“We really are Christians!”
Sometimes that claim means that they really
are Christians and the rest of us are not.
Increasingly, at least among
some Mormons, the claim is that they are Christians in
substantively
the same way that others are Christians.
In this post I will look at three different
meanings of the term "heresy":
- A respected and established school of thought. (ancient Pagan philosophical usage)
- A non-Christian
teaching ultimately of Satanic origin, although possibly masquerading
as a (false) interpretation of the teachings of Jesus and
the Apostles. (traditional Christian usage)
- A variant form of genuinely Christian
teaching. According to this sense, heresies are possibly imperfect but still belong to the wider Christian Tradition because they are based on acceptable (that is, at least
partially valid) interpretations of the teachings of Jesus and the
Apostles. (modern Christian usage)
The main point of this post is to draw attention to the third of these uses, but first lets briefly review all three.
The ancient Greek word
hairesis (αἵρεσις) literally means "choice". Throughout antiquity this term was used to refer broadly to any of a wide number of different school of thought, especially to the various philosophical "schools" such as Platonism, Stoicism, Pythagoreanism, Epicureanism, etc, and their sub-branches. When we use the English word "school" in this sense, we are using it as a direct translation the ancient Greek word αἵρεσις with essentially the same meaning that αἵρεσις had two millennia ago.
Far from being pejorative, the ancient usage of
haeresis was not even value neutral, but actually had a distinctly positive connotation in that it referred to respected, established intellectual, spiritual, and ethical traditions that had been founded by honored historical figures. In fact, those who were considered the founding teachers of the various "schools" were viewed not just as great philosophical sages, but were often accorded openly religious reverence.
But then Christians adopted the term
haeresis for their own purposes and imbued it with a totally new and unambiguously negative meaning. It is this later Christian usage that is the origin of our modern English word "heresy". This Christian usage makes perfect sense so long as we keep in mind the fact that the philosophical schools ("
heresies") were among the most stubborn bastions of resistance to Christianization. Therefore it was only natural that in the mouths of Christians, the label "heretic" came to denote the enemies of Christianity.
The use of the term "heresy" to denote the enemies of Christianity is well documented, for instance in the writings of Irenaeus from the 2nd century. Prominent among those first labeled as heretics by early Christian theologians were Simon Magus and his disciple Menander, whom Eusebius characterized as "instruments of diabolic power". Similarly, Irenaeus stated that the Ebionite heretics had no share in the "marvelous dispensation" of Christianity. In other words, there were no "Christian heretics", rather, there were Christians, and then there were heretics, and these were mutual enemies.
Well over a thousand years after Irenaeus, Pope Leo X pronounced, concerning Martin Luther, in his "Decet Romanum" Papal Bull of 1521:
"He has now been declared a heretic." This meant not only that Martin Luther was excommunicated, but also that a death sentence was placed upon him and any who followed him. The so-called Protestant "reformers" responded in kind by declaring that the Roman Church, along with its teachings and rituals, were not only in error, but were abominations of Satanic origin. (For details and sources see:
The Meaning of Heresy and its significance to Pagan history.)
However, since the Enlightenment, the modern use of the term "heresy" has actually undergone significant further evolution so that it now is used to denote
acceptable variations within Christianity, and this to the extent that to be labeled as a "heretic" today is tantamount to having one's religious identity as a Christian validated! Through a very strange and subtle etymological shift, "heresy" has therefore come to mean
the opposite of its traditional Christian meaning, and is now much closer to its earlier, ancient Pagan meaning.
A great deal of confusion arises due to the fact that very few people nowadays realize (or are willing to admit) that for most of the history of Christianity, the phrase "Christian heretic" was a theological oxymoron. As stated already, there were Christians and there were heretics, and these were irreconcilable enemies. Heresy was not conceived of as a variant form of Christianity arising from honest differences of opinion among sincere Christians, but rather as a (literally) diabolical perversion of Christianity arising from the nefarious influence of the Deceiver, Satan, and his mortal minions who are doomed to Eternal Damnation.
