Diedre GreenThe week following the Mormon Theology Seminar held in Williamsburg, Virginia, I deviated from how I had anticipated spending my time. I thought I would be back to my normal scholarship, immersed in archives and writing a book. Yet, headed into the archives, something gnawed at me—there would be no one there who wanted to talk about Abinadi or the suffering servant. Instead, I would be in a quiet space poring over texts other than LDS scripture, alone.Although I could not change this situation, I fought back, spending my early mornings poring over Mosiah 11-17 and noting things I wanted to add to my presentation during the seminar, as well as emailing colleagues in order to point out new discoveries I had made relevant to their presentation topics. Further, even as I was cloistered in the archives reading reflections on the Atonement and incarnation from a significantly different perspective, every text I read seemed to have some relevance to the unique way in which Book of Mormon prophets like Abinadi choose to speak about the Atonement. I found myself not doing something wholly removed from reading LDS scripture but rather discovering new lenses and frameworks through which to understand it.Just as reading collaboratively with other LDS scholars lends itself to deeper insights about LDS scripture, reading the text in light of other theological and philosophical texts can push forward, subvert, and explode more staid readings of the text. Reading the text anew, both in community with others and in community with other traditions, has allowed me not only to expand my intellectual or spiritual understanding of the canon, it has further challenged me in my life of discipleship.In examining the striking way in which Abinadi speaks about the Atonement, I keyed in on the fact that he moves quite fluidly between talking about the Atonement as though it is something that has already happened and as though it will only be realized in the future. I compared the way he speaks with other passages in the Book of Mormon and with the New Testament as well. I believe there are incredible lessons to be learned about how we are to understand and relate to the Atonement as we pay to attention to the ways in which the Book of Mormon prophets and authors point us to this particular aspect of it.I look forward to continuing to think and study about this issue and what the Book of Mormon is uniquely able to teach us about it. What was once a text I felt some ambivalence towards, I now read with a greater appreciation of its complexity and profound messages. My communal and intertextual study of Mosiah 15 has provoked reflection in me in ways that have, in turn, deepened my religious practice.
The 2017 Mormon Theology Seminar recently wrapped up at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. We asked seminar participants to reflect on their experiences, offering a glimpse at what the Seminar is all about. This post features Deidre Green., a Maxwell Institute postdoctoral fellow who specializes in religion and philosophy. See more reflections here.