'Power in that text': The Joseph Smith manual

Most Mormons may never see even one volume of the Joseph Smith Papers — let alone pay $50 to own one. But already, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have benefited from the scholarship of that project as reflected in "Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith.""I think there is great power in that text," said Ronald O. Barney (pictured above), a project editor and executive producer of "The Joseph Smith Papers" program on KJZZ-TV in Salt Lake City."We have verified, authenticated and presented about as well as possible the material that we can directly attribute to the founding prophet of the church. And despite the fact that it represents only a portion of the full scope of his ministry ... I think (it) is enough to be sufficient for the reader to not only get a feel for what he said, but the application of them ... will empower people's lives in a way that they will feel it provides great power."Creating a new collection of Joseph Smith's teachings was a daunting task because, unlike other presidents of the church, there is less to draw from."Of the 250 sermons we know about that Joseph Smith gave, we only have substantive reports from about 50 of those, and none of those were captured verbatim," Barney said. "Because of that, what we have are synopses (or) summaries in many cases of what Joseph Smith said."Even the best-recorded sermon, the King Follett discourse, may be incomplete. Barney said that he timed himself with the longest written account, and it took 17 minutes to read aloud. "And yet Joseph's sermon is said to have taken over two hours," he said.Barney and a team of historians collected enough accounts of sermons, letters, articles and reminiscences to fill 17 3-inch binders of Joseph Smith's teachings.Each source record was then qualified for authenticity — identifying who made the account, how close to the event they made the account and the circumstances under which they made the account. This tool was presented to the curriculum department of the church to use, along with other sources, in compiling the Joseph Smith manual currently being used in priesthood and Relief Society meetings.David B. Marsh, manager of curriculum development, and Susan Hainsworth and Eric Smith, editors, discussed how the manual was created and crafted."This was developed under the direction of prophets and apostles," Marsh said. "They read it, they approved it ... and made revisions."Back when the series began, according to Marsh, President Gordon B. Hinckley gave instructions on the purpose of the "Teachings of Presidents of the Church" manuals.The first objective was to create a composite or "artificial sermon" by each prophet on gospel topics that are of relevance to today's members of the church. The books would bring doctrinal quotes together to discuss certain themes.The second purpose was to create a library of prophetic gospel teachings for members of the church worldwide. Many non-English-speaking Mormons do not generally have access to books like "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" or "Jesus the Christ." The series of books gives members an inexpensive and reliable guide to what presidents of the church have taught. The Joseph Smith manual is being translated into 76 languages — 25 of which are already completed. "For the first time members all around the world will have teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith," Marsh said.The third purpose was to create a teaching resource. Marsh emphasized this was not the primary or even secondary purpose — something that may surprise many Mormons.Assembling the authentic statements of Joseph Smith and identifying their sources' context according to reliability was one step in the process of creating the manual.Choosing excerpts and arranging them in a doctrinal and relevant order was another.One difficult decision was what to do with the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. Should they be included as Joseph Smith's teachings? In the end it was decided to use the statements of Joseph's that had been canonized — such as Section 121. "We would not use materials from the Doctrine and Covenants that were in the voice of the Lord," Hainsworth said.Hainsworth and Smith explained the method that was used by the writing committee: Different members were assigned different topics, such as repentance. They would go through the sources and find everything on that topic. These compilations were then used as the beginning points for creating the various topical chapters in the book.Each chapter begins with a historical summary. The chapter's doctrinal topic ties in with that history. Reading the summaries gives a concise overview of the Prophet's life, said Marsh.Unlike the massive Joseph Smith Papers project, the manual does not retain all the original documents' misspellings, punctuation errors and grammatical mistakes. Part of the reason for this, according to Hainsworth and Smith, is because of translation issues. For example, how do you translate a misspelled word?Another reason is that much of the work of standardizing spelling and grammar had already been done — over 100 years ago. If a statement appears in the seven-volume "History of the Church," which was published in book form from 1902 to 1912, the current manual will generally follow its wording."It was a convenient source for the initial gathering of material," Barney said.Hainsworth said: "They did the work we would have done, except that they were apostles and prophets who were within a decade of when the statements were originally made."Their personal closeness to the source (they had heard Joseph speak firsthand) enabled the original editors of "History of the Church" to combine some accounts of some sermons into an amalgamated text that is much easier to understand."I can't overstate how critical this is to the way we think about the church today. And all things considered, the 'History of the Church' is a magnificent volume," Barney said."This has been tried and true, it's been good, it's been defendable — and we deconstructed the 'History of the Church,' we now know the source of everything that's in here. ... We know the documents upon which it is based."In the current manual the easiest way to see the level of scholarship is to look at the footnotes. Those will not only refer to statements that are in the 'History of the Church,' but to the original source materials — identifying it, for instance, as being from a discourse, when it was given and who reported it. If the manual departs from the reading in 'History of the Church,' it will note that, for instance, the "paragraph divisions (were) altered.""The footnotes make it clear what sources we are using and that we are trying to be transparent," Smith said.The manual project took about six or seven years to complete. More than 150 people worked on it. "There were historians, gospel scholars, religious educators, editors, translators, curriculum writers, professors, volunteers, church-service missionaries, members who were called and set apart, church department personnel, church leaders (including members of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve, Quorums of the Seventy and general auxiliary presidencies)," said Marsh.It took 150 semitrailers of paper to print "Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith." The book's binding is designed to last longer than most paperbacks."It is close to exhaustive in the area of the Prophet's teachings on gospel topics," Hainsworth said.Even with the massive amount of scholarship and work that went into "Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith," one thing still remains on the curriculum committee's hopes for the book."I wish people would use it more," Smith said.

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