Inching toward Mormonism?

Posted on by

The following is a guest post by El Jefe.

The article under discussion is by Peter Kreeft, a theologian who teaches at Boston University. He answers the “35 questions most commonly asked about heaven.”

I was interested in his reply to question 2: “Why won’t we be bored in Heaven?” “I suspect this question subconsciously bothers most of us more than we like to admit. I can remember having something of a crisis of faith as a child: I thought I didn’t want to go to Heaven since the popular pictures of it seemed pretty boring to me. Freud, who occasionally comes up with nuggets of wisdom sandwiched between mountains of nonsense, says that everyone needs two things to make life worth living: love and work. The two are really one, for love is a work and work is a love. Love is a work, for it is something you do, not something you just feel or fall into. And work must be a love, for if not, it is threatening and boring.” Not quite as good as being God’s partners in Creation, but it’s a start. His answer to #4 is somewhat laughable. #9 and #10 are a cop-out. #14 is ok, but he doesn’t understand what we know of the temple and gender differences. #17 is quite good, he doesn’t have any understanding of celestialized. #26, he thinks age 33. Maybe, but I’d put it a little younger–I’m not sure it has much meaning. #34 is another one were I see him inching toward Mormonism.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting speculation on his part about subject that traditional Christianity has not only had very few answers, but hasn’t even asked the questions. It goes along with the Catholic Church and its apparent backing away from the dogma of “limbo” and moving (ever so slowly) toward some thing more similar to divine revelation that we have.

This entry was posted in Any by Geoff B.. Bookmark the permalink.

About Geoff B.

Geoff B graduated from Stanford University (class of 1985) and worked in journalism for several years until about 1992, when he took up his second career in telecommunications sales. He has held many callings in the Church, but his favorite calling is father and husband. Geoff is active in martial arts and loves hiking and skiing. Geoff has five children and lives in Colorado.

6 thoughts on “Inching toward Mormonism?”

  1. I don’t find #4 laughable at all. On the contrary, I find it quite a tender and compassionate answer. Do we not feel this way about our children. Do we not say, as Judah said of Benjamin, “For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me?” (Gen. 44:34). This is how I feel about my children. Joseph said he would go to hell to retrieve Emma if he had to; I feel the same way about my children.

  2. #14 is ok, but he doesn’t understand what we know of the temple and gender differences.

    C.S. Lewis wrote (probably in the Screwtape Letters) something about sex that his response to 14 reminded me of. The main idea (as I recall) is that mortal sexual intercourse is humans just trying to replicate the ‘shared space’ of angels. Two angels, because of their lack of physical bodies, could exist completely within eachother for periods of time. He seemed to think that this must be a most enjoyable way of spending time. He also seemed to indicate that devils have a similar type of co-existence where one being ‘eats’ or absorbs another being. The difference between the devil’s kind and the angels kind is that only one devil got pleasure out of the ‘eating’ arrangement, whereas both angels enjoyed their ‘space sharing.’

  3. I think you are right, Peter; and perhaps I was a little uncharitable. However, there was a hint of praying someone into heaven, regardless of what they might have done in this life. Somewhat akin to the Catholic prayers to their saints, on the basis that the saints had built up an extra store of righteousness, which they would share in order to get us there.

    But it is true that there have been many statements made that the ties that bind us in the temple may have the eventual effect of bringing us back from the very jaws of hell.

  4. This post gets me thinking about the Barbara Walters special “Heaven: Where Is It? How Do We Get There?” (9 p.m. EST Tuesday on ABC.) I didn’t watch it all, but I did catch little bits of it. It did interest me, to see who was being interviewed, and what they said.

  5. # 7 seems completely off to me:

    We know there is no sadness in Heaven: God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17). I think we will not be sad about the damned for the same reason God is not. According to the Sermon on the Mount, he will say to them, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23). God will wipe our memories clean. This is not falsehood or ignorance, but truth, for in a sense, the damned no longer are—that is, they no longer are in the most real place of all, Heaven. They no longer count.

    I don’t believe for a minute that God is not sad about His lost children, or that he’ll play any games with our memories. I don’t have any answers to this question, – in fact, it’s one of the things I worry about most about the afterlife – but I have no doubt this fellow has it wrong.

  6. Re #5 I agree with you. I thought of that part in Moses where Enoch sees God crying and asks why. God is in Heaven now, so why was he crying about people who aren’t in “the most real place of all” and therefore don’t count. By that logic why does he care about any of us on earth? Only for our potential to ‘count’ again someday?

Comments are closed.