The Hypothetical “Missionary Library”

41 comments for “The Hypothetical “Missionary Library””

1. Letters to a Young Mormon, by Adam Miller, and The God Who Weeps by Terryl Givens. Great, relevant, and fresh perspectives and ways to express concepts that Missionaries will be needing to address over and over again.

2. Edward Kimball’s biography of his father, if only for the chapter on the Revelation on the Priesthood.

3. Wish your list could be a syllabus for a two- or three-year study schedule for a Gospel Doctrine class. I would attend as opposed to volunteering for the nursery. 40+ years ago missionaries seemed to read Mormon Doctrine, Spiritual Roots to Human Relationships (Covey), Prophecy, Key to the Future, and the Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt. Our mission prez had everyone read How to win Friends and Influence People. One zone leader had everyone read Psycho-Cybernetics. Loren Dunn came for a visit and almost had a stroke. We were then under commandment to stick to the BOM.

4. You could just assign Edward Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” BYU Studies 47:2 (2008) instead of the entire biography.

   Matthew Bowman’s ‘The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith’ (Random House, 2012) would be an excellent single source for Church history.

   For understanding the Great Apostasy, ‘Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy’, eds. Miranda Wilcox, John D. Young (Oxford University Press, 2014).

   ‘Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844’, ed. John W. Welch (Deseret Book and BYU Press, 2005) is a really good resource.

5. Last night two of our local missionaries attended Institute because they had an investigator there. We are doing “Teachings of the Living Prophets,” and for this week one of the students wanted to know what modern prophets have said about Heavenly Mother. So for class we read Paulsen and Pulido’s article in BYU Studies “A Mother There.” The article is fabulous as was the discussion. I’m not sure about adding it to the list, but if it could be a “downloadable option”….that might be useful for some.

6. I considered Bowman and Wilcox et. al, but I confess to not having read either of them yet. I’ve only started on Letters to a Young Mormon. I don’t think I’ll get to Psycho-Cybernetics. That seems like the kind of thing GAs rightfully reactant against. I suppose the trick is to not overreact.

7. Great idea, Ben, although everyone will have different ideas about the list. But a good non-KJV study bible is a real necessity as well as a good one-volume LDS history (Story of the Latter-day Saints). How Wide the Divide would be great. How about Stephen E. Robinson’s books, Believing Christ and Following Christ?

   The summer before I left I read How to Win Friends and Influence People and also Nibley’s An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Both very helpful. When serving in Geneva, Switzerland I hit the gold mine in the ward library: a bunch of Nibley books, including Since Cumorah and The World and the Prophets.

8. While Wilcox et. al has some fantastic essays, if one was simply trying to provide a more nuanced approach to the Apostasy and the Middle Ages, the following articles would probably suffice:

   Eric R. Dursteler, “Inheriting the “Great Apostasy”: The Evolution of Latter-day Saint Views on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance”: http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1100&index=4

   He more-or-less covers the same ground in the more recent volume.

   Givens’ essay is available at his site. It’s entitled “‘We Have Only the Old Thing’: Rethinking Mormon Restoration”: http://terrylgivens.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Old_Thing.pdf

9. It wasn’t necessarily approved, but one of my companions had bought the entire 7 volume History of the Church as edited by BH Roberts from the Church website. Yes I know now that it’s not an entirely trustworthy source, but I read through nearly all seven volumes in the four and a half months we were companions. It was definitely a fascinating read. Also outside of the official Missionary Library, I know many missionaries in my mission would buy Institute manuals off the church website and use them as study guides.

10. Oh, and per Dave’s comment above – I read/listened to Robinson’s Believing Christ during one of the most trying portions of my mission. Someone had left behind the book on CD and my companion and I would listen to it while we were driving. It caused a major paradigm shift for me and really improved my understanding of my relationship with the Savior.

11. Shawn, if you’d like a comprehensive collection of what modern prophets have said about Heavenly Mother, see the link below. It’s a collection of all references to her in Church magazines and curriculum from 1971 to 2002. It needs to be updated, but this is very telling about how much she really is mentioned:
    http://nathanrichardson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Nathan-Richardson-Heavenly-Mother-references.pdf

12. Good list. I remember the Great Apostasy, Mormon Doctrine, the Miracle of Forgiveness, and Doctrines of Salvation were quite popular when I went on my mission. I remember a lot of anti-evolution attitudes. I used to be anti-evolution myself. I had to unlearn a lot of beliefs that I adopted on my mission.

