Love is the only way of knowledge, which in the act of union answers our quest. Material aspects of life are important (hence the strong emphasis on humanitarianism and social service); matter can participate in the condition of salvation itself (as affirmed in the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body); nature can become host to the divine (the doctrine of the Kingdom of God on Earth and, later in Christianity, the Incranation). The concept of God is something which nothing greater can be conceived (aliquid quo nihil maius cogitari possit). It is clear that greater, we mean more perfect. (Sometimes we use Melius, better, instead of maius, greater.) Since we have this idea, it follows that something than which nothing greater can be conceived at east exists in our minds (in intellectu) as an object of thought. We know God exists otherwise we should be able to conceive of something greater than that which nothing greater can be conceived—which is absurd. Therefore, something than which nothing greater can be conceived must exist in reality. The idea of spiritual contemplation is essentially an act of the will leading to a charitable union with God. In the light of this union, it becomes clear that we live in a God created Universe. God is the entirely other: a metaphysical abyss divides him from all others beings. The Lord alone is the eternal; all the rest is temporary and mutable. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

The World has always loved the saint as being the nearest possible approach to the perfection of God. God’s power, liberty, and independence are unlimited. The Lord’s omnipotence is not qualified by the existence of demigods. Every Angel possess infused universal ideas and forms a species apart. “I saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with are numberless consourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising God; yea, and my soul did long to be there” reports Alma 36.22. Thinking back to that day, wading Sun shined waters fast, watching time pass away. It is no good to live in the past. Tread the ground on which you stand as all life’s memories are in your hands. Shaded dawn burst to light, watch as the day lightens the light. Dreams get better all the time, and still I hope the Day will come—that Day when Sun rays will shine when God and I will be as one. Sometimes it is useful to understand that dream figures are like Angels. They look human, but their World is ratio realis, which postulates logical distinctions that are grounded in reality. However, the natural and moral laws of actual life are suspended. Each is ruled by its own laws and exigencies. Entities are not unnecessarily multiplied. Their actions may be mysterious being in themselves beautiful holy things and modes of perfection. Created spirits are composed of matter and form; humans are composed of matter and spirit; and there is a plurality of forms in corporal beings. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

The human body is actualized by corporal matter and the formae corporeitatis before its union with the soul. The soul, although, a unity, has three partial forms—the vegetative principle, the sensitive principle, and the rational principle, which moves the other parts only through the mediation of the spiritual matter. If the rational part of the soul informed the body directly, the soul would no longer be purely active. Every substance is a wholly active and dynamic principle which continually unfolds its intrinsic forces, thus reaching perfection. This concept is applied in our psychology and our doctrine of knowledge. “And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yes, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!,” reports Alma 36. 19-20. This object was considered the causa terminativa (final cause) of knowledge; it might also be considered to be a kind of causa cooperans (cooperative cause). “My limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I have been born of God. Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of what I did taste that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost,” reports Alma 36.24. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

That process explains the development of higher knowledge from lower connection of the potencies of the soul (colligantia potentiarum). By virtue of the unity of the spiritual matter of the soul, the act of knowledge that originated in the vegetative and sensitive parts continues in the rational part of the soul, causing a spiritual image to form there. It is primarily the dree will which elevates humanity above all other creatures and energetically is the will’s self-determination. “Yea, and now behold, the Lord does give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors; for because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God. And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in God, and he will still deliver me. And I know that God will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever, for he brought me by his power into the promised land; yea, and he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity from time to time,” reports Alma 36.25-29. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

This principal contribution to philosophy is the description of the relations between the knowing subject and the object. In the field of human psychology, it is the root of religion as humanities immediate sense of the Supernatural. The primary religious awareness is not inferential but is, an institution of reality, an intercourse between a Universe, present always in all its meaning, and a spirit, responding with all its meaning, and a spirit, responding with all its understanding. By the Supernatural, it is not to be understood as the mysterious, the uncanny, nor the miraculous but a larger environment than physical nature, a special kind of environment, which has its own particular sanctions through commerce with which humans receives their characteristically human degree of independence within their natural environment. “And the Lord God does work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord does confound the wise and brings about the salvation of many souls. And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, they have enlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls,” reports Alma 37. 7-9. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

The Supernatural is variously conceived in different types of religion, as is the character of redemption that the supernatural makes it possible. In primitive religion, redemption is found by seeking the Supernatural in nature as an animistic force indefinitely any and yet vaguely one. In polytheism, the Supernatural consist of individual spirits that rule different parts of nature, and redemption means the managing of nature through its many divine masters. Cosmic pantheism accepts nature in its wholeness as the Supernatural, while the acosmic mysticism of India wholly excludes nature from the Supernatural, as illusion. Religions of the ceremonial—legal type, such as priestly Judaism and Island, divide the Natural into a scared realm and a secular realm, cultivating the sacred or religious whole leaving the secular outside the sphere of redemption. Finally, for the prophetic monotheism of the Hebrew prophets and of Christianity, redemption is reconciliation to the Natural by finding within it the purpose of the one personal Supernatural. “Remember how strict the commandments of God. And the Lord said: If you will keep my commandments you shall prosper in the land—but if you keep not his commandments, you shall be cut off from his presence. God has entrusted you with these things, which are scared, which he has kept sacred, and also which he will keep and preserve for a wise purpose in one, that one may show forth the Lord’s power unto future generations,” reports Alma 37. 13-14. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

