Vertical and Horizontal Mormonism

[_Bob Loblaw]

I think "horizontal Mormonism" is what Joseph did with his plural wives. I suppose he might have done vertical Mormonism if he had a shower.

[_MCB]

I think "horizontal Mormonism" is what Joseph did with his plural wives. I suppose he might have done vertical Mormonism if he had a shower.

That is the association I had on this thread initially. Reason why I hadn't yet participated.

[_madeleine]

One of the primary things that concerns me regarding Mormonism is its evolution from a vertical religion to a horizontal.

In reading last night a 1972 piece by Hugh Nibley for the Ensign, he manages to frame the issue succinctly in describing the development of Judaism and Christianity. Hugh was so percipient, however, I am unable to believe he could not see its application to Mormonism. In fact, it strikes me as likely being a veiled criticism.

Here it is:

Vertical Judaism and Christianity is that brand of religion that believed in the necessity of direct revelation, inspired leaders, charismatic gifts, the coming of a real Messiah and a real millennium; the predominance of such beliefs at an early time has become apparent from the oldest Jewish and Christian manuscripts, whose recent discovery has completely changed the picture of Christian beginnings.

Both Judaism and Christianity, it would now appear, began as charismatic vertical religions that were in time completely suppressed and supplanted by the horizontal or academic way of thinking, which holds that one should reverence only the tradition handed down horizontally from one generation of teachers and scholars to the next and that the complete religious life is comprised in the proper observance of established customs and the acceptance of officially approved doctrines.

Thoughts?

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

Who says the RCC isn't charismatic?

[_moksha]

"handed down horizontally"?

huh?

It was available equally to all believers. The apostles were relayers of the message rather than its source.