Additionally, if we do try to divide "Nature" from "Society" in a neat and tidy way, then the transcendence that traditionally characterizes the supernatural simply gets transposed into Nature itself.  Nature becomes that which forever "transcends" any of our feeble attempts to represent it.  "When," Latour asks, "will we finally be able to secularize nonhumnas by ceasing to objectify them?" (PN 51).  When will we stop taking objects as masks for noumenal things in themselves?  Latour's response to this version of "natural" tanscendence is identical to his response to claims of "supernatural" transcendence: he doesn't deny transcendence, he affirms it while multiplying it.  he flattens and secularizes it by rendering it ubiquitous.


Adam S. Miller, Speculative Grace, pgs. 64-65.

Two Obstacles to spiritual growth that are often reflected in Mormon mantras:

1.  SUPERSTITION.  Mormon's aren't superstitious.  We are modern and sophisticated; we don't dance in circles or chant incantations. Or do we?  If someone uses words or actions to influence God to do what they want, I believe that is superstition.  Prayer and ordinances were designed to put us in harmony with God so we can be spiritually nourished.  They are not designed to turn God into a cosmic vending machine.  Acts of service are designed to benefit others, not to motivate God to be nicer to us.  Keeping commandments should be acts of faith and love, but too often they seem to be approached as ways to get "blessed" (which, in our minds, usually means getting what we want or avoiding what we don't want).

2.  "BAD" RELIGION.  Bad religion occurs when the ordinances and practices become ends in themselves rather than support for spiritual growth.  I've seen couples extend themselves to become worthy to get "married int he temple" only to return to past problem behaviors afterwards.  They somehow thought the ordinance itself would be transforming and give them power over sinful attitudes and behavior.  In counseling, several Latter-day Saints have said to me: "I keep the Word of Wisdom, pay my tithing, and serve faithfully in my calling.  Why is my marriage failing?"  Or "Elder _____ said in conference that if we attended the temple regularly, our marriage would be successful!"  My response is usually something like, "I'm glad you are doing all this good, church-related stuff,  but until you learn how to be patient, kind, affectionate, and emotionally honest, your marriage is going to be a mess."  There is no doubt that LDS practices and ordinances can help us acquire these qualities but only if they are seen as supports and not ends.

-Philip McLemore, "Mormon Mantras", Sunstone, April 2006

The history of the church is very complex, very mingled. I want you to know how aware I am of that fact. These days there are so many people who think loyalty to religion is benighted, if it is not worse than benighted. I am aware of that, and I know the charges that can be brought against the churches are powerful. And I know, too, that my own experience of the church has been, in many senses, sheltered and parochial. In every sense, unless it really is a universal and transcendent life, unless the bread is the bread and the cup is the cup everywhere, in all circumstances, and it is a time with the Lord in Gethsemane that comes for everyone, as I deeply believe...It all means more than I can tell you, so you must not judge what I know by what I find words for....I hope you will put yourself in the way of the gift.

-Marilynne Robinson, Gilead (pg. 114)

"The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment; it is to pay attention even at unextraordinary times, to be of the present, nothing-but-the-present, to bear this mindfulness of now into each event of ordinary life."

-Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (pg. 257)

"One night in 1945, on a Navy vessel in Pacific storm, my relief on bow watch, seasick, failed to appear, and I was alone for eight hours in a maelstrom of wind and water, noise and iron; again and again, waves crashed across the deck, until water, air, and iron became one. Overwhelmed, exhausted, all thought and emotion beaten out of me, I lost my sense of self, the heartbeat I heard was the heart of the world, I breathed with the mighty risings and declines of earth, and this evanescence seemed less frightening than exalting. Afterward, there was pain of loss--loss of what, I wondered, understanding nothing."

-Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (pg.43)