Symbola Salvatoris: Rethinking Devotional Art

We welcome this guest post from Jenny Champoux, Director of the Book of Mormon Art Catalog. You can see much of the work discussed here at https://meganknoblochgeilman.com/about.

A recent insightful article highlighted Megan Knobloch Geilman’s artwork as epitomizing a movement the author labeled “Weird Mormon Art.”^[1] Geilman, while fully embracing the strangeness of her art, prefers the term “theological realism.” Her phrase nicely evokes the literary and art style of magical realism, which places fantastical objects or events in a real-world setting. Yet, an important distinction must be made because although Geilman’s work relies on meticulously arranged quotidian objects to create theologically rich scenes, there is nothing fantastic about it. While much of “Weird Mormon Art” is characterized by a kind of tongue-in-cheek playfulness, Geilman’s art is gravely serious. Her work is not peculiar simply for the sake of quirkiness or for anti-status-quo positioning, but instead strives for something more.

Geilman tackles the most fundamental human questions head-on. Her art is informed, questioning, and thoughtful—and always deeply devotional. In this vein, her Symbola Salvatoris series considers the relationship between human beings and God. Each of the eight pieces not only includes a symbol of the Savior but also asks viewers to consider how they can come to know God through their own experiences and devotional practice.

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LATTER-DAY SAINT THEOLOGY & DIVINE FINITUDE: SCRIPTURE, REVELATION, THE PROBLEM OF EVIL & SOCIAL JUSTICE

Register at this link

The Latter-day Saint tradition maintains a finite conception of God that challenges key tenets of classical Christian theism. God is understood to have a literal body of flesh and bone (D&C 130:22) and to relate to human beings in exceptionally passable and interactive ways (Jacob 5:7 & Moses 7:29). God is said to have created human beings in the divine likeness such that it is possible for humanity to become divine (Moses 1:39). God’s design for humanity is to create the conditions for spiritual growth and to labor with them toward the glorification of both (Jacob 5:72). This conference will explore divine finitude in the Latter-day Saint tradition and seeks to examine and build on the theological writings of thinkers such as B. H. Roberts, David Paulsen, Truman Madsen, Eugene England, Lowell Bennion, Sterling McMurrin, Margaret Toscano, and Fiona & Terryl Givens, among others.  

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Study and Faith, 4: Adjusting Beliefs

I had an experience on my mission of feeling like one of our biblical proof texts got called into question, praying about it, and then feeling like I came to a larger understanding of that particular concept. I can’t remember the exact details, but I did find my take away orienting. What was wrong, I felt, was my more limited understanding of a certain point. The concept still worked with a greater more complex understanding, and I needed to be open to that larger view.

I tried to apply that procedure in my decades of historical study: be open to what the data suggests and then make adjustments to my believing framework based on what I’d learned. I tried to avoid holding doggedly to preconceived notions and insist the data fit those.

Over time, made quite a few adjustments to my beliefs, and though some confusion at times, always felt like I would come around to the believer’s position.

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Call for Applicants: Church History Department Research Grants

The Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
invites applications for grants to conduct research in its archival, art, and artifact
collections in Salt Lake City, Utah. These grants are intended to offset travel and
research expenses for performing research at the Church History Library and/or
Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. We hope the grants will stimulate the examination of
underrepresented groups and topics in Latter-day Saint history, such as women, youth,
children, individuals outside the United States, immigrant groups, the globalization of
the Church, and twentieth and twenty-first century history. We encourage all scholars
who are interested in Latter-day Saint history, Latter-day Saint art history, or Latter-day
Saint studies to apply, regardless of their affiliation with the Church or previous
experience in researching Latter-day Saint history.

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Study and Faith, 3: Objectives

History grad students learn about Leopold von Ranke, the 19^th century German considered the father of the modern discipline of history, famous for stating the objective of discovering “what actually happened.” History grad students will learn that statement is much criticized, as grad students also learn the incompleteness, problems with records, and problem of the humans making the judgements.

But others note that despite all those limitations, historians really do want to try to understand the past like Ranke said, and that good methodology helps historians make the best historical judgments. Mark Ashurst McGee’s “Moroni: Angel or Treasure Guardian?” gives a nice overview: earlier and closest the subject is best. But based on that criteria, the 1832 First Vision account would be given primacy over the 1838 account for being earlier.

