Today, as an LDS leader, Parley P. Pratt is mostly mentioned and taught as a subject of history, but not theology. We see his much-read, edited autobiography, as well as a little-read scholarly biography, on book shelves, and his name is listed as the author of several songs in the LDS hymn book.
Pratt was more than that, of course. In the 19th century his books on theology, available free on the web today, were required reading for serious church members. In the first decades of the church, Pratt used the power of the then-still embryonic printing press to great advantage to spread Mormonism. He printed broadsides that served as rebuttals to preachers’ attacks on Mormonism, he printed accounts of Mormons’ grievances in conflicts in Missouri and other locations, and he was a featured player in the young church’s foray into magazines. Today, with printed press still ubiquitous and even obsolete to some, it can be difficult to comprehend the power in the 1830s of holding a pamphlet, broadside, periodical or book that preserved theological ideas.
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