Blake's contraries/progression idea goes back to John Milton--"that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary"--and Emanuel Swedenborg, writers and theologians of the seventeenth and eighteenth century that Blake was obsessed with. If Joseph Smith picked up this idea from anyone, it was probably Swedenborg, whose theological speculations resonate with a lot of Mormon thought (eternal marriage, anti-Trinitarian, etc.)
JettboyNovember 22, 2014
William Blake's statement, “without contraries is no progression," reminds me of Joseph Smith's ""by proving contraries, truth is made manifest" (HC 6:248). I wonder how similar in meaning are the two statements.
Greg SmithNovember 21, 2014
And Blake's idea of contraries dovetails nicely with Joseph Smith's assertion that, "By proving contraries, truth is made manifest." [History of the Church 6:428; letter to L. Daniel Rupp, 1844.]
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dglNovember 24, 2014
Blake's contraries/progression idea goes back to John Milton--"that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary"--and Emanuel Swedenborg, writers and theologians of the seventeenth and eighteenth century that Blake was obsessed with. If Joseph Smith picked up this idea from anyone, it was probably Swedenborg, whose theological speculations resonate with a lot of Mormon thought (eternal marriage, anti-Trinitarian, etc.)
JettboyNovember 22, 2014
William Blake's statement, “without contraries is no progression," reminds me of Joseph Smith's ""by proving contraries, truth is made manifest" (HC 6:248). I wonder how similar in meaning are the two statements.
Greg SmithNovember 21, 2014
And Blake's idea of contraries dovetails nicely with Joseph Smith's assertion that, "By proving contraries, truth is made manifest." [History of the Church 6:428; letter to L. Daniel Rupp, 1844.]
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