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Show Page 169 hierarchy and "counsel upon any subject..." The source of sovereignty is superiority of wisdom, rather than consent of the governed; ideally speaking, knowledge is king. Orson then attempts a metaphysical justification for his concept of legitimate sovereignty: "All the innumerable phenomena of universal nature are produced in their origin by the actual presence of this intelligent, all-wise, and all-powerful material substance called the Holy Spirit. It is the most active matter in the universe, producing all its operations according to fixed and definite laws enacted by itself...Each atom of the Holy Spirit is intelligent..." The laws of nature thus can be defined as the method by which intelligent, discrete, but omnipresent "spirit" operates...the source of law rests in the covenant of primal intelligences to act together in opposition to dissolution and cosmic anarchy. Orson implies that the universe is conscious of itself, that "Holy Spirit" is its cumulative will, and that the sacramental concept of authority depends upon access to its revelatory gifts. 1 The Holy Spirit is the great distinguishing character between the officers 20 of the kingdom of God and impostors." Though written as an attempt to solve the fulminating questions of right order in society, The Kingdom of God comes out in bulk a brief for Mormon "materialism" - "His kingdom...hath its seat in the everlasting mountains" - and the ruler himself a tangible, sentient being, derives his authority from mastery over and consonance with the universal mind. While the appeal of authoritarian Mormonism has been traditionally attributed to the American uneasiness with economic democracy, certainly this is insufficient. Mormon theocracy, at least in part, attracted followers thirsty for transcendent assurances - for Orson Pratt, loyalty to the hierarchy simply reflected the universal and eternally autonomous consent of the "intelligences" to defer to superior wisdom in all things. |