At this point an example will serve to clarify, or at least illustrate, the strangeness of the modern notion of "Christian heretics". Let us listen closely to the late Richard John Neuhaus as he asks, and answers, the question of whether or not Mormons are Christians (the article reprinted in full below originally appeared in First Things journal in March of 2000,
link, and it can also be found in full at the Free Republic website
here.)
Is Mormonism Christian?
Richard John Neuhaus (First Things, March 2000)
That is not the only interesting question, but it is probably the
most important. Most non-Mormons have little occasion to think about
Mormonism, and those who do tend toward distinctly negative thoughts.
Although there is this curious thing of recent years that many
conservative Christians warmly welcome Mormons as allies in various
cultural tasks. To cite but one recent instance, it was an alliance of
Catholics, evangelicals, and Mormons that was instrumental in persuading
the people of Hawaii to reject same-sex marriage. Yet a few issues ago
we published an article by a Mormon doctor presenting the case for
Natural Family Planning and received blistering letters of protest. We
thought that the fact that the argument was not being advanced by a
Catholic might make it more persuasive to some. But at least some
readers did not see it that way. Didn't we know that Mormons are the
enemies of Christ and his Church? Such views are stronger in the
Northwest and, increasingly, in the Southwest where the Mormon presence
is a force to be reckoned with.
Ours is an interreligious
enterprise, basically but not exclusively Jewish and Christian. Dr.
Bruce Hafen is on our Editorial Advisory Board. He has held prominent
positions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS),
including that of provost and dean of the law school at Brigham Young
University. I can't say that many of my friends are Mormons, but some
are. We are obliged to respect human dignity across the board, and to
affirm common discernments of the truth wherever we find them. Where we
disagree we should try to put the best possible construction on the
position of the other, while never trimming the truth. That will become
more important as Mormons become more of a presence, both in this
country and the world. There are about ten million of them now, with
about one-half of the membership in the U.S. Sociologist Rodney Stark—a
non-Mormon with strong personal connections to the LDS—predicts that, on
the basis of present growth patterns, there will be more than 265
million Mormons by the end of this century, making it the most important
new religion in world history since Islam. For reasons I will come to, I
think that is improbable. Put differently, if that happens, Mormonism
will be something dramatically different from what it has been over the
last century and a half.
Some while back we were sent for review the Encyclopedia of Mormonism: The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It's a big five-volume set, written largely by professors at Brigham
Young; we weren't sure what to do with it, but I've been reading in it
with great benefit. Then comes a big new book by Richard N. Ostling and
Joan K. Ostling, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise,
published by HarperSanFrancisco (454 pages,, $26). It is a remarkable
piece of work and likely to be the best general introduction to
Mormonism for years to come. The Ostlings are evangelical Protestants.
Dick was for many years religion editor at Time and now covers
religion for the Associated Press. I have had frequent occasion to say
that he is one of the two or three best religion reporters in the
country. Joan is a freelance writer with a background in the practice
and teaching of journalism. What they have achieved with this
assiduously researched and very readable book puts us all in their debt.
Apparently the powers that be in Salt Lake City are ambivalent about
the book, but it is probably as thorough and fair a treatment of the LDS
by outsiders as they are likely to get.
Much to Admire
The Ostlings find much to admire. Mormonism gives a whole new meaning
to being “pro-family.” In Mormon belief, families are, quite literally,
forever. Proxies are baptized on behalf of the dead, and families and
relatives hope to go on living together and procreating in a celestial
eternity. All children are baptized at age eight, and at twelve boys (no
girls allowed) take their place of responsibility and status by
entering the first level of the priesthood—the priesthood, according to
Joseph Smith, having been restored by John the Baptist in upstate New
York in 1829. While bar mitzvah among Jews and confirmation among
Christians too often means that young people graduate from their
religious responsibilities, Mormon youth at that point in life graduate
into intense and clearly defined responsibilities within the community.
