The Lectures on Faith Update!

 

For the benefit of those who might be interested, I have just uploaded the latest revision of my special publication of the Lectures on Faith, which can be seen on the Amazon website here. One of the advantages of self-publishing a book by POD technology is that it makes possible the incremental editing and improvement of the text without having to publish a “new edition” every time you want to make a change. In this revision significant changes have been made in the introduction. In the rest of the text only minor punctuational refinements have been made. The changes made to the introduction can be seen on the Amazon website, linked to above, by clicking on the “Read sample” link on the site. A new paragraph has been added on page xiii, and some of the earlier paragraphs have been abridged so that the page numbers will remain unchanged.

I consider the Lectures on Faith to be true scripture, and given by revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is the greatest theological treatise that has ever been composed by anyone since Christianity came into existence. They originally formed part of the canonized scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, added by Joseph Smith himself. Their removal came about as a result of some unfortunate circumstances of the time, and a misunderstanding of some of the doctrines they contain. Needless to say, I consider my publication to be the best, and one that I would recommend to others. Hopefully they will be recanonized by the restored Church one of these days. The text of the new paragraph added to the introduction is as follows:

“The Lectures on Faith were originally referred to by Joseph Smith as ‘lectures on theology,’ and I still consider that to have been a more appropriate title. The Lectures were originally prepared by Joseph Smith as part of a course of instruction for the ‘school of elders,’ or ‘school of the prophets,’ which was essentially a ‘theological seminary’ similar to what existed in Protestant churches at the time; and the curriculum included courses that were typically taught in such a seminary. The most important subject taught in a theological seminary, however, is of course theology itself; and the Lectures on Faith were prepared by the Prophet Joseph Smith (by revelation) to fulfill that requirement. The theology of the restored gospel was not going to be identical to Protestant, Catholic, or other Christian theological traditions; it needed to be unique, and given by revelation; and the Lectures on Faith fulfilled that requirement. And it is by no means complete; there is lots more that can still be added to it by revelation from the Lord.”

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P. S.

My other two publications have also now been updated with minor editorial changes (and one minor error correction, Disputed Topics …, page 19). All three revisions are identified with the flower icon (✿) appearing on the copyright page, to distinguish them from the earlier revisions. And by the way, I have just received some sample prints; and the print quality is superb, better than best quality traditional prints. Their technology has improved quite a lot since they first started, and I believe they now use very advanced inkjet technology to print the books, which produces very high quality prints.