or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending. What - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

▶

Nov 25, 2022 213 likes •339 views

ABSTRACT "Mormonism has inherited ways of thinking that are no longer sufficient to understand or address the complexities facing the 21st century Church. Concepts from cybernetics, systems theory, and complex thought will be

SLIDE 1

ABSTRACT

➤ "Mormonism has inherited ways of thinking that are no longer

sufficient to understand or address the complexities facing the 21st century Church.

➤ Concepts from cybernetics, systems theory, and complex thought

will be presented as alternative lenses with which to view and wrestle with the Church’s increased historical transparency, gender concerns, racial diversity, LGBTQIA issues, and member disaffection.

➤ It will be argued that movement toward a circular epistemology that

promotes awareness of interconnections, allows for complexity, and encourages tolerance for ambiguity will infuse more compassion, hope, and inclusion into our communities and inspire more creative approaches to addressing our current challenges."

A CRISIS OF PERCEPTION

“

What we need is…a deep reexamination of our culture, a rejection of those conceptual models that have outlived their usefulness.

Fritjof Capra

Capra, F. (1982) The Turning Point, New York, NY. Bantam.

CRISIS

an unstable or crucial time

r state of affairs in which a

decisive change is impending.

ttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crisis

PERCEPTION

the way you think about or understand someone or something the way that you notice or understand something using

ne of your senses

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perception

SLIDE 2

PARADIGM

a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information a theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done, made,

r thought about

COMPLEXITY

the state of having many parts and being difficult to understand

r find an answer to

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/complexity http://www.wired.com/2015/06/mapping-the-internet/

EPISTEMOLOGY

➤ Study of knowledge and ways of knowing ➤ Drawing distinction “enables us to ‘create physical

boundaries, functional groupings, conceptual distinctions.”

➤ ‘…the language embodies that particular culture’s

framework of reality’ -Mary Clark

➤ Keeney, B. P. (1983). Aesthetics of Change. New York: Guilford Press

“

Each word creates something else from which is it is being distinguished; language is our epistemological knife. It divides up our world into chunks for the purposes of knowing about them. Immersed in the flow of language we don’t realize that we create the similarities and differences, and we relate to those similarities and differences as if they were not made by us. Objects, events and issues appear as we name them.

Loyd Fell

Fell, L. (2011). Mind and love: the human experience. Biosong.

PROPOSED PARADIGM SHIFTS FOR MODERN MORMONISM

Inherited Paradigms Mechanistic Universe Lineal Epistemology Individual/Static Objectivity Reduce/Simplify Certainty Proposed Paradigms Creative Universe Circular Epistemology Systems/Process Self-Reflexivity Complexity Ambiguity/Paradox

SLIDE 3

WE NEED NEW PARADIGMS & LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS COMPLEX ISSUES MODERN MORMONISM

➤ Gender Issues ➤ LGBT Mormons ➤ Racial Diversity/World-

wide Church

➤ Increased Historical

Transparency

➤ Member Disaffection

“

Disturbingly, during times of transition, complexity, uncertainty, or faced with potential or actual chaos, there is a tendency to seek out absolute foundations, certainty, simplicity, and a framework that will make sense of the world and reduce our anxiety. These frameworks are informed by reductionistic and dualistic thinking that drastically reduce the complexity of the world.

Alfonso Montouri

Morin, E. (2008). On Complexity. Cresskill, NY: Hampton.

EXAMPLES OF OLD PARADIGMS

➤ Reductionism ➤ Applying broad labels - TBM, Intellectuals, Brethren, Feminists, blind sheep, apostate ➤ Sin as individual issue ➤ Othering - Us vs. Them ➤ Either/or - “Only True Church” ➤ Lineal epistemology ➤ Judging others ➤ Blame - “The Brethren” for presenting “misleading” information ➤ Mechanistic thinking ➤ Formulaic, obedience = blessings ➤ The Church is “perfect”, unchanging ➤ Certainty “I know The Church is True” ➤ Dualistic thinking ➤ “If you question the LGBT policy you’re not supporting the brethren.” ➤ Are you a working mom or stay-at-home mom? ➤ “You cant be loyally opposed to the church” blog article

“

Now there is a paradigm of a creative universe, which recognizes the progressive, innovative character of physical processes. The new paradigm emphasizes the collective, cooperative, and organizational aspects of nature; its perspective is synthetic and holistic rather than analytic and reductionistic.

Paul Davies

Morin, E. (2008). On Complexity, NJ: Hampton.

SLIDE 4

SYSTEM

A group of interacting, interdependent elements

r agents that that form

a complex whole and exist in an environment.

