John Taylor on the “Dark Ages”

A foundational tenet and raison d’être of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that a Great Apostasy occurred within the first few centuries of the early Christian era, resulting in the withdrawal of God's priesthood, i.e., divine authority, from the earth. Without this there could be no saving ordinances performed nor gift of the Holy Ghost with its attendant sanctifying and revelatory powers. It took a restoration of the priesthood and gospel back to the earth for these spiritual blessings to be enjoyed again. At least that is the standard Latter-day Saint doctrine of the Great Apostasy.1 LDS scripture affirms that from the time the lights went out in the early Church to the time of Joseph Smith, “darkness cover[ed] the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people” (D&C 112:23; see also Isa. 60:2). “For over seventeen hundred years,” wrote early-twentieth-century apostle James Talmage, “there appears to have been silence between the heavens and the earth.”2 This spiritual blackout is routinely depicted in Church teachings as the very time prophesied by Amos when the Lord would “send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord,” and no matter how earnestly people seek his voice, they “shall not find it” (Amos 8:11–12).3 Given such a disparaging view of “apostate” Christianity, it is little wonder the Church has struggled to win the good will of Catholics and Protestants who feel slighted by such a dismissive narrative. Even many faithful Church members find it incredulous that a loving, all-powerful God would withhold the blessings of the gospel from his children for more than seventeen centuries. Adding to the pushback by Christians at large, the LDS Great Apostasy narrative is also at odds with the scholarly consensus that the Middle Ages were not, as previously thought, a time of darkness and ignorance. Rather, the so-called Dark Ages are hailed as “a period of extraordinary human intellectual and artistic achievements comparable to, if not surpassing, those of the Renaissance.”4To placate critics who take umbrage at the LDS denigration of historical Christianity, several ecumenically sensitive LDS scholars have advanced a more conciliatory view of the Apostasy, disavowing the belief that God closed the heavens and asserting instead that open heavenly communication continued to bless Christian believers. The principal authority invoked in support of this revisionist narrative is a September 7, 1873 statement by then apostle John Taylor, which depicts even the “dark ages” as a time when men of faith were graced with extraordinary visions and revelations.Taylor's high praise and holy envy for this remarkable spiritual outpouring during the “dark ages” clearly runs counter to the traditional LDS view of the Middle Ages as a time of spiritual blackout. Granted, the Church has always held that medieval Christians received a measure of spiritual illumination through the light of Christ, which “lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (D&C 93:2), but Taylor audaciously elevates medieval spiritual enlightenment to a whole new level rivaled only by the visions and prophecies one reads about in scripture. Taken at face value, one could infer from Taylor's remark that the Restoration provided no more spiritual enlightenment than what was already available over the previous 1800 years. This has led some LDS scholars to assert that, despite what the traditional LDS Apostasy narrative has been, the more enlightened LDS view is that Christians have always been privy to the same spiritual outpouring as Latter-day Saints.The first recorded instance of Taylor's “dark age” remark being invoked to argue for a more palatable Apostasy narrative occurred in a groundbreaking 2002 essay by BYU history professor Eric Dursteler titled “Inheriting the ‘Great Apostasy’: The Evolution of Mormon Views on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.” Dursteler's thesis was that the Church should abandon its traditional, Protestant-inherited view of the Middle Ages as “a time of spiritual and intellectual darkness in which all revelation and, indeed, progress of any sort disappeared.”6 In making a case for a more conciliatory view of the Apostasy, he invoked John Taylor's effusive adulation for “dark age” spirituality, calling it “the historical precedent” for justifying such a view.7 A version of Dursteler's essay, including his appeal to Taylor's “dark age” adulation, was subsequently included in a 2005 FARMS publication and later again in a 2014 Oxford University Press publication.8 In both of these scholarly anthologies reexamining the Great Apostasy, Dursteler's essay appears as the lead chapter, a nod to its significance in Apostasy scholarship.Informed (and inspired) by Dursteler's work, other LDS scholars soon began appealing to Taylor's “dark age” remark to promote a more conciliatory Apostasy narrative. Among the earliest was Alexander B. Morrison, an emeritus General Authority seventy and respected academic. In his 2005 volume, Turning from Truth: A New Look at the Great Apostasy, Morrison quotes Taylor's “dark age” adulation to persuade readers to think of medieval Christianity more charitably. According