'The Grand Fundamental Principle': Friendship...
Don Bradley, a historian specializing in Mormon origins, examines Joseph Smith’s identification of friendship as "the grand fundamental principle of Mormonism." Drawing on LDS scripture—from the communal creation account in the Book of Abraham to Christ’s teachings against contention in 3 Nephi—Bradley argues that relationships of mutual support are essential to the divine nature, contrasting God as a harmonious community with Satan as the embodiment of antagonism. He connects this theological insight to Robert Wright’s concept of non-zero-sum games in evolution, suggesting that as human fates become increasingly linked, friendship and cooperation are not merely virtuous but necessary for civilization’s survival and progress toward the divine.
Don Bradley is an American historian specializing in the origins of the Latter-day Saint movement and the early history of the Book of Mormon. His meticulous archival research and innovative historical methodology have shed new light on some of the most intriguing questions surrounding the founding events of Mormonism. He is best known for his groundbreaking work reconstructing the lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript. ¶ Bradley’s book The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing Stories (2019) represents years of detective work piecing together what the lost manuscript likely contained. Using contemporary accounts, textual analysis, and historical context, Bradley reconstructed the narrative of Lehi and his family that was contained in the Book of Lehi—the portion translated by Joseph Smith and lost by Martin Harris in 1828. His work has been widely praised for its scholarly rigor and its contributions to understanding early Mormon history. ¶ Bradley’s faith journey has been marked by both departure and return. After leaving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he found his way back to faith in part through the influence of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, whose integration of religious belief with rational inquiry resonated with his scholarly temperament. Lincoln Cannon, founder and first president of the MTA, performed Bradley’s rebaptism—a meaningful connection between his intellectual and spiritual homecoming. Bradley has spoken openly about how his historical research, rather than undermining his faith, ultimately contributed to his decision to return. ¶ Bradley has presented his research at numerous academic conferences, including the Mormon History Association and FairMormon. He has contributed to scholarly journals and collaborative volumes on Latter-day Saint history. His work on the lost pages has influenced how scholars understand the structure and content of the Book of Mormon, as well as the translation process Joseph Smith employed. ¶ His research touches on themes relevant to transhumanist thought, particularly regarding the nature of knowledge, the recovery of lost information, and the relationship between faith and empirical inquiry. Bradley’s methodology demonstrates how careful scholarship can illuminate religious origins while respecting the complexity of belief—a model for integrating scientific and spiritual approaches to understanding human experience and potential.
Transcript
Speaker 1
Our next speaker will be Don Bradley. Don will be speaking on the grand fundamental principle: friendship as partaking of the divine nature. Don is a writer, editor, and researcher specializing in Mormon origins. He didn’t put this in his own bio, but he’s extraordinarily good at it. He completed an internship with the Joseph Smith Papers Project, is finalizing his history MA thesis at Utah State University, and plans to pursue a doctorate in religious studies. Don has published several papers, including The Grand Fundamental Principles of Mormonism, Joseph Smith’s Unfinished Reformation. and will soon publish his first book, The Lost 116 Pages, Rediscovering the Book of Lehi. Beyond academia, Don is a single dad and a happy victim of the Flynn effect. Enjoying the struggle to keep up intellectually with two precocious sons. Please welcome Don Bradley.
Don Bradley
Thank you, Lincoln. I’ll make the appropriate correction to my bio. For those of you who don’t know what the Flynn effect is, it’s the sort of progressive increase in IQs each generation. And if you want proof of that, my son Donnie is here in the back.
Don Bradley
I didn’t have time to prepare slides, so I’m going to be one of the honorary Mormon transhumanist Luddites for the day. In 1843, Joseph Smith formulated three grand fundamental principles of Mormonism: receiving truth from all sources, friendship, and relief to those in need. And there’s a paper by me in the April 2006 Sunstone. That’s a paper on the subject. It’s also the only paper on the subject. Joseph Privileged Friendship, reportedly singling it out as preeminently the grand fundamental principle of Mormonism. Why? To answer this, let’s explore the LDS scriptures beginning in the beginning at the creation.
Don Bradley
Creation stories provide models for human action. We’ll see this with a glance at Judaism and Taoism. In Genesis, God creates the world by his word, rests on the seventh day, and declares his creation very good. Jews build their lives on God’s Word, rest on the seventh day, and believe the created world to be very good.
Don Bradley
Now take Taoists. The Tao Te Ching says the universe wasn’t planned, but emerged spontaneously from the Tao. So the Taoist ideal for behavior is wu-wei, actionless action, living in harmony with the Tao, allowing the right action to emerge on its own.
Don Bradley
In the most developed LDS creation account in the Book of Abraham, a community referred to as the gods plans and executes the creation, as Leonard talked about. This has implications for our behavior. If you’ve ever wondered why the book most likely to be found in a Mormon’s hand isn’t the Book of Mormon, but a Franklin Planner, here’s your answer. Mormons planned their day-by-day act creations because the gods planned theirs. Since they began with the end in mind, so should we.
Don Bradley
And here’s another less recognized implication of the Abraham account. Creation is communal. Collective action is the divine way. Acting in harmony with others is this part of the divine nature. To partake of that nature, we must go and do likewise.
Don Bradley
The role of harmony in the divine life is developed in the Book of Mormon. One of Christ’s first teachings to the Nephites is this. He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention. And he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one against another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another. But this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.
Don Bradley
Christ’s choice of words here is telling. He identifies Satan with the spirit of conflict, one against another. Satan, as described here, has antagonism, being against, as his very nature. A characterization which calls to mind what the term Satan means in the Hebrew, adversary.
