Future Missionary Book Suggestions

I wish. Mormon Doctrine is idiosyncratic, dogmatic in areas where dogmatism isn’t called for, and dated, but it may be the best approximation of what you’re looking for.

Is anyone familiar with this book?

http://www.amazon.com/Latter-Days-Through-Billion-Mormonism/dp/0312241089/ref=pd_cp_b_0

*So I’ve decided to get them for Christmas a single volume that gives them a basic and broad-based grounding in Gospel knowledge. Not TOO basic; I don’t want them to feel like they’re reading the Primary Manual. And as I said, they seem to be spiritually prepared, so books of encouragement and inspiration for future missionaries are not what I need.*

Thinking this over, MC, I think you might be taking this in the wrong direction. I don’t think there is a good Mormon Cultural Literacy book out there. But even if it were, I don’t know that its the answer. I’d suggest something that helps to deepen the faith that they already have, maybe something like the Imitation of Christ or the Neal Maxwell Quote Book. They have a big picture framework of the gospel, it sounds like, but something that focuses on where the rubber hits the road of trial and adversity will help them make sense of their mission experience and of the experiences of a lot of the people they will be trying to help.

So, my advice: given that they are already devotional, get them something deeply devotional.

If you did want something that was educational, I’d pick an area of focus. For the New Testament, Deseret Book has a number of semi-scholarly books meant for a general audience, mostly the ones edited by Holzapfel. For Church history, that’s a little tougher. Maybe Truman Madsen? Nice combination of devotional plus a little more depth than they’ve probably had heretofore.

Or consider the Screwtape Letters. Readable, insightful, a reminder that the Christian life and the imaginative life don’t have to dwell in separate spheres. If they are relatively mature SF or Fantasy readers, maybe even the Great Divorce.

Obviously, I am not competent to advise – but I am curious to know how James E Talmage’s books are regarded nowadays?

His Articles of Faith was where I first really ‘got to grips’ with Mormonism, and I am currently getting a lot from a slow, careful reading of Jesus the Christ.

@BC,
they suffer from being too successful. Ironically, they are falling out of use as standard sources because they were too common, so they were a ‘its goes without saying’ and ‘too boring’ choice. Also, relevant to MC’s question, Jesus the Christ is part of the small set of non-scriptural books that missionaries are allowed to read on their missions, so it makes sense to recommend something else for pre-mission reading.

G,

I don’t think “Mormon Cultural Literacy” quite describes what I’m looking for. I was Ward Mission Leader in my last ward, and (some of) the missionaries found it genuinely difficult to answer any investigators’ questions that didn’t fit into the set of common questions that that they might find in “Preach My Gospel.” Often it’s not because they lack the intelligence or maturity to answer, but because they Just. Don’t. Know. The Scriptures. We are competing (to be frank) with churches that have professional clergy who know the Bible forwards and back. It seems to me that our missionaries need at least enough scriptural knowledge to reassure their investigators that we know what we’re talking about. I have many times cringed to hear someone bring up a reasonable concern with the missionaries, one that is susceptible to all sorts of thorough explanations from the scriptures, only to have the missionaries say, almost dismissively it seems to me, “You just need to pray about it.”

Then again, this is one of those things where I can never tell if it’s just a pet peeve or a hobbyhorse of mine, or whether I’m just one of the few people that sees a serious problem.

BC,

I am leaning toward Articles of Faith right now, as it used to be part of the Missionary Library, but no longer is.

Truman Madsen is not a bad pick.

Upon further reflection, “idiosyncratic” is probably the feeblest criticism you could make of any book about Mormonism. How could it not be?

The idiosyncracy should vary inversely with the dogmatism.

G,

Indeed. Although it’s interesting that the closest Mormons have to a “dogma” are the original Articles of Faith, which don’t mention eternal marriage, the temple, degrees of glory, resurrection, etc. Which I guess just shows that as a religion we are more idiosyncratic than dogmatic.

I’m a big fan of Church History in the Fulness of Times. It’s an Institute manual that reads pretty good for an institute manual and gives the reader a thorough grounding in the Church’s first several decades. Readers will understand the difference between Independence, Missouri and Far West, Missouri. It is written from a completely faithful perspective, but also brings up most things that the “they lied to me” brigade claims the Church is hiding.

It tells the story of the restoration quite well, but not the doctrine of Christ. I’m not sure what I would pick for that, other than the Talmage books.

“What this says about our Sunday School and Seminary classes I will leave for another blog post.”

One of my best friends teaches in the local Seminary program. If his students do not know the things you listed by the time they graduate, it’s because they don’t want to.

I have reason to believe, though, that this is not the case universally. You added another one.

And I confess to being worried about the proposed new curriculum, which is more on the devotional side.

Two small books that the church already publishes:

1) Our Heritage.
2) And the slightly bigger book it was meant to replace, Truth Restored.

Anything else is too much to ask a pre-mission teen to do. There is a reason why the church sends out simple/stupid teens to preach the gospel: To keep it simple!

“Church History in the Fulness of Times” was intended to be a post-mission study. It is college level. It is too much to ask a 17 or 18 year old teen to do prior to his mission.

Aside from the standard works and seminary manuals, the only books I can recommend pre-mission are Gospel Principles, Our Heritage, and Preach My Gospel, because missionaries will be teaching the latter in investigator/new member Sunday school classes.

KEEP IT SIMPLE. Gospel Principles, Our Heritage, Preach My Gospel. Nothing else but the canonized scriptures.

It’s way out of print, but this is likely the book you’re looking for (or at least the closest approximation):
“Biblical Mormonism” by Richard Hopkins.

It’s set up as an anti-anti-Mormon book, so it’s a work of apologetics, but it actually winds up being a pretty good summary of LDS beliefs and covers most of the important basics.

I don’t agree with every conclusion of the author when he starts getting speculative, but it’s not a pervasive problem. However, it does require someone to get used to the word “hermeneutics.”

http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Mormonism-Responding-evangelical-criticism/dp/0882904825

Wide variety of opinions on this, interesting. Along the lines Bookslinger mentions, I think I first need to ask them whether they’ve actually read the BofM/NT/D&C all the way through.

Mc, good thought, Scriptures uber alles.

In my comment I meant to say that _Gospel Principles_ is taught in investigator/new member Sunday School class, aka Gospel Essentials class. That is the book missionaries teach _Sunday School_ from when there isn’t a called/set-apart teacher for the class.

Someone once said that there are only possible 50 topics which church talks can be about. ALL church talks, at whatever level, from ward to stake to GC are essentially one of those 50 topics. And there are 48 chapters in Gospel Principles manual. So if you know that book, you are prepared to cover or talk about 96% of Mormonism.