Terryl Givens - The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life

2012 Terryl L. Givens

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Ensign Peak. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of Ensign Peak.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Givens, Terryl, author.

The God who weeps : how Mormonism makes sense of life / Terryl L. Givens ; Fiona Givens.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60907-188-2 (hardbound : alk. paper)

1. Plan of salvation (Mormon theology) 2. Mormon cosmology. 3. GodAttributes.
4. Christian lifeMormon authors. 5. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsDoctrines. 6. Mormon ChurchDoctrines. I. Givens, Fiona, author.
II. Title.

BX8643.S25G58 2012

230'.9332dc232012023469

Printed in the United States of America
R. R. Donnelley, Crawfordsville, IN

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Dale and Paula

Who have become acquainted with the weeping God

Praise for The God Who Weeps

I read this fine book in order better to understand what Mormons believe about divine compassion, and it certainly gave me that. But more important: I received in reading it some deeply personal lessons about the tears of God.

Richard J. Mouw, Ph.D., President and Professor of Christian Philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary

Writing from the perspective of Mormon faith, Terryl and Fiona Givens have produced a work of theological reflection that has much to offer not only to Latter-day Saints, but to intellectually and morally serious men and women of every religious persuasion who ponder the mystery of a God who, though profoundly transcendent, reveals Himself to us, offers us His friendship, and even shares our joys and sorrows. To be sure, readers who are not Latter-day Saints will learn from The God Who Weeps a great deal about what Mormons believe (including certain distinctively Mormon doctrines) and why they believe it. But that is only part of the value of the book. For even readers who do not share certain fundamental tenets of the LDS faith, but who believe in a personal, omnipotent, and omniscient God, will benefit from the Givens thoughtful reflections on how such a God enters into the lives of imperfect creatures like ourselves, lighting our paths, lifting us up when we fall, and summoning us to share in His divine life.

Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University, author of The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals

Terryl Givens, one of current Mormonisms most celebrated thinkers, with Fiona Givens here provides a fresh perspective on a number of distinctively LDS teachings.The God Who Weeps is a stirring and sensitive look into a personal God whose passions include an infinite capacity to feel after and respond eagerly to the pains and pleadings of His children; a life before this life for both Deity and humanity; a refusal to adopt the classical Christian view of original sin and the dismal and discouraging picture of the human race it paints; and, an optimistic glimpse into a divine plan that seeks to save all of those who wish to be saved. This important work provides a substantive optimism, a welcome and needed portrayal of humanitys heavenly possibilities.

Robert L. Millet, Professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University, author of Grace Works

Reading this book is like experiencing Mormonism in high definition. By masterfully weaving together insights from the best booksscripture and literature, theology and philosophyTerryl and Fiona Givens bring new depth to the fundamentals of their faith. Whether you know a lot or a little about Latter-day Saint doctrine, this book will both educate and inspire you.

David E. Campbell, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, Author of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us

Anyone desiring to understand more about Mormon Christianity could find no better guides than Terryl and Fiona Givens. Their heartfelt testimony to what their faith tradition has taught them about life is enriched with luminous insights from Western literature and philosophy. A lovely book!

Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard and former US Ambassador to the Vatican, author of The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt

The God Who Weeps is an elegant meditation on the basic tenets of the Mormon faith. The Givenses write with precision and poetry. Their literary and religious references are unusually rich and varied: they include the classic texts of the Bible, early Christian thinkers, Enlightenment philosophers, Romantic poets, German theologians, Russian and American novelistsand many, many more. The prose is at times urgent and even soaring.

Mormons will enjoy this succinct, sophisticated and searching prcis of their core beliefs. Non-Mormons will be led into the heart of a religion that was born on American soil, and whose history is one of the great neglected narratives of our national life.

Helen Whitney, producer of

The Mormons and Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero

What if God were everything we are, only perfectly so? And what if those perfections included our vulnerability, our suffering, and our joy? In the Givens masterful hands, the Mormon view of God comes alive in fresh and challenging ways. Mainstream Christians have much to learn from Mormonism, and this book is the place to start.

Stephen H. Webb, professor of Religion and Philosophy, Wabash College, author of Jesus Christ, Eternal God

This is not the kind of book Latter-day Saints ordinarily write. It begins at a deep point of human experience where all is uncertain. It asks: how do you move from an elemental condition of ignorance and yearning to belief and faith? The Givenses tell us not only where they end up but how they got there and along the way confront the most baffling moral and intellectual conundrums of human existence.

Richard Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor of History, Emeritus, Columbia University, author of Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling

Introduction

The Longing Soul

For He satisfyeth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

Whether by design or by chance, we find ourselves in a universe filled with mystery. No picture ever painted fully explains the vast landscape of human experience. Science doesnt try to, and religion often fails. But we humans are meaning-making machines. We are complex creatures of logic and superstition, who crave both clarity and wonder. Faith often asks us to turn a blind eye to the incongruities and inconsistencies of belief in the divine. But reason comes up short as well in accounting for those moments of deepest love and yearning, of unspeakable calm in the midnight of anguish, of the shards of light visible to the inner eye alone.

Skeptics may point out that, even if an all-powerful God presides over creation, we have no guarantee, and little evidence, that such a Being would be any more benevolent and merciful than the frightening figures of a hundred mythologies. Such a concern is reasonable. Most of us do indeed walk our weary way in the dark from candle to candle, or live lives of quiet desperation devoid of even those glimmering guideposts. We are mired in the mundaneand then unexpectedly beauty irrupts into our lives, flashing before us like the first goldfinch of spring. We recognize and crave goodness and kindness, and our hearts yearn to find its source. We know what it is to love beyond any Darwinian drive to preserve our species. We know what it is to mourn the loss of life as something profoundly wrong: too wasteful, too incongruous with the economy of the universe, to be final. We feel to protest the patent absurdity of a one act play: