A Reason For Faith

Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History, Laura Hales

A Reason for Faith was written to do just as the title implies, provide reasons for faith by offering faithful answers to sincere questions. Before the Internet, historical and doctrinal questions not addressed in LDS Church curriculum were mostly found in the scholarly articles of academic journals. This is no longer the case. These topics are now widely debated and discussed online and in other forums. And when members of the LDS Church come across information that is unfamiliar, they may feel surprise, fear, betrayal, or even anger. Laura Harris Hales has assembled a group of respected LDS scholars to offer help in A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History. Together these authors have spent an average of 25 years researching these topics. Their depth of knowledge and faith enables them to share reliable details, perspective, and context to both LDS doctrine and Church history. The information in these essays can begin an exciting process of discovery for readers as they learn from a source they can trust. Each chapter is engaging and thought-provoking, providing an invaluable resource for both the merely curious and the seriously concerned.   Chapters: "Joseph Smith and Money Digging" "Remembering the First Vision" "Translating the Book of Mormon" "Anachronisms in the Book of Mormon" "The Testimonies of the Book of Mormon Witnesses" "The Restoration of the Priesthood" "Isaiah in the Book of Mormon" "The Explanation-Defying Book of Abraham" "Joseph Smith and the Kinderhook Plates" "The Practice of Polygamy" "Joseph Smith's Practice of Plural Marriage" "Freemasonry and the Latter-day Saint Temple Endowment Ceremony" "Race, the Priesthood, and Temples" "Finding Lehi in America through DNA Analysis" "Latter-day Saint Women in the Twenty-First Century" "Homosexuality and the Gospel" "Science and Religion: Friends or Foes?"