Also widely and justly admired is the LDS welfare system, whereby the
community takes care of its own when they get into economic or other
difficulty. At present, in a time of economic prosperity, only about 5
percent require help from the welfare system. (A figure, interestingly,
about parallel with Edward Banfield's famous claim about the percentage
of people in any society who will never be able to make it on their
own.)
There is also no denying that the prohibition of alcohol,
tobacco, and caffeine has a payoff. Mormons live, on average, eight to
eleven years longer than other Americans, and death rates from cancer
and cardiovascular diseases are about half those of the general
population. Of course, it is fair to note, they do die of other things,
and one may do one's own calculation about the risk worth taking for a
scotch before dinner and a cigar afterward, never mind one's morning
coffee. (The most recent Harvard longitudinal study found that the
strongest positive correlation between health and habits is the daily
consumption of about three ounces of wine or liquor. Go figure.) In
addition, a strong emphasis on chastity sharply reduces sexually
transmitted diseases, while a tightly knit and supportive community
makes homicide and suicide rare. Put it all together, and one concludes
that Mormonism is good for your physical health. Whether it is good for
your spiritual health is a disputed question. (It should also be noted
that medical data on the strongly committed in other religious
communities are comparable to the Mormon findings.)
There are
other things to admire. Brigham Young University, for instance, where,
because of church subsidies, young Mormons get the entire package
(tuition, room, board, etc.) for less than $10,000 a year. The ticket is
slightly more for non-Mormons, but there are very few takers. There is
also the Church Educational System, which involves hundreds of thousands
in continuing education programs here and around the world. Nor can the
most severe critics deny the energy, enthusiasm, and organization of
the LDS in its missionary zeal, and in its dramatic presentation of its
colorful history, whether through the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or annual
pageants reenacting the key episodes of its sacred stories. In a world
that seems to be largely adrift, it is no little thing to be part of an
organized crusade in which you and those who are closest to you view
your life as crucial to the unfolding of the cosmic drama.
Restoring the Church
The LDS is, among other things, a very big business tightly
controlled from the top down. If one believes that the entire enterprise
is based on revelation that is authoritatively interpreted by divinely
appointed officers, it makes sense that control should be from the top
down. The LDS claims that God chose Joseph Smith to reestablish the
Church of Jesus Christ after it had disappeared some 1,700 years earlier
following the death of the first apostles. To complicate the picture
somewhat, God's biblical work was extended to the Americas somewhere
around 2000 b.c. and continued here until a.d. 421. This is according to the Book of Mormon,
the scriptures given to Joseph Smith on golden tablets by the Angel
Moroni. American Indians are called Lamanites and are part of the Ten
Lost Tribes of Israel. Jesus came to preach to these Indians and for a
long time there was a flourishing church here until it fell into
apostasy, only to be restored, as the golden tablets foretold, by Joseph
Smith. In addition to giving new scriptures, God commissioned Smith to
revise the Bible, the text of which had been corrupted over the
centuries by Jews and Christians.
Today's Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles is, allegedly, in direct succession to Smith, and the First
Presidency claims powers that would have made St. Peter, never mind most
of his successors, blush. The top leadership is composed, with few
exceptions, of men experienced in business and with no formal training
in theology or related disciplines. The President (who is also prophet,
seer, and revelator) is the oldest apostle, which means he is sometimes
very old indeed and far beyond his prime. Decisions are made in the
tightest secrecy, inevitably giving rise to suspicions and conspiracy
theories among outsiders and a substantial number of members. Revenues
from tithes, investments, and Mormon enterprises have built what the
Ostlings say “might be the most efficient churchly money machine on
earth.” They back up with carefully detailed research their
“conservative” estimate that LDS assets are in the rage of $25-30
billion.
