Three degrees of glory: Joseph Smith's insights on the kingdoms of heaven

by Lawrence R. Flake

The Cover Photo is from The School Of The Prophets.

Genres: Lds, Religion

66 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2000

Reviews

[Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book seems to have almost written itself. It's essentially a comparison of a poem by Joseph Smith and the actual text of a revelation he received in February 1832. The comparisons are interesting enough, but there's nothing here that you haven't seen before if you've already read material of this type. It's a tiny read that you'll be done with in 30 minutes or less.

[James Biser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent exposition on Joseph Smith as the poet who wrote this revelation. It includes large amounts of information with which most of the world is unfamiliar.

[Dmitriy Kinnard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative

[Staci Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice addition to read to add to anyone’s knowledge of the three degrees of heaven. Still don’t have all my answers to questions but great stuff to ponder nevertheless.

[Mayor McCheese · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite an interesting and unique piece that examines the poetry of Joseph Smith's writing dealing with the three degrees of glory. Again, this is reviewed as literature rather than based on whether or not the events described therein are true or factual. There are many pieces of literature within the LDS faith that are beautiful and poetic and should be admired as literature. This section of the Doctrine & Covenants is a good example. 2 Nephi 2 and 2 Nephi 9 are of course other good examples along with Moroni 10, most of the Pearl of Great Price, and many other sections, to say nothing of John 1, Matthew 7, many sections of Genesis and Isaiah, and so on. Smith had a unique voice grounded in what basically sounds like a frontier poet with beautiful heavenly aspirations. His contributions to theology and philosophy and self-esteem are inimitable again without regard for what believes of the underlying faith itself. I have often wondered if there are any examinations of the literature of its own right without regard for faith. It is common to the human mind in the 21st century to examine heaven as a place like earth or with infinite degrees of gradation such that everyone who was in heaven had a place. This we take for granted but of course is a relatively new philosophy or theology. Smith of course advanced the notion of three degrees of glory one of which was the highest level or salvation with access to Deity but the others of which while lower were also viewed as degrees of glory and improvements indeed over mortal life, so much so that we apparently might be interested in self-removal to speed up the process if we had too much information. While this is itself potentially controversial (only three degrees, not more) one could arguably see the term "three" like Noah's "forty" days, as a number that is not literal but merely represents "more than one." I admire the author's attempt to dissect this as poetry and believe the underlying work and the review itself are deserving of praise.

[Colette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good source for the text and photographic reproduction of Joseph Smith's poetic version of the Doctrine and Covenants Section 76. There are also chapters detailing the background of "the Vision" as well as the poetic version published many years later. This is a good starting point for more research because of the bibliography included. There is also a brief historiography of the subject.

As for the text itself, I found it informative and interesting to get a slightly different perspective of the vision Joseph Smith received. There is nothing substantially new, and one should obviously defer to the canonized version.