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Four Books That Can Fortify Faith

Four Books That Can Fortify Faith

Last updated on: May 18, 2021 at 6:06 pm by Dan Peterson

Four Books That Can Fortify Faith 2021-05-18T18:06:21-06:00 Dan Peterson

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A view of Monet’s garden at Giverny, by Art Anderson (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph). Since I have no photographs of the Garden of Eden, this will have to do for now.

I’m pleased to report that, based on views and shares, the Interpreter Foundation’s theatrical film, Witnesses, is currently ranked Number Two nationally on iTunes Apple Trailers. (To put this in perspective, Above Suspicion, starring Emilia Clarke, comes in fifth, and The Misfits, starring Pierce Brosnan, ranks seventh.) It would be fun if we were able to reach the Number One slot. So, if you want to help, please watch the trailer and share it as widely as you can:

https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/witnesses/

Also, we’ve added about twenty-five more screening locations for the opening weekend of Witnesses, many (but not all) of them in Arizona. They’ll be announced shortly.

***

Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:

Book of Moses Essays #55: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): The Garden of Eden as a Model for the Temple in Israel and Old Babylon
(Moses 3:8–15)

***

To coin an absolutely original metaphor, it’s very easy to miss the forest for the trees. Do General Authorities receive living stipends? Are those stipends bigger than I think they ought to be? Did the Tabernacle Choir sing Donald Trump’s inauguration? Did President Nelson accept vaccination against the fake-news COVID-19 pandemic? Does the Church spend less on charitable activities as I personally define charity than I think it should? Has the Church not spoken out on socio-political issues I think it ought to address? Has the Church spoken out on socio-political issues I think it shouldn’t address? Is the Church being too cozy with Muslims? Has it been too accommodating to homosexuals?

Questions can be and have been raised about the former policy of priesthood exclusion and the origins of early Latter-day Saint plural marriage, about the Church’s involvement with California’s Proposition 8, about a vast multitude of claims made in Latter-day Saint scripture, and so forth.

There is an infinity of issues regarding the Restoration and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about which one can easily wax indignant — particularly if one is so inclined — and/or regarding which one can develop questions. (I have nothing against questions. I ask them all day. Asking questions, and seeking answers for them, is one of my principal activities.)

I believe that good answers, and sometimes excellent answers, are available for most if not all of these issues and questions.

But the fundamental issue, the essential question, is whether the foundational claims of the Restoration are true.

It’s with that subject in mind that I once again post an item that I wrote some time ago. Other books and materials could easily be added to this list, and probably should be added — books that would address these and scores of other specific topics. But these will do for starters:

I’m sometimes contacted by people who’re experiencing doubts about the claims of Mormonism or whose spouse or father or daughter has lost faith. I always ask what the specific issues might be, and I then try to address those or to locate colleagues or published resources that might help resolve their concerns.

I think that such efforts are extraordinarily important. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, for whom the Maxwell Institute was named, was fond of Austin Farrer’s praise of the great C. S. Lewis: “Though argument does not create conviction,” Farrer wrote, “lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.” (See Austin Farrer, “Grete Clerk,” in Jocelyn Gibb, comp., Light on C. S. Lewis [New York: Harcourt and Brace, 1965], 26.)

Farrer’s words long served as a kind of unofficial motto for several of those who were associated with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), which later became the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. I think that motto was entirely appropriate.

I don’t, however, like to play only defense. I don’t want to spend all my time putting out brushfires, playing catch-up, responding to crises. To use a very popular modern buzzword, I much prefer to be proactive. I want to build faith to such a strength that crises will be less common, to create conditions under which such brushfires will be much more difficult to kindle. Back to the sports metaphor: If the defense is always out on the field, it may be able to keep the opposing team from scoring. But if the offense doesn’t eventually come out to play, the prospects of victory will be very low. A single error by the defense, simple growing weariness, one moment of inattention or poor execution, will be enough to lose the game.

