When my son Rob and his family visited us during the summer of 1994 in our Silver Fork cabin in Big Cottonwood Canyon, he found me re-reading Bertrand Russell's Short History of Philosophy which I'd first read as a missionary in Great Britain over forty years earlier. Russell is a good writer and most would consider him a sound philosopher. I remember my missionary companion and I considered him among the half-dozen "unbaptised Mormons" whose works we read bit by bit following our morning scripture study (at our Mission President's urging. He wanted well-informed missionaries, familiar with the thinking and culture of the land in which we were serving). At the time of Rob's visit, I knew a bit more about both philosophy and LDS doctrine than I did at first reading. I'd just finished reading Yale Professor Harold Bloom's book The American Religion which extols Joseph Smith as one of the most influential, if under- appreciated American thinkers. Bloom said that Joseph Smith had rediscovered, reinvented, or had revealed to him some of the most important teachings of early Judaism which had been eliminated from Jewish teachings by post-exilic rabbis. It was thus interesting to read Russell saying that a couple of the most important and unique teachings of Primitive Christianity had been tossed overboard by the apostate church as sacrifices to Greek philosphy in order to make revisionist Christianity more acceptable to sophisticated Greeks and Romans.
As an example, Russell cited the teachings of Pelagius, a Welsh Christian whose birth name was Morgan (Man of the Sea, hence his latinized name "Seaman", or Pelagius ). Pelagius, basing his understanding of doctrine on the Gospels rather than the Roman/Greek teachings of the church of his time, insisted that man truly had Free Will. He repudiated the doctrine of Original Sin, holding that it is one's exercise of Agency which causes one to act virtuously, rather than a mysterious "grace" randomly bestowed on some and not on others by a God whose will is beyong understanding. To Pelagius, as to a modern Mormon, Grace is the saving power of Jesus Christ which enables man to rise from the grave. It is virtuous living which makes man worthy of the reward of heaven (Russell, p.364). Pelagianism was declared heretical by the Catholic Church, but the truth of the doctrine, which is clearly declared in scripture, continues to declare itself.
Arius, a German, likewise resting his position on the clear declaration of scripture, insisted that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are distinct beings, the Son being subject to the Father ("I do nothing but what I've seen my Father do.") Arianism was widespread in the early church and, being almost universally held in Northern Europe, looked for a time as if it might become the prevailing doctrine. But it, too, was eventually declared heretical by Rome. The declaration of the Council was that all three persons are but different manifestations of the same being, not understanding that the "one God" referred to in scripture is a collective term like "Board" or "Government", relating to the Heavenly Council of Three Presiding Deities who, while of separate substance, are united in will and purpose (op. cit . p. 302).
I was pleased to let Rob borrow the Russell book, asking him to send it on to his sibs once he'd finished reading it. It's good to know that wise minds down through the ages -- even some who are not even believing Christians -- can identify Truth, even though unaided man doesn't seem able to fit the pieces into the coherent whole which constitutes the philosophy of the universe.
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