Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology

by Adam S. Miller

Doing theology is like building a comically circuitous Rube Goldberg machine: you spend your time tinkering together an unnecessarily complicated, impractical, and ingenious apparatus for doing things that are, in themselves, simple. But there is a kind of joy in theology's gratuity, there is a pleasure in its comedic machination, and ultimately-if the balloon pops, the hamster spins, the chain pulls, the bucket empties, the pulley lifts, and (voila ) the book's page is turned-some measurable kind of work is accomplished. But this work is a byproduct. The beauty of the machine, like all beauty, is for its own sake. Theology, maybe especially Mormon theology, requires this kind of modesty. The Church neither needs nor endorses our Rube Goldbergian flights. The comic aspect of the arrows we wing at cloudy skies must be kept firmly in mind. The comedy of it both saves us from theology and commends us to it. Engaged in this work, theology has only one definitive strength: it can make simple things difficult. Good theology forces detours that divert us from our stated goals and prompt us to visit places and include people that would otherwise be left aside. The measure of this strength is charity. Theological detours are worth only as much charity as they are able to show. They are worth only as many waylaid lives and lost objects as they are able to embrace. Rube Goldberg machines, models of inelegance, are willing to loop anything into the circuit-tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, Democrats, whatever. In charity, the grace of a disinterested concern for others and the gratuity of an unnecessary complication coincide. Theology helps us to find religion by helping us to lose it. Theology makes the familiar strange. It ratchets uncomfortable questions into complementary shapes and helps recover the trouble that is charity's substance. This book is itself a Rube Goldberg machine, pieced together from a variety of essays written over the past ten years. They offer explicit reflections on what it means to practice theology as a modern Mormon scholar and they stake out substantial and original positions on the nature of the atonement, the soul, testimony, eternal marriage, humanism, and the historicity of the Book of Mormon.

Genres: Religion, Philosophy, Lds, Nonfiction, Theology, Mormonism, Essays

148 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2012

Reviews

[Steven Ramsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read a book quite like this. A very refreshing and unique writing style. Tho sometimes it seems the author gets caut up in poetic philosophical rhetoric, suddenly out of the mist of multisylabic hi-falootin' words comes a thot that is so profound as to instantaneously change the reader's view of the Universe.

[Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

IMO, this is the best book available on Mormon theology. Miller departs from the traditional analytical route taken by most LDS philosophers of religion, and instead utilizes continental philosophers such as Badiou to show what Mormon theology is and what it does.

[Www.themormonbookreview.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Bushman calls Adam Miller, "the most original and provocative Latter-day Saint theologian practicing today." After reading the writings of Adam Miller it is hard to disagree with Bushman. However, even if he is wrong, Bushman cannot be far off in his assessment. Rube Golberg is a landmark work in the world of Mormon theology. One reason for this is because Miller does what few Mormons have dared to do, theology.

This book is a collection of 14 academic essays pieced together in a logical order. The academic nature of the book lends itself best to those with at least an elementary knowledge of philosophy and theology. I believe that the average reader can gain great knowledge from this book, but the serious student of religion will benefit the most because, it my estimation, the book is directed towards such an audience.

You can listen to our audio interview with Miller about his book here:

http://www.themormonbookreview.com/20...

[Abigail Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant and complex writing, as Miller warns at the preface, and yet my favorite chapter will always be the one about Groundhog Day.

[Pancho Pickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could vote for a prophet, Adam Miller would be my man. That said, I would have to read this 100 more more times to catch a bit of what Miller poetically poses.