Protecting the Stories
But, of course, the most important control is over the sacred
stories, and attendant truth claims, upon which the entire enterprise
rests. Of the telling of history, Orwell wrote, “He who controls the
past controls the future and he who controls the present controls the
past.” The Ostlings devote a great deal of attention to “dissenters and
exiles” who have tried to tell the sacred stories honestly, and in a
manner that might bring them into conversation with other stories of the
world. Some may think the Ostlings devote too much attention to these
“troublemakers,” but I think not. In my limited experience with, for
instance, people associated with the publication Sunstone,
these are devout Mormons who are seized by the correct intuition that
truth that must be protected within the circle of true believers, that
cannot intelligently engage critical examination by outsiders, is in
some fundamental sense doubtfully true. Some of the “dissenters and
exiles” may be dismissable as troublemakers—a species all too familiar
in other religious communities as well. I expect, however, that what
most of these people are trying to do is much more important to the
possible futures of the LDS than all the billions in assets, massive
building programs, and ambitiously organized missionary campaigns
combined.
To give a credible account of the sacred stories and
truth claims is no easy task. Not to put too fine a point on it, the
founding stories and doctrines of Mormonism appear to the outsider as a
bizarre phantasmagoria of fevered religious imagination not untouched by
perverse genius. Germinated in the “burnt-over district” of upstate New
York in the early nineteenth century, where new religions and
spiritualities produced a veritable rainforest of novel revelations, the
claims of Joseph Smith represent a particularly startling twist of the
kaleidoscope of religious possibilities. In 1831, Alexander Campbell,
cofounder of the Disciples of Christ, said that Smith pasted together
“every error and almost every truth discussed in New York for the last
ten years.” Much of the teaching reflects the liberal Protestantism of
the time, even the Transcendental and Gnostic fevers that were in the
air: e.g., a God in process of becoming, progressive revelation, the
denial of original sin, and an unbridled optimism about the
perfectibility of man. Mix that in with the discovery of golden tablets
written in a mysterious language, the bodily appearance of God the
Father and Son, angelic apparitions, and a liberal dose of Masonic
ritual and jargon, and the result is, quite simply, fantastic. The
question, of course, is whether it is true.
In what sense true?
It is true in the sense that it is meaningful for those who believe it
uncritically, and even for more critical souls who embrace the community
whose fabulous founding, they contend, points to higher truths. In the
conventional version controlled by LDS authorities, it is true if you
believe it is true. Thus is the back door shut against potentially
subversive reason. One possible response is to say that all religion is
finally based on faith and is incapable of rational demonstration. Did
not St. Paul say that the gospel of Christ is “foolishness” according to
the wisdom of the world? Of course he did. But every part of the
traditional Christian story has been and is subjected to critical
examination, by believers and nonbelievers alike—and that examination,
with its attending disagreements, will go on to the end of time. Over
two thousand years, from Origen and Augustine through Anselm, Aquinas,
Newman, Barth, and Balthasar, the truth claims of Christianity have
engaged, with utmost intensity and sophistication, alternative and
opposing construals of reality. In short, there is a very long Christian
intellectual tradition. There is not, or at least not until very
recently, such a Mormon tradition. And those who are interested in
encouraging such inquiry typically find themselves in the company of
“dissenters and exiles.” Keep in mind, however, that Mormonism is not
yet two centuries old. A youngish Mormon intellectual today is in
relation of time to Joseph Smith roughly comparable to Origen in
relation to the apostles.
But his task is ever so much more
difficult than that of Irenaeus, Origen, and the many other early
Christian thinkers. There is, for instance, the surpassingly awkward
fact that not a single person, place, or event that is unique to the Book of Mormon has ever been proven to exist. Outside the fanum
of true believers, these tales cannot help but appear to be the product
of fantasy and fabrication. There is, moreover, a corrosive tradition
of make-believe in the LDS, such as the claim that Joseph Smith
translated the Book of Abraham—a book he said was written by
Abraham—from Egyptian papyri that were later proven to be nothing but
conventional funerary inscriptions.