13. I might add Grant Hardy to the list.

14. Good list, I’d also put in Madsen’s Eternal Man, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, In the Footsteps of Lehi, Early Christians in Disarray, Mike Ash on Shaken Faith Syndrome….

    Actually, what I would really wish upon missionaries is access and encouragement for an hour a day of free exploration of Jeff Lindsay’s LDS FAQ and the FAIRMormon site, along with the Maxwell Institute and BYU Studies sites.

15. I’m currently ward mission leader, and I’ve printed off copies of all the new historical articles from LDS.org’s Gospel Topics site and given them to the full-time missionaries so that they can be informed about those issues. They don’t cover as much as the books you propose, but I figure the articles give them a reasonable start, with the added benefits of being from an official source and not costing any money. I also print them off copies of any important missionary items in the news since they are often the last ones to hear about them (they had not known they were going to get iPads until I handed them the 1-month old MormonNewsroom article announcing that missionaries will get iPads!).

    I’m all in favor of beefing up the missionary library with some of the books on your list, but I think there’s also something to be said for limiting what missionaries have available. I read a lot of Church history and such before my mission, but on my mission I was forced to spend a lot more time in the scriptures and on fundamental principles, which in the long run was really good for me.

16. I like some of the ideas–stocking apartments with the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, encouraging the use of a study Bible, distributing the new Gospel Topics articles from LDS.org. But not every missionary is Ben S. or Kevin Barney. Putting that list of books in front of the average missionary would be as daunting to them as tracting all day. Even now, I’ve read less than half of them and as a missionary, I would have struggled mightily with RSR or Mormonism in Transition (I mean staying awake, not dealing with the content).

17. Sam, it is difficult for me to express how frustrated I am with this subject. First, I’m disappointed that there is a book list to begin with. This type of activity makes missionaries look like brainwashed members of a cult. Second, that the list is so short and only has “Mormon” subjects is equally depressing.

    Apostle Widtsoe constantly emphasized life-long learning. And that life-long learning needs to continue while serving as a missionary. If you are obsessed with religion 24/7, you lose your perspective. Some may say that is good and the nature of a mission. I don’t think it is. We need to encourage missionaries to read, and not just the scriptures.

    For me, including “How Wide the Divide” on your list is a travesty.

18. Encyclopedia of Mormonism would be a great resource–not necessarily for reading cover-to-cover, but for research on specific topics. Many companionship arguments could be resolved by going to a source like that, especially if it was on an officially-approved list…

19. You’ve got some of the edgier bios, but I think even the tame ones are worth reading. I particularly enjoyed Pres. Eyring’s and Elder Perry’s.

    I’d like to see more about women’s history/experience/theology on your list. Others will be able to recommend better stuff than I, but _Daughters in My Kingdom_ is better than nothing and _Women of Covenant_ is better than that. I wish I had even better titles to recommend, but . . .

    I think one problem with a limited list is that it sorta ends up implying that it is canonical (“everyone should read these”). I think a huge list that no one could possibly cover–maybe including everything in BYU Studies and The Religious Educator and Journal of Book of Mormon Studies and the BYU Women’s Conference volumes, for example–might help convey that this isn’t a “nihil obstat” reading list.

    Michael Austin’s _Job_ book should be on the list no matter what.

20. Good thoughts, all.

    Julie and Kevin, I’m going for broad and introductory, so I’d avoid too narrow/technical on the short list (but include them in a “further readings” bibliography.) I’d also include in the introduction/caveats explanation of why these books, to avoid any kind of nihil obstat problems.

    Shamefully, I thought about “women’s history/experience/theology” but couldn’t come up with anything other than Neylan McBaine’s new book. I haven’t read it, though (which rules things out of my list), and don’t know how much it deals with history and background, as opposed to current structures, culture, and suggestions. The latter would be useful, but ideally I could find a single volume that would include a good bit of the former as well.

    Rogerdhansen- “This type of activity makes missionaries look like brainwashed members of a cult. ” Frankly, on the list of things that make us look cultish, this does not make the top 10. I think missionaries at minimum need some general guidelines, or it would be Harry Potter and (if we’re lucky) the Work and the Glory all the time.

