View source for Doctrine and Covenants/Lectures on Faith

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{{Resource Title|The Lectures on Faith}}
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{{SummaryHeader
|link=Doctrine and Covenants/Lectures on Faith
|subject=Lectures on Faith
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{{SummaryItem
|link=First Vision/The Father as Spirit vs. Embodied
|subject=Representation of God the Father as embodied or as a spirit in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants
|summary=When the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants was published in 1835 it portrayed God the Father as a personage of spirit whereas Jesus Christ was portrayed as a personage of tabernacle, or one having a physical body. Yet the official LDS First Vision story portrays the Father as a physical Being. Some claim that this is evidence of an evolution of story; and that the evolution of this story is evidence of fraud.
|sublink1=Question: Is the Father embodied or a spirit in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants?
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{{SummaryItem
|link=Mormonism and the nature of God/God is a Spirit/Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"
|subject=Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"
|summary=Lectures on Faith, which used to be part of the Doctrine and Covenants, teach that God is a spirit. Joseph Smith's later teachings contradict this. More generally, critics argue that Joseph Smith taught an essentially "trinitarian" view of the Godhead until the mid 1830s, thus proving the Joseph was "making it up" as he went along.
|sublink1=Question: What are the Lectures on Faith?
|sublink2=Question: What does Lecture 5 of the Lectures on Faith say about the nature of God?
|sublink3=Question: How would a statement that "God is a spirit" be interpreted in ancient Judasism?
|sublink4=Question: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
|sublink5=Question: What are modern Church leader's views on the Lectures on Faith?
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{{SummaryItem
|link=Doctrine and Covenants/Lectures on Faith/Removed
|subject=Removal of the Lectures on Faith from the Doctrine and Covenants
|summary=Critics argue that the Lectures on Faith were "quietly" removed from the Doctrine and Covenants without general church membership consent, that the Lectures on Faith are not available to the general Church membership through Church sources, and that they can only be obtained through non-LDS sources (despite their availability at Deseret Book).
|sublink1=Question: What are the Lectures on Faith?
|sublink2=Question: Who wrote the Lectures on Faith?
|sublink3=Question: Why were the Lectures on Faith removed from the Doctrine and Covenants in 1921?
|sublink4=Question: Were the Lectures on Faith revelations?
|sublink5=Question: Are the ''Lectures on Faith'' not made available through Latter-day Saint sources?
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{{MaxwellInstituteBar
|link=http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1092&index=15
|title=The Authorship Debate concerning ''Lectures on Faith'': Exhumation and Reburial
|author=Noel B. Reynolds
|publication=The Disciple as Witness 
|date=2000
|summary=The issue that continues to provoke the most interest relative to the Lectures on Faith is their authorship. Who wrote them? The available evidence tends to undermine the view that Joseph Smith was primarily responsible for them. It is unfortunate that some feel so strongly about maintaining Joseph Smith's authorship or responsibility for these lectures. This makes it difficult for other faithful Latter-day Saints to assess the evidence critically, and it also plays into the hands of critics of the church and Joseph Smith. Critics find much in the lectures and in the church's eventual exclusion of them from the scriptural canon with which to embarrass faithful Mormons.9 Insisting that Joseph was responsible for the lectures only makes the critics' task easier. For example, Lecture 5 provides Dan Vogel with his principal evidence for an evolving Mormon concept of God that in 1835 reflected "Sidney Rigdon's Primitivistic background and not the orthodox LDS view of three distinct personages in the godhead."
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Opinions on the authorship and status of the lectures in Latter-day Saint literature have varied widely among both scholars and church authorities. Elders Bruce R. McConkie and Joseph Fielding Smith both saw Joseph Smith as a principal author of the lectures and believed he had approved them in full, having revised and prepared them for publication.11 However, that view does not appear to have been generally shared by the church leadership that discontinued official publication of the seven lectures in 1921, allowed the copyright to lapse, and explicitly reiterated that these lectures were not scripture but merely "helps."12 The "Explanatory Introductions" of subsequent editions have included such explanations as this one from page v of the 1966 edition:
<blockquote>
    Certain lessons, entitled "Lectures on Faith," which were bound in with the Doctrine and Covenants in some of its former issues, are not included in this edition. These lessons were prepared for use in the School of the Elders, conducted in Kirtland, Ohio, during the winter of 1834–1835; but they were never presented to nor accepted by the Church as being otherwise than theological lectures or lessons.
</blockquote>
At least some of the presiding brethren possibly held the view published later by Elder John A. Widtsoe, who believed they were "written by Sidney Rigdon and others."13 Three independent authorship studies conducted in recent decades and using different reputable techniques all conclude that Sidney Rigdon was the primary author of the lectures. Based on these studies, not a single lecture can conclusively be attributed to Joseph Smith.
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