What is the role of various doctrinal books, like Pike’s Morals and Dogma?
(Last edited: Sunday, 20 December 2020, 2:40 PM)
Answer:
Actually, there are no “doctrinal” books in Freemasonry. Freemasonry
is a society dedicated to free thinking and freedom of all kinds. No
Mason has the right to dictate to another what he shall or shall not
believe regarding his religion, his politics, or even his interpretation of the Masonic symbols.
There
are a number of conventional interpretations of the symbols of
Freemasonry, some of which are given in the lectures of the degrees, but
no Mason is required to accept any or all of them; he is free to
explore the world of thought and make up his own mind.
Anti-Masons
are fond of combing through Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma to find
various passages that somehow “expose” the “secrets” of Freemasonry’s
dangerous beliefs. They conveniently ignore a number of facts:
The
preface of Morals and Dogma makes it clear that Pike’s work is an
unannotated anthology, containing a portion of his own writing and also
the works of many philosophers and theologians dating back to
antiquity. Much of the book is derived from sources far removed from
Freemasonry in time.
The preface also makes clear that no one is required to believe or accept any of the contents as truth. No “doctrinal” book would announce that every reader is “free to dissent” from any of its contents.
Morals
and Dogma was first of all written for those who have received the
degrees of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the form developed and edited
by Albert Pike (the “Pike recension”). For someone to attempt to
interpret the contents without the knowledge of the degrees is like
trying to understand a book on quantum physics without having mastered
the basics of dynamics and statics.
Morals and Dogma was written
under the authority of the Supreme Council, 33rd Degree, for the
Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of
Freemasonry in the USA. The SJ of the USA, AASR, encompasses only a
minority of Masons in the US and an even smaller proportion worldwide.
Outside of the SJ of the US, Albert Pike is of much less influence than
many non-Masons (and certainly anti-Masons) suppose. (The same is true
of later works which also elucidate the degrees of the SJ of the US,
such as Clausen’s Commentaries and Hutchens’ A Bridge to Light.)
Similarly,
anti-Masons like to quote (out of context, quite often) Manly Hall (who
wrote many of his books before becoming a Freemason), Coil’s Masonic
Encyclopedia, Albert Mackey, and others. Many of these men did their
writing a century or more ago and use an idiom not well understood by
those living today who are not familiar with such writing styles. These
books are useful reference sources for those who seek to improve their
knowledge of Masonry and who wish to sharpen their wits against the
whetstone of great thinkers, but they are not doctrine.
