Gary James Bergera

Today, some of the holiest ceremonies in the Latter-day Saint religion take place inside LDS temples. Some of these ceremonies include the 'endowment', in which a person receives what he or she needs in order to become 'exalted' in the highest heaven and meet God the Father again face-to-face; and also 'sealing', which allows an endowed man and endowed woman to be married forever in the afterlife, or allows children to remain the children of their parents, and so forth. Certain aspects of show more these ceremonies are considered too sacred to be mentioned outside of the temple, but other aspects can be discussed. This book is part of a three-volume set documentary history that uses primary sources – e.g., old diary entries, minute books, etc. – to illuminate the development of these ceremonies. This particular volume covers an organization in early Latter-day Saint history called the 'Quorum of the Anointed', or the 'Holy Order', a sort of elite prayer circle that mainly met in the upper story of Joseph Smith's store in Nauvoo, IL, and performed early versions of these ceremonies. The volume is fairly short, given how much time it covers, because the record isn't that rich. The end of the volume brings us to the point where the LDS temple in Nauvoo was finally complete enough that the ceremonies could begin to be performed there and could finally be opened up to more than just a select inner circle. As a non-LDS reader with an interest in the field of Mormon Studies, I got a lot out of this volume. show less

This is the second volume of the set to which "Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed" also belongs. In similar fashion but with a much greater wealth of material – sometimes requiring 20 pages for the material from a single day – it covers the development of LDS temple ceremonies as they were actually performed at the Nauvoo LDS Temple, covering the entire period of its use. The records included here give information on every instance of every ceremony performed, down to washings and show more anointings, as well as birthdates for participants. In short, a gold mine for LDS genealogists, as well as people simply interested in the development of LDS temple ceremonies. Some of the portions are mainly just lists of names (sometimes with other information attached), so those bits can be a bit tedious; but other portions include narratives and discourses, which can be historically and religiously interesting. show less

Very interesting compilation of essays on Mormon doctrine, mostly dealing with the the nature of God and the Godhead in Mormon thought.