Differences in First Visions accounts long noted and debated, but in the differences between those accounts, church members tend to pick the later 1838 over the 1832 account. 1832 famously mentions “the Lord” not “two personages” one of which is the other’s “beloved son,” but there are other differences as well. My adviser liked to point out that in the 1832 accounts JS come to the conclusion that “mankind had apostatized” on his own, but in the 1838 account God tells JS that. Again “earliest is best” would give primacy to the 1832 account in such conflict between sources.

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Study and Faith, 2: Mythos, Logos, and Historical Methodology

As I mentioned over at Times and Season, I put together what we call our “safe-space group” to discuss all kinds of topics, and not surprisingly history stuff was one of the genre of topics the group wanted to go over.

As all of my fellow JI bloggers know, that can be a bit of a difficult topic to try to do a crash course in because though our concepts of what happened in the past are very important to the larger culture and our church, we all know the study of history can be a tricky thing that often isn’t understood very well. And if such a discussion can get tricky in our larger societies’ culture war, it is even more so in debates within Mormonism when we often feel that larger religious truths are on the line.

So I thought a lot about best approaches when I was brainstorming how to introduce the topic and all the points that trained historians often want to convey. Things like “the past is a foreign country,” we have to rely on historical documents and good-faith interpretations vary, but that doesn’t mean we just make up whatever narrative we want, good historical interpretations will be supported by historical evidence (etc etc).

Since the historical topics we were going to cover were in the context of our religious beliefs, I thought I would be useful to start with the concept of the Greek ways of knowing: mythos and logos (And yes I’m using the division for my own purposes, feel free to correct!) Mythos is the accepted cultural truth about the Gods (common in all pre-modern societies) while Logos is truth that comes truth discussion (Logos=word), debates, logic, and inquiry; what the philosophers were trying to get at.

Such ways of knowing often clash: the example of Socrates being executed for challenging the contemporary religious system is a good example. Even more so would be the containing angst biblical scholarship can cause. Yet, the example of many such scholars maintaining a religious faith after making adjustments is also an example of something of a reconciliation between mythos and logos. (I know this is an extremely complicated topic with a very long history, just trying to offer some summaries).

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Kirtland Temple Conversations and Resources

If you’re into Mormon history, someone you know has likely asked for resources on learning about the history of the Kirtland Temple and what the sale of the sacred site means for Latter-day Saints and members of the Community of Christ. Here’s a starter pack for you:

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CFP: Book of Mormon Studies Association

DATE: October 10-12, 2024
LOCATION: Utah State University Inn
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 3, 2024
SUBMISSION EMAIL: bookofmormonsa (@) gmail.com

The Book of Mormon Studies Association (BoMSA) is pleased to announce its eighth annual meeting, to
be held on October 10-12, 2024, at Utah State University. The event is sponsored by USU’s Department
of Religious Studies and with thanks to Patrick Mason, the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History
and Culture.

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Thoughts on Study and Faith, Part 1: Introduction

I’ve been working my “intellectual biography of Joseph Smith” for a long time now (hope to finish before too long), or an attempt to traced where Smith got his ideas. By “intellectual biography” I mean the focus on his ideas. Framing the project in this way is Inherently controversial from within the faith as his revelatory claims believed by followers are that the ideas came from God or from lost scriptures also with God as the ultimate source.

I’ve been at this a while, but one part of my claim is that JS, it looks to me, would have had access to all the ideas he taught, to Mormonism, including the Book of Mormon, from particular sources. Yes, Mormonism was/is quite different than the prevailing Protestantism, so he wasn’t drawing on orthodox Protestantism for the distinctly Mormon stuff, but those idea were still out there.

No doubt such claims can prompt a lot of debate and can be taken as an attack on the faith. I’ve been at this a while, am still a practicing Mormon, and I recently finished serving as bishop of my ward having been released this last May.

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Juanita Brooks Conference Program and (Free) Registration

Please be sure to fill out the registration form if you plan to attend the Juanita Brooks Conference! It helps us plan the conference more effectively and make the most of our resources.

Registration Link

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