Radiant Oaths and Christianity

[Ammanas]

@tmnsquirtle @RhapsodyAs a member I can give you some more details that may satisfy your curiosity, but not go into details that would make anyone uncomfortable. What some members may not realize is that we can talk about it, but not certain specific details.

Basically one of the rituals performed at the Temple is receiving your own "Endowment". Many ancient religions and cults had these rituals and origins stories. This is similar. We learn about the creation of world and our purpose of life. We also learn about signs and tokens that will allow us to pass by heavenly sentinels (some mormons take this literally. I personally believed Joseph Smith was influenced by masonry...he was a mason and saw the benefits of ritual and repetition in coming closer to god. Ask devout catholics about their services and rosary beads and how they experience touching the divine through repetition). As we learn these signs and tokens we promise things to God in return; to basically remain of strong moral character. In the end we enter into a room that symbolizes heaven or our ultimate goal in life. Several prominent church leaders have talked openly about these things so I follow their examples. We are not supposed to talk about the specific signs and tokens. I feel like it would be appropriate to go into more detail about what it means "to remain of strong moral character" but will not in case others don't feel as I do.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Ammanas

[Rhapsody]

5 hours ago, Ammanas said:

@tmnsquirtle @RhapsodyAs a member I can give you some more details that may satisfy your curiosity, but not go into details that would make anyone uncomfortable. What some members may not realize is that we can talk about it, but not certain specific details.

Basically one of the rituals performed at the Temple is receiving your own "Endowment". Many ancient religions and cults had these rituals and origins stories. This is similar. We learn about the creation of world and our purpose of life. We also learn about signs and tokens that will allow us to pass by heavenly sentinels (some mormons take this literally. I personally believed Joseph Smith was influenced by masonry...he was a mason and saw the benefits of ritual and repetition in coming closer to god. Ask devout catholics about their services and rosary beads and how they experience touching the divine through repetition). As we learn these signs and tokens we promise things to God in return; to basically remain of strong moral character. In the end we enter into a room that symbolizes heaven or our ultimate goal in life. Several prominent church leaders have talked openly about these things so I follow their examples. We are not supposed to talk about the specific signs and tokens. I feel like it would be appropriate to go into more detail about what it means "to remain of strong moral character" but will not in case others don't feel as I do.

Thanks @Ammanas! You really didn't need to go into details if that makes people who believe uncomfortable. I really meant that I was sorry for asking to much. But still thanks for elaborating.

I can see were someone might see a resemblence between the oaths of the KR and your convenants. In the end they seem both to want people to make morally guided decisions (please correct me if anything I say is completly of track). On the other hand I think the oaths of the KR seem more guided by an outside force (the spren) while yours seem really things you yourselfs plegde. (Yes I know the KR oaths can vary between KR but they still have the same underlying theme and the spren has to accept the words). I believe there is a big difference between those two things. Secondly while I can see the resemblence I don't believe it's a deliberate reference. As was already said multiple times in this thread Brandon can't completly set aside his faith and experiences when writing, so it could be that it has affected the KR oaths. But swearing to upholding specific moral principles isn't something unique to one faith. I'm not sure you can call it a reference in that way.

I still think it's nice you can find a connection to your own life in his writing even if I don't think he put it there by design.

[+Kelkamer]

On 8/29/2018 at 1:08 AM, Watchcry said:

As a member of the same faith as Brandon, I see influences of our religion everywhere in his writing about the Knights Radiant Orders. It almost seems deliberate. 

I agree. I think Brandon has peppered his Cosmere works with LDS theology in much the same way that Tolkien did with Catholic theology. Not a one to one in either case, but definitely something there and a lot of fun to open a greater discussion about themes and all sorts