21. Here’s my (way too expansive) list (in no particular order):

    The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion – McMurrin
    Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction – Bushman
    Eternal Man – Madsen
    The God Who Weeps – Givens & Givens
    Fire On The Horizon – Ostler
    Mormons And The Bible – Barlow
    Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide – Hardy
    Joseph Smith: A Rough Stone Rolling – Bushman
    By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion – Givens

    And for toilet reading:
    The Problem of Theism And The Love of God – Ostler
    Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes – Charles Hartshorne

22. At least for the Bible Belt where I served, I’d add the following

    In between RSR and Mormonism in Transition you really need something. Maybe BY: American Moses, which has overlap with RSR, but then goes on to a lot more. And missionaries are continually pummeled by anti-BY stuff.
    Massacre at Mountain Meadows – same thing, this is incident is a favorite of the anti-crowd. But maybe there’s a better source for the mission, a condensed article?
    Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction and The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction. Both of these really are great, short introductions that tackle the kinds of conversations missionaries are having everyday, and I think these are both simple and easy to grasp but have the potential to seriously increase missionary’s ability to speak to more educated audiences.
    Eyring’s Reflections of a Scientist or something along these lines. People still make a great deal of the conflict between science and religion, and missionaries often have no idea where we stand or how we ought to react, and consequently they too often default to lousy evangelical views.

    And I’ll second Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon and Eternal Man (I read the latter on my mission and passed it on to other missionaries as well). And the suggestion for the LDS.org articles is a great one.

    As to Julie’s note, I think the entire church is starving for a faithful “women’s empowerment” type book, but it would have to walk the very difficult line of being faithful, uplifting and inspiring concerning the nature of women in the church while also candid about current difficulties and the need for change. The response to Sharon Eubank’s FAIR talk is telling.

    Here’s another suggestion: give them like 3-5 history books (missionaries really do need these, as do the church more generally) and the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, but have all other resources in the apartment libraries be scripture focused, and teach them how to use these resources. I’d give the the JPS Study Bible (OT) together with Harper’s Study Bible, Faulconer’s book which you recommend and other things of that sort. Really emphasize to the missionaries that not only is this a time where they can learn what all’s actually in the scriptures (i.e., do what they should’ve done for the last four years in seminary but which, alas, they didn’t do), but also much more about what the scriptures are and how to effectively study them. Then make your scripture study plan much more robust than what you describe above – not merely reading, and with requirements that continue throughout no matter what else they study. Beyond that, you might have an expansive bibliography rather than a merely introductory one.

23. Ben, Maybe limit books to non-fiction. But that would exclude important religious tomes like “L’Etranger,” “Les Miserable,” and “Moby Dick.” Maybe limiting reading to non-fiction and classical literature might work.

    While the missionary reading list may not make your top 10 reasons why Mormonism looks like a cult, it certainly helps reinforce the stereotype. And is mind numbing to the missionaries who take it seriously.

24. I have read every one of the suggested books and I am a high school history teacher by profession. You need to remember that many missionaries are barely high school grads. Your list is way off the mark the reading these young people need and can be expected to consume.

25. Ben, I hate to criticize, but I think you have missed a major reason for why the list of books available to missionaries is so short: translation.

    There is a significant proportion of missionaries who don’t read English, as I think most of us know. In addition, missionaries serving in non-English-speaking missions are encouraged to study the mission language, and reading Church materials in those languages helps.

    Unfortunately, not one of the works on your list has been translated into ANY other language.

    IMO, this is a major stumbling block for the development of Mormonism in other languages.

26. That may well be a factor, Kent. But I’d argue the other direction.
    I’m not intending these titles for general distribution, but for missionaries. Nearly every non-English missionary is learning some English, or trying to. What better way than to read the literature in English?
    I’d also note, the only missionary I’ve had ask me for books (he’s working on #3 and 4 right now) is Peruvian, and speaks with a definite accent.

    I’d love to get these translated, but I don’t see lack of translation as sufficient reason to not make them available.

27. Ben, Old Man’s comment is right on the mark. Pare your list down to no more than five books that are accessible to high school graduates and where most or all stakeholders will support giving them semi-canonical status. A few of the biographies you suggest might fit that description, and I like the idea of adding a study Bible, and a copy of the EOM for each apartment. For some areas that you’d like to cover, there may not be anything published right now that would work.

28. Hum… Things that make us look like a cult? Censoring reading material has got to be in the top 10. How many churches limit their youths literature to the scriptures plus four other books? Sadly, an approved list seams necessary. It turns out when someone is forced to abandon all interests outside of religion ‘deep doctrine’ (i.e. the weird things church leaders say) becomes really fascinating. The lists most important purpose may be to protect missionaries from the church’s own past. I’m not sure the books mentioned here fit the bill.