The sanitized story of
Mormonism promoted by the LDS tries to hide so much that cannot be
hidden. The Ostlings are to be commended for resisting sensationalism in
relating the sensational history of polygamy in the LDS, including
Joseph Smith's coercive use of threats of eternal damnation in order to
procure young women he desired as additional wives. (On this score, the
quasi-official Encyclopedia is also considerably more candid
than the usual LDS presentations.) And how, except by a practiced
schizophrenia, can LDS biblical scholars engage with other scholars if
they are required to give credence to the normative status of Smith's
“translation” (i.e., rewriting) of the King James Bible? There is a long
list of particulars in the formidable obstacles to be overcome if
anything like a credible intellectual tradition is to be secured, and
not least among the obstacles is the history of LDS leadership in
backstopping secretiveness with mendacity. Taking note of these
realities is not to deny the frequent moral courage, indeed heroism, of
the early leadership, or the continuing devotion and talent of their
successors.
Missionary Zeal
The LDS is much given to boosterism, and it is no surprise that its
leaders relish the projections of almost exponential growth offered by
such as Rodney Stark. Nobody can help but be impressed by the thousands
of clean-cut Mormon young men who go on mission, two by two, knocking on
the doors of the world, but the Ostlings helpfully put this missionary
enterprise into perspective by comparing it with the many times larger
enterprise of various Christian groups, noting as well that, unlike the
Mormons, these missionaries do not limit themselves to winning converts
but minister to the illiterate, the poor, and others in need. Moreover,
these Christian efforts result in large and thriving indigenous churches
that engage and transform local cultures, whereas the Mormon mission,
totally controlled and directed from Salt Lake City, is about as pure an
instance of American cultural imperialism as can be imagined, albeit a
benevolently intended imperialism.
It appears also that the
figures of Mormon growth are considerably inflated, not taking into
account the massive defections through the back door, especially in
developing countries. The Ostlings observe, “Mormonism succeeds by
building on a preexisting Christian culture and by being seen as an
add-on, drawing converts through a form of syncretism. Mormonism
flourishes best in settings with some prior Christianization.” There is,
in this view, a parasitic dynamic in Mormon growth. Yet the Ostlings
suggest that, despite doctrinal and demographic problems, Mormonism may
continue to thrive. “Ours is a relational era,” they write, “not a
conceptual one. Members are more likely to be attracted by networking
and community than by truth claims. The adherents appear to be contented
or docile in their discontent, except for some thousands of
intellectuals.” I am not so sure, and that brings us to the opening
question of whether Mormonism is Christian or a new religion tenuously
founded on fables and sustained by authoritarian management. Maybe ours
is a time in which truth does not matter that much in terms of
institutional flourishing, a time in which communities can get along
with useful, if not particularly noble, lies. But we should not too
easily resign ourselves to that conclusion.
An Insulting Question
Asking whether Mormonism is Christian or Mormons are Christians (a
slightly different question) is thought to be insulting. “How can you
ask that,” protests a Mormon friend, “when we clearly love the Lord
Jesus as much as we do?” It is true that St. Paul says that nobody can
say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). But
that only indicates that aspects of Mormon faith are touched by the Holy
Spirit, as is every element of truth no matter where it is found. A
Mormon academic declares that asking our question “is a bit like asking
if African Americans are human.” No, it is not even a bit like that.
“Christian” in this context is not honorific but descriptive. Nobody
questions whether Mormons are human. To say that Jews, Muslims, or
Buddhists are not Christians is no insult. It is a statement of fact,
indeed of respect for their difference. The question is whether that is a
fact and a difference that applies also to Mormonism.
The
question as asked by Mormons is turned around: are non-Mormons who claim
to be Christians in fact so? The emphatic and repeated answer of the
Mormon scriptures and the official teaching of the LDS is that we are
not. We are members of “the great and abominable church” that was built
by frauds and impostors after the death of the first apostles. The true
church and true Christianity simply went out of existence, except for
its American Indian interlude, until it was rediscovered and
reestablished by Joseph Smith in upstate New York, and its claims will
be vindicated when Jesus returns, sooner rather than later, at a
prophetically specified intersection in Jackson County, Missouri.
