THE ADVENTURE OF LEARNING* * * * * * * *
A
professor is not one who knows, but one who professes to know, and [thus] is
constantly in the position of inviting challenge.
He
professes publicly where everyone is invited to come and challenge, [and] at
any time he must be willing and able to defend it openly against all comers.
The degree was originally a chivalric device—a gauntlet of defiance to
all rivals—and not a safe rampart or dug-out for a scholar to hide behind
in safe immunity from any challenge.
"Fact and Fancy in the Interpretation of Ancient
Records," 24* * * * * * * *
In the study of ancient things . . . it is just the
fantastic and incongruous which opens the door to discovery. Never forget that.
In scholarship as in science, every paradox and anomaly is really a broad hint
that new knowledge is awaiting us if we will only go after it.
"There Were Jaredites," CWHN 5:365-66* * * * * * * *
There are those who deplore the study of [Egyptology] as "esoteric"
and "exotic." By very definition the unknown is always exotic and the
little-known is always esoteric; the terms are relative—to the
departmental philosopher even Latin may be esoteric and Greek positively
exotic. Now the office and calling of scholarship and science is to investigate
the unknown, and people who engage in such work are not ashamed of admitting
that it intrigues them. It is exciting and even romantic stuff; the motion is
always away from the commonplace and familiar to the strange and wonderful. The
established academician with his tried-and-tested platitudes and truisms is
welcomed to his world of preaching and posturing, but the greatest appeal of
the gospel in every age has been that it is frankly wonderful—one
glorious surprise after another.
"New Look at the Pearl of Great Price" (May 1970):
86* * * * * * * *
Things that appear unlikely, impossible, or paradoxical from
one point of view often make perfectly good sense from another.
"Before Adam," CWHN 1:65* * * * * * * *
True knowledge never shuts the door on more knowledge, but
zeal often does.
"Zeal Without Knowledge," CWHN 9:71* * * * * * * *
Is an open mind, then, a negative thing—an empty mind?
It is, unless it is a searching mind.
"The Prophets and the Open Mind,"
CWHN 3:128* * * * * * * *
No matter where we begin, if we pursue knowledge diligently
and honestly our quest will inevitably lead us from the things of earth to the
things of heaven.
"Educating the Saints," 243* * * * * * * *
Must you learn everything? Yes, for if you leave anything
out, how will you know that it is not the most important of all, "the
stone which the builders rejected" (Matthew 21:42)? This journey may last
for ages, and it holds forth the anticipation of wonders and delights that grow
as ever-increasing knowledge heightens our capacity to comprehend what we are
experiencing. This has nothing to do with the learning of the schools. The
tradition of Western education is rhetorical, success oriented, and concerned
wholly with appearances; it cost Socrates his life to show the Sophists just
how superficial and dishonest their system was.
"But What Kind of Work?" CWHN 9:271* * * * * * * *
Doctors and trainers often see perfectly developed bodies,
but nobody can even begin to imagine what a perfect mind would be like; that is where the whole
range of progress and growth must take place.
"But What Kind of Work?" CWHN 9:277
* * * * * * * *
All scholarship, like all science, is an ongoing, open-ended
discussion in which all conclusions are tentative forever, the principal value and charm of the game
being the discovery of the totally unexpected.
"Common Carrier"* * * * * * * *
Only if you reach the boundary will the boundary recede
before you. And if you don't, if you confine your efforts, the boundary will shrink to accommodate itself
to your efforts. And you can only expand your capacities by working to the very limit.
"Brigham Young as Educator," 1* * * * * * * *
Knowledge can be heady stuff, but it easily leads to an
excess of zeal!—to illusions of grandeur and a desire to impress others
and achieve eminence. . . . Our search for knowledge should be ceaseless, which
means that it is open-ended, never resting on laurels, degrees, or past
achievements.
"Zeal Without Knowledge," CWHN 9:70* * * * * * * *
There are three factors involved: intelligence, revelation,
and hard work; and if the spirit may help in
earthly learning, the mind is required to operate in celestial matters.
"Educating the Saints," 243* * * * * * * *
Like other latent forces, intelligence is there and waiting
to be released. Note the key words in this statement on the high estate of
spirituality. It is peculiarly "powerful in expanding [1] the
mind, enlightening [2] the understanding, and storing
[3] the intellect with present [4] knowledge, of a
man who is the literal seed of Abraham." And if you do not happen to be
that, "the pure [5] spirit of intelligence,"
if one cultivates it, "will make him actually of the seed of Abraham."
