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BYU Studies Quarterly

BYU Studies Quarterly

Keywords

Mormon studies, personal essay, identity, spirituality

Abstract

My professional and spiritual identities were nurtured by a home that had its share of troubled water. Some of the trouble percolated from the inevitable miscombinations of a blended family; some flowed from children with difficult personalities. My family's strong commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ made my parents, both of whom valued intellect, unwilling to make their reasoning or anyone else's valued intellect, unwilling to make their reasoning or anyone else's the final arbiter of life's goodness. I was grateful for my parents' reservations about reason, for their hesitation left a space for our family to be continually called back to Christ, where we could find the only redemption of our faults that could have worked. Kierkegaard's message, while perhaps overstated, is still worth attending to. Sometimes we simply must be out of our minds—separate from reason—if we are to be for Christ.

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