Prior to the work of reading itself, seminar participants formulate a small, provisional set (2–4) of key questions in order to bring focus to possible avenues for future discussion and aid them in formulating concise summaries of their findings. These questions should be freely modified, extended, or replaced as the seminar proceeds.
For this seminar, the key questions are:
(1) Materialism. How does D&C 42 allow for or dispense with the need to draw a sharp distinction between the two senses of materialism, one (ontological) held to by Mormonism and one (consumerist) generally rejected by Mormonism?
(2) Stewardship. What does “stewardship” mean in D&C 42, and what does this meaning suggest about the complex relationship between equality and authority in the Church?
(3) The Church vs. Zion. What does D&C 42–both in terms of its historical context and in terms of its actual content–suggest about the meaning or status of the concept of Church vis-a-vis the concept of Zion in Church revelations?
(4) Hermeneutics of the larger D&C context. Where or how does section 42 fit into the complex document that is the current Doctrine and Covenants, and how does it in turn inform it?
