Off and on for the past few years I’ve worked on a kind of dictionary of Mormon Terms (this link is to website where this project is hosted—free registration and login required), an attempt to define the language that is unique to Mormons and those who discuss Mormonism or that is used more often or in different ways by Mormons than others. This includes individual words and phrases, slang and Church-specific terminology—anything that might not be understood well by those outside of Mormon culture.

I plan to post about specific terms from time to time as I come across things that might be of interest, or as I feel the need to give a boost to my own efforts and interest. And perhaps in doing so, I might also persuade others to give a hand to help this effort along. Today I’m posting about exaltation, a word I chose at random from among those not yet defined.

Mormons give the word exaltation a definition that is, at least, more specific than the definition  used by others. Our use of the word may even be unique to Mormonism. And, Joseph Smith, in one of his most famous addresses, gave the word a definition that even most Mormons today don’t use.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives 4 definitions (and a total of 12 senses) for the word exaltation. Two of these senses come close to the definition we use in Mormonism:

• (2.a.) Elevation in authority, dignity, power, station, wealth, etc.; esp. the elevation of a sovereign to a throne. Also occas. An exalted position; elevated rank
• (2.d.) The raising to a lofty point of excellence; exalted degree; an exalted manifestation.

I think both of these definitions leave a lot out of Mormon use, and this is something that becomes clear when we start looking at Mormon texts that include the word exaltation. Surprisingly, of all the LDS scriptures, exaltation only appears in the D&C, and 11 of the 12 times it appears are all in section 132. The King James Version of the bible only includes a single use in the Apocrypha (Judith 16:8). But despite the limited use of exaltation in the scriptures, it has seen regular use in General Conference addresses, a total of 2365 uses stretching all the way back to 1844. Exaltation has usually appeared at least 100 times a decade in conference addresses.

So what does it mean to Mormons?

When I mentioned this project to a friend at Church yesterday, he suggested that exaltation is a synonym for salvation. And looking at Mormon use I agree that they are close enough in meaning to be synonyms. However, the OED definitions of exaltation suggest that the meaning is more than simply salvation, that it includes an elevation to a higher state. For example:

“For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition…” (D&C 132:17)

suggests that those who have received exaltation are also “enlarged” (and that some individuals may be saved but not exalted). And D&C 132:39 says:

“…and because they did none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into their exaltation, according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels but are gods.”

Thus, while exaltation is often used as a synonym for salvation, it is not just salvation, but also “enlargement,” elevation to thrones and godhood.

In addition to these two Mormon definitions of salvation, and of enlargement or elevation to godhood, I discovered a third definition in the word’s use by Joseph Smith. In his famous King Follett Discourse, Joseph said:

“Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you—namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one—from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.…”

Here exaltation is not exactly salvation, but instead steps in the process to obtaining resurrection and eternal life. But I’m not sure what Joseph Smith meant by this doctrinally. And I must point out that we can’t even be sure that this is what Joseph Smith said, since in 1844 talks were transcribed by clerks (before shorthand) while they were being delivered, so a lot of what was said could have been missed. As I understand it, the prophet never reviewed the transcription and was published years later.

This use of exaltation is, as far as I can tell, unique. But since  I haven’t yet done a thorough search, I can’t be sure. I invite others to also look for similar or other uses. For now I think I’ll add this as an obsolete definition, given that it was used by Joseph Smith in one of his most widely-read addresses.

This leaves us with the following entries for a preliminary definition for exaltation:

1. Salvation (i.e., reaching the highest degree of the celestial kingdom)
2. Elevation or enlargement to be like god
3. obs. Each step in reaching a state of being like that of god.

Of course, I may not have worded these definitions that well (I’m learning). Nor have I been as thorough as I should in researching how the word exaltation is used by Mormons—its a big job, and will probably require a lot of help from others. So I welcome comments and criticisms that will lead to a better and more complete definition.

Most of us involved with the LDS market simply assume that there is a consumer need or desire that is being filled, and that the audience will always want Mormon materials. Less frequently, many assume that separate LDS stores and perhaps publishers will eventually be absorbed into the rest of the market for books, music, film and other cultural goods, because, they believe, there isn’t any reason that consumers need separate LDS stores.

Perhaps.

