Review
Sales of this book have been brisk, as interest is very high in this popular and respected twentieth-century LDS apostle, scientist, theologian, and writer. Many of Talmage's works are considered classics in the Church today, such as Jesus the Christ, The Articles of Faith, and The House of the Lord. What is not widely known is that these books and the circumstances surrounding them were not without some controversy. The editor provides fascinating facts about Talmage and his writings and presents several less widely known, but significant, works, and offers, in addition to the text, diary entries relating to manuscripts, material omitted from later editions (worth the price of the book alone), and other supplementary material. Some of the book's entries include "Science and Religion," "The Effects of Narcotics upon the System" (experience firsthand), "The Theory of Evolution," "Items on Polygamy Omitted from the Published Book," and "Calling and Ordination to the Apostleship." --Benchmark Book News
From the Inside Flap
Latter-day Saints were stunned in 1911 to learn that the interior of the Salt Lake temple had been secretly photographed and that perpetrators where demanding a $100,000 ransom for the photos. As church leaders considered their options, Former University of Utah president James E. Talmage proposed that the First Presidency commission its own photos, which they did, authorizing Talmage to write his landmark House of the Lord. As the manuscript and photos were being readied for press, they appointed the forty-nine-year-old educator to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
This was not the first time that Talmage had been of service to his church. As a geology professor he was consulted about underground ventilation options for the Salt Lake Tabernacle and about the scientific evidence for organic evolution, which he cautiously endorsed. At the church president’s request, Talmage delivered a series of lectures on church theology which formed the basis tor his later influential books.
Not that Talmage was unaccustomed to controversy. When his book, The Articles of Faith, first appeared he was accused of "apostasy" and narrowly escaped church sanction. When he read from the advance text of Jesus the Christ in general conference, some leaders objected and had offending paragraphs excised from the published conference proceedings.
Scholars have noted that much of Talmage’s work reflects the thinking of his day—particularly in his reliance on Farrar’s Life of Christ and in his portrayal of a so-called observes, Talmage also "supplemented the biblical narrative with modern revelation" in producing "a source of information and inspiration to church members worldwide."
The Essential James E. Talmage includes some of the apostle’s lesser-known works and, for his more popular writings, representative diary entries relative to manuscripts, material omitted from later editions, and other supplementary material.
