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Review
Title: Time (Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants)
Author: Philip L. Barlow
Publisher: BYU Maxwell Institute & Deseret Book
Genre: Religious Non-fiction
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 138
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-8425-0136-1
Price: $12.99
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
Philip L. Barlow’s Time is a thoughtful, measured contribution to the Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants series. The volume makes Barlow’s case for Time to be a fundamental principle of the Gospel, a principle that undergirds essentially every other principle, making them possible.
Barlow seems a bit defensive about the value and place of Time as a theme throughout the book, especially in the early chapters, going out of his way to delineate the ways that it deserves our consideration, even if it is somewhat difficult to wrap our minds around. Perhaps because a secondary thread of my dissertation work was about time, particularly Gothic time, this work felt unnecessary. Though it is certainly possible that my own idiosyncratic interests render me the wrong person to judge whether these preliminary justifications are essential for your average reader.
At its best, the prose and ideas of Time seem to be striving to create an alternative experience of Time for the reader, not just conveying intellectually the concepts that Barlow is presenting, but in the prose and the gentle, measured rhythms of the writing itself to almost lull the reader into a different way of experiencing Time. When not at its best, these qualities may contribute to a less engaging and somewhat distancing reading experience.
Barlow’s expansive and eclectic collection of chapters dealing with Time is compelling for the surprise of some of the connections–dealing with the Sabbath, Redeeming the Dead, the Millennium, and Agency. The way Barlow uses his interpretation of Time to draw on other scholarship about the Fall, particularly relating to the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was especially engaging for me. Barlow renders this phrase as the “tree of knowledge of good and bad” (105), which might not seem like a significant distinction, but in Barlow’s reading leads to something quite different. He writes that “ ‘Good and bad’ may thus refer to what is noble versus what is vile, but also to what is beautiful rather than drab, smart rather than dull, interesting or tedious, apt or ill-suited, useful or harmful” (105). I find this insight quite compelling and will be considering it and its implications for some time to come.
Overall, Time by Philip L. Barlow is a good book, of particular interest to those of a more philosophical/theological bent, but still with an eye towards application.