Which is worse,\u00a0false revelations being accepted as true or true revelations being rejected as false? \u00a0This question, I think, gets very close to the heart of the debate between reason and authority. \u00a0This issue can be framed historically in terms of the Enlightenment battle between revelation to authority figures and reasons and laws which are accessible to and binding upon everybody.<\/p>\n
The Mormon tradition believes the Catholic Church to have become illegitimate (if not in terms of revelation, then definitely in terms of authority) by the time of the Enlightenment. \u00a0Thus, we praise the Protestant reformers and other secular thinkers\u00a0that cast away the shadows of the “Dark Ages” (so called) for their resistance to that apostate church.<\/p>\n
The problem, however, is that the metaphors, values and concepts that these Enlightenment thinkers created in order to subvert and overthrow the authority of the Catholic Church were weapons that were meant to subvert any and all appeals to revelation to authority figures without any regard for the legitimacy of these claims. \u00a0Indeed, the whole point of the Enlightenment was that such appeals to revelation given to authority are intrinsically illegitimate.<\/p>\n
This forces\u00a0a confrontation of sorts between Mormonism and reason. \u00a0After all, while the Mormon tradition dismisses the illegitimate authority of the Catholic Church, it also stands apart from Protestantism in not wanting a Reformation in which authority is universalized\/dissolved, but in wanting a Restoration of legitimate claims to revelation from\u00a0authority figures. \u00a0This, however, is exactly what Enlightenment reason was created in opposition to. \u00a0We cannot fully embrace both traditions at the same time.<\/p>\n
The question then becomes, in what way can we prevent the abuses of illegitimate authority without also closing the door on legitimate authority that we simply happen to not like? \u00a0The Enlightenment answer – universal reason – seems to have done a decent job in preventing the former, but has unfortunately closed the door on the latter as well. \u00a0We see various versions of this same Enlightenment answer within the bloggernacle in which we attempt to bind priesthood leaders to strict rules that universally apply world-wide and without exception, hold the book of scripture to the standards of the book of nature, judge living prophets by those of the past or future, etc.<\/p>\n
These attempts at blocking claims to revelation from authority figures are motivated by the fear that false revelation might be accepted as true. \u00a0This seems like a perfectly reasonable fear. \u00a0From the other side of these same debates we find claims motivated by the fear that true revelation might be rejected as false. \u00a0This too seems like a perfectly reasonable fear. \u00a0The fact is that both dangers are very real and always present with the Mormon tradition, and it’s a little disingenuous to pretend that only one or the other is where the “real” danger lies.<\/p>\n
Perhaps, it might be worth considering the possibility that universal reason is not the only protection we have, or must inevitably have against false revelation and abuses of authority.