to Morrison, Taylor understood that “mortals . . . still enjoyed at least a measure of spiritual enlightenment and blessings during the time between apostasy and restoration.”9 Taylor's “dark age” remark has also been put into service by Robert Millet, a prominent BYU religion professor (now retired) who has had a long-standing dialogue with evangelical Christians in an effort to promote greater mutual respect and tolerance. In response to evangelicals who criticize the uncomplimentary LDS view of “apostate” Christianity, Millet states, “I believe it is a gross exaggeration and misrepresentation to suggest that Latter-day Saints believe all of Christian practice and doctrine since the time of the original Apostles has been apostate.” Millet points to Taylor's praise of “dark age” spirituality as the real LDS view, stating that Taylor was referring specifically to “persons during medieval times.”10 Millet appeals to Taylor's “dark age” comment to defend a spiritually rich Christian legacy in at least five books he has published11 as well as in articles and speeches he has given over the past two decades.Terryl Givens has also frequently employed Taylor's “dark age” comment to quell critics who find it incredulous “that God was sort of snoozing until 1820.” To such critics he replies: “Well, guess what? That sounds absurd to Mormons as well.”12 To back up this disarming comeback, he quotes Taylor's glowing praise for “dark age” spiritual enlightenment. In The Crucible of Doubt, he and coauthor Fiona Givens remarked that Taylor's praise for “dark age” spirituality “should shame those moderns who believe the medieval church was a spiritual wasteland.”13 The Givenses quote Taylor's “dark age” remark to advocate for a more charitable Apostasy narrative in at least five of their published books as well as in other presentations and interviews over the years.14 Other LDS scholars have also appealed to Taylor's “dark age” statement to elevate perceptions of medieval spirituality.15MormonWiki.com, an online encyclopedia about Latter-day Saints, quotes Taylor under the page “Apostasy, Reformation, and Restoration” to show that “revelation continued” during the Dark Ages.16 Taylor's quote even appears in the Church's New Testament Seminary Teacher Manual with the observation that it was specifically “regarding those who sought truth during the Dark Ages.”17 This growing acknowledgement of spiritual outpouring during the Dark Ages, largely on the authority of Taylor, is a significant concession given the history of univocal restraint when portraying medieval spirituality in LDS discourse.Compared to traditional Church teachings on the Great Apostasy, Taylor's glowing appraisal of medieval spirituality is clearly an outlier and seems to disregard the conditions on which gifts of the Spirit have been traditionally predicated, namely priesthood participation and gospel compliance. Simply put, Taylor accords medieval Christians far greater spiritual privilege than what traditional Mormon doctrine seems to allow.18 How could people living in the Dark Ages without the priesthood and gospel have the heavens opened to them, see God's plan from beginning to end, be visited by angels, and gaze upon the face of God? No Church leader has ever come close to attributing this level of revelatory outpouring to individuals devoid of the priesthood and gospel.One wonders if Taylor's remark is really an accurate representation of how he viewed the era of the Apostasy. In his 1852 book The Government of God, Taylor makes his view explicit: “The world [has been] ignorant of God and his laws, not having had any communication with him for eighteen hundred years.”19 His published denial of there being “any communication” from God for the last eighteen hundred years is clearly at odds with the profuse revelations described in his 1873 remark.Taylor's dismissal of the presence of heavenly communication prior to the Restoration comports with traditional LDS teachings and Taylor's own belief about revelation—that it is the privilege only of those who have received the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. In December 1840 he denounced Methodists for their indifference toward this gift, contending that it was precisely through “the gift of the Holy Ghost [that New Testament Christians] . . . could have the ministering of angels, and the spirit of prophesy, . . . be wrapped in prophetic vision, have the curtains of heaven withdrawn[,] behold the opening glories of the eternal world, and prophesy of events that should transpire until the final winding-up scene.”20 Notably, these are the very same heavenly manifestations Taylor ascribed to people of “those dark ages” in his now-popular 1873 remark, yet here he explicitly ascribes them to New Testament saints, attributing their presence to the gift of the Holy Ghost. He alluded again to these same spiritual manifestations and their dependency on the gift of the Holy Ghost in February 1874, observing that Christ's disciples were “inspired men—men who had the ministering of angels, the spirit of prophecy, and the principle of revelation; men who had the heavens opened to them, so that they could contemplate the purposes of God as they should roll along throughout