It is "[6] the spirit of revelation . . . when you feel pure
intelligence flowing into you, it will give you sudden strokes of
[7] ideas" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph
Smith, 149-51). It is the merit of the seed of Abraham, with all their
stubbornness and backsliding, that above all people treasure the things of the
mind. The first commandment given to the Church in modern times was "seek
not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be
unfolded unto you" (D&C 6:7). It would be hard to imagine a program
more repugnant to the present course the world is taking.
"But What Kind of Work?" CWHN 9:281-82* * * * * * * *
Intellectual curiosity and esthetic feeling are nothing to
be ashamed of.
"A Strange Thing in the Land," CWHN
2:135* * * * * * * *
At what point does one have "a right to an opinion"?
I have never reached that point yet, and yet I go right on having opinions. I
have been having them ever since I was a child and knew nothing at all; and I
still go right on having them now that I am old and know nothing at all. The
ideal thing would be to withhold opinions until all the returns are in, but as
Karl Popper reminds us, that day will never come. So there is nothing for it
but to go ahead and have our premature opinions, gratefully selecting in
support of such the evidence we like best. . . . What is not permitted is to make one's choice on the
authority of someone else. If you are not concerned in the matter,
don't bother to take a position; but once you have decided to be concerned, you
must make your own decision, no matter how
limited your knowledge. All of us have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge,
not just the Authorities, and each is accountable for his own decisions: you
cannot delegate your free agency even for a moment. You may go to the expert
for information, and that is what he is good for, but not for a final opinion.
"Some Reasons for the Restored Gospel," 3-4* * * * * * * *
What makes a man an authority is not his confidence in
giving an opinion, but his ability to supply us with proof that we can
understand. And the better the authority, the clearer, the more understandable,
the more conclusive the evidence he can give us.
"On the Pearl of Great Price," 9
ABUSES OF SCHOLARSHIP* * * * * * * *
The
gas-law of learning: . . . any amount of information no matter how small will
fill any intellectual void no matter how large.
"Historicity of the Bible," CWHN 1:4* * * * * * * *
The faculty [at Berkeley] had but one objective in
life—to achieve eminence—and all labored under the pathetic
illusion that mere association with a prestigious institution was the nearest
thing to human satisfaction that this life could offer.
"An Intellectual Autobiography," xxv-xxvi* * * * * * * *
We are for the most part simply conscientious grinds who got
good grades and stayed on at school, moving into departmental slots
conveniently vacated by the death of older (and usually better) scholars; then
traveling all over to exchange commonplaces and read papers with our peers
abroad in the world. As to research, we paw over large deposits of neglected
material until we find something that nobody has noticed for a long time. Then
we write about it, and that is a contribution.
"An Intellectual Autobiography," xxviii* * * * * * * *
At UCLA I quickly learned the knack of getting grades, a
craven surrender to custom, since grades had little to do with learning.
"An Intellectual Autobiography," xxii* * * * * * * *
I can see two totally different pictures of the BYU, each
one a reality: From one direction I see high purpose, sobriety, good cheer,
dedication and a measure of stability which in this unquiet world is by no
means to be despised. Then by shifting my position but slightly I see a
carnival of human vanity and folly to which only Gilbert & Sullivan could
do justice, with solemn antics before high heaven that make the angels weep.
Why take sides or contend? Both of the pictures are genuine!
"Some Reasons for the Restored Gospel," 7* * * * * * * *
Humanism is very ancient. It turns up regularly as an Ersatz
for religion when religion goes sour. The settled tradition is that while
humanism and science represent straight and honest thinking, religion is a
primitive, pre-rational, emotional, wishful type of thinking, essentially
superstitious, that humanism and science represent bold new thought while
religion represents traditional, hide-bound uncritical thinking. What this view
overlooks is the fact that the bold and original thinking of today inevitably
becomes the hide-bound authoritarian tradition of tomorrow. So that the theory
itself, the belief that we have a body of study that is fresh and forward
looking and that we can easily spot it and give allegiance to it, is itself a
hoary superstition.
