In Original Grace, Adam S. Miller proposes an experiment in Restoration thinking: What if instead of implicitly affirming the traditional logic of original sin, we, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, emphasized the deeper reality of God's original grace? What if we broke entirely with the belief that suffering can sometimes be deserved and claimed that suffering can never be deserved?
In exploring these questions, Miller draws on scriptures and the truths of the Restoration to reframe Christianity's traditional thinking about grace, justice, and sin. He outlines the logic of original sin versus that of original grace and generates fresh insights into how the doctrine of grace relates to justice, creation, forgiveness, and more.
Adam S. Miller is a professor of philosophy at Collin College in McKinney, Texas. He earned a BA in comparative literature from Brigham Young University and an MA and PhD in philosophy from Villanova University. He is the author of nine books, including Speculative Grace, The Gospel according to David Foster Wallace, Letters to a Young Mormon, and An Early Resurrection. He also directs the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar.
“Hallelujah! Adam Miller turns original sin, law, and justice on their heads and provides us with a new grasp on grace and divine love. He weaves together stories of his father with theological explanations of a true, living Savior and of the beautiful partnership I so desperately need with Him. This book speaks to me in a very personal way, and I am finally able to place myself, with new eyes and a new heart, to a grand understanding of God’s love for me. I see the plan of salvation and the role of Christ on a higher level.”
JENNY REEDER, AUTHOR OF FIRST: THE LIFE AND FAITH OF EMMA SMITH
“Adam Miller has been rearranging my theological furniture for years, but I think Original Grace ranks as critical reading for Latter-day Saints everywhere. Once or twice in a generation, an author reinvigorates our theological imagination
J. SPENCER FLUHMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEAL A. MAXWELL INSTITUTE, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY