yet more on Independence temple theology

On the way home from work today, I listened to the latest episode of the Salt Lake Tribune’s Mormon Land podcast, recapping the recent LDS General Conference. The two guests—Emily Jensen and Patrick Mason—were both great, and even though I have no interest in watching General Conferences myself, I’m really grateful for the Tribune’s coverage.

Patrick Mason made a comment about possible Latter-day Saint temple theologies that struck me as interesting in the context of what I’ve been writing recently about Community of Christ Independence Temple theology, and I wanted to capture it here. Here’s how it’s rendered in the transcript (which is a neat benefit from supporting the Tribune’s religion coverage on Patreon):

You know, a lot of talk of this [the temple] is where you can find peace. This is where you can kind of escape from from worldliness and from sin. And so, for me, like the language was less about leaning into the world, and how to transform the world through humanitarian work and transforming communities and being peacemakers. We heard a lot more about thinking celestial than we did about being peacemakers. And so the temple, in one view, is a place to retreat from the world. Another way to think about it is that’s where you’re empowered to go out and live a life of Christian holiness in the world. But I heard a little bit more language of kind of retreat and refuge.

I really appreciate Mason’s work to connect Restoration theologies to peace and peacemaking, and I ought to have read more of it than I have. Even if he’s doing it from an LDS context, I suspect that Community of Christ could learn a lot from it. I think the Independence Temple is set up to be a temple for transforming the world and being peacemakers, and this sets up a nice contrast between two visions of Restoration temples that can be helpful.

Of course, a lot of my scattered thoughts about Independence Temple theology so far have been about contrasting LDS temple theologies with an Independence Temple theology. I think that’s somewhat natural given my own religious background and my own relearning what a temple is. I think my last post on the subject even raised ways in which RLDS leaders in the 1980s were deliberately distinguishing their temple theology from LDS theologies (by, for example, clarifying that the Independence Temple would be open to everyone). At some point, though (and like so many other aspects of Community of Christ history), Independence Temple theology is going to have to stand on its own rather than being defined in contrast with LDS temple theology. I need to think some more on that.

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