Showing results for "The Institute" in Mormon

The question of human agency, of how free you are to make meaningful choices, has always been a central concern of the Christian life. Philosophy, biology, cognitive science, and historical studies all have made us more aware of the ways in which agency is challenged by genes, cognitive biases, cultural contexts and personal traumas. As a result, it is more important than ever to reflect upon the meaning of agency, and how modern revelation can illuminate the central question: how do I live my best life?

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ when we feel stirred up with anger in our families, neighborhoods, wards, workplaces, online communities, and public forums? It is challenging to heed prophetic invitations to take more seriously the Savior’s call to “love your enemies” and to be peacemakers while maintaining integrity.

In this introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants, Media Studies scholar Mason Kamana Allred focuses our vision on practices and principles of seeing. He looks at how looking itself is a unique devotional mode in Latter-day Saint belief. His reading of the Doctrine and Covenants collects theological statements about and experiences of spiritual vision and emphasizes how they are often activated through natural vision and earthly commitment in ways that illuminate how to navigate our modern circumstances.

Redemption for the dead taps into the deepest purposes of creation and the atonement. It encompasses individuals’ development, the purpose of existence, and the grand scope of God’s love. Revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants illuminate Malachi’s prophecy about Elijah and the turning of humanity’s hearts to one another. Those revelations combined with the lived experience of early Latter-day Saints highlight the joy embedded in the theology about baptisms for the dead. Exploring these early revelations and experiences reminds readers of God’s abundant love and careful attention.

Law, for many of us, is a scary word. It conjures imposing images—robed judges with imperious gavels or Lady Justice, blindfolded, with her implacable sword and scales. Even in a religious context—perhaps especially in a religious context—many of us associate law instinctively with divine judgment and justice, retribution and eternal punishment. Many of us think of law as an unrelenting standard against which we fall endlessly short. Law, on this view, is the enemy against which we need grace to defend us.