DiscussMormonism.com

A couple three years ago I hosted some documents for Doctor (then Mister) Scratch on my blog. The documents can be found here:

http://zackc.wordpress.com/documents/

And were discussed in these threads:

Coming Attractions: The Archive of Agent S

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Anyways, they will soon be disappearing and I thought I would give people the opportunity to save them to their hard drives/view and print/whatever if they have personal interest in doing so. They were old hat to some posters but others found them useful. Cheers.

When are these disappearing, B23?

B23 wrote:a couple three years ago I hosted some documents for Doctor (then Mister) Scratch on my blog. The documents can be found here:

http://zackc.wordpress.com/documents/

And were discussed in these threads:

Coming Attractions: The Archive of Agent S

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Anyways, they will soon be disappearing and I thought I would give people the opportunity to save them to their hard drives/view and print/whatever if they have personal interest in doing so. They were old hat to some posters but others found them useful. Cheers.

Kishkumen wrote:When are these disappearing, B23?

Hello Reverend Doctor Kish.

I figured I'd give people a week or so. I'll bump it a couple times in the next couple days to keep it on front page at least over the weekend.

Thanks. I can't grab all of them at the moment. Great trove.

B23 wrote:Hello Reverend Doctor Kish.

I figured I'd give people a week or so. I'll bump it a couple times in the next couple days to keep it on front page at least over the weekend.

Thanks!

Hey, that's cool.

Some of those documents actually seem to include B.H. Roberts' handwriting and editing work.

Thanks!

Wonderful collection, Bond. By far the most interesting of these documents, in my opinion, is the handwritten journal of Wesley P. Lloyd. Lloyd relates Roberts's frank account of his theological clashes with the Brethren. Roberts comes across as particularly disdainful of J F Smith, who he says "could not follow" his line of reasoning, and wrote a response to his work that "sounded like a school boy composition"!

I don't think that Roberts ever "lost his faith" in the Book of Mormon, as some have alleged, but I do think that he moved in a very theologically liberal direction, comparable to the Protestant modernism and historicism so popular during the 1920s and 30s. Roberts accepted the basic historicist assumption that revelation is always limited and historically mediated, and also accepted some of the findings of German "higher criticism," such as that Genesis 1 and 2 are two separate and contradictory creation accounts. Even beyond his specific conclusions, the whole spirit of Roberts's endeavor-- addressing difficulties in a revisionist rather than reactionary way-- was identical to the spirit of liberal Protestantism. If Roberts had gotten his way, I think the LDS Church of today would look a lot more like the current Community of Christ. Fortunately for the LDS Church's coffers, the majority of the Brethren were of a more fundamentalist frame of mind.

CaliforniaKid wrote:Wonderful collection, Bond. By far the most interesting of these documents, in my opinion, is the handwritten journal of Wesley P. Lloyd. Lloyd relates Roberts's frank account of his theological clashes with the Brethren. Roberts comes across as particularly disdainful of J F Smith, who he says "could not follow" his line of reasoning, and wrote a response to his work that "sounded like a school boy composition"!

I don't think that Roberts ever "lost his faith" in the Book of Mormon, as some have alleged, but I do think that he moved in a very theologically liberal direction, comparable to the Protestant modernism and historicism so popular during the 1920s and 30s. Roberts accepted the basic historicist assumption that revelation is always limited and historically mediated, and also accepted some of the findings of German "higher criticism," such as that Genesis 1 and 2 are two separate and contradictory creation accounts. Even beyond his specific conclusions, the whole spirit of Roberts's endeavor-- addressing difficulties in a revisionist rather than reactionary way-- was identical to the spirit of liberal Protestantism. If Roberts had gotten his way, I think the LDS Church of today would look a lot more like the current Community of Christ. Fortunately for the LDS Church's coffers, the majority of the Brethren were of a more fundamentalist frame of mind.

I'm glad you showed up Chris. I knew you (and Blixa and beastie If I recall correctly) had particular interest in the material last time around. Grab it while you can. And all thanks really should go to the Doc Scratch's Agent S for opening their vault.

(This website really needs a feature where you can upload large documents or images. A depository of sorts.)

B23 wrote:(This website really needs a feature where you can upload large documents or images. A depository of sorts.)

If you're looking for a permanent repository, I'd recommend Scribd.com.

Thanks Bond. I grabbed what I wanted. *sigh* I'll never get the reading done that I need to do this summer.