Mormons and Christians often have a limited understanding of each other’s beliefs. For Christians to engage in better apologetics, they must be more charitable to Mormons. A deeper understanding of each faith’s history and theology is necessary for better dialogue.
This week I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Francis Beckwith, Baylor Professor in Philosophy and Political Science, Resident Fellow of the Institute for Studies in Religion, and author of A Catholic Engagement with Latter-day Saints. Like me, Dr. Beckwith is curious about the interaction between Mormon and orthodox Christian theology.
When defending any faith against another, both perspectives ought to be understood well. Without this clarity, people make arguments against a version of the faith that they have created, rather than the faith as it is currently and historically understood.
Because Mormonism is so young, its doctrine has shifted a lot over time, causing large amounts of variation in beliefs, especially between younger and older members. However, there are still places for debate between Christians and Mormons where terms are more clearly defined. One of these places is the debate surrounding the nature of the Trinity. Beckwith finds, “for Latter-day Saint theology, especially the later works by Joseph Smith, he talks about God as being an advanced version of the species that we belong to. That’s where I think the real difference is. There’s nothing like the classical doctrine of the Trinity. Mormon theology has an understanding that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are only triune insofar as they’re one in purpose, but not because they are the same substance. [In] the Nicene Creed, it says that the Son is one in substance with the Father. That’s something that the LDS would reject.”
In its own theology, Mormonism needs to solidify its doctrine on ongoing revelation. Mormonism is one of the most well known restorationist movements that began during the Second Great Awakening. Joseph Smith claimed to have received revelation from God that all other Christian denominations were false, and that the true Gospel would be restored through modern-day prophets, which have the authority to receive true knowledge from God. Like Roman Catholics, they place a strong emphasis on church authority for establishing doctrine. However, Beckwith pointed out that their approach to revelation is very different. “they don’t have [the same understanding as] the Catholic Church and the papacy…The Pope is only infallible if he speaks ex cathedra, which only happened twice in the history of the Catholic Church. Most of the doctrines that are considered infallible are those that were issued by councils like the Council of Nicaea. And so in a weird way, the pope is actually more constrained in what he can do [than Mormon prophets].”
The lack of constraint on the Mormon prophets allows contradictions between past and present revelation. These contradictions suggest the existence of a bipolar, chaotic God who changes His mind at random.
Beckwith explained that Mormonism has not yet had a movement like the Protestant Reformation that has aided in clearly solidifying the doctrine of the church. Because of this, he argues, “where Latter-day Saints sort of fit in the wider Christian world is difficult to say.”
“Most of the book is a dialogue. We want to better understand Latter-day Saint theology and also want [them] to be able to read the book without feeling that we’re attacking them.”
Though clear disagreement exists, there is still a lot of debate between Mormons and Christians that ought to be more clearly defined, especially for the parts of Mormon doctrine that have yet to develop. In these places, charity, humility, and intellectual open-mindedness are required for both Christians and Mormons to have greater understanding of each other. Dr. Beckwith explains how he has done this in his book, A Catholic Engagement with Latter-day Saints. He reports, “what we did in the book is we recruited about a dozen Catholic scholars to write chapters on aspects of Mormon theology. Most of the book is a dialogue. We want to better understand Latter-day Saint theology and also want [them] to be able to read the book without feeling that we’re attacking them.”
It is this kind of understanding of Mormonism and orthodox Christianity that I hope occurs through a deeper understanding of each religion. This can only occur through curiosity, humility, and charity for our neighbors and perspectives.
