Jacob T. Baker

JACOB BAKER {[email protected]} is a doctoral candidate in Philosophy of Religion and Theology at Claremont Graduate University and an instructor at Brigham Young University where he teaches philosophy and philosophy of religion.

“The Grandest Principle of the Gospel”: Christian Nihilism, Sanctified Activism, and Eternal Progression

Articles/Essays – Volume 41, No. 3

In February 1895, the editors of a small journal known as The Index (an obscure periodical produced by the Mutual Improvement Association of Salt Lake City’s Twentieth Ward) submitted the following inquiry to ten prominent Church leaders: “What, in your opinion, constitutes the grandest principle, or most attractive feature of the Gospel?” The Church leaders’ answering letters were published in The Index and shortly thereafter as a symposium in the pages of The Contributor, one of the many Church magazines in publication at that time. One respondent said that eternal marriage was the grandest principle. Two more replied that love was the most crucial component of the gospel. Another answered, in essence, that all the principles of the gospel were so grand that he could not choose just one. Interestingly, there was a consensus among the remaining six Church leaders (among whom were such well-known leaders as Joseph F. Smith, B. H. Roberts, George Reynolds, and Orson F. Whitney) that the grandest and most attractive feature of the gospel was the doctrine of eternal progression.

Deaths and (RE)births

Articles/Essays – Volume 45, No. 4

Dialogue 45.4 (Winter 2012): 65–87
She had severe versions of typical pregnancy nausea and migraines. But she also experi-enced dreadful cramping on one side of her abdomen, crampingthat could only be assuaged by long walks. Dark three o’clock strolls around our sleeping neighborhood became commonplacefor us. Many days she could barely move because of the pain, anddoctors were at a loss to explain the origins or offer options for al-leviation. It was almost a relief when Amanda’s water broke atthirty-one weeks.