"Humanism and the Gospel," 1* * * * * * * *
The disillusionment of the honest humanist is swift and
certain, but only today are we discovering how badly we have misjudged the
religious tradition. We have put the whole thing into a single package and
thrown the package out of the window. What we have failed to see is that the
religion which disgusted the intellectuals was a dishonest
religion—vitiated by human weakness and priestcraft.
"Humanism and the Gospel," 4* * * * * * * *
In this vagueness and all-pervasiveness, the term rhetoric came very close to our own "business,"
or better, "public relations." No one could say exactly what it was,
yet no one had the slightest doubt about its real nature or its absolutely
predominant place in the world. The rhetorician was a general promoter,
ingratiating himself with powerful individuals or groups to run off with a
handsome cut of the profits from clever deals engineered by himself, handling
other people's affairs in the law courts, guiding political opinion, generally
flattering and running errands for the great. The god Mercury, the winged
messenger and factotum with the money-bags, Hermes the thief, with the ready
tongue and winning manners, shows how established the type really is.
"Victoriosa Loquacitas," CWHN 10:255-56* * * * * * * *
[The rhetorician] tells them [the audience] funny stories
and improving homilies, he boldly rebukes their defects and excesses, orders
the huge throng like a child to behave itself, or commends it on its good order
and fine appearance. He delights the city with an outsider's praise of its size
and shining beauty or pours withering scorn on its luxury and immorality. He
flatters his hearers' intelligence with his confidential manner as the great
news commentator who knows the inside stuff, discussing big world issues in
clever, conceited, short-winded discourses. And they listen to him for
centuries on end because he represents civilization and saves them from
boredom.
"Victoriosa Loquacitas," CWHN 10:248* * * * * * * *
Simplifying, shortening, and spicing—the trade secrets
of the ancient rhetor's, as of the modern journalist's success—do have
absolute limits, and when these are reached the rhetorical process has done its
work. The end-product is something once thought to be typically
Oriental—the shadow theater of comic books.
In
the typical Oriental romance the labor of reading is supplanted by the efforts
of the graphic storyteller, whose American counterpart is a pen-and ink artist
capable, like his Eastern colleague, of mass-producing amazingly vivid
illustrations at great speed. The skill of both these craftsmen is readily
explained by the fact that they are simply drawing the same pictures over and
over again. The story is told in brief, repetitive episodes, all strangely
alike and all richly spiced with sex and gore. A wanton and meaningless procession
of extravagant images passes before us, exaggerated to the point of insanity
yet hackneyed to the limit of dullness. . . . Like the passions and appetites
it feeds on, rhetoric is one of the great constants in human history. Because
it is a constant, nothing can tell us better the direction in which a
civilization is moving or how far it is along the way. Like the residue of
certain radioactive substances, rhetoric, leaving an unmistakable mark on all
that it touches, may yet prove to be the surest guide to the history of our own
times.
"Victoriosa Loquacitas," CWHN
10:273-74* * * * * * * *
By the fifth century the learning and arts of the West
present a horrible spectacle. As rhetoric had broken the back of philosophy by
systematic sabotage and absorption, so one by one it had occupied every field
in which money and fame could be earned.
"Victoriosa Loquacitas," CWHN 10:267* * * * * * * *
In the business of scholarship, evidence is far more
flexible than opinion. The prevailing view of the past is controlled not by
evidence but by opinion.
"Historicity of the Bible," CWHN 1:4* * * * * * * *
Toward the end of the seventeenth century, scholarship lost
its former imagination and drive, thanks to the competitive skepticism of
experts determined to demonstrate their solid conservatism to each other.
"A Strange Thing in the Land," CWHN
2:101* * * * * * * *
Psychology, being the science of behavior, is the equivalent
to religion being the study of bells and steeples, or patriotism being the
study of firecrackers. Only the
external aspects of the thing can be studied. Therefore, for the sake of
convenience, we assume that only the external aspects exist, and of course this
leads to trouble.
"Science Fiction and the Gospel,"
CWHN 12:511* * * * * * * *
Many years ago this writer learned that if he could not make
a thing clear to a five-year-old child it was because he did not really
understand it himself. Professional jargon and phraseological mazes are the
scholar's refuge from the importunities and the too-searching questions of the
layman, but they do have their purposes—they warn the idle onlooker to
keep a respectful distance while the research is still going on, and they are a
constant reminder to the professional himself that he has not yet got the
answers that will make it possible to state the case in clear and simple terms.
