Doctrines Of Salvation Joseph Fielding Smith

Working With Joseph Fielding Smith's Doctrines of Salvation

I spent about three weeks going back through volume 2 last winter because I kept hitting contradictions between his comments on premortal existence and what the Pearl of Great Price says. That book alone is 500 pages of him reading scripture verse by verse and laying out what he thought each passage meant, with heavy citations from other church leaders. It is not a light read. If you are looking for something you can skim, this is the wrong material. The nine-volume set covers everything from the plan of salvation to eternal marriage to the degrees of glory. Each volume is organized topically, which means you go to it for specific questions rather than reading it cover to cover like a novel. Most people who actually use it end up with dog-eared copies and tabs everywhere because they are jumping around constantly.

Doctrines Of Salvation Joseph Fielding Smith

The core structure is straightforward. Smith starts each section by quoting scripture, then brings in statements from other general authorities across church history, and finally offers his own synthesis. That third part is where you need to pay attention. He was explicit that some of what he presented was his personal opinion, not settled doctrine. He said this himself in the introductions. People often miss that distinction. I ran into a real problem last spring when a seminary teacher asked me to reconcile Smith's discussion of intelligence as an uncreated principle in volume 1 with the modern concept of eternal families. His writing on preexisting intelligences came from a 1954 General Conference address that never got formally canonized. The church has never affirmed or denied it. When I tried to use it as proof text in a lesson, another teacher pushed back hard. The workaround was simple: I stopped treating Smith's speculative passages as doctrine and started using them only as examples of how a knowledgeable church member wrestles with a question. That kept the lesson from becoming a debate about first-council-or-not. One thing beginners consistently get wrong is treating the entire nine-volume set as authoritative doctrine. It is not. Smith wrote these during his tenure as a Church Administrator and later as a counselor in the First Presidency, but the content reflects his personal readings and opinions on several points. The church has never officially endorsed the set. You will find members who cite it like it is scripture, and you will find apostles who gently correct them. Both positions exist right now.

Another counter-intuitive point: the most valuable sections are often the ones that are wrong or outdated by current standards. Volume 4 on the telestial glory has passages about the earth becoming a telestial kingdom that do not align with Doctrine and Covenants 88. Smith himself later revised some of his positions. Reading those shifts tells you more about how doctrine develops than any single statement does. If you want to use this set practically, here is the method I found that actually works. Pick one volume at a time. Read the first chapter slowly. Note where Smith quotes other leaders versus where he is stating his own view. Cross-reference the scriptural citations. Then move to the next chapter. Do not try to finish a volume in a single sitting. The material is dense, and your retention drops off sharply after about 40 pages unless you are stopping to think through each section. The biggest bottleneck is that the set was published between 1954 and 1956. Some of the theological framing reflects mid-century church culture rather than current discourse. You will see references to priesthood lineage and other topics that have fallen out of regular discussion. This does not make the volumes useless, but it means you need a contemporary lens when reading them. Pair it with something like the Church Gospel Doctrine manual for balance.

Availability is another practical issue. The original publisher, Deseret Book, went out of print on most volumes years ago. You can find them through the LDS Living library if you have an account, or buy used sets on eBay and Amazon. The digital versions are functional but the page numbers do not always match the printed editions, which matters if you are trying to cite specific passages. I keep a physical copy on my shelf and use the digital version only for quick searches. Here is a specific edge case that tripped me up. A member asked me about Smith's teaching in volume 3 that only those who receive the Melchizedek Priesthood can attain the highest degree of glory. That passage is real. But the church has since taught through the First Presidency that all who are righteous will inherit glory, and that priesthood offices are about authority and service, not automatic qualification for degrees of glory. The apparent contradiction exists because Smith was interpreting a 19th-century revelation in the context of his time, and church teaching on that point has shifted. I explained it that way to the member. It was not a comfortable conversation, but it was accurate. The set is worth your time if you are doing serious personal study or preparing lessons. It is not worth your time if you are looking for a quick answer to a contemporary controversy. Smith was not writing for the internet age, and treating him like a reference work will frustrate you. Read it as a historical theological project from a man who knew more scripture than almost anyone in the church, but who was still operating within the limits of his own understanding and era.

Volume 1 on the foundations is the best place to start if you have never read it. Volume 5 on the resurrection is the most theologically robust. Volume 7 on the spirit world has the most speculative material. The rest fall somewhere in between. Good luck.