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An Introduction to Mormonism (Introduction to Religion)

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This is a wonderful book if you are into understanding the more difficult basics of LDS doctrine. Because of its complicated interprative structure, I have a hard time calling it an introduction. He writes as a University Professor and it shows. Certainly it is the best book on the subject written by a non-Mormon, without clinging to isoteria and other people's misconceptions that usually hurt even the best books on the subject. Even the most celebrated non-mormon authority Jan Shipps can be too sceptical and careless rather than understanding. This author, however, stays mostly with the authoritative works first, and the others second when needing clarification.

The touchtone of any treatment of Mormonism is how they approach the LDS Temple. I was very surprised and excited that the author rejected sensationalism and expose. He actually talked about the meaning behind the Temple and other related subjects. It is a far cry better than any other similar studies outside the LDS Church. I would recommend reading "By the Hand of Mormon" by Terry L. Givens with this book. Both are a compliment to each other.

I would like to mention what I see as a weaknesses in his study. One of the reasons I recommended Givens is that Davies misunderstands the Book of Mormon. Perhaps that is going too far as he does have a pretty good sense of its general message. Rather, Davies doesn't understand the deeper teachings within the Book of Mormon, much less the anticipatory sections that touch on things that will show up later in the Doctrine and Covenants. He reads the Book of Mormon, sadly much like LDS members themselves, from a purely surface reading. That causes him to miss the many subtle and complicated issues it brings up, and diludes the connections between it and later LDS Scripture. For instance, Davies doesn't sense the deeply ritualistic and priesthood oriented teachings of the Book of Mormon that continually shows up. Examples would be talking about the importance of mysteries, discussions on Melchezidek, mentioning of Priests and Teachers and Twelve Disciples, setting up Churches. Most importantly he misses the discussion of "turning the hearts of the children to the parents" in Third Nephi that Davies makes a big connection with ritual in other chapters of his study. There are other minor quibles, but they are far less worrisome than what other authors even of the same calibur usually have.

Douglas J. Davies is Professor in the Study of religion at the University of Durham, and the author of books such as Joseph Smith, Jesus, and Satanic Opposition, Mormon Identities in Transition (Cassell Religious Studies), and The Mormon Culture of Salvation: Force, Grace and Glory.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 2003 book, "This book focuses on Mormon beliefs, doctrine and opinions in relation to the Church's sacred texts, epics and revelations... The account of Mormon belief in the following chapters is not written by a Latter-day Saint and cannot be taken as any form of 'official' doctrinal statement. Its goal is to describe beliefs and practices that many, both within and outside the Church, would regard as important in the history of the movement and in the lives of current members. This book does not argue for the truth or falsity of beliefs."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"Two streams of thought that helped to swell the Mormon current were Adventism and popular magic. Adventism proclaimed that Christ would soon return to the earth... Popular magic, by contrast, included the search for buried treasure and employed crystals and seer-stones as search-aids." (Pg. 12-13)
"Similarly, Mormonism developed many pre-existing ideas into a new pattern in which the total picture yielded more than the sum of its parts." (Pg. 35)
"This (1978) revelation (which opened the priesthood to blacks) did not come too soon for some black Africans who had, in a sense, become Mormons of their own accord and had been ... seeking missionaries to come to them. Brigham Young had sent missionaries to white South Africa in 1853, but it had taken 125 years for revelation to allow black Africa such contact." (Pg. 126)
"The earliest Church of the 1830s was ... a form of Adventism with an essentially Protestant millenarian message. When Joseph Smith first added the temple rites of endowment, allied with plural marriage, he did so only for a select group of close leaders: that period marked a distinction between the millennarian church---albeit one that had its share of popular magic---and the birth of the ritual-mystical mode of Mormonism." (Pg. 133)
"Together the family, chapel and temple make calls upon individual commitment which, when all works well, provides the energy that makes the LDS Church a great success but they can also demoralize some Saints through sheer volume of activity and high level of expectation." (Pg. 171)
"The atonement of Christ is regarded as dealing with humanity's original guilt in Adam (Moses 6:54) but guilt as such plays a relatively small part in LDS theology: there is no direct reference to guilt... in either McConkie's MORMON DOCTRINE or in Encyclopedia of Mormonism (4 Vol. Set)." (Pg. 192)
"One of the reasons why Protestant Christians often find it difficult to understand the LDS view of such 'works' lies in the fact that Protestants have nothing like the temple in which to engage in 'saving work.'" (Pg. 223)

Prof Davies neither proves nor disproves the new religious movement, Mormonism, but instead gives readers a lot of information about how this church grows and what doctrines we always misunderstand. To ascertain the facts which always misguide historic Christians, both Latter-Day Saints, or less reverently, 'Mormons', and Christians should carefully study this serious, impartial and in-depth work written by Prof Davies.