Earlier this year, I began work on two D&C-related projects: a critical text edition of the Doctrine and Covenants and an enhanced study guide based on my research and BYU classes. I’ve made silent progress on both of these. The critical edition project now has some legs and additional partners. A group of us has started to assemble a board of advisors comprised of historians and textual studies scholars and we have also secured some sponsoring support. This means we’ll be able to bring on other researchers and expand the project to include the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price. The project will be long, expansive, and ongoing, as the broader field of scholars builds and sustains an authoritative text and apparatus for research into Restoration scriptures. My second project began to balloon beyond my weekend bandwidth… Honestly, I’m limited for the time it’s taking me to build a commentary section and an exhaustive bibliography. However, I’m committed to finishing this resource if only for assimilating a comprehensive reading list of the most pertinent scholarship on the Doctrine and Covenants. It’s just going to take me longer than this year while we study the D&C in our Sunday church community.

That brings me to the posts I still want to write and share as a study group resource. At this juncture in the Sunday School and family study curriculum, we have the last third of the D&C left to read. I’ve received feedback that it’s helpful to align where I can with the Sunday School reading schedule, which I’m happy to accommodate except for a few areas where the sequence departs from a chronological order of the sections’ production. I’m going to try to refit the schedule around a better historical sequence, so here’s my own reading list I’m going to use for the rest of 2021:

9/13

  • D&C 102 / Minutes, 17 Feb 1834 / The First High Council
  • D&C 103 / Revelation, 24 Feb 1834 / Redemption of Zion by Power
  • D&C 104 / Revelation, 23 Apr 1834 / For the Benefit of the Poor
  • D&C 105 / Revelation, 22 Jun 1834 / Camp of Israel Disbanded
  • D&C 106 / Revelation, 25 Nov 1834 / The Children of Light

9/20

  • D&C 107b / Instructions, ca. 1–4 May 1835 / Orders of the Priesthood
  • D&C 134 / Manifesto, ca. 1–17 Aug 1835 / Articles on Government
  • D&C 108 / Revelation, 26 Dec 1835 / Resist No More My Voice
  • D&C 137 / Vision, 21 Jan 1836 / Alvin Smith and Others in Celestial Glory

9/27

  • D&C 109 / Prayer, 27 Mar 1836 / Dedicatory Prayer of the House of the Lord
  • D&C 110 / Vision, 3 Apr 1836 / The Prophecy of Malachi Fulfilled

10/4

  • D&C 111 / Revelation, 6 Aug 1836 / Treasures in Massachusetts
  • D&C 112 / Revelation, 23 Jul 1837 / Commission of the Twelve Apostles
  • Unpublished revelations, Jan 1838
  • D&C 113 / Revelation, Mar 1838 / Answers to Questions about Isaiah
  • D&C 114 / Revelation, 11 Apr 1838 / That He May Perform a Mission
  • D&C 115 / Revelation, 26 Apr 1838 / The Name of the Church in the Last Days
  • D&C 116 / Revelation, 19 May 1838 / Adam-ondi-Ahman
  • D&C 118 / Revelation, 8 Jul 1838 / Vacancies in the Twelve
  • D&C 119 / Revelation, 8 Jul 1838 / The Beginning of the Tithing of My People
  • D&C 120 / Revelation, 8 Jul 1838 / Council of the Disposition of Tithes
  • D&C 117 / Revelation, 8 Jul 1838 / The More Weighty Matters

10/11

  • D&C 121:1–33 / Letter, 20 Mar 1839 / O God, Where Art Thou?

10/18

  • D&C 121:34–D&C 123 / Letter, ca. 22 Mar 1839 / Art Thou Greater Than He?

10/25

  • D&C 124 / Revelation, 19 Jan 1841 / Temporalities and the Fullness of Times

11/1

  • D&C 125 / Revelation, ca. 1–6 Mar 1841 / For the Saints in Iowa
  • D&C 126 / Revelation, 9 Jul 1841 / Take Especial Care of Your Family
  • Articles of Faith / History, 1 Mar 1842
  • D&C 127 / Letter, 1 Sep 1842 / On Baptism for the Dead
  • D&C 128 / Letter, 7 Sep 1842 / The Welding Link

11/8

  • D&C 129 / Sermon, 9 Feb 1842 / How to Detect an Angel
  • D&C 130 / Sermon, 2 Apr 1843 / The Advantage in the World to Come
  • D&C 131 / Instructions, 16–17 May 1843 / The More Sure Word of Prophecy

11/15

  • D&C 132 / Revelation, 12 Jul 1843 / The New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage

11/22

  • D&C 135 / Eulogy, Jun–Jul 1844 / The Martyred Prophet and Patriarch
  • D&C 136 / Revelation, 14 Jan 1847 / The Camp of Israel and Exodus West
  • OD–1 / Manifesto, 24–25 Sep 1890 / The Manifesto

11/29

  • D&C 138 / Vision, 3–5 Oct 1918 / The Redemption of the Dead

12/6

  • OD–2 / Announcement, 8 Jun 1978 / Racial Restrictions Lifted

We have some exciting revelations and episodes to cover. With D&C 102, we effectively begin with the last decade of JS’s life, which will mean a noticeable decline in revelatory output and an increase in sermons, letters, and other modes of instructing the Latter-day Saints. We’ll see how the concerns of Missouri persecution, resettlement in Illinois, and urbanization in Nauvoo will dominate the themes of JS’s contributions to the D&C. Beyond JS, we see John Taylor (and possible Willard Richards), Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith, and Spencer W. Kimball add to the D&C with a eulogy, a revelation, a manifesto, a vision, and an announcement of a revelation. At the end, we’ll reflect on the future of the D&C. Much like Jim Lovell in his book about the Apollo 13 mission, who wondered when humanity would ever return to the moon and who it would be, I look at this amazing book of scripture—an open canon—and ponder when we’ll have another moment like 1978. When will the Lord speak in the Doctrine and Covenants again, and what will he say?

I’m looking forward to posting on D&C 102–106 soon. Catch you then.