I’m riding home from a temple shift right now and haven’t finished this but I already know this is a keeper. What you call a “map” I call a “coloring book”. When people think all you have to do is color inside the lines they miss out on all of the beauty and joy of loving Jesus and receiving light one ray at a time as we just learned in Conference. Thank you— I can’t wait to get home and finish reading.
Matt, Great piece for all of us to realize about epistemology. I talked with J. Z Smith about this and the issue of conversion when I was doing my work at U. of C. in the early 90's. "Do converts convert to another map or to an experience of real territory?" He said on this matter he could not say what the 'real territory' is for sure. So 'map conversion' was the safest hypothesis--without denying the other is possible. Best wishes, Randall Paul
Part 2 comment— I missed saying that the most important thing that can be learned from birth on is to love Jesus and try to be like Him — He never disappoints and He doesn’t complicate things. He does understand, He suffered for the very things He forgives us for when we come to our senses. We are the ones who overthink — I love folks who love God, and serve Him and others with loving hearts. And I love the Book of Mormon prophets who were humble enough to acknowledge their weakness in writing. And I love our modern prophets who lead us to Him.
This is wonderfully written. I really appreciated the description of the experience with the seminary teacher and his vision for what church can be. I may have related to his description of what this church "is", if it was described as an intellectual framework that helped him grow from the church experience and make engagement palatable. I have a few questions/concerns about this essay which apply to a lot of what Wayfare publishes...
-He is arguing against a fundamentalist point of view, but seems to use fundamentals to support this view. For example, what makes having a "true and living church" or "God is a person" not fundamental- is it simply because he believes those things as opposed to other elements of church teachings and history.
-I may be too much of a concrete thinker, but....the church is an institution made of it's leaders, members, and teaching materials. I just perused the last General Conference speeches and could not find a talk without traditional "map-like" elements. Selecting specific Joseph Smith references can't fully change our perception of the way the church "is" and has been during our lifetime. There are other organizations we could spend time on that are far further towards his ideal on the "fundamental" continuum. The reasons that I wish to achieve growth within THIS church/religion is partially due to the fact that it is my culture, spiritual language, and family (and that may be true of many of the Wayfare readers) . Describing ways to make church more of a territory and less of a map as an aspiration (rather than suggesting that this is what it has been all along, and that the readers just can't see the concept of ongoing restoration), and reinforcing the reader's ambition to contribute to a less fundamental church is very inspiring to me. As an aside, I can't deny that I have benefitted from some "map-like" concepts as a church member.
I don't think I can quite properly articulate why the tone of this article slightly bothered me- maybe it is because these types of abstractions of what the church "is" are only accessible to the intellectual class of the church that have the educational background, family support, and influence (in some cases) to put the information in context and make the church experience the way they want it to be. Regardless, it is really an impressive work and I enjoyed reading it. I am grateful that Dr. Bowman and other Wayfare authors spend the time to put together these amazing and creative works that inspire so many.
This is truly a balm to the soul. Thank you for writing what my heart was searching for.
This is the most heartening, intelligent, and resonant thing I've read in a very long time. Thank you.
I’m riding home from a temple shift right now and haven’t finished this but I already know this is a keeper. What you call a “map” I call a “coloring book”. When people think all you have to do is color inside the lines they miss out on all of the beauty and joy of loving Jesus and receiving light one ray at a time as we just learned in Conference. Thank you— I can’t wait to get home and finish reading.
Matt, Great piece for all of us to realize about epistemology. I talked with J. Z Smith about this and the issue of conversion when I was doing my work at U. of C. in the early 90's. "Do converts convert to another map or to an experience of real territory?" He said on this matter he could not say what the 'real territory' is for sure. So 'map conversion' was the safest hypothesis--without denying the other is possible. Best wishes, Randall Paul
Part 2 comment— I missed saying that the most important thing that can be learned from birth on is to love Jesus and try to be like Him — He never disappoints and He doesn’t complicate things. He does understand, He suffered for the very things He forgives us for when we come to our senses. We are the ones who overthink — I love folks who love God, and serve Him and others with loving hearts. And I love the Book of Mormon prophets who were humble enough to acknowledge their weakness in writing. And I love our modern prophets who lead us to Him.
This was profound to me. Thank you!
Beautiful and resonant. This was something I didn’t know I deeply needed. Thank you.
This is wonderfully written. I really appreciated the description of the experience with the seminary teacher and his vision for what church can be. I may have related to his description of what this church "is", if it was described as an intellectual framework that helped him grow from the church experience and make engagement palatable. I have a few questions/concerns about this essay which apply to a lot of what Wayfare publishes...
-He is arguing against a fundamentalist point of view, but seems to use fundamentals to support this view. For example, what makes having a "true and living church" or "God is a person" not fundamental- is it simply because he believes those things as opposed to other elements of church teachings and history.
-I may be too much of a concrete thinker, but....the church is an institution made of it's leaders, members, and teaching materials. I just perused the last General Conference speeches and could not find a talk without traditional "map-like" elements. Selecting specific Joseph Smith references can't fully change our perception of the way the church "is" and has been during our lifetime. There are other organizations we could spend time on that are far further towards his ideal on the "fundamental" continuum. The reasons that I wish to achieve growth within THIS church/religion is partially due to the fact that it is my culture, spiritual language, and family (and that may be true of many of the Wayfare readers) . Describing ways to make church more of a territory and less of a map as an aspiration (rather than suggesting that this is what it has been all along, and that the readers just can't see the concept of ongoing restoration), and reinforcing the reader's ambition to contribute to a less fundamental church is very inspiring to me. As an aside, I can't deny that I have benefitted from some "map-like" concepts as a church member.
I don't think I can quite properly articulate why the tone of this article slightly bothered me- maybe it is because these types of abstractions of what the church "is" are only accessible to the intellectual class of the church that have the educational background, family support, and influence (in some cases) to put the information in context and make the church experience the way they want it to be. Regardless, it is really an impressive work and I enjoyed reading it. I am grateful that Dr. Bowman and other Wayfare authors spend the time to put together these amazing and creative works that inspire so many.