The current LDS market is best defined as a niche — a small portion of the overall market that consists of customers with specific interests or needs different from the rest of the market. A niche is usually small enough that it is overlooked or ignored by the rest of the market. It often also has some kind of impediment or ‘insulation’ from the rest of the market, something that keeps those in the  rest of the market from simply adding one additional product to serve the needs of the niche.

The answer to whether or not the LDS market will continue lies in this “insulation” form the rest of the market. Without some impediment, companies currently outside the market will eventually see the niche as attractive and absorb the market.

So what are the impediments? What, if anything, keeps Random House from publishing books for Mormons? or what keeps Barnes and Noble from becoming the preferred seller of LDS titles for most buyers?

I’m not sure that I have all the answers to these questions, but several possible impediments have occurred to me:

1. Unique Products — By and large the products in the LDS market are different from those outside of the market, and many of the products outside of the market won’t work inside the market. The language and terms and other cultural elements that we use in Mormon books, music and film make us comfortable and help us understand what the author means, and the doctrines and cultural beliefs that most Mormons share are reflected in these works. While we understand outside works just fine, in certain kinds of works (religious works, or fiction with Mormon settings) outside language or beliefs seem strange or out of place. Outside publishers and other companies would likely need to have LDS employees in order to get these things right in books for the LDS market, and it doesn’t seem likely that they will make the necessary expenditures anytime soon.
2. LDS Consumer Interest in “Safe” Products — Many Mormons, influenced by Church counsel to seek wholesome entertainment and avoid that which might fill the mind with impure thoughts, look for materials that are “safe.” They are cautious about purchasing books, music and film from non-LDS sources, because the works they purchase may not be as “safe” as they want. They then look for indications of what to expect — publisher/imprint names, authors, etc., that they know will fit what they believe to be “appropriate.” At least in part, they believe that books in LDS stores are “safe” and prefer to shop there for some kinds of materials. This doesn’t mean that they never purchase elsewhere, just that they have a preference in some cases where the risk seems greatest. This preference will, I think, continue at least as long as Church leaders continue to emphasize avoiding unwholesome materials.
3. LDS Publishers and Marketing Information Often Unavailable — While most LDS Publishers do make their books available to the rest of the market in the U.S., that doesn’t mean that their books find much of a market there. Other than basic availability, LDS books largely aren’t noticed and haven’t much of a presence in the market. LDS publishers in general don’t try to sell their books to stores outside of the LDS market–no sales calls are made to stores, no marketing materials sent to vendors and no advertising to the non-LDS consumer outside of areas where LDS members are a large portion of the population. The few vendors like Amazon.com that list LDS books, music and film are lucky to categorize books as LDS at all, let alone divide them into categories meaningful to consumers. Of course, this could change, but both LDS publishers and outside vendors would need to perceive this as worth their while.
4. The Christian/LDS Split — In a sense the most likely market to absorb the LDS market is the general Christian market. I believe that, if asked, most professionals in the national market would assume that these markets are already the same. But most LDS Church members and most evangelicals know that any combination of the two is impossible. The few LDS authors, musicians, publishers, labels or producers who have attempted to get their works into Christian bookstores have been roundly rejected, even when their works are not specifically Mormon. While in contrast LDS stores have been somewhat more open to Christian materials, they are often different from LDS materials in a way that makes it difficult for LDS consumers to relate.

There could be other impediments that keep the LDS market separate from the rest of the market (please let me know if you think of something). But even if these are the principal impediments, I think they are quite substantial. And I don’t see them changing much in the next few decades.

I won’t be surprised if someone believes that the Internet, or print-on-demand, or ebooks will somehow overcome all this. Personally, I don’t see that happening. While the Internet continues to have a substantial effect on the market, it most likely means that the division we see in the physical portion of the market will continue, as it has, transferred to the virtual portion of the market. LDS products will still be different from other products, LDS consumers will still want different products and want assurance that what they purchase is “safe.” Print-on-demand and ebooks are simply changes in form and production process. While important advances, they won’t overcome these impediments.

That isn’t to say that these impediments are permanent. It is possible to overcome them, or for preferences among consumers to change. But those changes are most likely to take decades, if they happen at all, because they involve long-standing cultural assumptions and needs, not technology. In the meantime, I think we can safely assume that there will be some kind of LDS market.

I’m not suggesting that these have actually become “Mormon Terms” per se, merely that they are unusual phrases, that might be connected culturally to Mormonism, and which haven’t yet had (at least in my experience) wide circulation among Mormons. In the past phrases like these have caught on and become widely used by  Church members — phrases like “Lengthen Your Stride,” “Faith in Every Footstep” and “The Plan of Happiness.”

