Responding Prophetically to Technological Disruption

This essay was presented at MTAConf 2017

“It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us,
we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven,
we were all going direct the other way.”
⁠⁠— Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Many traditional religious narratives are failing to resonate with and inspire people as they used to, and are being rejected in favor of more virulent forms of fundamentalism and extremism. Crumbling social structures are failing to sustain and support displaced workers at their time of greatest need.

Evolving narratives, and the changing needs of every era have fueled a constant demand for prophets, and the accelerating pace of change in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, has made the need for prophetic inspiration even more urgent. In the words of Emerson, “the need was never greater for new revelation than now.”¹

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The Mormon tradition offers many remarkable insights on prophecy and prophets, much of which I believe has been neglected and misunderstood as prophecy has become institutionalized. Most Mormons today think of prophethood and presidency in the Church as synonymous, and habitually refer to the President of the Church as “the Prophet.” At their local and general conferences, Mormons ritualistically affirm the top leaders of the Church as “prophets, seers, and revelators,” for the most part confining their use of these terms to the Church’s highest leadership.

But the early Mormon conception of prophet differed in significant ways, and can still be found underneath this institutional veneer. Joseph Smith’s view of prophecy and revelation was radically egalitarian, a source of inspiration that rained down on men, women and children. Indeed, Joseph’s spiritual journey began with faith in the premise that anyone who lacked wisdom could seek inspiration (James 1:5). When asked if he was a prophet, he replied, “Yes, and so is anyone else who has the testimony of Jesus, for [it] is the spirit of prophecy.”² Joseph based his views on the biblical exhortations of Paul, who taught that people should “be eager to prophesy” (1 Cor. 14:39) and Moses, who, when told that others were prophesying in the camp, exclaimed, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29)

The Book of Mormon echoes this egalitarian view of prophecy. Nephi remarked that there were “many prophets” in the Jerusalem of his days (1 Ne. 1:4), and Enos later wrote that there were “exceedingly many prophets among [them]” (Enos 1:22). The book also teaches that “[the Lord] shall speak unto all nations of the earth, and they shall write it” (2 Ne. 29:12, emphasis added), and tells the stories of two prophets, Abinadi and Samuel, who had no ecclesiastical authority at all, in fact who condemned those who were in authority. It could be said that the Book of Mormon teaches that prophecy is a common privilege and even a duty shared by all conscientious souls of every religious persuasion throughout the world.

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And what are the characteristics of a prophet? Prophets discern the signs of the times. They are keenly aware of the zeitgeist. They perceive a pressing need or injustice, and they articulate a call to action that resonates with and mobilizes people. They start social movements.

Contrary to popular opinion, prophets rarely predict the future. Rather than being “foretellers,” they are “forthtellers,” presenting visions of what the future could be in a way that compels people to realize them. The most potent form of prophecy is self-fulfilling.

Much in contrast with modern LDS portrayals of Jesus and other prophets as meek and gentle souls who never swore and never raised their voices, and who were unceasingly loyal to religious authority, prophets are iconoclasts, ridiculing fraudulent piety and corrupt traditions, seeming even to betray their own religion and culture as they do so. Imagine the establishment’s reaction to Isaiah when he proclaimed:

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
    says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
    or of lambs, or of goats.
When you come to appear before me,
    who asked this from your hand?
    Trample my courts no more;
bringing offerings is futile;
    incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation⁠⁠—
    I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
    I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;
    your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your doings
    from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
    rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
    plead for the widow.
(Isaiah 1:11–17)

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Abraham J. Heschel, in his classic work on this topic, explains:

The striking surprise is that prophets of Israel were tolerated at all by their people. To the patriots, they seemed pernicious; to the pious multitude, blasphemous; to the men in authority, seditious.³

What gave them the strength to “demythologize” precious certainties, to attack what was holy, to hurl blasphemies at priest and king, to stand up against all in the name of God? The prophets must have been shattered by some cataclysmic experience in order to be able to shatter others.⁴