29. This post really has me thinking… We really need shorter works that deal with LDS history and theology geared towards a less-academic young adult (which is where a majority of our adults are at IMHO). Our more academic faithful kids can be directed to most of these works as they mature. Do we have writers out there who can write LDS history that both challenges and edifies? Can we teach more nuanced history and theology without bludgeoning minds and testimonies?

    The need and market is there, as evidenced by the success of Gerald Lund’s historical fiction (which I personally did not like). I think people, especially young people, want to know, but there are put off by scholarly works, or they lack the skills and depth to cope with such works. Can someone bridge the gap between Lund and Bushman? Between Seminary and Givens/Ostler?

    We often discuss how the internet has aimed the most difficult aspects of our history and doctrine directly at our most vulnerable. But educated authors have done little to help those young people navigate that information.

    Thanks for the thought-provoking post and comments.

30. Old Man: Adam Miller’s _Letters to a Young Mormon_ totally fits your bill.

31. A simplistic response, but one I feel. “If it is beyond their reach, let them reach for it.”

32. Thanks Julie, I will take a look at it.

    Ben, I am not opposed to reaching. But I do believe that we need to assist those unable to make the gap in one leap, especially in the mission field.

33. Lots of these books are great, but I think part of the wisdom in the restrictive list is based on a general lack of scriptural familiarity for new missionaries (relatively speaking). I regret wasting time reading doctrines of salvation on my mission when I could have been reading the OT, NT, BoM, D&C, or PoGP more.

34. Someone asked for a condensed Mountain Meadows Massacre article. Richard Turley wrote one for the Ensign in the Sept. 2007 issue. I thought it was pretty good: https://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/09/the-mountain-meadows-massacre?lang=eng

    I remember missionaries asking me a few years ago for a good source. I told them about the (then) new book, but that the author had written an overview in the Ensign. I printed it out for them.

35. I think the young elders and sisters should spend most of their time learning the scriptures. I agree with a limited set of books, though I do not really care for the set they currently have. Instead, I would recommend a reading list of good articles that give some depth to concepts they will need to know, rather than long history books on Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, etc. Long books would become a distraction to them seeking to build a spiritual testimony. Miller’s book is small enough and potent enough (and geared towards young Mormons) that I would include it. Rough Stone Rolling is awesome, but too cumbersome and distracting for most missionaries. Encyclopedia of Mormonism may offer them the article length information they need on many issues, but is outdated on many topics.
    A good list of 20 page articles that could be updated easily may be a better solution to helping the missionaries better prepare.

36. I’m a Miltonist, so if I were a mission president I’d tell my missionaries to read widely and promiscuously. Not for entertainment, but to better understand the world around them. Assuming this is an option, I’d tell them to get a library card. I certainly did as a missionary, and I put it to good use, working through Kierkegaard, Danish poetry, and all sorts of other stuff in Danish and in English. I also read LDS books that were lying about, and of course the scriptures. Putting all of this stuff in a grand mash helped make my mission a very formative experience. I feel like the lit helped me work through a lot of junk from my teenage years, such that I emerged somewhat more mature at the end. I’d encourage the exercise of intellectual/spiritual exploration more than I’d recommend any particular list.

37. Eighteen year olds with very limited reading experience (many get high school diplomas without having read a single book); a worldwide book list I think is problematic. Even Jesus the Christ by Talmage is a distraction (and horribly dated, verbose, and redundant). I would have my missionaries stick to the scriptures, with a side policy that if they wanted to study something they could get whatever they needed as approved by an AP or Mission President.

38. Where did you people find all this time for reading on your missions? I’m as big a book addict as the next gal, but I was always either working or falling into bed, dog-tired.

39. SBA- In the morning, I read my Book of Mormon and NT. Mealtimes, evenings, p-day, and busses with no one else one them found me reading other books.

    John- While it’s overwhelmingly important to study scripture as our primary source, in order to really understand it, at some point one must study something external to it. But as a MP, I’d probably be fairly structured, since I’d want my missionaries to spend most of their time in “quality” material.

40. Also, check out this follow-up post by Steven Fleming at JI, “What did you read on your mission?”
    http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/what-did-you-read-on-your-mission/

41. I read Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith on my mission. Not only did this strengthen my calling of him as a prophet, my understanding of church doctrine and temple ordinances grew substantially. It was a real eye opener for me.

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