Top 10 LDS "Intellectuals"

[myboynoah]

Thanks for that Mormon Scholars link. The Armand Mauss essay was fantastic.

http://mormonscholarstestify.org/624/armand-l-mauss

Thanks for pointing that out. I find myself relating to much of what he writes, especially this:

Yet as an individual trying to live my life successfully, I must choose, among all the known socially constructed philosophies and frameworks, one which I will embrace above all others to inform my aspirations, my behavior, and my ultimate commitments. I have chosen the gospel of Christ, as I understand it, as the construction of reality on which I will depend for my destiny. Thus, I am a believer because I choose to believe, and not because I have been convinced either by powerful and sophisticated arguments or by special spiritual or otherworldly experiences. I will readily concede that the depth and power of my testimony wax and wane. When nourished by faith-promoting experiences, or by my own special efforts, my testimony approaches certainty. At the other extreme, I fall back pretty much on the old Pascalian Wager. Always, though, even in its weakest moments, it calls on me to keep trying, to be better than I am, to return by faith to my incessant quest for understanding what this mortal existence means for me to do and to be.

I have been active in the Church all my life. My cherished partner Ruth and I brought up eight children in the LDS faith, including five sons who served missions for the Church in their youth. Like many others born in the faith, I began my adult life with a naïve and simplistic understanding of the gospel (which I sometimes recall with a certain nostalgia). However, I gradually learned, throughout my education and my career, how to assimilate the new ideas I encountered, whether in religion or in academia, and, in the process, how to adapt those ideas to my own evolving philosophy of life and faith. Thus, unlike many others, I never experienced any great spiritual lows or highs—that is, no great crisis of faith nor any specific epiphany that altered the course of my life. It’s just been one long process of thinking and rethinking—a process still going on. One element in that process that has inoculated me to some extent against disillusionment is the distinction that I have always made between the Church and the gospel.

[UtahDan]

Interesting list. If I were making a list, off the top of my head I would include D. Michael Quinn, Simon Southerton and Paul Toscano. There are lots of others not on that list.

[SoonerCoug]

Orson Pratt looks a little like Walt Whitman.

[jay santos]

Orson Pratt would make the top 10 LDS fundamentalist list. How do you make both the top 10 intellectual and fundamental list?

[oxcoug]

http://www.deseretnews.com/top/168/1...-Ericksen.html

So was Joseph Smith an uneducated farm boy or was he an "intellectual"? I thought his lack of education/sophistication was part of the argument for the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

I think the notion would be that he an uneducated farm boy who became an intellectual by the time in his life that he was delivering King Follett, but that was still closer to an uneducated farm boy at the time that he was translating/transcribing/transfictionalizing/transgendering (just trying give everyone here an option) the Book of Mormon.

[Sullyute]

Thanks for pointing that out. I find myself relating to much of what he writes, especially this:

One element in that process that has inoculated me to some extent against disillusionment is the distinction that I have always made between the Church and the gospel.

I really liked the quote you posted, especially the last sentance (bolded above). That is probably a good distiction to make but it can be very hard to do sometimes...

[SuperGabers]

I am glad no Sisters made the list. Because the Sisters of the church are dum.

[Babs]

I am glad no Sisters made the list. Because the Sisters of the church are dum.

That's okay. Apparently men are only smart once they're dead.

[SeattleUte]

The only two arguable intellectuals on that list are BH Roberts and Sterling McMurrin.

[byu71]

Anyone have a short definition of what an "intellectual" is.

Is it someone who has a high IQ, can express themselves well and doesn't pursue wealth.

Was or are Ford, Carnegie, Gates, Buffet, Lincoln, Roosevelt et. al. "intellectuals".

Is Obama the only "intellectual" President we have ever had?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

[UtahDan]

I think the notion would be that he an uneducated farm boy who became an intellectual by the time in his life that he was delivering King Follett, but that was still closer to an uneducated farm boy at the time that he was translating/transcribing/transfictionalizing/transgendering (just trying give everyone here an option) the Book of Mormon.

I always wonder when I hear his lack of education referenced what sort of education would have prepared him for the career that he had. The scholarly world views LDS scripture as a synthesis of the KJB, folk magic and the religious ideas and controversies of Joseph's day. He was steeped in all of those things by the time he produced the BOM. Nothing in school would have helped him there other than perhaps improving his mediocre grammar.

But being an intellectual is something that is not currently embraced. I think the church has correctly perceived that even people with good intentions applying scholarly tools and methods to church topics rarely end up helping. That is why intellectuals are enemies of the church along with gays and feminists as BKP said. There will never be another B.H. Roberts who right on wrong just went where the evidence led him. Faithful scholars are nearly all apologists now with a couple of exceptions like Bushman who are too well respected to be called "so called intellectuals" but who are also not strictly apologetic. I would actually include apologists among intellectuals, it's just that the church would include only them and I don't agree with that.

[LA Ute]

The only two arguable intellectuals on that list are BH Roberts and Sterling McMurrin.

I am glad you allowed at least Roberts into the club.

[Clark Addison]

The only two arguable intellectuals on that list are BH Roberts and Sterling McMurrin.

i.e. The ones who didn't believe in the BoM (or at least maybe didn't, in BHR's case).

[SuperGabers]

That's okay. Apparently men are only smart once they're dead.

[statman]

This one is my favorite from the site posted previously:

http://mormonscholarstestify.org/243/grant-hardy