"Getting Ready to Begin," 252-53
A PLEA FOR HUMILITY* * * * * * * *
Being
self-taught is no disgrace; but being self-certified is another matter.
"It Takes All Kinds," 5* * * * * * * *
Does life on the moon resemble life on Mars? It is a good
question, but premature. When I was a little boy we used to sit in a tent on
hot summer afternoons and debate loudly and foolishly on just such lofty themes
as this one. I think we all felt vaguely uncomfortable about the whole thing,
and that made us all the more excitable, dogmatic, and short-tempered.
The
trouble was that we were not yet ready. We did not have the necessary
knowledge. But when would we be ready? Are we ready yet? If not, we should stop
playing this game of naughty boys behind the barn, smoking cornsilk and saying
damn and hell to show how emancipated we are. It is much too easy to be a "swearing
elder." Knowledge is not so cheaply bought.
We
are not free to discuss any imaginable question simply because we
say we are. I am not permitted to discuss botany with anybody, at
any time or place. It is not the jealousy of a reactionary society or the
dictates of a narrow church that cramp my style—I just don't happen to
know anything about botany.
"Do Religion and History Conflict?" CWHN 12:448* * * * * * * *
No man can learn enough in a lifetime to count for very
much, and no one knows that better than the man who diligently seeks
knowledge—that is the lesson of Faust. How then can any honest man
believe that his modicum of knowledge can supersede revelation and supplant the
authority of the priesthood?
"The Way of the 'Intellectuals,' " CWHN 6:376* * * * * * * *
The very helplessness of the public which makes it necessary
for them to consult the experts also makes it impossible for them to judge how
expert they are.
"It Takes All Kinds," 1* * * * * * * *
As knowledge increases, the verdict of yesterday must be
reversed today, and in the long run the most positive authority is the least to
be trusted.
"New Look at the Pearl of Great Price" (July
1968): 54* * * * * * * *
The "evolutionistic bias" of modern scholarship
has played havoc with ancient history, not only predetermining every reaction
of the historian to his text, but also in most cases freeing him from any
obligation toward the text at all. Many large college textbooks are brought
forth by men who, it is painfully apparent, have never bothered to read through
the documents on which their work is supposed to be based. Their confidence in
a moth-eaten rule-of-thumb is simply sublime. Why should one waste precious
eyesight examining moldy evidence when everybody knows already what the answer
is going to be? . . .
The
expert feels in his bones that what he says is what is right, unaware that his
bones have been undergoing constant conditioning since the day of his birth. He
is trained and intelligent. He means to be perfectly scientific and detached.
He is constitutionally incapable of wanton error. How then can he be wrong?
Answer:
simply by being human! Purity of motive is no guarantee of infallibility. The
greatest of errors are by no means intentional and are often made by the ablest
of scholars. . . . No scholar alive possesses enough knowledge to speak the
final word on anything, and, as to integrity, let us rather call it vanity.
"The Way of the Church," CWHN
4:234-35* * * * * * * *
I refuse to be held responsible for anything I wrote more
than three years ago. For heaven's sake, I hope we are moving forward here!
After all, the implication [is] that one mistake and it is all over with. How
flattering to think in forty years I have not made one slip and I am still in
business! I would say about four-fifths of everything I put down has changed.
Of course!
"The Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham," 49
RESPONSIBLE SCHOLARSHIP* * * * * * * *
Significance
is a relative value, measured by the interest of a writing to a reader. There
are three types of interest that make a study significant: human interest,
scientific interest, and vested interest.
"Writing and Publication in Graduate School," 5* * * * * * * *
Scholarship is an open-ended discussion in which things are
never settled. The important thing, therefore, is not to be right on a
particular point but to be able to enter into the discussion. It is for this
purpose that scholarly journals exist. Until one gets onto the playing-field,
one is not in the game—he is merely a spectator, who may cheer for this
or that player or shout advice from his classroom bleachers, but never knows
what it really is like in the arena. . . .
Every
study should be: (1) authentic, (2) original, and (3) significant. Without all
three of these characteristics no study should be published. With all three any
study is certain to find publication without difficulty.