every subsequent period of time until the winding up scene. Whence did they obtain this knowledge? They obtained it through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”21 As to how “this Gospel places man in communication with God,” Taylor explained, “[This] Gospel, when received and obeyed, imparts the Holy Ghost, which Holy Ghost takes of the things of God, and shows them unto us.”22 As he would emphasize in a February 1883 sermon, one “cannot come to a knowledge of God, nor become acquainted with eternal things without the Gospel; without the gift of the Holy Ghost.”23The importance Taylor placed on the necessity of having the gift of the Holy Ghost in order to receive revelation is further evident from the distinction he made between the gift of the Holy Ghost, which only members of the Church possess, and the light of Christ, which everyone possesses. “We have something more than that portion of the Spirit of God [i.e., the light of Christ] which is given to every man,” he said in a November 1882 sermon, “and it is called the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is received through obedience to the first principles of the Gospel of Christ, by the laying on of hands of the servants of God. . . . [T]his Holy Ghost . . . would cause . . . old men to dream dreams and . . . young men to see visions; and . . . servants and handmaids of God . . . [to] prophesy. These are the operations of . . . the Holy Ghost. It is this Spirit that brings us into relationship with God, and it differs very materially from the portion of spirit that is given to all men to profit withal.”24Thus, for Taylor, only the gift of the Holy Ghost received by the laying on of hands by one holding the priesthood entitles one to receive revelations from God, and whenever this gift has been absent in the world, spiritual manifestations, beyond the dim intimations of the light of Christ, were also absent. Taylor noted that even the inspired leaders of the Reformation “groped, as it were, in the dark, with [only] a portion of the Spirit of God [i.e., the light of Christ].”25 Because these reformers were without the gift of the Holy Ghost, “God did not impart to them the light of revelation which the ancient Saints enjoyed”26 Given Taylor's consistent stance that no one can receive heavenly manifestations without the gift of the Holy Ghost, one can only surmise that his attribution of spiritual gifts to medieval Christians must have been either a slip of the tongue, an inaccurate transcription, or a misreading of the text.Assuming the transcription of Taylor's 1873 “dark age” remark is substantively accurate and that it was not a slip of the tongue, a closer examination of the text can help determine if Taylor is being correctly interpreted. It is significant first of all that Taylor didn't actually refer to men in “the dark ages,” but to men in “those dark ages” (emphasis added). In searching back through his sermon for the antecedent of “those dark ages,” it is telling that not once did Taylor mention anything about the life and times of people living in the Middle Ages, making it unlikely that the antecedent of “those dark ages” is the medieval period. What he did describe, rather, was the lives of “ancient prophets,” including Abraham and Moses, who were given “many visions, manifestations and revelations.”27 He also extolled New Testament visionaries including Paul and John the Revelator. Even the Book of Mormon prophets Nephi and Alma received mention for their visionary experiences. Taylor explained that all these “men of God on the Asiatic continent [and] also on this [the American] continent” were “in possession of . . . truth in relation to God, the the the and the and all they had the and received these the antecedent of “those dark ages” is ancient and Book of Mormon not the Middle one would Taylor the to and Book of Mormon To be Taylor's sermon makes that he did not prophets to be living in but many of his Christian and that is what he is According to Taylor, these Christians were that prophets of old there was a were and in and visions and revelations to show them the Taylor's sermon, he by . . . . . . that man did once a knowledge of God and the He further that a man had a knowledge of these they had a knowledge of the a he makes at least times in his Taylor that even “ancient of the Testament the in order for them to have had such visions and This Taylor to God to men in other not to the response he his would he states, are so enlightened and In [i.e., when the people were and in it was that he should to the human but in the of Gospel in an of light and What Taylor is here is the belief Christian that prophets received visions and revelations they in dark times and it to for their on the other to being so enlightened by the gospel as to not Taylor, the was ancient prophets had visions they had the Christians have no revelations they the Taylor his Christian contending that with all their so-called gospel enlightenment they have as light and knowledge as ancient prophets who in the so-called “dark the of his sermon that knowledge of the things of God only the of the and, more “the gift of the Holy Ghost, which Jesus said would impart a knowledge of God and his He his sermon