Life with No Exit
The Existential Crisis of Resurrection in Mormonism
“Prepare to die is not the exhortation in this Church and Kingdom; but prepare to live is the word with us, and improve all we can in the life hereafter, wherein we may enjoy a more exalted condition of intelligence, wisdom, light, knowledge, power, glory, and exaltation. Then let us seek to extend the present life to the uttermost, by observing every law of health, and by properly balancing labor, study, rest, and recreation, and thus prepare for a better life. Let us teach these principles to our children, that, in the morning of their days, they may be taught to lay the foundation of health and strength and constitution and power of life in their bodies.”
— Brigham Young, Discourses, ed. John Widtsoe (1941), 186
Resurrection, like eternity, can seem a little abstract. How ironic that the assertion that humans’ bodies will be restored to them in some way or another after death should seem so terribly out of touch with everyday life. However, it seems to me that for Mormonism, far from a theological abstraction, resurrection is the very center of the Mormon conceptual landscape and ritual complex.
Consider the following thought experiment:
Imagine your life, and the lives of others, in this expansive world — all crammed into…