Montouri, A. (2011). Systems approach. In Encyclopedia of Creativity (2nd. Ed), 2, 441-421.

14 15

➤ Paradigm shift offering new language ➤ Transdisciplinary (originated in biology) ➤ Real-wold phenomena as interrelation and interactions, not

“things”

➤ Initially focused on order and equilibrium ➤ Self-organization - coordination arises out of the local interactions

between smaller component parts of an initially disordered system.

➤ Closed Systems - do not interact with environment in

meaningful way

➤ Open System- interacts with environment exchanging

information, matter energy

SYSTEMS THEORY - KEY CONCEPTS

SLIDE 5

http://lesswrong.com/lw/mxb/systems_theory_terms/

CYBERNETICS

Norbert Wiener coined term cybernetics in 1954 as

➤“control and communication in the

animal and machine.”

➤“To control is to communicate. And

vice versa.”

“

"Use the word `cybernetics’… because nobody knows what it

means. This will always put you at an

advantage in arguments."

attributed to Claude Shannon in a letter to Norbert Wiener

in the 1940's 20

SLIDE 6

WHAT IS CYBERNETICS?

➤ Gregory Bateson - “the study of form and pattern” &

"a branch of mathematics dealing with problems of control, recursiveness, and information"

➤ Stafford Beer - "the science of effective organization” ➤ Heinz Von Foerster - "Should one name one central

concept, a first principle, of cybernetics, it would be circularity."

➤ G. Klaus - “The theory of interconnectedness of

possible dynamic self-regulated systems with their subsystems"

http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/definitions.htm

CYBERNETICS SUMMERY

➤Focus on process, navigation (steering) ➤Study of pattern ➤Science of organization ➤Circularity ➤Interconnectedness of self-organizing

systems

➤Recursive feedback loops

Kefalas, A.G. (2011). On systems thinking and the systems approach. World Futures, 67:4-5, 343-371. DOI: 10.1080/02604027.2011.585911

OROUBROS

CYBERNETICS OF CYBERNETICS - 2ND ORDER CYBERNETICS

➤ Movement of studying observed systems to studying

bserving systems

➤ Role of observer in every inquiry became central ➤ The knower can not be left out of the equation ➤ Any statement tells us more about the speaker than about

the event, object, person…

➤ Everything is said by somebody.

SLIDE 7

“

Complex thought refers to a pattern of organizing knowledge that is circular, recursive, relational, and to hold both the whole and the part of a

system. Complex thought is an attempt to

develop a method (or a path) that does not “mutilate,” fragment, abstract, or reduce but allows for holding uncertainty and ambiguity. A key element in complex thought is a shift from disjunctive, binary oppositions science/art, order/ disorder, whole/part to “both/and”.

Edgar Morin

COMPLEX THOUGHT - EDGAR MORIN

METAPRINCIPLES

➤ Dialogic Principle ➤ conceives the complementarity of antagonisms, such as in the relation

rganization–disorganization, order-disorder

➤ Organizational Recursion ➤ Society produces the individuals that produce the society. we are at

the same time products and producers

➤ Holographic Principle ➤ Hologram image contains the quasi-totality of information of the

represented object

➤ DNA - each cell of our organism contains the totality of the genetic

information

“

What is the Hologram principle? It’s is merely the overstepping of the illusion of retaining ourselves disconnected to the chain of life; the overstepping of the illusion that we are dominators of objects…Exactly like in a hologram, where every single part experiences the totality of being together, man must never lose sight of the awareness of carrying the history of the entire universe within himself, and must never stop knowing that every I carries a WE inside it.

Teresa De Feo

http://www.digicult.it/digimag/issue-050/monsieur-morin-for-a-complex-thought-ethic/

COMPLEX THOUGHT

➤ Action is a wager and escapes our intentions ➤ Program - Sequence of pre-determined actions, no

innovation, works in stable environment

➤ Strategy - Envision a number of outcomes, and scenarios

modified by new information

➤ Complexity Requires Strategy - “Requires organization not

to obey a program, but to work together with elements capable of contributing to the elaboration and development of strategy.”

SLIDE 8

“

We need a kind of thinking that relinks that which is disjointed and compartmentalized, that respects diversity as it recognizes unity, and that tries to discern interdependencies. We need a radical thinking (which gets to the root of problems), a multidimensional thinking, and an

rganizational or systemic thinking.

