Friday, January 8, 2021

Some Useful Resources on the Lectures on Faith

  

These lectures on Faith which were published in the first edition and all subsequent editions up to the year 1921, were removed from the Doctrine and Covenants when that book was published in the double columns. The question is frequently asked why these lectures were taken out of the book. It was not because these lectures are unsound in principle, for they are just as valuable today as they were when presented before the school of the elders in Kirtland, under the guiding hand of the Prophet Joseph Smith. They are, in fact, too valuable in the study of the principle of faith to be lost. (Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation: Being a Course of Study for the Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums for the year 1949 Third Series [Salt Lake City: The Deseret News Press, 1946], 65)

 

As we are studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year (2021), I thought it might be a good idea to link to some useful resources on the Lectures on Faith:

 

The Lectures on Faith in Historical Perspective – a reproduction of all the lectures followed by essays on each lecture. See also this review by Kevin L. Barney

 

Noel B. Reynolds, The Case for Sidney Rigdon as Author of the Lectures on Faith

 

FairMormon, Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"

 

Richard S. Van Wagoner, Steven C. Walker, and Allen D. Roberts, The 'Lectures on Faith': A Case Study in Decanonization