[conor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile book that I'll be revisiting in the future. Like much of Adam's writings there are big, deep ideas here that are sometimes hard to fully grasp the significance of that I often feel need more time to really sit with. The book is dense, but provocative and worth exploring I think. Not all of the chapters resonated with me equally, but the ones that hit, hit hard. "A Manifesto for Mormon Theology", "A Hermeneutics of Weakness", and "Groundhog Day" all struck me as particularly insightful and powerful (as did the notes on sin in "Notes on Life, Grace, and Atonement"). I need to revisit the entirety of the book, but especially "Messianic History: Walter Benjamin and the Book of Mormon" and "Overwritten, Written Elsewhere: Names, Books, and Souls in St. John's Apocalypse", both of which felt powerful and significant, but as I was reading were somewhat elusive, just beyond my grasp. Highly recommend reading this, ideally with some people nearby to talk about it with and to read slowly, devoting yourself to each page, letting it flow over you, marinate in it. That seems the best way to really internalize Adam's ideas.

[Michael Escalante · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miller adds fresh and deeply valuable insights into Mormonism. I found some of his constructs to be unnecessarily laborious and esoteric. That said, his viscous aesthetic is unique and certainly his own, and it won't deter me from trying to get my hands on everything he has written about Mormonism. I highly recommend the essay on atonement and testimony and the essay on marriage to anyone interested in tasting Miller's style.

[kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

eloquent, heart-felt, enthusiastic. while the lens of this book is distinctly mormon, there's enough overlap with biblical narrative that it was very relevant to my own upbringing as a methodist. these essays ground, revise, reorient concepts of grace, atonement, marriage, truth, repentance, and more, in ways that radically shift the narrative i grew up with. and very much for the better. merits multiple reads.

[Jeremiah Scanlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Theological detours are worth only as much charity as they are able to show. They are worth only as many waylaid lives and lost objects as they are able to embrace." Fantastic stuff, and at least one essay that changed my life.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thinking about knocking a star off this review because some of the writing seems purposely difficult and unapproachable. But, the book is full of some pretty great insights and thinking- so I stuck with a 5-star review.

[Samuel Dearden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and fun theology

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book that unpacked so many ideas and put them back together is new and startlingly simple and complex and beautiful ways.

[Golden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of this is too esoteric for me; but a lot is great, thought-provoking stuff. ASM always seems to help me see things in new ways.

[Rachel Kime · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Letters And Gospel According to David Foster Wallace.

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been trying to get back to this over and over. I generally like this author, but this one was just a bit to much for me.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miller posits some fascinating ideas. Well worth the read.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a dense little book of theological essays that I will have to read more than once to let its messages sink in fully. Miller is a lot of fun--if intense cerebral meanderings enter into your definition of fun. He doesn't take himself too seriously, and even when his ideas go over your head, you don't get the feeling that if you were to sit down with him over a meal he'd at all give an impression of superiority. I highly recommend this book if you want something to chew on spiritually. This book is a mental and spiritual workout, but it's worth it.

My favorite essay in the collection is "Atonement and Testimony," which has had a significant impact on my views of those two topics. Let me give you a taste. "Just as every doctrine or ritual pertaining to Mormonism is only an appendage to our testimony of Jesus, so too is a testimony of anything other than the Atonement a testimony only in the attenuated sense. This is true of every Mormon claim. To have a testimony of the Book of Mormon can only mean that through it one has experienced the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The same follows for Joseph Smith, President Monson, tithing, the word of wisdom, the Church as an institution, etc. To have a testimony of these things is to have experienced the Atonement in connection with them--nothing more, nothing less....The moment when any person, object, doctrine, or principle detaches itself from the task of occasioning an experience of Christ's atonement is the moment when that thing becomes a sign, a dead limb splintered from the tree of life" (Miller, 65).

My other favorite is "The Hermeneutics of Weakness." Another taste: "If we desire autonomy, then our weakness and dependence on God appear as a disastrous source of shame. If we desire atonement, then our relatedness to God appears as nothing less than God's most gracious gift....To come to the Lord is to be shown our weakness because the site at which we overlap with him is simultaneously the site of our dependence and his grace. To confess our weakness is to confess our connection to him. It follows, then, that if we are humble and acknowledge our insufficiency, his grace will be sufficient. The only thing that could prevent the sufficiency of his grace is our refusal to admit a need for it" (100). "When, in the presence of God, we see the truth of weakness, then 'weak things become strong' unto us, not because our weakness has been expunged but because we have ceded our debilitating claim to mastery or autonomy" (105).