The
Ostlings, in a manner common among evangelical Protestants, address the
question of whether Mormons are Christians exclusively in terms of
doctrine. Mormonism claims that God is an exalted man, not different in
kind as Creator is different in kind from creature. The Mormon claim is,
“What God was, we are. What God is, we will become.” Related to this is
the teaching that the world was not created ex nihilo but organized
into its present form, and that the trespass in the Garden of Eden, far
from being the source of original sin, was a step toward becoming what
God is. Further, Mormonism teaches that there is a plurality of gods.
Mormons dislike the term “polytheism,” preferring “henotheism,” meaning
that there is a head God who is worshiped as supreme. If Christian
doctrine is summarized in, for instance, the Apostles' Creed as
understood by historic Christianity, official LDS teaching adds to the
creed, deviates from it, or starkly opposes it almost article by
article.
LDS teaching that believers are on the way to becoming
gods has, of course, interesting connections with early church fathers
and their teaching on “theosis” or “deification,” a teaching
traditionally accented more in the Christianity of the East than of the
West, but theologically affirmed by both. Some Mormon thinkers have
picked up on those connections and have even recruited, not very
convincingly, C. S. Lewis in support of LDS doctrine. (Lewis simply
offers rhetorical riffs on classical Christian teaching and in no way
suggests an ontological equivalence between Creator and creature.)
Christianity and the History of Christians
Beyond these doctrinal matters, as inestimably important as they are,
one must ask what it means to be Christian if one rejects the two
thousand year history of what in fact is Christianity. Christianity is
inescapably doctrinal but it is more than doctrines. Were it only a set
of doctrines, Christianity would have become another school of
philosophy, much like other philosophical schools of the Greco-Roman
world. Christianity is the past and present reality of the society
composed of the Christian people. As is said in the Nicene Creed, “We
believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” That reality
encompasses doctrine, ministry, liturgy, and a rule of life. Christians
disagree about precisely where that Church is to be located historically
and at present, but almost all agree that it is to be identified with
the Great Tradition defined by the apostolic era through at least the
first four ecumenical councils, and continuing in diverse forms to the
present day. That is the Christianity that LDS teaching rejects and
condemns as an abomination and fraud.
Yet Mormonism is
inexplicable apart from Christianity and the peculiar permutations of
Protestant Christianity in nineteenth-century America. It may in this
sense be viewed as a Christian derivative. It might be called a
Christian heresy, except heresy is typically a deviation within the
story of the Great Tradition that Mormonism rejects tout court. Or
Mormonism may be viewed as a Christian apostasy. Before his death in
1844, Joseph Smith was faced with many apostasies within the Mormon
ranks, and since then there have been more than a hundred schisms among
those who claim to be his true heirs. Still today LDS leaders quote
Smith when censuring or excommunicating critics. For instance, this from
Smith: “That man who rises up to condemn others, finding fault with the
Church, saying that they are out of the way, while he himself is
righteous, then know assuredly, that man is in the high road to
apostasy.”
With respect to the real existing Christianity that is
the Church, the words apply in spades to Joseph Smith. He knew, of
course, that he was rejecting the Christianity of normative tradition,
and he had an explanation. On the creation ex nihilo question, for
instance, he declared only weeks before his death: “If you tell
[critics] that God made the world out of something, they will call you a
fool. But I am learned, and know more than all the world put together.
The Holy Ghost does, anyhow; and he is within me, and comprehends more
than all the world; and I will associate myself with him.” By
definition, he could not be apostate because he spoke for God. It is an
answer, of sorts.
The history of Christianity, notably since the
sixteenth-century Reformation, is littered with prophets and seers who
have reestablished “the true church,” usually in opposition to the
allegedly false church of Rome, and then, later, in opposition to their
own previously true churches. There are many thousands of such Christian
groups today. Most of them claim to represent the true interpretation
of the Bible. A smaller number lay claim to additional revelations by
which the biblical witness must be “corrected.” One thinks, for
instance, of the Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. There are
other similarities between Mormonism and the Unification Church, such as
the emphasis on the celestial significance of marriage and family.
According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, “Gods and humans
are the same species of being, but at different stages of development in
a divine continuum, and the heavenly Father and Mother are the heavenly
pattern, model, and example of what mortals can become through
obedience to the gospel.”