"Writing and Publication in Graduate School," 1-2* * * * * * * *
Publication is especially important in a church university,
for where the severe standards imposed by professional journals are not
applied, scholars inevitably succumb to the occupational hazards of the
religious teacher, easily lapsing into superficial pseudo-scholarship,
irresponsible speculation, ill-informed controversy, and authoritarian
pomposity.
"Writing and Publication in Graduate School," 1* * * * * * * *
Not to use all available evidence is to defeat the whole
purpose of research, which is to add to the fund of existing knowledge. How can
you add to it if you don't know what is already there and what is missing? No
future progress is possible where past progress is ignored. What is the
advantage of centuries of writing and research that others have put into my
subject if I intend to consider only ten percent of it? By what right do I
presume to ask others to give my work the respectful attention which I deny to
theirs? We cannot honestly add a word to historical writing until we know what
needs to be added.
"Writing and Publication in Graduate School," 4* * * * * * * *
It is better to be ignorant and interested than ignorant and
not interested, and there's no alternative here.
"Apocryphal Writings," CWHN 12:266* * * * * * * *
All scholarship, like all science, is an ongoing, open-ended
discussion in which all conclusions are tentative forever, the principal value
and charm of the game being the discovery of the totally unexpected. . . .
Confronted with the reality of the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price,
whose mere existence is a miracle (what other performance can compare as a
sheer tour-de-force?) those who set themselves to put us right confine their
performance to demonstrating that these marvelous works were not produced in
the conventional manner of the schools (whoever said they were?) and therefore
must be a fraud. With endless protestations of integrity and virtue they manage
from year to year to avoid all contact with the teeming sources by which these
books must be tested, to flaunt with tireless repetition their two or three
shopworn but hasty and unexamined charges of indiscretion on the part of the
Prophet, producing as evidence the opinions of a mysterious "Mormon
Egyptologist" whose credentials they prefer not to discuss. It is the
purest Watergate.
"Common Carrier"
PRODDING THE UNIVERSITY* * * * * * * *
The
formula for preserving order emerges with striking clarity from an ample mass
of documents covering a long period of time. Whoever would avoid serious
student protest or dangerous demands has simply to follow the rules of the
sophist schools:
1. Free
the student from the necessity of any prolonged or strenuous effort.
2. Give
him a reasonable assurance that the school is helping him toward a career.
3. Confine
moral discipline to the amenities, paying special attention to dress and
grooming. The student will have his own sex life anyway.
4. Keep
him busy with fun and games—extracurricular is the thing.
5. Allay
any subconscious feelings of guilt due to idleness and underachievement by
emphasis on the greatness of the institution, which should be frequently
dramatized by assemblies and ceremonies. An atmosphere of high purpose and
exalted dedication is the best insurance against moments of honest misgiving.
Here,
then, was the secret of order and stability in the ancient schools.
"How to Have a Quiet Campus," CWHN 10:301-2* * * * * * * *
BYU will not prevent you from learning. But it won't make
you learn anything either.
"Nibliography," 56* * * * * * * *
The student who tells me that if I refuse to accept his
inspired interpretations of the Facsimiles, or the Anthon transcript, or of
Book of Mormon geography, or [of] Indian glyphs, I am holding in contempt the
doctrine of continued revelation is cheating too, just as is the one who
accuses me of denying the power of prayer when I give him the "D" he
deserved instead of the "A" he prayed for. What these people forget
is that revelation is nontransferable.
"Prolegomena to Any Study of the Book of Mormon,"
175* * * * * * * *
As administrative problems have accumulated in a growing
church, the authorities have tended to delegate the business of learning to
others, and those others have been only too glad to settle for the outward
show, the easy and flattering forms, trappings, and ceremonies of education.
Worse still, they have chosen business-oriented, career-minded, degree-seeking
programs in preference to the strenuous, critical, liberal, mind-stretching
exercises that Brigham Young recommended. We have chosen the services of the
hired image-maker in preference to unsparing self-criticism, and the first
question the student is taught to ask today is John Dewey's golden question: "What
is there in it for me?"
"Educating the Saints," 251-52* * * * * * * *
What is the main weakness of our students? Undoubtedly the
desire for recognition rather than interest in what they are doing. They are
decidedly degree-seeking rather than knowledge-seeking. Eager to be successful,
they want to rush into production without any foundation.