with an appeal to Christians to for the of revelations enjoyed in is the of that they had in that [i.e., those so-called This is the Gospel that have to to The from Taylor's sermon is that the gospel is the by which men are into a relationship with God to receive divine and the gospel no such revelation The of Taylor's “dark age” comment clearly the that, some Christians have that prophets in a “dark age” devoid of the the visions and revelations these prophets received even more evident that Taylor was to times when referring to “those dark ages” when his remark is in light of he made In a Taylor men will with the that in and past the human was in a or that such a is not out by the he that if back to dark to . . . find that the gospel was to Abraham . . . to . . . to . . . He noted that these prophets all had “the and “the and the Gospel has there has always been In December Taylor again the that ancient prophets in the “dark ages” “I have frequently people and Christians at that, not anything about the . . . but there were men in times that had very from they in what they [i.e., Christians] the will . . . back in the dark yet again in he people think that he was a of a with very few more than a that he in the dark and did not in every recorded instance that Taylor the “dark ages,” he was the Christian denigration of the period. In of his and did Taylor ever the “dark ages” to the medieval were these Taylor alluded to that were the for revelation and it was only in “those dark ages” of the holding this view were (and to as and are in the that visions, and other extraordinary gifts of the Spirit when the began to be As explained, these extraordinary gifts were on the prophets the and the New to them to the and will of God the of was the world had the and Church for their revelation was no for the presence of extraordinary spiritual gifts in ancient times was that God was with individuals to for the and and it from God to for their and to the era as “the dark times of it was a time of and when provided a spiritual that the of the Spirit were a light . . . in the or in a dark until the light of Christ's gospel them no Taylor the he was referring to in his 1873 “dark age” He have been or had a or in he was to he in a December 1840 the Methodists the for and he and and inspired men . . . were only for the dark but as have a more can the without He also the they spiritual not spiritual nor it is not in this enlightened Taylor on several subsequent in this same this is the only time he a in for referring to times as an of Other Church leaders the who in February in to any portion of the ancient order of the Church of Christ is not and other and they will that they were only in the dark of the world, to the of God, but in this enlightened are not Taylor, also the Lord such of darkness as were enjoyed by the Apostles and Saints of in to the Gospel of . . . Gospel of up the and all communication with to with such a Gospel, would the Gospel of the dark so for referring to times as the “dark ages” on at least five subsequent He further to have first this them at the early of years In to other Church also Taylor in for the of to the “dark In some their was at who the practice of as being an of the “dark for [i.e., the ancient practice of was in the dark to which it was when God made His when with those that upon the when the spirit of revelation was when the of God's and the ordinances the people of that a of . . . to God had again a . . . of the dark of the what Taylor and his so their was the of times as an of without the light of the one they that the so-called “dark ages” of the were instead a time of gospel far the so-called gospel light by to the growing by Mormon that Taylor's 1873 “dark age” comment as a to the traditional LDS Apostasy which the Dark Ages as a period devoid of revelation from God, Taylor's comment has to with spirituality during the Dark Ages of the Rather, it was an acknowledgement of God's spiritual outpouring to his ancient prophets living in which in Taylor's time to as the “dark ages” they these prophets were of the gospel Taylor and his ancient prophets did have the light of the they could not have had the remarkable visions and revelations described in the The of Taylor's remark to promote the that the heavens were open to faithful Christians even during the Dark Ages is and to Taylor's view of the Middle Taylor, as for Church leaders living and the Middle Ages were a time of spiritual darkness when the heavens were LDS for their of the “dark ages” to refer to times has from LDS It is little that many have to the that Taylor's “dark ages” must have to the historical Dark Ages, when such a to a more conciliatory Apostasy narrative. the and this has it is also not that it has for over years without being the that Taylor's September 7, 1873 sermon really support in actually the belief in a spiritually medieval the revisionist Apostasy narrative that it has been in is The that medieval Christians in spiritual darkness to the spiritual legacy they time will if will ever come to its Protestant-inherited Apostasy narrative with one that is more conciliatory and that the same to spiritual gifts throughout Christian and one that on Taylor's 1873 “dark age” comment as a