Another Religion
Some have suggested that the LDS is a Christian derivative much as
Christianity is a Jewish derivative, but that is surely wrong. The claim
of Christianity is that its gospel of Jesus Christ is in thorough
continuity with the Old Testament and historic Israel, that the Church
is the New Israel, which means that it is the fulfillment of the promise
that Israel would be “a light to the nations.” The Church condemned
Marcion's rejection of the Old Testament, and she never presumed to
rewrite or correct the Hebrew Scriptures on the basis of a new
revelation. On the contrary, she insisted that the entirety of the old
covenant bears witness to the new. While it is a Christian derivative,
the LDS is, by way of sharpest contrast, in radical discontinuity with
historic Christianity. The sacred stories and official teachings of the
LDS could hardly be clearer about that. For missionary and public
relations purposes, the LDS may present Mormonism as an “add-on,” a kind
of Christianity-plus, but that is not the official narrative and
doctrine.
A closer parallel might be with Islam. Islam is a
derivative of Judaism and Christianity. Like Joseph Smith, Muhammad in
the seventh century claimed new revelations and produced in the Qur'an a
“corrected” version of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, presumably
by divine dictation. Few dispute that Islam is a new and another
religion, and Muslims do not claim to be Christian, although they
profess a deep devotion to Jesus. Like Joseph Smith and his followers,
they do claim to be the true children of Abraham. Christians in dialogue
with Islam understand it to be an interreligious, not an ecumenical,
dialogue. Ecumenical dialogue is dialogue between Christians. Dialogue
with Mormons who represent official LDS teaching is interreligious
dialogue.
One must again keep in mind that Mormonism is still
very young. It is only now beginning to develop an intellectually
serious theological tradition. Over the next century and more, those who
are now the “dissidents and exiles” may become the leaders in forging,
despite the formidable obstacles, a rapprochement with historic
Christianity, at which point the dialogue could become ecumenical. As
noted earlier, there is the interesting phenomenon of Mormon thinkers
appealing to the Christian tradition, from Irenaeus through C. S. Lewis,
in support of aspects of their doctrine. And there is the poignant and
persistent insistence of Mormons, “We really are Christians!” Sometimes
that claim means that they really are Christians and the rest of us are
not. Increasingly, at least among some Mormons, the claim is that they
are Christians in substantively the same way that others are Christians.
It
is a claim we should question but not scorn. Such a claim contains,
just possibly, the seed of promise that over time, probably a very long
time, there could be within Mormonism a development of doctrine that
would make it recognizable as a peculiar but definite Christian
communion. Such attempted development, however, could produce a major
schism between Mormons who are determined to be Christian, on the one
hand, and the new religion taught by the LDS on the other.
Meanwhile,
Mormonism and the impressive empire of the LDS will likely be with us
for a long time. They are no longer an exotic minority that is, by
virtue of minority status, exempt from critical examination and
challenge. Such examination and challenge, always fair-minded and
sympathetic, is exemplified by the Ostlings' very helpful book, Mormon America.
I am skeptical about the more dramatic projections of Mormon growth in
the future. That depends in part on the degree to which the Ostlings are
right in thinking our era is “relational” rather than “conceptual.” It
depends in larger part on developments internal to the LDS and
transformations in its self-understanding and self-presentation to the
world. The leadership of the LDS will have to decide whether its growth
potential is enhanced or hampered by presenting Mormonism as a new
religion or as, so to speak, another Christian denomination. Sometimes
they seem to want to have it both ways, but that will become
increasingly difficult. And, of course, for Mormons whose controlling
concern is spiritual, intellectual, and moral integrity, questions of
marketing and growth, as well as questions of institutional vitality and
communal belonging, must be clearly subordinated to the question of
truth.
As for the rest of us, we owe to Mormon Americans respect
for their human dignity, protection of their religious freedom,
readiness for friendship, openness to honest dialogue, and an eagerness
to join hands in social and cultural tasks that advance the common good.
That, perhaps, is work enough, at least for the time being.