Prophets have a seemingly disproportionate sense of indignation over injustice in the world. Jesus of Nazareth, for example, was never more angry than when he criticized the Pharisees for their religious arrogance and their oppression of the poor. Heschel explains further:

The prophets’ preoccupation with justice and righteousness has its roots in a powerful awareness of injustice. That justice is a good thing, a fine goal, even a supreme ideal, is commonly accepted. What is lacking is a sense of the monstrosity of injustice. Moralists of all ages have been eloquent in singing the praises of virtue. The distinction of the prophets was in their remorseless unveiling of injustice and oppression, in their comprehension of social, political, and religious evils. They were not concerned with the definition, but with the predicament, of justice, with the fact that those called upon to apply it defied it.⁵

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Prophets warn of potential calamities if their voice is not heeded, but their power consists in turning people from their destructive course rather than in seeing their warnings fulfilled, which brings them no pleasure (setting aside a few rather unprophetic slip-ups on the part of Jonah). Heschel elaborates:

The words of the prophet are stern, sour, stinging. But behind his austerity is love and compassion for [humanity]. Ezekiel sets forth what all other prophets imply: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather than he should turn from his way and life?” (Ezek. 18:23). Indeed, every prediction of disaster is in itself an exhortation to repentance. The prophet is sent not only to upbraid, but also to “strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees” (Isa. 35:3). Almost every prophet brings consolation, promise, and the hope of reconciliation along with censure and castigation. He begins with a message of doom; he concludes with a message of hope.⁶

While many ancient and modern accounts describe or imagine gods as being indifferent to the plight of humans and concerned with far weightier matters, the prophetic conception of God is one of deep attention to the seemingly trivial details of human actions. Says Heschel, “to the prophet, … no subject is as worthy of consideration as the [human] plight. … In the prophet’s message nothing that has bearing upon good and evil is small or trite in the eyes of God.”⁷ “What the prophets proclaim is God’s intimate relatedness to [us]. It is this fact that puts all of life in a divine perspective, in which [human] rights become, as it were, divine prerogatives. Humanity stands under God’s concern.”⁸

This image of a deeply connected and compassionate God is echoed in the Book of Moses’ account of the vision of Enoch:

And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains? And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity? …

The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, … And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood; … misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer? … Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea, and all the workmanship of mine hands. And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Enoch, and told Enoch all the doings of the children of men; wherefore Enoch knew, and looked upon their wickedness, and their misery, and wept and stretched forth his arms, and his heart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook. (Moses 7:28–41)

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These characteristics of keen attention to the specific challenges of our time, compassion for the less fortunate, indignation at their oppression, and courage to stand up against injustice, are the hallmarks of prophecy, and should be the aspirations of every true Mormon. Heschel admonishes us:

If intense regard and concern for [humanity] is the mark of a moral act, then inspiration of the prophets in which God’s regard and concern for humanity are disclosed and in which the prophet is entrusted with a mission to help the people, must be viewed as an eminently moral act. The moral aspect sets the prophetic act apart from intellectual, artistic, and mystical experiences.⁹

The vigorous compassion and creativity of a true spirit of prophecy is what will be required for humanity’s successful transition through the turbulent labor pains of our transhuman era. My confident hope is that, as existing secular and religious institutions falter and buckle under the stress of accelerating change, they will in their desperation become more and more willing to try the remedies prescribed to them by those of us who take up the prophetic mantle and articulate compelling visions of the future. There will always be a need for prophecy. Our mastery of present problems is never sufficient to handle them with ease. Ingenuity and inspiration are indispensable. Art always precedes science. May we make diligent use of both as we strive to meet the challenges of our times.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Divinity School Address” (Cambridge, 1838). ↩
Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1938). ↩
Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 23. ↩
Heschel, The Prophets, 14. ↩
Heschel, The Prophets, 260. ↩
Heschel, The Prophets, 14. ↩
Heschel, The Prophets, 6. ↩
Heschel, The Prophets, 280. ↩
Heschel, The Prophets, 257. ↩

Footnotes