a trend: Joseph seems to me to wax a bit more philosophical in the most interesting teachings in this lesson, and so I’m going to respond in suit. That said… Read the rest of this entry »

This lesson is so interesting, but it almost seems as if it cannot ever quite get to the point. In one sense, I suppose one feels, while working through the material, that there is never an answer to the almost ridiculously demanding question “So what?” But more profoundly, it seems right to say that the materials here seem to be gathered about a mystery or a secret. That is, the teachings here function something like a veil: they draw attention to something by covering it up, or cover something up by drawing attention to it. Of course, in at least one sense, the veiled “secret” is not secret at all: it is obvious that what is never presented in the lesson (how could it be?) but what fundamentally underpins its power is the actual event of John’s visitation to Joseph and Oliver. That experience itself, irrevocably past, grounds all of these teachings, in fact gives them their meaning, and the absence of that event in the reader’s/teacher’s/student’s experience (even in the Nauvoo era when Joseph was delivering these sermons) makes the words sound rather hollow. But does that mean that this lesson is only so many shattered fragments of truth? Read the rest of this entry »

I want to take this lesson in something like reverse order. That is, I want to dwell first on the teachings of Joseph, and then I’d like to look at the “examples” drawn from his life. Hopefully the richness of taking the lesson this way will make clear, in the end, why I’ve chosen to take this path. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, as it turns out, I won’t be teaching lesson 4. When I arrived at opening exercises yesterday, the “week 2 instructor” approached me confessing that he had just remembered that he had only just remembered that he was on for teaching. I told him that I was prepared to teach in his place, and he offered to teach lesson 4 for me in a few weeks (because of ward conference, we were only coming to lesson 2 yesterday). So, as it turns out, I had the opportunity to teach lesson 2 instead of lesson 4. However, I’ve had such a marvelous time writing out a post on each part of the lesson, that I might do that at least more often, if not every time in the future…

At any rate, I certainly will continue onward today with part 4 of this four-part series on lesson 4. Again, see here for part 1; here for part 2; and here for part 3. Read the rest of this entry »

This is part 3 of a four-part series of posts on lesson 4 from the Joseph Smith manual. See here for part 1 and here for part 2. Read the rest of this entry »