I recently taped thirty-six lectures for the Great Courses (i.e., The Teaching Company) on “Sacred Texts of the World.” There were lectures on the scriptures of Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as on the holy writings of smaller traditions such as Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Baha’i. And yes, there was even a lecture on the sacred texts of Mormonism.
I am sometimes asked why, as a devout Latter-day Saint, I would spend so much time reading other people’s scriptures. After all, don’t we believe that we are part of “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” (D&C 1:30)? And that living by the precepts of the Book of Mormon will bring us “nearer to God . . . than by any other book" (Book of Mormon Introduction)? Why should limited study time be given over to the hundreds of religious texts that could be considered less true or less useful?
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