Of course, because of the nature of identifying these phrases, I have no idea whether or not I got all the possibilities. I’d certainly be interested in what phrases or words others found. Or whether you think any of the phrases below have any chance of entering the Mormon vernacular.

Of course, most of these won’t make the Mormon vernacular. Even so, I think they are interesting, and may give some insight into our culture:

• Sunshine Moments—moments when you feel the influence of the Spirit.
  (Vicki F. Matsumori, Helping Others Recognize the Whisperings of the Spirit, Saturday Morning Session)
• Diligent and Concerned at Home—role of parents in the home—from D&C 93:50
  (David A. Bednar, More Diligent and Concerned at Home, Saturday Morning Session)
• Strenuous Strugglers—those who struggle to learn and accept truth—from a talk by David O. McKay.
  (Jorge F. Zeballos, Attempting the Impossible, Saturday Afternoon Session)
• Boys of the Lord—rowdy boys who become faithful
  (Yoon Hwan Choi, I Love Loud Boys, Priesthood Session)
• Warm fuzzies—feelings one gets from serving others, and soft physical items meant to represent those feelings
  (Thomas S. Monson, What Have I Done for Someone Today?, Sunday Morning Session)
• What Have I Done for Someone Today?—question we might ask ourselves each day, based on story of Jack McConnell, founder of Volunteers in Medicine
  (Thomas S. Monson, What Have I Done for Someone Today?, Sunday Morning Session)
• An Easiness and Willingness to Believe—state of heart or mind that leads one to easily accept truth
  (Michael T. Ringwood, An Easiness and Willingness to Believe, Sunday Afternoon Session)
• Moral Discipline—”self-discipline based on moral standards.”
  D. Todd Christofferson, Moral Discipline, Sunday Afternoon Session)
• Moral Certainty—”certainty based on moral standards.”
  D. Todd Christofferson, Moral Discipline, Sunday Afternoon Session)
• Mind the Gap—to pay attention to the gap between the letter of what we are asked to do and the spirit of what we are asked to do.
  (Barbara Thompson, Mind the Gap, General Relief Society Meeting)

Book cover via Amazon

Like all things involving texts of some kind or another, the Internet has become a force in the most basic of language tools, the dictionary. Even Mormon use of language has spawned a number of glossaries, dictionaries, lists of terms and jargon, etc., all in an attempt to either further understanding or poke fun. But none of the attempts at a Mormon lexicon have tried to be comprehensive and serious. So I set up Mormon Terms.

I’d been tossing around the idea in my mind since before last May, when I first posted about Mormon jargon in New Words of Mormon (where else but A Motley Vision would you expect posts about Mormon language?) And last month I finally got the site set up and announced it on Times & Seasons.

Mormon Terms is in its infancy still. At the moment, the heart of the site is a list of 1,300 potential terms that may or may not be ‘Mormon’ in some way. [I'm plugging away at defining terms (I try to do 5 a weekday, so if its left to me, it will take a year to finish), and I'm looking for new terms as well. Even though 1,300 is more than any other list of Mormon terms, I don't think its a very large percentage of what would be included in a comprehensive list.]

But this issue of whether a term is ‘Mormon’ in some way is probably the thorniest problem the site will face. Mormons frequently use a lot of terms in a religious context, most of which are common to all religions. Words like spirituality, God, Christ, worship, revelation, anoint, etc. are used in a lot of religious contexts, and if the meaning of the word is the same, should it be included?

For example, we’ve defined the word apologetics, mostly because it was on one of the lists of Mormon words I used as a source. But I’m not sure it should be included because I don’t think the definition is any different than what you would find in any dictionary. When Mormons use the word apologetics, do we mean anything different than what non-Mormons mean when they use it?

Like all writing, this probably comes down to a question of audience. Perhaps the right answer to this issue is simply who is the audience (or who are the audiences) for this lexicon and what will that audience (or those audiences) expect?

I don’t think I know the answer to this question. But one of the strengths of using a wiki like Mormon Terms on the Internet is that the audience or audiences can help decide this issue. Because the audience can edit the dictionary, the audience will determine what is, or isn’t a Mormon word.

It will be interesting to see the result.

The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!… I’m somebody now!