Morin & Kern

Morin, E., & Kern, B. (1999). Homeland Earth: A manifesto for the new millennium. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton

PROPOSED PARADIGM SHIFTS FOR MODERN MORMONISM

CREATIVE UNIVERSE - LANGUAGE

➤ Genesis 1-4 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” ➤ Moses 2:27 “ And I, God, created man in mine

wn image, in the image of mine Only Begotten

created I him; male and female created I them.” ➤ Jacob 4:9 “For behold, by the power of his word man came upon the face of the earth, which earth was created by the power of his word. Wherefore, if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure?” ➤ D&C 38:3 “I am the same which spake, and the world was made, and all things came by me."

CYBERNETIC EPISTEMOLOGY

➤ Revelation 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,

saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

➤ D&C 38:1-2 “Thus saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, the Great I

Am, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity…The same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes;"

➤ D&C 35:1 " Listen to the voice of the Lord your God, even Alpha and

Omega, the beginning and the end, whose course is one eternal round, the same today as yesterday, and forever."

➤ D&C 88:41 " He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before

him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever."

SLIDE 9

SYSTEMS / PROCESS

➤ Matthew 25:40 “ And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. ➤ D&C 38:27 Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I

am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are

not one ye are not mine. ➤ 1 Cor. 12:12 “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” ➤ Romans 5: 3-4 “ And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.”

SELF-REFLEXIVITY

➤ Luke 6:42 “Either how canst thou say to thy brother,

Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.”

➤ 2 Nephi 32:1 “

And now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way…”

COMPLEX THOUGHT

➤ Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are

higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

➤ 1 Corinthians 12:12 “For as the body

is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is

Christ. (holographic principle)

➤ Isaiah 28:9-10 “Whom shall he teach

knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”

PARADOX / AMBIGUITY

➤ Matt. 16:25 “For whosoever will

save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

➤ Matt. 20:16 “So the last shall be

first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.”

➤ Helaman 12: 7 “O how great is

the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth.”

➤ Moses 1:3 “For behold, this is

my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

SLIDE 10

PARADOXICAL QUALITIES OF CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS

1. display a great deal of physical energy /
ften quiet and restful
2. are smart/naïve
3. manifest playfulness/discipline
4. display imagination and fantasy/sense of

reality

5. extroverted/introverted
6. humble/proud
7. manifest masculine/feminine strengths
8. rebellious/conservative
9. passionate about work/able to remain
bjective

10.experience deep suffering and pain/great enjoyment and happiness. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996) http://www.byrdseed.com/three-paradoxes/

COMPLEX ISSUES FACING MODERN MORMONISM

➤ Gender Equality ➤ LGBT Members ➤ Racial diversity ➤ Increased Historical

Transparency

➤ Member Disaffection

➤ “We” Holographic ➤ Circularity ➤ Interconnections ➤ Feedback ➤ Circularity ➤ Recursion ➤ Process- focused ➤ Whole in part in whole… ➤ Strategy ➤ Hold Ambiguity ➤ Self-reflexivity

38 39

CONTACT / RESOURCES

➤ DrJulieHanks.com ➤ WasatchFamilyTherapy.com ➤ PartnershipFamilies.com ➤ HighlyCreativeWomen.com ➤ @DrJulieHanks.com on social media ➤ Email julie@drjuliehanks.com

Stock Photos (c) Canstock

SLIDE 11

REFERENCES & RESOURCES

Capra, F. (1982) The Turning Point, New York, NY. Bantam. Dooley, K. J. (1997). A Complex Adaptive Systems Model of Organization Change. Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, 1:1. Fell, L. (2011). Mind and love: the human experience. Biosong Nagata, A. L. (2004). Promoting self-reflexivity in intercultural education. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 8, 139-167. Holland, J. (2006). Studying complex adaptive systems. Journal of System Science & Complexity (2006) 19: 1–8. Keeney, B. P. (1983). Aesthetics of Change. New York: Guilford Press. Kefalas, A.G. (2011). On systems thinking and the systems approach. World Futures,67:4-5, 343-371. DOI: 10.1080/02604027.2011.585911 Knyazeva, H. N. (July, 2004). The complex nonlinear thinking: Edgar Morin's demand of a reform of thinking and the contribution of synergetics. World Futures 60(5):389-405. Montuori, A. (2012). Creative Inquiry: Confronting the challenges of scholarship in the 21st century. Futures. The Journal of Policy, Planning and Future Studies, 44(1), 64-70. Montouri, A. (2011). Systems approach. In Encyclopedia of Creativity (2nd. Ed), 2, 441-421. Morin, E., & Kern, B. (1999). Homeland Earth: A manifesto for the new millennium. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton. Morin, E. (1999). Organization and complexity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 879(1), 115-121. Morin, E. (2008). On Complexity, NJ: Hampton.