Abstract
In Hebrew scripture and the New Testament, trees play a prominent role, most obviously in the first chapters of Genesis and the last chapter of Revelations. Trees also serve as messianic heralds, as life-giving resources, as aesthetic standards of beauty, as exemplars of strength and fame, and as markers and instruments of salvation. Like the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Mormon and other Latter-day Saint scriptures feature prominent references to forests, trees, branches, roots, and seeds. What is unique about the spiritual and cultural landscape invoked by Latter-day Saint scripture? More specifically, what is said about trees and their accoutrements in restoration scripture? While numerous studies have focused on the major thematic tree scenes in the Book of Mormon, the tree of life in the visions of Lehi and Nephi, Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree, and Alma’s discourse on the seed of faith and the tree of righteousness, this paper aims at a broader look at trees in Latter-day Saint scripture. Taking cues from Robert Pogue Harrison’s Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, this paper takes a wide-ranging look at how trees in restoration scripture can help us rhetorically address the ecological dilemmas of our time. When the Gods built us a home, they did so with trees, and when God called on Their people to build a house, God told them to “bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth” to build it (see Abraham 4:11–12 and D&C 124:26–27). Another revelation declares bluntly: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees” (D&C 77:9). As eaters of sunshine and exhalers of oxygen, trees have much to teach us about how to live, and trees in restoration scripture specifically contribute to a broader vision of ecological living.
Highlights
What is said about trees and their accoutrements in restoration scripture? While numerous studies have focused on the major thematic tree scenes in the Book of Mormon, the tree of life in the visions of Lehi and Nephi, Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree, and Alma’s discourse on the seed of faith and the tree of righteousness, this paper aims at a broader look at trees in Latter-day
This account is revealed to Abraham rather than to Moses, and it offers a vision of the Gods doing the work of creation: And the Gods said: Let us prepare the earth to bring forth grass; the herb yielding seed; the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, whose seed in itself yieldeth its own likeness upon the earth; and it was so, even as they ordered
The thoughtless hardly think of trees, or when they do, they think of trees as inanimate objects in the background of the real business of life
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Robert Pogue Harrison, developing insight from the rhetorician and philosopher Giambattista Vico, observes that: The forests became profane for a simple reason: they obstructed communication of Jove’s intentions In other words, their canopies concealed an open view of the sky. One way to do that is to use our minds, to imagine the trees and our relationships with them in ways informed and inspired by scripture This could allow a view beyond the confines of modern and modernizing projects in order to consider trees as agents, beings with the power to act in their sphere. Heirs to the gift of trees and forests gain essential insight into what Latour calls “the condition of belonging to the world.” This condition is, for human beings and increasingly for all other earthbound beings, the problem of the operations of culture on nature and nature on culture, what. I develop some insights from contemporary research on trees to highlight the ways trees evoke a sense of interconnection and atonement
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