The
gospel is only for the honest in heart, we are told; to others it shows an
infinitely exalted but also remotely distant goal for which they have not the
diligence to work or the patience to wait, but whose allure they cannot resist.
So they anticipate the goal, sometimes in forms and ceremonies (we take our
academic ritual in deadly earnest), sometimes by cultivating an invincibly
cocky self-confidence, and sometimes in mental and emotional crackups.
We
want to be rewarded and recognized for our study, and that is not a proper
motive for learning.
"Writing and Publication in Graduate School," 7
KEEPING PERSPECTIVE* * * * * * * *
It
is important to specialize. It is sound professional policy to deal with
something that nobody else understands. But there are natural limits to
specialization. Inevitably one reaches the point at which the study of a single
star cannot be pursued further until one has found out about a lot of other
stars. The little picture starts expanding into a big picture, and we soon
discover that without the big picture the little one cannot be understood at
all.
In
the study of the ancient world the big picture, long ignored by scholars, has
been coming into its own in recent years. For generations students worked with
meticulous care on their little specialized pictures in the confident hope that
in the end each little piece would fit together with others to give a larger
and clearer picture of the world and all that's in it.
The
idea worked. The separate studies did show a tendency to fit together and fall
into patterns. Instead of gratifying the scholars, however, this alarmed most
of them, fearful of the dissolution of sacred departmental bounds. Within the
limits of his specialty, the expert is lord and master. Small wonder if he
treasures and defends those limits.
"New Look at the Pearl of Great Price" (May 1970):
84* * * * * * * *
We are beginning to realize that the Cartesian ideal of
breaking things down into discrete particles and measuring mathematical units
will not give you the ultimate explanation.
"Nibliography," 56* * * * * * * *
Blindness to larger contexts is a constitutional defect of
human thinking imposed by the painful necessity of being able to concentrate on
only one thing at a time. We forget as we virtuously concentrate on that one
thing that hundreds of other things are going on at the same time and on every
side of us, things that are just as important as the object of our study and
that are all interconnected in ways that we cannot even guess. Sad to say, our
picture of the world to the degree to which it has that neatness, precision,
and finality so coveted by scholarship is a false one.
I
once studied with a famous professor who declared that he deliberately avoided
the study of any literature east of Greece lest the new vision destroy the
architectonic perfection of his own celebrated construction of the Greek mind.
His picture of that mind was immensely impressive but, I strongly suspect,
completely misleading.
"New Look at the Pearl of Great Price" (May 1970):
85* * * * * * * *
Knowing a lot is not enough. We have heard moving stories of
wandering Arabs who have died of thirst in the night only a few feet from
water. It makes no difference how far one has come or how near one may be to
the water. He who has not gone all the way cannot drink.
"New Look at the Pearl of Great Price" (May 1968):
55
THE SAINTS' RESPONSIBILITY* * * * * * * *
We
are under obligation not to become the helpless victims of scholarly attacks on
the Church or lose by default whatever advantages are presented in new
discoveries. If a new find seems to support or refute a position or claim of
the Church, it is sheer imbecility not to point out the connection and discuss
its significance. As an open-ended discussion, historical scholarship cannot
withhold comment until all issues are settled and agreed on, since things are
never settled. The student does not gather information with the mechanical
impartiality of a vacuum-cleaner but sees every bit of information as fitting
into some pattern or other. Frankly taking a position as his frame of
reference, the student unblushingly tries to prove or disprove things; don't
avoid taking a position, but don't resent it if all the world takes an opposite
position. Remember, in order to be original, your contribution should contain
something which has never been accepted before, because it has never been known
before.
"Writing and Publication in Graduate School," 6* * * * * * * *
It is very important for Latter-day Saints to keep pace,
more or less, with the fast-moving developments in the fields of Bible and
related studies. By failing to do this we run the risk of laboring to
accommodate our religion to scientific and scholarly teachings that have long
since been superseded, altered, or completely discarded.
"An Age of Discovery," 1* * * * * * * *
Expansion is the theme, and we cannot expand the
boundaries unless we first reach those boundaries, which means exerting
ourselves to the absolute limit. . . .
To
keep the Saints always reaching for the highest and best, the utmost of their
capacity, requires enormous motivation—and the gospel supplies it.
Nothing can excite men to action like the contemplation of the eternities.
