Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/29/2026
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
4010 JFSB
Category(ies)
Join us for this week’s Humanities Center Colloquium on Thursday, January 29th at 3:30 pm in 4010 JFSB. Nathan Rockwood, Associate Professor of Philosophy, will examine premortal choice, salvation for the dead, and degrees of glory in a thought-provoking exploration of the Latter-day Saint plan of salvation and what it reveals about the nature of God. Refreshments will be served.
Title: Premortality, Postmortality, and the Goodness of God
Latter-day Saints have a unique understanding of the plan of salvation, and this talk examines what this plan reveals about the nature of God. I focus on two stages of this plan. First, in the premortal existence, we chose to live a mortal life in a world like this one. I argue that rather than justifying evil solely in terms of divine purposes, the LDS view appeals to our rational agreement to the plan of salvation. Second, the LDS view of the afterlife shows how perfectly just God is. Salvation for the dead ensures that all persons receive a meaningful opportunity to accept the gospel and its ordinances, and the degrees of glory reflect each person’s individual choices and character. Taken together, these uniquely LDS doctrines present a philosophically rich model of robust human freedom and the perfect goodness and justice of God.
About our presenter:
Nathan Rockwood earned a PhD in philosophy from UC, San Diego and is now an Associate Professor of Philosophy at BYU. His research has focused on the history of philosophy and philosophy of religion, with a particular emphasis on religious epistemology. His recent monograph, Locke’s Religious Epistemology and Its Critics (Routledge), defends Locke’s view that rational religious belief requires evidence, and there is plenty of evidence to support belief in Christianity. He is currently working on a book manuscript, Latter-day Saint Philosophy and the Nature of God (Cambridge University Press), which compares LDS views of God with those in traditional Christianity.