One way that I choose to be proactive is to suggest a basic packet of books that I would like as many Latter-day Saints to read as possible, a set that I especially wish faltering members to be familiar with. I offer a few nominations here:

Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981). I was once, I confess, sitting at the back of a rather unexciting church class, rereading Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, when an academic colleague of mine from BYU sat down beside me. “Next to the scriptures,” he commented, “that’s the most faith-promoting book I’ve ever read.”

I’m inclined to agree with him. Richard Anderson, who earned a law degree from Harvard before receiving a doctorate in ancient history from the University of California at Berkeley, is one of the finest scholars the church has ever produced. In this book, he subjects the Book of Mormon witnesses to meticulous examination. They emerge from the process as sane, lucid, honest, reliable men—a fact of perfectly enormous importance because of the way their testimony directly corroborates central claims of Joseph Smith and Mormonism.

Brother Anderson has written many other very important articles on the witnesses—and on other relevant topics—since his book was published. These are available online at the Maxwell Institute website, including but not limited to “Attempts to Redefine the Experience of the Eight Witnesses,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14/1 (2005): 18–31; “Personal Writings of the Book of Mormon Witnesses,” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997), 39–60; and “The Credibility of the Book of the Mormon Translators,” in Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds and Charles D. Tate (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1982), 213–37. But Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses remains, I think, the place to start on this vital subject.

John W. Welch, ed., Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2005). In this book, the prolific polymath John W. Welch has assembled an impressive collection of original documents relating to six foundational topics in Mormon history: (1) the first vision, (2) the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, (3) the restoration of the priesthood, (4) Joseph Smith’s visionary experiences generally, (5) the restoration of temple keys, and (6) succession in the presidency (specifically the “transfiguration” of Brigham Young in Nauvoo).

Mark McConkie, ed., Remembering Joseph: Personal Recollections of Those Who Knew the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003). Mark McConkie, a professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, has created a vast treasury in this book and in the accompanying bonus CD of intimate views of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The sheer volume of material is deeply impressive. (The CD includes 2,000 pages of primary-source testimonials. The book alone includes statements from many scores of Joseph Smith’s contemporaries.) Most of the accounts included—from Joseph’s family, friends, and acquaintances, and even from his enemies—have never been published before or are, practically speaking, inaccessible to ordinary people. But they’re very much worth the time. Joseph Smith, as described by those who knew him, comes across as an honest, good, and sincere man. And once again, because of the nature of his claims, that’s something very important to know and understand.

Grant Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). This is a somewhat more difficult book than the others I’ve recommended above, but, in my opinion, it’s a book that will abundantly reward the effort invested in it.

Grant Hardy, who holds an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in classical Greek and a PhD from Yale University in Chinese history, has published impressively on the history of historical writing from his perch at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where he’s served as the chairman of the History Department.

In Understanding the Book of Mormon, he turns his highly trained eye on the historical writings of Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni, treating them as distinct personalities with very different approaches to their material. Although he himself is an active and committed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the purposes of this study he “brackets” the question of whether or not they were real individuals. Nevertheless, the extraordinarily fruitful results of his study demonstrate that the writings of Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni are indeed quite distinct—and by far the most reasonable explanation for this, in my opinion, is that they represent three real, historically different men.

I believe that serious and fair-minded engagement with the four books I’ve recommended is virtually certain to strengthen faith in readers who’re even slightly open to the possibility that Mormonism is true. Mark McConkie’s compilation will build confidence in the character of Joseph Smith. Richard Anderson’s book and John Welch’s anthology provide powerful corroboration of Joseph’s claims to revelation. Grant Hardy’s book demonstrates, at least in one area, how very complex, rich, and internally consistent the Book of Mormon is.

When people contact me with doubts and problems, I don’t want merely to try to allay their concerns. I want to build their faith so that their areas of uncertainty will shrink relative to their areas of confidence. These books—and, of course, there are others—are well suited to do just that.

Posted from Williamsburg, Virginia

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