The
quality in which the Saints have always excelled is zeal. Zeal is
the engine that drives the whole vehicle. Without it we would get nowhere. But
without clutch, throttle, brakes, and steering wheel, our mighty engine becomes
an instrument of destruction, and the more powerful the motor, the more
disastrous the inevitable crack-up if the proper knowledge is lacking. There is
a natural tendency to let the mighty motor carry us along, to give it its head,
to open it up and see what it can do.
"Zeal Without Knowledge," CWHN 9:68-69* * * * * * * *
The young, with their limited knowledge, are particularly
susceptible to excessive zeal. Why do it the hard way, they ask . . . , when
God has given us the answer book? The answer to that is, Because if you use the
answer book for your Latin, or your math, or anything else, you will always
have a false sense of power and never learn the real thing. . . . No short-cuts
or easy lessons here!
"Zeal Without Knowledge," CWHN
9:71-72* * * * * * * *
In 1833 the School of the Prophets at Kirtland adopted a
basic curriculum of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and for a time some of the
brethren, following the example of the Prophet, seriously came to grips with
those languages. The program was violently interrupted, but it was enough to
serve notice that the Mormons intended to study the hard way and to take
advantage of all the resources that are available for the study of the
scriptures.
God
had told Oliver Cowdery in no uncertain terms that revelation follows study and
may never be claimed as a substitute for it (D&C 9:7-8). The bringing forth
of the papyrus fragments in 1967 was a reminder to the Saints that they are
still expected to do their homework and may claim no special revelation or
convenient handout as long as they ignore the vast treasure-house of materials
that God has placed within their each.
"New Look at the Pearl of Great Price" (May 1970):
91* * * * * * * *
[Study] Greek at a time like this? This of all times, for
Greek is the toughest and most enduring monument to the human spirit. After
three thousand years of competition it still holds all the top prizes in such
things as epic literature, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, history, philosophy,
fairy stories, hymns, love-songs. . . .
When
everything is passing away in an apocalyptic climax, it is comforting and
strengthening to get close to something which—itself formed in the
crucible of terrible crises and trials—has survived as fresh and vigorous
as ever, setting before us the treasures of the other dispensations in the greatest
spread of intellectual, artistic, and spiritual nourishment the human race
possesses.
We
do not study ancient languages in order to translate from them, but to read,
ponder, savor, and if possible, sound the depths of those things which cannot
be translated but only tentatively paraphrased. Nowhere are they more enticing
and challenging than in that most subtle, vivacious, and sensitive of idioms:
Greek. . . .
Those
who think "practical matters" are more worthy of their time—who
would reverse the first commandment given to the Church in this dispensation: "Seek
not for riches, but for wisdom: (D&C 1:7)—should be notified that
while by common consent the Greeks are indisputably "number one" in
wisdom literature, they have also produced an unrivalled gallery of filthy rich
tycoons in our own day, and have left us the standard guidebooks and
commentaries on matters of politics, business, social problems, and law. If you
want to get serious in almost any field of study you cannot escape the Greeks.
Every student at some time or other should at least give them a try.
Foreword to Learn Greek* * * * * * * *
A discussion with God is not a case of agreeing or
disagreeing with him—who is in a position to do that?—but of
understanding him. What Abraham and Ezra and Enoch asked was, "Why?"
Socrates
showed that teaching is a dialogue—a discussion. As long as the learner
is in the dark he should protest and argue, and question, for that
is the best way to bring problems into focus, while the teacher patiently and cheerfully
explains, delighted that his pupil has enough interest and understanding to
raise questions—the more passionate the more promising. There is a place
for discussion and participation in the government of the kingdom; it is
men who love absolute monarchies.
"Beyond Politics," 284* * * * * * * *
I am mainly working with the inspired works, the scriptures.
The woods are crawling with people who can do research on the early Church. I
won't spend time on that. But what excites me is when Joseph starts to give us
books of Abraham and Enoch and Adam and apocryphal writings and reconstruction
of the New Testament and inspired translations of the Bible. Then you can go
back to old sources and see if that is comparative, see if he has a leg to
stand on. Once you start comparing, there is no end but it gives you such
marvelous control over Joseph Smith and his critics. His timing was so perfect.
"Nibley Talks about Contemporary Issues," 14
