One of the problems in
interpreting Joseph Smith centers around the meaning of spirit. On the
one hand, he says that spirit is material. If we assume that everything is
either body or spirit, and both are material, then it might be concluded that
his doctrine is Materialism. But in his phrase “the intelligence of the spirit,”
something very different from material seems to be meant, and the traditional
dualism reappears. It is not Body-Mind, or Body-Spirit, but Body-Intelligence
that names the dualism. Yet because custom in English to distinguish the
non-material from the material by applying to the first the word “spirit” in
contradistinction from “matter.” Joseph Smith uses “spirit,” for which he had
no other name, nor has such a name evolved since. For this uncreated core or
essence of personality, the designation “primordial Self” is proposed for the
purpose of the study. The difficulty for him and for us arises from the utter
uniqueness of the concept itself. (Benjamin F. Cummings, III, The Eternal
Individual Self [Salt Lake City: Utah Printing Co., 1968], 36)
