atonement

Jacob Baker is a scholar of philosophy of religion and theology who completed his doctoral studies at Claremont Graduate University’s School of Religion. His dissertation explored the inherent unthinkability of the problem of evil in philosophy and theology, arguing that this unthinkability is central to its status as a problem. Baker’s graduate work spans an impressive range of philosophical and theological traditions. He studied continental philosophy under Ingolf Dalferth, examining figures such as Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Tillich. His paper Heidegger and Wittgenstein: Worldliness and Surveyable Representation in the Architecture of the Ordinary argued that both philosophers share a fundamental orientation toward allowing phenomena to show themselves without philosophical interference. His work on Nietzsche explored how the philosopher’s critique of truth was ultimately in service of affirming and enhancing life itself. In phenomenology, Baker engaged deeply with Jean-Luc Marion’s work, arguing that love is the privileged theme of phenomenology and that Marion’s phenomenology of givenness can reveal how love enables the other to give herself as herself in particularity and unsubstitutability. His paper on Badiou and Zizek’s readings of St. Paul explored how these atheist philosophers converge on understanding Pauline love as work, labor, and struggle—far removed from sentimental notions. Baker has contributed significantly to Mormon intellectual discourse. His article The Grandest Principle of the Gospel: Christian Nihilism, Sanctified Activism, and Eternal Progression appeared in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Vol. 41, No. 3, 2008), examining how early twentieth-century Mormon intellectuals developed eternal progression as an existential response to what they perceived as the nihilistic stasis of traditional Christian heaven. In Element (Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2008), his essay The Shadow of the Cathedral argued that “open system” approaches to systematic theology can accommodate Mormon continuing revelation. His work on Joseph Smith, written under Richard L. Bushman, explored the connection between Smith’s personal experiences with friendship and his developing theology of sealing, arguing that the “welding link” concept emerged from Smith’s vision of uniting all humanity across time through bonds of love. Baker also examined whether Mormon theology can be meaningfully articulated within panentheistic discourse, suggesting that “pansyntheism”—meaning “God with us” rather than “God in us”—better accommodates Mormon emphases on divine personhood and the distinct identities of God and humans. In process theology and medieval theology, Baker examined how panentheism provides a framework capable of unifying disparate experiences—religious and secular, scientific and theological—into a coherent whole. His work on medieval atonement theory argued against contemporary calls to subordinate atonement to incarnation, demonstrating through Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, and Bonaventure that these doctrines are mutually interdependent. During his presentation at the MTAConf 2016, he offered philosophical challenges to transhumanist thought through the lens of cosmic pessimism. His engagement with transhumanist literature reflects his broader interest in how philosophy and theology address questions of human potential, meaning, and transcendence.

Joseph Fielding Smith (1838–1918) was the 6th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving from 1901 until his death. He was the son of Hyrum Smith and nephew of Joseph Smith. Born in Far West, Missouri, Joseph F. Smith experienced the trials of early Church history firsthand. As a young child, he witnessed the aftermath of the Carthage martyrdom. At age nine, he drove an ox team across the plains to Utah with his widowed mother. At fifteen, he was called on a mission to Hawaii, where he had a transformative vision of the afterlife. He taught that Jesus’s work was not finished with his death and resurrection but continues until all who can be saved are redeemed. This expansive vision of salvation includes work for the dead and the promise that the faithful become saviors on Mount Zion alongside Christ.

Joseph Smith Jr. (1805–1844) was the founding prophet of the Latter Day Saint movement, a religious visionary, translator, civic leader, and martyr whose theological imagination radically reshaped American Christianity. Born in Sharon, Vermont, and raised in the burned-over district of upstate New York, he reported a series of visions beginning in 1820 that culminated in the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830 and the organization of the Church of Christ that same year. Over the next fourteen years, he led his followers from New York to Ohio, Missouri, and finally Illinois, founding the city of Nauvoo before being killed by a mob at Carthage Jail in June 1844. Smith’s contributions extend well beyond institutional founding. He produced an expansive body of revelatory texts—including the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price —revised the King James Bible, introduced temple liturgy and proxy ordinances for the dead, and articulated a distinctive theology of embodied, progressing deity. He served as mayor of Nauvoo, lieutenant general of its militia, and a candidate for President of the United States in 1844, advocating religious liberty, the abolition of slavery, and prison reform. His public sermons, especially the King Follett discourse, set forth a cosmology in which God was once as humanity is now and humans may, through grace and growth, become as God is. Smith’s legacy resonates deeply with themes of human potential, intelligence, friendship, and divine becoming. He taught that “the first principles of man are self-existent with God,” that intelligences advance from grace to grace and from one small capacity to a great one, and that eternal life consists in learning to be Gods—language that anticipates a participatory and developmental account of theosis. He welcomed the inventiveness of the Gentiles as a means of building Zion, embraced truth from any source, and treated friendship as a principle designed to “revolutionize and civilize the world.” His insistence that revelation is ongoing, that prophecy belongs to all who hold the testimony of Jesus, and that happiness is the object and design of existence offers a generous foundation for those who seek to integrate faith, science, and technology in the work of human flourishing and exaltation.

Scott Howe is a senior systems engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he is a member of the Constellation Architecture Team for the Lunar Outpost program. He brings a unique blend of architectural and engineering expertise to his work, having previously practiced as a registered architect in both California and Oregon. He spent five years with BWLC Architects in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and ten years with Kajima Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. In addition to his professional work, Howe has a strong academic background. He holds degrees from the University of Utah, the University of Michigan, and the University of Hong Kong. He has also served as an assistant professor at the University of Oregon for three years and at Hong Kong University for six years. Howe’s interests extend beyond the purely technical. At the MTA conference, he presented his initial ideas on quantifying morality, seeking to objectify moral decision-making. This project explores the intersection of engineering principles, theology, and the potential for self-assembling structures, using robotics, to inform an understanding of objective value and even the concept of the atonement. This reflects Howe’s personal belief that his religious views are intertwined with his professional and intellectual pursuits, forming a unified worldview.

Tad Richards Callister (1945-2025) was a General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who served in the Presidency of the Seventy from 2008 to 2014 and as Sunday School General President from 2014 to 2019. A graduate of Brigham Young University and UCLA Law School, Callister practiced law before his full-time church service. He has written and spoken extensively on the Atonement and the divine potential of humanity. His BYU Education Week address “Our Identity and Our Destiny” explored the Latter-day Saint understanding of human beings as literal children of God with divine potential, connecting this doctrine to questions of purpose and meaning.