To be reconciled to God is to accept all the experiences of one’s life as of God’s appointing, and one’s duties as divine commands. Thus, prophetic religion is intensely practical and this-Worldly. Speaking of its Ancient Testament, what determines their faith is not a theory of the Supernatural, but an attitude towards the Natural, as a sphere in which a victory of deeper meaning than the visible and of more abiding purpose than the fleeting can be won. We must emphasize that knowledge of our environment, whether the natural or the Supernatural, does not consist in the mere registering of impact, but always consists in a perception of meaning. In order to become aware of our environment, we must rightly interpret its impingements upon this. Thus, knowledge is not knowledge as an effect of an unknow external cause, but is knowledge as we so interpret that our meaning is the actual meaning of our environment. “And behold, I tell you by the spirit of prophecy, that if you transgress the commandments of God, behold, these things which are sacred shall be taken away from you by the power of God, and you shall be delivered up onto the adversary, that he and/or she may sift your as chaff before the wind. However, if you keep the commandments of God, and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the Lord does command you (for you must appeal unto the Lord for all things whatsoever you must do with them) behold, no power of Earth nor Hell can take them from you, for God is powerful to the fulfilling of all the words,” reports Alma 37. 15-16. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

In this interpretative process, the mind exercises a degree of freedom. That degree is established by the individual frontiers of each mind, which are largely controlled from within and across which the meaning of the environment can pass only as a meaning recognized by the individual. “For God will fulfill all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has made unto our fathers. For God promised unto them that he would preserves these things for a wise purpose in him that he might show forth his power unto future generations,” Alma 37. 17-18. The Supernatural presents itself to the human mind with the quality of the sacred or of absolute worth. To be aware of the Supernatural is to recognize some sacred value that lays an absolute claim upon us, even if in these early stages of human’s dealings with the Supernatural this is only an irrational taboo. “Now, these mysteries are not yet fully made known unto me; therefore I shall forbear. And it may suffice if I only say they are preserved for a wise purpose, which purpose is known unto God; for he does counsel in wisdom over all his works, and his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round,” reports Alma 37. 11-12.  Religion is essential a dealing with an unseen environment of absolute worth, which demands worship. This recognition of and allegiance to the sacred frees us from the dominance of our physical surroundings: We can obtain a foundation to deal with our environment the moment we regard anything as scared, because we can say “No” and are no longer its mere creature. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

While our sense of the Supernatural gives us a fixed point amid the evanescent and a degree of freedom in relation to the natural, we can gain this only by our exercise of our own freedom. For the peculiarity of the supernatural environment is that we cannot enter it except as we see and choose it as our own. “For behold, there is a curse upon all this land, that destruction shall come upon all those workers of darkness, accord to the power of God, when they are fully ripe; therefore I desire that this people might not be destroyed. Therefore, keep these secret plans of their oaths and their covenants from this people, and only their oaths and their wickedness and their murders and their abominations shall you know known unto them; and you shall teach them to abhor such wickedness and abominations and murders; and you shall also teach them that these people were destroyed on account of their wickedness and abominations and for their murders. For behold, they murdered all the prophets of the Lord who cam among them to declare unto them concerning their iniquities and the blood of those whom they murdered did cry unto the Lord their God for vengeance upon those who were their murderers; and thus the judgments of Go did come upon these workers of darkness and secret combinations. Yea, cursed be the land forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before fully ripe,” reports Alma 37. 29-31. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

The religious person’s awareness of a larger supernatural environment, in terms of which we live, means awareness has no greater need nor possibility of philosophical justification than our awareness of the natural environment. Attempts have been made to prove the existence of a material World by other evidence than the way it environs us, but the result is no more reassuring for the reality of the natural World than for the reality of the supernatural. The insight or experience that God is the supremely personal reality, that his dealings with humans take place in the personal realm, and that the greater central Christian terms—revelation, faith, grace, sin, reconciliation—are to be understood as part of the language of personal relationship and are perverted when construed in nonpersonal ways. “And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause those should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day,” reports Alma 37.40. Religious truths are not infallibilities declared authoritatively from Heaven, but claim acceptance only because they irresistibly impress our minds as true, and God seeks our trust only by showing himself to be trustworthy. God’s works and the elements of a religious philosophy might well appeal to many today because it is consistently empiricist, being based upon what is given in human experience and because it is on a higher level of generality. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10