Monthly Archives: October 2019

New Release: B. H. Roberts’ “Seventy’s Course in Theology” (5 vols.)

Back in the days when there were many more Seventies spread throughout the Church (146 quorums in 1904!), B. H. Roberts of History of the Church fame wrote five years of manuals for quorum meetings, collectively the Seventy’s Course in Theology. First published 1907-1912, they are now available on Project Gutenberg for your reading pleasure.

The manuals are broken out into lessons, most beginning with an outline and references, followed by a series of notes. Many of the notes are quotations from other commentators or Roberts’ other work.

It seems clear that Roberts wanted to radically improve his typical student’s intellectual stature, and that’s inspiring to see in action. In one lesson, he identifies the works of thirteen different philosophers as references, and since those works may “only be available to those within reach of reference libraries,” he also recommends eight “one-volume works that would be of great service in studying this lesson.” In several locations he comments of his lesson notes that “They make difficult reading, but—well, master them.”

Each year has an overarching topic, as follows:

Year 1 – Outline History of the Seventy and a Survey of the Books of Holy Scripture

Year 2 – Outline History of the Dispensations of the Gospel

Year 3 – The Doctrine of Deity

Year 4 – The Atonement

Year 5 – Divine Immanence and the Holy Ghost

I’d suggest starting with the topic that is the most interesting to you rather than reading in sequence, as the different years don’t seem particularly cumulative. Year 3 seems to have some overlap with Mormon Doctrine of Deity.

Thanks to Renah Holmes for proofing two volumes, and BYU Transcribe as coordinated by Rachel Helps for proofing the other three!

New Release: George Q. Cannon’s “The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet”

This biography (e-book link), originally published 1888, was written by First Presidency member and publisher George Q. Cannon, who finished it while imprisoned for polygamy. Best I can figure, from a church perspective this would have been the key biography of Joseph Smith for at least a decade after its publication. The competition might include Edward Tullidge’s Life of Joseph the Prophet or the early versions of History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother, but of course Tullidge (a member of the Reorganized Church) hardly would have carried the same implicit church endorsement as Cannon, and Brigham Young was not a fan of the History. Cannon knew Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, and as he served in the First Presidency with Brigham Young, John Taylor, etc. he obviously had access to many other contemporaries with firsthand recollections.

Our e-book is based on the 1907 edition, which originally ran to just over 500 pages. Thanks to David Cramer and Katie Liston for the proofreading.

This is my first book release post in a long time, but there should be about a dozen more like it by the end of the year if I can hold to my schedule–I’m working hard to clear my book post-processing backlog and much of it has already turned into a “needs release post” backlog. My personal life is a lot more conducive to progress now that I’m done with my MBA program and so forth.