Read this book. The parts that would stand out to you and stretch and reshape your understanding will probably different than the parts that changed me.

[Blair Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, but a difficult book.

Of this book’s fourteen movements (pieces? Not essays, all; more like meditations, prose poems, songs disguised as analytic lists?) there were four that I really looked forward to re-reading. Not because they spoke of something I already knew I knew, but because they invoked something in me I had perhaps recognized before without being able to articulate it (“A Hermeneutics of Weakness”). Or because they took something I thought I was already well-familiar with and turned it on its head (“Notes on Life, Grace, and Atonement”).

Several of the other essays felt too dense or too winding or too indirect for my reading level. A friend suggested that Miller be read poetically-- which isn’t to say it is less-than philosophy, but that it manages (or attempts) to capture things which our rational Tetris-language can’t capture. (Roundness, for instance.)

But still, I think a reader needs to be somewhat familiar with aesthetics of a text in order to facilitate the co-production of a text in the act of reading. I needed more help than Adam offered, but you may very well not. I think it's an important and good book to wrestle with, to reach for. We need more difficult books on Mormonism, not fewer.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I could not agree with everything that Adam wrote in this collection of 14 essays, every one of them really made me think hard about my faith, the scriptures, and what they really mean to me. The essay "A Hermeneutics of Weakness" absolutely blew me away, and this book would have been worth it even for that single chapter. Adam's thoughts on grace in a few of the chapters were also wonderful, and thought provoking. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to think deeply about their own faith and the atonement of Christ.

[Genet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way Adam Miller thinks. Fascinating and stretches me. Several of the chapters of this book were either on subjects that didn't interest me or were so far beyond my understanding that I didn't get what he was trying to say (since I have no training in philosophy at all.) But the chapters that grabbed me were completely worth wading through the others. New understanding of the concept of atonement, grace and truth. So much to ponder and think about it. Definitely recommend reading if you are up for something needing concentration and a little work.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. The title is brilliant as an image that captures the oxbow-like path of Miller's theological thinking. I love the way his mind works. Someone has called these essays "meditations" and I agree with that description. They're beautiful. Though some are more accessible than others, nearly every one has insights that have already permanently changed the way I live and think about how I live.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful explanations of Christ's grace, scrupulously honest accounts of how and why we reject it, and stirring calls to repentance. Further, Miller makes the most compelling case for the centrality of the family to God's plan that I've ever heard. I absolutely love the way Miller does Mormon theology.

[Eric Dowdle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply fantastic - one of the handful of theological/philosophical texts I've read that seem to truly describe religious experience. Not every essay will affect every reader similarly, but I was moved tremendously by a few of Miller's writings. Nothing opens the eyes and brings understanding like incisive religious phenomenology.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of Mormon theology. 3/4 of the essays are accessible to non-academics and well worth the time to read and digest. Miller's outline of Grace and its effects on the life of believer and non-believer alike is transformative. I highly recommend this book!

[Ryan Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miller is a lucid writer who is excellent in illuminating a theology of immanence and not mere metaphysics. While I disagree with his readings of Mormonism and Mormon texts I highly recommend the book to any Mormon reader.

[Matthew Kern · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this series of essays. Theology, especially speculative theology, is something you don't see often with Mormonism. Miller has some great insights into testimony, grace, truth, and life itself. Can't say I understood it all, but I enjoyed the challenge.

[Kim Matheson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous. No one calls me to repentance as consistently and profoundly as does Miller. Mormon theology at its finest.

[Samuel Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, fun, playful, quirky and deadly serious treatment of topics in Mormon theology.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal book. Probably the best book by a Latter-day Saint I've read in years.

[Kent White · Rating 5 out of 5]

So profound and useful.