Don Bradley
But Christ not only describes Satan’s nature, he also describes God’s. In tandem with identifying Satan as the author of antagonism, Christ discusses in detail the mutually supportive relationships that exist between the members of the Godhead. Each is described as directing supportive action toward the others. The Father and the Son testify of each other, the Holy Ghost testifies of them both, and the Father and the Son authorize and send forth the Holy Ghost.
Don Bradley
It’s in Christ’s juxtaposition of Satan and God here that we can distinguish their respective natures. Satan is an individual, God is a community. Satan is discord. God is harmony. Satan is against others. God is for them. Satan tears others down. God builds them up.
Don Bradley
Christ’s sermon reveals relationships of mutual support, bonds of friendship, to be an essential part of the divine nature of what makes God God. It portrays enmity as the essence of the demonic, what makes Satan Satan. Satan opens rifts, Christ closes them. Bringing at one moment between people and God, and between people and other people.
Don Bradley
Such at one moment in the Book of Moses, where Enoch’s people create Zion, an ideal community in which they live with one heart and shared love. Their harmony makes them fit companions for the gods, who lift them up to join their society. Joseph’s revelations prophesied that when we achieve such harmony, we too will join their society. As our earthly Zion ascends, the heavenly Zion will descend, meeting us halfway.
Don Bradley
To aid the building of Zion, Joseph established the School of the Prophets. This school fostered truth and friendship. The school’s charter declared that it was for the mutual benefit of its members, that all might be edified of all. The students made this covenant with one another, and this to me is one of the most beautiful passages in LDS Scripture. Art thou a brother or brethren? I salute you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in token of remembrance of the everlasting covenant. in which covenant I receive you into fellowship in a determination that is fixed, immovable, and unchangeable, to be your friend and brother through the grace of God and the bonds of love. to walk in all the command of God blameless in thanksgiving forever and ever. Amen.
Don Bradley
Mormonism is a religion of covenant, and the deifying everlasting covenant Mormons enter is one of mutual support. of lifting one another’s burdens, comforting those who need comfort, and being fundamentally for others. It is a covenant of friendship
Don Bradley
But why is friendship essential to the divine nature? Science may shed light on this. In Nonzero, The Logic of Human Destiny, science writer Robert Wright examines evolution using the idea of a zero sum game. This is a game in which there’s no fixed pie, so one player’s gain is another’s loss. Biological and cultural evolution are processes by which organisms enter into increasingly nonzero sum games. non-zero sum games. Those in which the pie can be either expanded by cooperation or diminished by conflict. More and more our fates are linked. We can play a positive sum game with our collective security, prosperity and environment, a game in which we all gain or a negative sum game in which we all lose, but we can no longer play a zero sum game, to act against others to our supposed benefit is increasingly to act against ourselves.
Don Bradley
Charting a satanic course of antagonism leads to our all sinking together. To progress as a civilization and even survive, we must be for one another. Joseph recognized this. In a sermon where he expounded the grand fundamental principle of friendship, he declared Mormonism is intended to revolutionize and civilize the world and cause men to become friends and brothers. These goals of promoting friendship and civiliz civilizing the world are not distinct. The survival and growth of civilization ultimately depend more on friendship and its attendant virtue civility than on science and technology. Our civilization will endure and progress only as we progressively embrace the grand fundamental principle on which it is based.
Don Bradley
Another scientific concept that illuminates the importance of friendship is complexity. Complexity, as defined by the pioneering psychologist Mihai Chiksent Mihai which if you just look at the name is almost impossible to pronounce. He’s the originator of the idea of flow. His definition is that complexity is integrated diversity, the working of varied functions or parts toward coordinated ends. A system whose members are uniform is simple. One whose members are varied but lack common purpose is chaotic. Complexity, like musical harmony, requires the orchestration of diverse elements into an integrated pattern. This holds true for complex technologies, organisms, and communities. Our transformation into a complex divine community in the image of the Godhead requires us to approach one another as friends and find or develop common goals.
Don Bradley
May we, as bearers of Mormonism’s grand fundamental principles, go forward with a determination that is fixed, immovable, and unchangeable to be each other’s friends and sisters or brothers. Relentlessly seeking to be for others, even those with whom we may now disagree, each doing our part to build the good will and synergy to transform the world into the divine. Thus will we become fit to join the community whose very nature is friendship, the community that is God.
Don Bradley
I guess there’s time for one question. Kathy.
Speaker 3
What would you think is the most important aspect of helping? people think along the same lines and become more in harmony with each other. What would you recommend as the most important fact?
Don Bradley
Is this talking about people within Mormondom or just people in general?
Speaker 3
Just stay in a community. Of mixed mixed faiths, just any community.
Don Bradley
Okay. Um I think that I it’s an excellent question. It’s one that I have not given enough thought to, but just off the top of my head, a couple of things that come to mind. are one, I think if people recognize that we’re not as separate as we like to think, that would be very useful. a great deal of research right now on social networks, not just like Facebook, but in real life networks. There’s a book called Connected that discusses it at length. And we are so influenced by each other and by our networks that it’s like almost scary. And consequently, we have a huge impact on others. So I think realizing that the myth of the rugged individualist is a myth. There’s no such thing. We are part of each other.
Don Bradley
And then also, I’m reading a book right now on positive psychology called Positivity. It talks about when people are happy they actually see more overlap between themselves and others, between their interests and others’ interests. And so even just promoting happiness itself has a great impact on People’s connection to others.