14 Year Old Joseph's Existential Angst
I was reading the manual this afternoon after Church, when, upon the 438th reading of the Joseph Smith History, I was struck in a new way. I was impressed and encouraged by how much deep philosophical strife Joseph went through, as seen by highlighting out his own words below
"Excitement... affected... stir... division... contending.. mind... serious reflection... great uneasiness... deep... often poignant... aloof... confusion... strife... impossible- to come to any certain conclusion... my mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant... which is it? and how shall I know it?... I was laboring under extreme mental difficulties... I was one day reading... how to act I did not know... destroy all confidence... amidst all my anxities..."
1 comment:
A theme well worth developing. How came a 14 year old boy to such profound uneasiness with the philosophical world of ideas and the resulting patterns of life? Of course, we have to remember that this description is being written by a fully grown man. Even so, I have always believed that there is in this account a truthful, sublime quality that comes as the result of an epiphany--divine light falling upon past events. I believe it. Still, it is remarkable that so young a man--a mere child, really, was so involved in such mature reflection.
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