ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the holy spirit almost as an ‘absence’ from the formal plan of salvation whilst much evident in Mormon spirituality, especially as the means of negotiating spiritual experience and relating Jesus and his divine father in a way more resonant of Trinitarian theology. Charismatic Christians, for example, favour the biblical day of Pentecost, while sacramental Christians invoke the baptism of Jesus as the son who hears the Father’s heavenly voice while a dove symbolically descends ‘as’ holy spirit. The church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints’ history, just under 200 years of it, offers a clear example of how religious experience, including ritual practice and doctrinal formulation, takes time to integrate. What is obvious is that Jesus and the father hold a primacy of theological focus that does not include the holy ghost as in the theological grammar of traditional Trinitarian orthodoxies.
